The Sun. — 1859-09-21 (London, England)

THE MURDER ON THE HIGH SEAS.  Charles Annois, aged 23, a seaman, who had been brought up by habeas from Falmouth, the offence for which the prisoner was charged having been committed within the jurisdiction of the Admiralty, was indicted for the wilful murder of Philip Barber, the master of a vessel in which the prisoner had been employed as cook.  The prisoner pleaded " Not guilty." Mr. Sleigh appeared for the prosecution, and Mr. Metcalfe, instructed by Mr. Beard on the part of the Portuguese Consul, for the prisoner. Mr. Metcalfe said, in this case he was instructed to apply for a postponement of the trial of the prisoner on account of some circumstances that had, since the committal of the prisoner, come to the kno*ledge of the consul. The facts of this unfortunate case he admitted were pretty clear and conclusive, but there was some reason to believe that at the time he was not of sound mind. The prisoner had been twice confined in a lunatic asylum at Lisbon, and had also suffered severely from yellow fever, and the ground of his application for the postponement of the trial was to give an opportunity for inquiries being made at Lisbon on the subject. He simply asked that the cause should be postponed until the neat sessions. He understood his learned friend would offer no objection.  Mr. Sleigh said he was instructed on the part of the prosecution, and offered no opposition to the application, but it was a case which he would rather leave in the hands of the Court.  The learned Judge said there ought to be an affidavit to support the application.  Mr. Metcalfe said the Consul would make an affidavit that he had been informed and believed that the prisoner had been confined in a lunatic asylum at Lisbon.  At a subsequent period of the day such affidavit was produced, and the trial postponed.  JUVENILE DEPRAVITY,  Thomas Goodfellow, a diminutive boy, between 10 and 11 years of age, was indicted for stealing two post letters, containing a bill of exchange and sundry papers, the property of the Postmaster-General. Mr. Clarke and Mr. Metcalfe appeared for the prosecution. Mr. Giffard, at the request of the Sheriffs, defended the prisoner.  The circumstances of the case, although a great many witnesses were examined, lie in a very narrow compass. The prisoner was employed as an errand boy in the service of Mr. James Willis, a grocer in the Bow-road, who keeps the receiving-house for that district, and was suffered, contrary to the instructions of the Post-office authorities, to take the letters, from time to time, out of the receiving-box, and about the 18th August, Mr. Willis, on the ground of a belief of the prisoner's dishonesty, gave him a letter to his mother, whose husband is at sea, requesting her to come to him. This letter the prisoner never delivered, and on inquiries being made, and the prisoner examined, the two letters is question, were found in his pockets, the one containing a foreign bill of exchange, for £l7 7s. 9d., and the other papers of no value. The prisoner gave very contradictory accounts as to the manner in which they came into his possession, but it was certain they had been stolen but two days before, as it was proved they had been then posted in the letter-box at Mr. 'Willis's shop. After some inquiries, the Post-office authorities thought it was a case for their prosecuting, with the charitable view of checking the boy in his early career of crime. Mr. Giffard objected that there was not sufficient evidence to show that the prisoner, who was between seven and fourteen years of age, had such knowledge as to make him criminally responsible for the act he had committed. The learned judge having summed up, The jury found the prisoner guilty, The learned judge sentenced the prisoaer to 14 days' imprisonment ; at the expiration of that term to be kept in a reformatory for five years.