A CONVICT'S STORY.

Evening Post, Issue 19, 1 March 1865, Page 3

A CONVICT'S STORY.

At the Gloucester Assizes George Seaman, otherwise Joseph Rossitcr, described as a schoolmaster, pleaded guilty to an indictment for feloniously being at large before the expiration of a sentence of transportation for a term of 15 years, passed upon htm in 1856 ; and also to two other indictments, charging him with sacrilege and stealing various articles from the Wesleyan Chapels of Hanham and Stapleton, on the 27th of October last and 2nd of November last respectively. The prisoner read an elaborate history of his life in the penal settlement of WesfcAustralla, and complained bitterly that the colonists would not mix with the convicts socially. He stated that he set up a school there, but even his pupils and their parents would not acknowledge him in the street. He alluded to the wretched life " poor" Robson and " poor" Redpath were leading. He stated that he had tried to get employment in various places and when on board ship it had been discovered that he was a convict. The sailors

called him " Lag" and nailed his ticket of lpave to the must. Since he had been in England he had tried to get employment in various ways, but he had failed $ he had been in the union,but on inquiries being mad<> as to his parish settlement he pot discharged 4is Lordship, in sentencing him, stated that by a curious coincidence this was the third time the prisoner had come before him for tiial in the same court. The first time was when lie was quite a boy, and was charged with highway robbery, when he was acquitted. The second time was in 1856, when he was sentenced to 15 years' transportation. His Lordship added, that he must bear in mind that it was part of the burden and punishment attached to conviction for crime that society should turn their backs upon the criminals and refuse to receive them as men of good character are received, and that it would be a bad thing for society if such a man as the prisoner had termed " poor" Robson and " poor" Redpath were held in the same light as honest men. His Lordship sentenced him to 1 5 years' penal servitude.

We take the following as illustrative of the care taken of their oick mates by the Chinese, irorn Thursday's M. A. Mail: — " We were, on Wednesday, informed of a cruelty practised by the Chinese on one ot their fellow-countrymen, which ought not to pass unnoticed. It is the custom of the Celestials, as our readers perhaps well know, when any one of their nation is suffering from a malady which they Buppose will terminate fatally, to remove him from amongst them to a distant place of shelter, wiiere they take his food and he is left to die in a neglected condition. On Sunday morning last a China-nan, in an almost dying state, was conveyed from the camp to a tent, which had been engaged for the purpo c, on Forty-Foot Hill, and where it was intended he should be left to die. The inhabitants in the neighborlio d, however, fearing his disease might be infectious, communicated the fact to the inspecto- of nuisances, who at once visited the tout. He describes it to have been without fi, nature, containing only an extemporised stretcher, on which lay a Chinaman in a most emaciated and helpless condition. He had no bedclothes to cover, and nothing over him besides his* ordinary wearing apparel. The inspector men'ioned these facts to the health officer, and finally the matter was brought under the notice of the police. What they will do in the matter we do not know, but certainly some one ought to interfeie." The rage for female Mnzeppas has spread eastward, although as a rule, the audiences at the local theatres are not such staunch patrons of (he indecent drama as the audien es at the West-end theatres. The managers of the Pavilion have got another American woman to make an exhibition of herself on horseback in the smallest quantity of white calico. She will hardly make as much money, however, as the " original " Mazeppa, who, if green-room speak truly, is in receipt of a considerably larger income than the Lord Chancellor. The proposal made to Mr. Smith by Miss Menken, or, rather Mrs. Heenan, for it seems the la'Jy is the wife of the famous American prizefighter, was £50 a-week ; but Mr. Smith thought it too much, and, indeed, was so unwilling to risk any definite salary on the ('peculation, that he proposed to divide the receipts with the lady after deducting a certain sum to cover all expenses. Miss Menken, confident in her attraction, closed with this offer ; and the result is that throughout the engagement her individual receipts have averaged, it is said, £350 a-week. Oastlemaine. — The climate of Victoria has very often be^n praised, but ought not certainly to be judged by the weather which we have had here for some time past. There has been scarcely any rain for three months, and sickness is very prevalent. Diphthcrici effects a large number of children, and many are complaining of dysentery and diarrhoea, which are, no doubt, caused in a great measure by the brackish water obtained from the wells. On Monday there was a hot wind blowing. Yesterday there was a heavy shower of hail, with a cold wind blowing from the south ; and, to-day, the weather is again warm and agreeable. There is a report that a sailor from the Golden Empire is lying ill with typhus feaver, at Golden Point, about five miles from Castlemaine.