LYNCH LAW IN CALIFORNIA.

Lyttelton Times, Volume II, Issue 86, 28 August 1852, Page 5

LYNCH LAW IN CALIFORNIA.

A correspondent of the Journal of Commerce, after detailing several cases of Lynching in Calif:rnia, writes as follows :— " Shocking, however, as these cases are, both are outdone by the extrajudical murder of a young girl at Downieville, far up in the mountains of Yuba county. " She was a Mexican senorita, with all the passion and frailties which attach themselves to the race. One day she stabbed a man, so that he died in a short time. Some assert that it was a wanton and treacherous attack; others consider it to have been an ordinary murder, under circumstances of insufficient but considerable provocation, while many affirm that the blow was struck in defence of her person against a drunken assault. The better opinion is, as far as I can learn, that the killing was unlawful, but under pallitating circumstances. It is of little consequence to my present purpose to examine into the degree of crime. I am merely to relate how a woman was punished by uulawful hands in this high noon of the 19th century. " It seems that an example was needed in Downieville. Little or no retribution had fallen upon former murderers in that vicinity, and it unfortunately happened that the dead man had many friends iv the city, while the girl elicited no sympathy. Her nation was despised, and she was of a character which always draws more companions than friends in California. The many-headed monster cried "Blood for blood." " The Mountain City is situate at the confluence of two branches of the North Yuba, and is connected with the opposite bank by a long bridge. The cord was thrown over a crossbeam in the middle of the bridge, and thither the multitude hurried their frail victim. Her bearing was haughty and composed in the highest degree. She was a beautiful girl; but neither her beauty nor unusual roundness of form excited the slightest compassion in the majority. "At this point of the proceeding a youug

lawyer mounted the bridge railing and denounced the whole affair in words of more bitter justice than discretion. He was not suffered to speak long; a dozen hands pulled him down, and as many feet were vigorously applied to him along "the whole length of the bridge. When upon the opposite bank he was forbidden to enter Downieville again under a penalty of being tarred and feathered. " Even the perpetrators of this outrage should have been shamed into common humanity by the next appeal. A physician, well known in the place, stated, upon his professional reputation and most sacred honour, that the girl was enceinte, and demanded for her the reprieve which was always granted by the most merciful common law of England, even in the darkest ages and most barbarous periods. But no ! Mercy to a murderess ? Time to give birth to another of the viper's blood ? They hooted at the idea. The physician was ordered to leave the town within three days for having dared to disturb the Majesty of the people arisen to assert justice. " Meanwhile the girl had been looking on with the utmost nonchalance. At the failure of this last appeal a scornful smile distorted her lips, and she at once began to perform the last offices for herself. The manta was removed from her head and given to her paramour, with a watch, purse, and ornaments. Her black hair fell in masses over her shoulders; but she calmly grasped the noose dangling nearby, and, passing it round her neck, concealed the hideous knot beneath the thick fall of her hair. She made but one request, —that her hands might be left untied and free to give the signal. Strange to say they did grant her one privilege, but one which in cases where the nerves were not made of steel would have been the most injudicious of all. "She then drew a bunch of cigaritas from her bosom and distributed them among the bystanders, reserving one for herself. This she lighted and half-smoked, then drew it from her lips with —' I would do it again, the maldito !' She did not finish the sentence, hut dropped the cigarita. This was the signal; and her light form shot rapidly up in the air, hardly struggling, so powerful was the will that kept her free arms stiffly pressed against her sides. There she hung over- that foaming river—between sky and earth, — the mark of deepest disgrace upon all our fair land."