OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 243 



witnessing, from motives of reward or revenge, which in the pro- 

 ceedings before him had been brought to light. There were some 

 indeed of so atrocious a character which had occurred before him, 

 that he would briefly instance some of them, which the time that had 

 elapsed might have caused to pass away from their memory. 



" The case of Mullany and his wife, who were convicted of stealing 

 from the person of Patrick Sherry, by administering to him some 

 deleterious drug, which for a time deprived him of sense, and perhaps 

 only the quantity prevented his losing his life. The case of Arm- 

 strong, the overseer, who was acquitted upon a false charge, brought 

 against him by a convict under his superintendence, of shooting him 

 with intent to murder. 



" The case of Cowan and his wife, who were acquitted of the 

 murder of a man named Kerr, embodies in itself a picture of those 

 evils with which the colony is visited. A person of the name of 

 Campbell, and the deceased Kerr, lived near Liverpool, and kept an 

 unlicensed still, and a house to which the gangs of prisoners in this 

 neighbourhood resorted for drink, and they were cattle-stealers. On 

 a Sunday evening this house was visited by a constable from Liver- 

 pool, who arrived about eight o'clock, and found the parties, as he 

 expressed it, ' beastly drunk,' and the two prisoners of the crown in 

 the same state ; this was the last time Kerr was seen alive by any 

 respectable person. 



" Information was given the next day, by two of Cowan's servants, 

 to the magistrates of Liverpool, against him, for cattle-stealing, and it 

 was proved that their having done so was known to Peter Montgo- 

 mery, a convict, employed as overseer at the Liverpool Hospital, in 

 the afternoon of the same day, and that he had visited Cowan after- 

 wards, and understood from expressions made by Cowan, during his 

 intoxication, that he expected Kerr would give evidence against him. 

 Kerr was murdered by some one on that night, and his body was 

 afterwards found at fifty rods' distance, but the blood was traced to 

 within seventeen yards of Cowan's door. 



" Campbell had given a statement before the magistrates, which, if 

 he had adhered to on the trial, would have brought home the guilt of 

 that murder to both the prisoners ; but he recanted the whole of his 

 previous statement, and they were acquitted. 



" It appeared in evidence, that Campbell had been forwarded from 

 Liverpool to Sydney, hand-cuffed with Cowan, and was confined in 

 the same jail-yard with him. It further appeared, (and it deserves 

 mention as an instance of retributive justice, as well as showing the 



