ANOTHER BRUTAL ATTEMPT AT MURDER AT PANAMA.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume XIII, Issue 577, 14 May 1868, Page 4

ANOTHER BRUTAL ATTEMPT AT MURDER AT PANAMA.

io;;i tto Faa;-.ma Star and Gerald, 2ith March.) \ ■•roTiiT.a brutal and cowardly attempt At murder was committed in Panama on tue evening of the 2Dili March, by wmch the life ot one of our foreign citizens, Mr G. E. Fawcett, correspondent of the New York Herald was nearly sacrificed. On the afternoon oi the day in question Mr Fawcett, in company with a friend, was returning home from his customary afternoon drive iu the country, when he overtook two young men on horseback, and in attempting to pass them the wheel of his buggy hit Mr Jo? 6 Paredes on the flank, the rider having turned him across the road instead of moving a little to one side. Mr Fawcett immediately reined in his horse with the in tention of enquiring whether any damage had been done and making an explanation, but before be could do so Paredes rushed at him and struck him a heavy blow across the chest with his riding whip. Nothing further occurred at the time, Mr Fawcett driving into town without returning the blow.

Later in the evening, about half-past seven, when Mr Fawcett, never suspecting that he would be again molested, was playing a game of billiards a>, the Grand Hotel where he lives, Paredes and two friends entered the billiard room and approached Mr Fawcett. who seeing the former with his hand in bis pocket, and fearing he was about to draw a pistol on him, seized him by the wr'sts and forced him to the ground. When in this position one of the friends put his hand on Fawcett’s shoulder, making some remark, at v.hi h the latter turned his head towards the speaker, for the moment relaxing his hold, of which Paredes took advantage and shot him from his trousers’ pocket with a Derringer, the ball taking effect in the front part of the thigh and passing upwards towards the groin. The would be assassin immediately got on his feet, and with his friends succeeded in making good his escape before the bystanders had time to recover from their astonishment. The wounded man was then conveyed to bis room where he was promptly attended to by Dr Riecker, who, thinks the wound though an ugly and dangerous one, will not be attended by fatal results ; he has, however, been unable to extract the ball for the present.

Soon after the occurrence the Attorney of the Slate, and afterwards Prefect Diaz attended by Dr Casanova, visited Mr Fawcett's room for the purpose of taking his testimony, receiving a complaint against Paredes and niak ing an official examination of the wound. They were informed, however, that it was neither the wish of Mi Fawcett nor his friends to institute legal proceedings, satisfied as they were that any such step would merely re suit in the farce of a trial by jury and an acquittal of the culprit. And what a commentary is this on the administration of justice in Panama: The fact that crime, even where the-1 criminal is captured and acknowledges bis guilt, is invariably, under certain circumstances, winked at and allowed to go unpunished in our courts, is so notorius that a foreigner would rather decline bringing a murder or robbery case to trial than submit to the annev ance and trouble of dragging a suit through the courts, knowing that an acquittal of the guilty party is almost Eure to be the result. A boy stoic S2OOO from one cf the P.M.S.S. Co.'s steamers was arrested and acknow* ledged his guilt. He paid nearly the full amount to the judges as a bribe and was acquitted, although the Government was afterwards so ashamed of the transaction that a decree was passed in the legislature to refund the amount to the Company out of the public treasury. An unoffending -British Consul is attacked in the streets by a native dragged from his horse, his clothes torn from his back, and yet the person committing the crime is, after a days arrest and the form of a trial, set at liberty because the Consul was not confined to his bed for three days by the abuse, and declined in his consular capacity to enter a civil suit against the assailant. In broad daylight an American is shot down in the publicsquare bya native in the presence of the authorities, the person com muting the crime is arrested and let out on bail, he acknowledges bis guilt, is

tried by a jury of dis own countrymen, who also acknowledge the crime but decide that no one is responsible for it, and to the disgust of the community, the young man is discharged. No satisfaction can be obtained for

these outrages in court, which are even greater than the outrages in the street, and it would be but silly for Mr Fawcett to attempt to seek legal redress

here. The authorities can arrest the young man if they v/isb, and do as they please wild him. The foreigners may probably represent their grievances to a higher tribunal than a court in Panama, and if no protection is extended to them there, they had better do as President Olarte very naively and graciously told the foreigners of Aspinwall they could do namely, that if they don’t like theway the laws are administered they are at liberty to migrate.