The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — 1851-08-19 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

BARBAROUS MURDER IN THE 'COUNTY DONEGAL.— It is our painful duty to record another of those horrid crimes which have of late become so frequent in this hitherto peaceable county, and to present our readers with the details of a murder which, in point of savage cruelty, stands almost unparalleled. The unfortunate victim, named David Moore, was an aged man of the most quiet and inoffensive character, who had for some time past been engaged as a day labourer and bailiff on Colonel Platt's estate, having been employed by the agent, James Johnston, Esq., Woodlands. On Saturday morning last, at six o'clock, deceased was proceeding as usual to his daily labour, without any apprehension of danger, and, when at the distance of a few paces from Coravaddy Lodge— near the same spot where Mr. Johnston was lately attacked, his horse shot, and himself robbed and severely beaten— he was assailed by his savage murderers and left mangled in the most shocking manner. The skull was cleft to the nose by some sharp weauon, such as a bill-hook or sickle, and the right hand almost severed from the arm, no doubt when raised as a defence against the blows; the chest blackened and bruised, where the inhuman monsters had leaped on their victim when down ; and, as if dedelighted with their bloody work, the demons hewed the calves of both legs, stripping them to the bone, and then decamped, leaving the unfortunate man for dead. He lingered till evening in great agony, and then expired. All this was perpetrated in the light of day, near the house of Mr. Platt, and at an hour when the daily labourers proceed to their work ; yet so secure did the assassins feel, that they had been amusing themselves, before their victim came forward, by cutting the tops off the weeds and brambles which grew near the fatal spot • and, looking at the time they must have taken to mutilate and mangle the body, they could have entertained no fear of detection. The only cause that can be assigned for this wicked murder is that, a few days previously, Mr. Johnston had been under the absolute necessity of dispossessing several tenants who refused to pay any rent, and were not less than seven years in arrear—thus bidding defiance to landlord and agent. Their miserable cabins had been demolished by the police, and Moore, it appears, was standing by at the time, little dreaming that he was to become the first victim of the lawless spirit of retaliation. The murdered man was a Protestant, and bore an irreproachable character. He has left a mother, ninety-eight years of age, and a sister, to deplore their bereavement. We are afraid, from the extended spread of the Ribbon system in the county Donegal, that this dreadful murder, like former outrages, will remain a mystery. It is, to say the least, remarkable that all the late outrages in this county have been perpetrated upon Protestants—first, the murder of Mr. Davis; then, the attack on Mr. Richard Pratt, on the fair day, in the public market, where he was beaten and left senseless in the midst of hundreds, and yet no person to identify the dastardly assailants : more recently, the attack on Long (the process-server), and Mr. Johnston, of Woodlands ; and, nor, the lamentable murder of unfortunate Moore.—Derry sl4o9dard.