WELLINGTON.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XII, Issue 744, 24 December 1859, Page 4

WELLINGTON.

The Acadian left Wellington on the 14th hist. A passenger has kindly handed us a copy of the 'Independent' of the previous day. At the sitting of the Supreme Court, civil side, the celebrated political libel actions brought by Messrs. King and Allen against the Superintendent and the proprietors of the ' Independent 'newspaper, were terminated without trial by consent of both parties with the approbation of Mr. Justice Johnston; the records in the several actions being withdrawn, and each party paying Ins own costs. The.most interesting news is of a PUBLIC MBKTING.—THE SNARESBROGK.

A public meeting .was held at Messrs. Bethuno and Hunter's stores, on Tuesday last, tho 6th inst., for the purpose of taking stops to procure a mitigation of sentence passed on Charles Straker. Tho meeting was convened by circular, and was very numerously and respectably attended, most of tho merchants, magistrates, and loading men of tho place being present. James Carter, E.g., Manager of tho Union Bank, occupied tho chair. The meeting was severally addressed by Messrs. Woodward, Bowler, Duncan, Stokos, Carlynn, Moore, Captain Munn, Borluse, Kinross, Varnham, Welch, &c, aiid tho following resolutions wore adopted:— ,

Moved by Mr, Woodward, seconded by Mr, Bowler, and carried unanimously—

" That a petition for the mitigation of the sentence of death on Charles Straker, on the special grounds to bo therein stated, bo prepared and presented to Jits Excdimiey the Governor."

Moved by Mr. Bannatyne, seconded hy Mr, J, Luin.u', and carried uttnnimouMy—• "That tho following gentlemen be appointed a committee, to draw up tho preceding petition and to obtain signatures, vi7,:-~Messra. Hunter, .Bowler, Woodward, Lyon, Garlyon, !W»ore., Levin, Jtonnatyno, Taylor, Duncan, G. 3Jart, Captain JlhodcH, Mr. Varnham."

Moved by Mr. G. Hart, seconded by Mr. Lyon, and carried unanimously—

"That his Honor the Judge bo requested to forward the petition, and to support the prayer thereof."

A vote of thanks to James Carter, Esq., for hia able conduct in tho chair, which was carried by acclamation, closed the business of the meeting.

PKTITION.

The following petition has been drawn up and circulated in accordance with the resolutions above mentioned.

To His Excellency, Colonel Thomas Gore Browne, C.8., Governor and Commander-in-Chief of New Zealand. ;>•*• This petition of the grand jurors, justices of the peace, merchants, gentlemen, and other inhabitants of the Province of Wellington, humbly sheweth, —

That at the last Quarter Sessions of the Supreme Court in Wellington, Charles Straker, Chief Mate of the barque^naresbrook, having been found guilty of the wilful murder of an apprentice, named Francis Muir, on board the said barque, during her voyage from England to New Zealand, was sentenced to death.

That your petitioners, •without impugning the verdict of the jury upon the case as presented to them, beg to represent to your Excellency several reasons, which have impressed them with the deepest conviction, that the crime of murder was never really harboured in the mind of the prisoner; and that the carrying out, under such circumstances, the extreme penalty of the law would be repugnant to the best feelings of the community and in retrogression from the humane tendency which has now for many years invariably prevailed in the mother country, of admitting the interposition of the Royal prerogative of mercy in all cases where neither motive nor pre-concerted design of destroying life has been shown to exist.

On this main ground, therefore, your petitioners found their most fervent prayer, that the sentence of death passed on Charles Straker, may be commuted for a less terrible punishment, namely—that, in the present case, the charge of wilful murder is only made out by the construction of law; the actual guilt, as alleged, consisting in the acceleration of death by cruelty; but so far from the wilfulness of murder being suggested, the witnesses avow their belief, as evidenced by the accompanying declaration (A.), that the prisoner was totally unaware of the serious consequences of his admitted brutality,—or, in other words, that the acceleration of death was, at all events, unpremeditated.

But although this be the main ground on which your petitioners rely, they no less ardently hope that your Excellency will take into the gravest consideration further doubts which most painfully agitate their mind.

Firstly—As to whether some circumstances were not withheld from the notice of the Jury, which might, if disclosed, have materially affected their decision.

And Secondly—Whether the important bearing of some of the points'put in evidence were not either imperfectly shadowed forth, or insufficiently impressed upon their understanding. As to the first of these points, both the medical gentlemen who were called in evidence concur "(as proved by their signatures hereto) in stating, that had they been asked|if the symptoms described by the witnesses could have resulted from the fall from the gaff, they must have unhesitatingly answered— "Yes." But no such questions were asked, nor was the opportunity of making such statement to the Jury allowed them. -

As to the second point, your petitioners, with due regard to the eminent abilities and unquestionable zeal of the counsel who conducted the defence, cannot but think the Jury were not sufficiently impressed with the grave suspicion to which the evidence for the prosecution is open. Firstly,—As to the intrinsic probability that the testimony adduced against Charles Straker, though undoubtedly substantiating acts of the most cruel and criminal nature, was yet, as affecting the capital charge, not wholly reliable, being tainted both with suppression of the whole truth and exaggeration of some of the facts.

The accompanying declaration (B.) of Mr. Duncan and Sergeant Major Styles, if not suggestive of concerted suppression on the part of "the witnesses generally, is morally conclusive as against the 2nd mate, Enoch Odling.

Another witness, George Bell, has been subsequently to his trial sentenced by the Resident Magistrate to hard labour for one month for misdemeanour.

Above all, it seems quite incredible that the crewshould have shown so little sympathy and assistance with the alleged sufferings of Muir as not to have at any time, made the least resistance or remon-, strance against the acts of the prisoners ; thereby clearly showing that the treatment of Muir did not, at the time, appear to any of them to bear the serious character in which it was represented to the jury: unless, indeed, the whole crew are to be considered as accessories to the crime of the prisoner. The statement that Muir was in robust health on joining the ship is seriously impeached by the beforementioned declaration of Mr. Duncan.

Secondly—The difficulty, amounting to almost utter impossibility, on the part of the^ prisoner of rebutting the charge. There was only one passenger on board, and he was clearly not cognisant, as evidenced by the accompanying declaration (C), of any conduct on the part of the prisoner amounting to anything beyond harsh treatment.

Upon consideration of these grounds your petitioners fear that if the sentence of death should be carried out in the present case, the officers of any merchant ship may feel that they can at any time be placed in peril of their lives by the concerted testimony of an unscrupulous or vindictive crew, in the event of any apprentice, who may have been subjected to a certain amount of ill-usage, dying during the voyage even from natural or accidental causes. But without wishing to suggest that Charles Straker is the victim of a conspiracy, your petitioners submit that it is almost absolutely certain that the prisoner, notwithstanding gross brutality of deed and language, had no deliberate intention of compassing death. While, therefore, your petitioners, with some exceptions, profess no morbid antipathy to the punishment of death in the case of murder committed under aggravated complications of atrocity and wilfulness ; yet they feel one and all that if this awful sentence should be carried into execution in the present case, without any distinction being made between the different degrees of deliberative and constructive murder, the future course of justice would be liable to be defeated by the difficulty which juries might feel in consigning prisoners to the severest penalty of the law for any crime short of the most odious and aggravated enormity; and above all they would foci that in this particular case the public detestation of the acts of Charles Straker would be merged in sympathy for the criminal, occasioned by the fearful severity of his punishment. lour petitioners therefore humbly pray that the sentence of death passed on Charles Straker may be commuted into such lesser punishment as your .Lxcellenoy may seem fit.

l ?iL^- t' tloners w^'ever Pray» &c,