THE PANAMA ROUTE.

Colonist, Volume III, Issue 210, 25 October 1859, Page 3

THE PANAMA ROUTE.

(From the Home Hem, August 18.) The following memorial was presented on Augu&t' 13 to the Premier:— ' To the Right Hon. Viscount Palmerstoiy K.G. First Lord of the Treasury, Ac. Tlje memorial of the undersigned bankers, merchants, and others. of sheweth — That your memorialists, being deeply interested in the Australian colonies, view with alarm and regret the reply given by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in his place in'Parliament,'to the question put to him in reference to tlie tenders for the proposed postal route to Australia via Panama. That- your memorialists have been looking forward with much satisfaction to the establishment of this line of communication, inasmuch, as. if other reasons were wanting, the irregularities of the preseut mail service, even under the contract with the Peninsular and Oriental Company, clearly prove that a second and independent line is absolutely necessary to satisfy the requirements of the commercial communities of both the colonies and the mother-country. - But it is not solely upon this ground that the organization of the second service lias been viewed ■with favor. Your memorialists cannot overlook the fact that by its establishment the postal communication would be less liable to interruption from European complications; the risks and chances of a single service would be avoided; a direct intercourse would be established between Australia, the mother-country, and both sides of the vast continent of America, the importance of.which cannot be too highly estimated. That while every allowance is made for the .difficulties necessarily attending the commencement of a ne>vservicp, the inconveniences resulting from its irregularity are not the less severely felt. That the expediency of establishing the second service having been recognised by the late Government, and a promise to co-operate in the scheme if certain conditions were complied with having been made, any delay in carrying out that arrangement would be trifling with the colonists and occasion grievous disappointment to all connected with them. That the proposed reference of the question to a select committee of the House of Commons mnst necessarily create delay, and may result in the withdrawal of the tenders now before the Government, some of which your memoralists are informed are eligible and afford an opportunity of carrying out the service on advantageous terms. That your memorialists respectfully submit that, if the statement made in the public journals with respect to the amount of the tenders be correct, a sum ot about will, with the postage, suffice to cover the claims upon the Imperial treasury for the service. That this amount is insignificant when compared with the immense advantages which the outlay will confer upon the important countries embraced by the route, which include not only her Majesty's fossessions in North America, the West India slands, and the newly discovered gold colony in Columbia, but also the United and other independent States of America. ~, .That for these reasons your | memorialists earnestly hope that her Majesty's Government will take this petition into favorable consideration, and at once deal with the tenders now before them. MURDER, PURE AND SIMPLE. Two young labo.rers-*-rnere youths—-named Henry Carey and William Pickettj were indicted on the 27th of July, before Mr. Justice Williams, at Lincoln, for the murder of an elderly man named William Stevenson, on the 17th of March last. Early in the morning of that day one Mary Semper, who lived hard by Stevenson's cottage, went out from her home, and saw what she supposed to be a Bhirt in a deep sewer. She looked a little closer into the matter, and found that the shirt covered the body of a -murdered man, who had been fearfully beaten and .bruised, and then cast into the sewer. , All around "were the marks of a fearful struggle. The grass was trodden down and there was blood upon it. Then there were footmarks, and indications that some persons had been dragging some heavyweight across the road. Ain'oken hedge was bloody for about a foot's breadth. In dne place there were three broken fragments of a hedgestake covered with blood. In a field were two more bludgeons—one of them a rough wooden rail—ajso streaked with b]ood. Jn the sewer where the body was found there were the fragments of another bludgeon, and all appearances seemed to show that the struggle for life must have been a desperate one. When the story came to be inquired into, it was found that the dead man had been drinking on the previous night at a place called the Ship Inn, in company with the two prisoners and another man, who turned out to be entirely free from all suspicion. Stevenson remained at the Ship until half-past 10 at night, and a few minutes afterwards Carey and Picket followed him, Carey being in liquor, and Picket sober. It was now'that the notion of murdering Stephenson, for the trifle of money which might be in his pocket, occurred to their minds. They followed him on his path, and killed him deliberately by beating him to death with bludgeons, though he seems to have made a stout defence. Between 5 and 6 o'clock the next morning they were found fast asleep in a hovel, and the same day were taken into custody. On Carey was found a knife, which was identified as one that had belonged to . Stevenson. They were taken before the magistrates, and here Picket made what he intended should be received as a full account of the transaction. He admitted that he had been present at the murder, although he threw, or endeavored to throw, all the guilt of it upon Carey. As he represented it, it was as they were going down a certain lane, and Mr. Stevenson was walking in front of them, that Carey proposed to kill him, saying, " I think he's got some money. 1' On this, despite of Picket's remonstrances—this is his own story—Carey stepped up behind Stevenson, and struck him so violent a blow with" the bludgeon he carried in his hand, that he brought him to th,e ground. Then the murdering began* and lasted a gqod while. Picket endeavored to persuade the* magistrates that the part he subsequently took in the transaction—such as helping Carey, to carry the body to the sewer-— vvas done in the bewilderment of the moment, and that the whole transaction was set on foot, and the guilty part of it carried out, exclusively by by his companion. This confession, as is usually the case in such matters, merely operated ~io insure Picket's own conviction. On his own admission he had been a participator in the murder although the ingenuity of his council tried to convert this position'into that of an accomplice after the fact. The most curious part of the story, however, was, that in consequence of Picket's endeavors to exculpate himself at Carey's expense, Carey, towards the conclusion of the trial, made a full Confession, in which he threw all the guilt upon Picket. Of course, according to the rules of evidence, the confession of each was only evidence against himself; but each admitted that he was there, more or less actively participating in the murder. The jury took the very proper view of it that both were equally guilty, and, brought in a verdict of " Wilful murder" against both. The murderers found on the old man's body one sovereign, one half-crown, and one shilling. Picket insisted upon having the sovereign because, as he said, "it would clear his score at Boston." Carey took 3s. 6d. by the adventure besides a pocket-knife. Their original intention according to their own statement, was merely to rob,, not to mnrder,- the old man. .They had covered their faces with handkerchiefi|fwith holes in them, so that they could see without being recognised, and one of these was marked with the name of Picket's old sweetheart. The plain truth seema to be the ruffians had resolved to rob the old man, and if they could have done this by simply knocking him down^ they would have been content. They were, however, fully prepared to murder him if need were, and, as their victim recognised them, the need did arise. It is not often we are-called upon to chronicle bo sottish, so clownish, and at the same time, so

hideous a crime. Hot with drink, two ruffians stagger out of an alehouse in pursuit of an old man who had been drinking in their company. They pull stakes out of a hedge, and when the/ come up to him knock him down. The stake 3 break, they pluck others, and beat him to death. ■They search his pockets, and extract from them £1 3d. 6d., the price of .their night's work. They then" cast the body into a sewer, retire into a hovel arid fall into a sleep of drunkenness and murder. They suffer themselves to be caught next day : each accuses the other, and insures his own condemnation. Can the . force of stupidity and ruffianism be pushed much further? '[The two men were executed a few days afterward.]