The Express. — 1848-03-17 (London, England)

GALLANT AFFAIR WITH A PIRATE SLAVER.—A letter from the coast of Africa save " The Philomel, Commander W. C. Wood. and the Dart, 3, LieutenantCommander E. A. Glynn, have had a smart affair in their boate, with a felucca pirate, under Spanish colours. The weather being calm, the Philomel and Dart sent their gig!, under command of Lieutenant Wharton, to board the chase.; but on the boats nearing her she fired on them, and with ouch precision as to render the gig of the Philomel hors de combat, and the boats returned to their ships. The gig, temporarily repaired, and with the accession of the Pbilomel'e pinnace, again proceeded in chime of the pirate, and soon succeeded in boarding her, though opposed to • fire from their gun, and also from musketry (the boats are said to be riddled), but, fortunately, only two or three of the men were hurt (one, however, has since dud of his wounds). After being boarded, the piratical crew ran below, but continued to fire musketry up the hatches fir some time afterwards. Several of the pirates were killed. She proved to be a Spanish piratical slaver, mounting one long IS•pounder (an English gun), with a crew of 36 men. kid reported to hare been a desperate affair, and that it was almost miraculous that the boats escaped with such a slight loss in killed and wounded." THE PLEA OF NSA late number of your journal you gave an account of the trial of Martha Prior, for the murder of her infant, and connected with it is a statement of what Lord Denman amid to the jury. I have always regarded Lord Denman as one of the most able and upright judges that ever sat on the English bench ; his decisions have been cleat and constitutional; but in the present instance, if your report is correct, I think he talked very much beside the question. The woman had been delivered of this child, and since her delivery she had required the attendanoe of a medical practitioner; and from what he observed of his patient he ordered that she should not be left, that her child should be kept from her, and that no dangerous weapon should be within her reach. Nothing can be clearer than that he thought there was an aberration of reason, and that whilst so suffering there was danger df the woman doing either some injury to herself or her child. The precautions unfortunately were not attended to. The poor woman obtained her child and a razor, and the child was killed. The surgeon gave evidence that, is his opinion, the woman was insane, and Lord Denman thought proper to reflect upon this evidence, asking the witneeb if he considered the crime was committed under • sucklat impulse. Now, Mr. Editor, this questioa is, as it appears to me, quite irrelevant. Death iodic; ed by a sudden impulse is not murder but maaslaughter, or it may even be quite accidental ; but if any time, however short, intervenes, between the supposed determination and the actual inectien, that legally constitutes murder. Suppose two men quarrelling near the house of one of them, and the owner of the house killed his opponent, that might not be murder ; bat if he stepped into bis house and got a stick or poker, and thereby inflicted a deadly stroke that would be regarded as premed'. toted murder. But surely, in the case of Martha Prior, this distinction did not apply. Let it be conceded that she was bent on killing her child, provided it had been previously ascertained that she was acting under delusion or mental imbecility induced by illness, she was fully entitled to the benefit of the plea of insanity; and if in this case reprehension wee anywhere due, it was due to the nurse for leaving the patient, or to those by whose order the nurse was removed. I acknowledge myself opposed to capital punishment in any case; still, I quite admit that Lord Denman may be right in condemning all attempts to evade what is law by pretended pleas of insanity. But in this cane there was no pretended plea. The woman had previously to the alleged murder been pronounced by the surgeon as being unfit to be left alone ; and had she been convicted and executed, this act I conceive would have been a very foul murder committed under the colour of law.— CLIKINS, Chieheater, March 16.