The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — 1853-01-18 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

BRUTAL CONDUCT.—On Thursday, Mr. Owen, attorney, appeared on behalf of a Chinese seaman, named Ho Ha, to complain of a series of assaults committed upon him by Captain Black, of the Athol, just arrived from Sincapore. It appeared that the defendant frz.quently illused and brutally beat him for the most trivial faults, occasioned by his slight knowledge of the English language. On the 6th November, the complainant had given the sailors some bread which had been made unfit for the captain's table, and when the captain heard of it, he rushed at the poor Chinaman and struck him with his fists several times in the face. He then took up a whip and threatened to flog him ; and when the poor fellow fell down on his knees and begged him not to do so, the brutal fellow kicked him in the face. Mr. Owen called the first and second mates, who gave evidence of the ill-usage which the Chinaman had received at the hands of the captain. On the night in question the sailor threw his arms round the neck of Mr. Wallace, the first mate, and wept for nearly an hour. Mr. Mansfield fined the defendant £5, and ordered him to pay the complainant's wages, withheld on the ground of incompetency. CONFESSION OF A MURDERER —A man named Robert Thornley has given himself up to the police at Stalybridge, near Manchester, on his own confession of being implicated in a murder committed in 1847. He stated that at the time he had an improper intimacy with the wife of a man named James Brooks, at Godley, near Hyde, and that he procured her some arsenic, at her request, which she administered to her husband in some puddings. Brooks died suddenly, and an inquest was held on' the body, when the jury decided that he had died from the effects of a hurt in the head which he had received when working as a collier. On the strength of this statement the woman, who married Thornley soon after the murder. was arrested. The remains of Brooks' body were exhumed, and examined by Mr. Alcock, surgeon, but, as he was unable to detect the presence of poison, the accused was discharged. But Mr. Alcock subsequently analyzed another portion of the remains that was less decayed ; and he then found arsenic in large quantities. On this discovery the woman was again apprehended, and Thornley and his wife have been committed for trial at the next Chester Assizes. THE SHIP JOHN KNox.—The commander of the ship John Knox has received the following gratifying testimonial from the passengers on board that ship, during her voyage from Liverpool :—" Lamlash Harbour, Isle of Arran, January 13th, 1853. We,the undersigned, acting on behalf of the passengers in the John Knox, which ship left the Mersey on the Ist instant, and has encountered an almost uninterrupted succession of adverse winds, storm, and hurricane up to the present time, and has met with considerable damage and disaster, are desirous to record our testimony to the untiring energy, the ability, the kind-heartedness of our gallant commander, I'. Killes, than whom a better man we could not wish to sail with ; to the unwearied exertions of himself, his officers, and crew ; to the attention and ability of our surgeon, and to the high qualities of our ship ; for had she not also been a very superior one, we should not have outlived the fearful hurricane of the 11th instant. Signed, Wm. Whewell, chairman, Charles Thomas Ellis, John Davis, Samuel Howitt, William Henry Carter, W. B. Crispin, Samuel Bryde, J. Bushby White, John Westbourne, A. H. Rudd, Alexander Laing, John Chadwick, Richard Thompson, James Lockey, Wm, Paton, James Henry, John Sutcliffe.'