Northern Times. — 1857-09-12 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

PUBLIC ()PINION.  Although the cheering was suppressed in the interior of the court, the result was no sooner made known to the vast multitude who had assembled in St. George's-hall, and who were prevented from gainin; admission, from the want of apace, thanithe cheering became general ; and, however horrible it may appear, cheers succeeded cheers, until the whole building re-echoed. But it was not alone confined' to those in the-interior of this spacious building, for, as his lordship entered the carriage to convey him to his lodgings, the crowd followed the carriage for some cons iaerable distance.. cheering with the greatest enthusiasm. However painful it may be to record such a circumstance—such was the fact.  While public opinion was thee demonstrated in the town, as-to the justice of the verdict, the trial was held of such vital importance that it was commented upon by the press, and a London, cotemporary, the Daily News, thus coMmsnted upon it :--" The horrible charge of murder on the; high seas, just tried at Liverpool, has resulted in a verdict of guilty against Heni y Rogers, the captain, and William Miles and Chas. Edward Seymour, the first and second inafes of the vessel. This verdict the jury thought fit to couple with a recommendation to mercy. To this recommendation, for which no ground whatever is laid in the evidence, we trust that the authorities of the Homeoffice, as far as Henry Rogers, the principal culprit, is concerned, will show the most absolute disregard. A more atrocious and appalling case of infernal barbarity it is utterly impossible for the human imagination to conceive. It is a case for justice and not for mercy ; or rather it is a case inewhich clemency to•. the individual, would be cruelty to a: class—an unprotected and suffering class, over whose: welfare the executive government of this country is especially bound to watch. There is no body of men more liable to gross tyranny and brutal violende than the mariners in our merchant service ; there is none whose safety and comfort ought to be an object of such paramount care to the government of the greatest maritime and mercantile community in the world. Unless a signal and terrible example be made of such monsters as this Henry Rogers, the annals of our mercantile marine will continue to teem with instances of oppression and crime that may make the blood curdle, and the heart stand still in an icy trance of disgust and horror. And this miscreant a jery of Englishmen have recommended to mercy. Mercy why it makes one's very blood boil to hear the word profaned in connection with atrocities so merciless. Mercy t yes, the same mercy that he meted to his victim is all that onght to be to this abominable culprit. That instinct of wild justice which all the conventions of civilisation cannot utterly nut down, irresistibly , impels every honest hearer of this vile story to regret that the law, even if carried, out to the very uttermost, can only punish, and not retaliate. Rapid extinction at the hands of Celcraft is but a poor requital for the protracted tortures under which this mignreant. wnrriorl fhe nnt of hie rloConnal..oe w;r1,1,;But mercy—the remission of the death sentence—would in this case be an unpardonable weakness. An example—a terror-s•riking example—must be made of this fiend in human form, if there is to be hereafter any security for life and limb for our mariners amid the, silence and solitude of the seas. The brutality of mestere and mates, both in the Mash merchant service and that of the States, has lone been tending to a climax. The climax is reached. It is tines for justice to interfere with all her salutary terrors. In certain classes of crime we have no great faith in the efficacy of deterrents. Where the man lives by crime as. a profession, he will not be frightened out of its pursuits by penal awards; but such crimes as those of Henry Rogers are precisely of the class in which deterreeet punishments are most efficacious. As the law stands, this brute's life has beon most justly forfeited. In mercy to an oppressed class of meritorious and defenceless men, we demand that the law should take its