THE MIGNONETTE CASE.

Mataura Ensign, Volume 7, Issue 420, 23 December 1884, Page 2

THE MIGNONETTE CASE.

One of the most curious criminal actions ever known in the world" has just been concluded in England. A small vessel 1 called the Mignonette foundered in mid-Atlantic, a,ud the captain, the mate, and oue seaman and a boy escaped in a ■ b#at. They were without provisions, Having had .no time to prepare, But they had in them true and loyal British hearts. Day after day the" blazing sun beat down up>n the waste of waters, and hope bore them up. D\iy after day they became more and moi'e parched • and starved, and the demands of animal nature became louder and stronger. They gazed upon the " water, water, everywhere, but not a drop to drink." They dipped in their fingers and tasted to see if it were really so hopelessly salt. The first shadow of despair began to ' settle upon them. The high humane resolves that a week before had filled their breasts were perceptibly weaker. The I animal was stronger, while the spmtual and moral were almost dead. While their gaze was turned from each other I over the wilderness of waves dark | thoughts began to cross their minds, jso that when their eyes met there i was a wild and fearful glare in thorn. At last the lad, the weakest of the part} 7 , began to sliow that he at least had not much longc 1 * to suffer. He raved and i drank the brine, and raved again. All the wild and meaning glances now fell upon him. The once brave and noble men reduced now almost to beasts understood cayh other's thoughts. At last thoughts became words and it was proposed to kill the lad and so end all his trouble and some of theirs. They agreed to wait a lit tie longer. They discussed again and again. They waited again and again. But minutes seemed hours and hours days. The sailor would not agree to the deed, but the captain and the mate resolved it should be done. The captain took his knife. The sailor was silent and put his hands to his face ; the mate turned his head away, and even the captain faltered and paused. Starved humanity made a last flicker in the socket before it went out. Then the captain opened the lad's jugular vein as considerately as possible, and the deed was done. Soon the blood was drunk and none of the three could resist the brutal feast. Now only the animal seemed to survive, and they sat and gnawed — but we drop the curtain on the rest. At last rescue came, care and food revived the souls that were dead, and i;he men confessed how they came to be alive. Arrived in England, they were arrested on the charge of murder The sailor was discharged, as the others admitted he had not consented to the deed. Tho captain and the mate were tried, found guilty, condemned to death, and afterwards let off with six months' imprisonment. It is a most curious and difficult case. We naturally ask, Were the men tried by their peers ? What would a jury similarly situated have said ? Had the jury been locked up in a tolerably comfortable room for a fortnight without drink or food would they have condemned the castaways to death when they came out ? But it is said that the object of the trial was to show that the protecting arm of the law is thrown over the weakest in the uttermost parts of the sea. That is a sublime principle ; but what protection was thrown over the starving men, and who would Lave saved the wretched lad from death a day or an hour later from exhaustion P Besides, to make the example of any force, thß guilty men should have been hanged. In circumstances like theirs what deterrent effect would the threat of six months' imprisonment have ? A prison would be a heaven to them — a thing to be hoped for. We do not think that even hanging itself would weigh long with men in the condition we have described. The men who were tried were not the animals who did the deed. As men they would never have done it. But when the souls were dead within them they yielded. We do not pretend to excuse the untortunate mariners altogether. We do not pretend to wholly condemn the solemn but perhaps necessary farce of the trial and condemnation. But we only desire to show how many sides there are +o the case, and to give our readers an opportunity of studying and exercising that charity of judgment so suitable at this season of good will to men,