The following Petition has been numerously signed both in Wellington and Napier :— That at the last Quarter Sessions of the Supreme Court of Wellington, Charles Sfcraker, chief mate of the, barque "Snaresbrook," having been found guilty of the wilful murder of an apprentice named Francis Muir, on board the said barque during her voyage from London to New Zealand, was sen tenced to death :— ' That your Petitioners, without impugning the verdict of the jury upon the case as presented to them, beg to represent to Tour Excellency several reasons which have impressed them with the deep- eat conviction that tho crime of murder was never really harboured in the mind of the prisoner.;, and, that the carrying out, under such circumstances, 1 the extreme penalty of the law, would be repug-j riant to the beat feelings of the community, and ip retrogresion from the humane tendency which has prevailed in the mother country, of admitting the interposition of the Royal prerogative of merifiy, in all cases, where, neither motive nor pre-concert ed design of destroying life has been Bhewn to ' exist. ' ■ - '• -. • • ;

Ok this main gbott;nd, therefore, yom* Petition ers found their most fervent prayer, that the sen tence of death passed on Charles" Straker may he confuted for a less terrible' punishment, namely -r-that in the present case the charge of wilful mjirder is tmly made' by construction of law ; the actual guilt, as alleged, consisting in the accelera tion of death by cruelty ; but so far from any motive for the wilfulness of murder being even suggested, the witnesses avow their belief, as evi denced by the accompanying declaration (A.) that ffie'-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 painful ly agitate their minds. Firstly — As to whether some circumstances were not withheld from the notice of the jury ; which might, if disclosed, have materially affected their decision. 