at Buchannan, yvho instantly handed him a cheque for £21 4s. 6d, which the prisoner passed to Stratton, w h o was armed with a carbine and pistol. T h e prisoner next ordered Buchannan and Holmes to go with him into the bush, as he intended to tie them up. They complied and Stratton walked behind to keep guard. W h e n about 40 yards off the road, the prisoner pinioned each of them so tightly that their elbows touched, and they yvere placed back to back. Their two dogs were next fastened to a tree, and prisoner and Stratton commenced firing at the men, as if at a target. Buchannan received five wounds about the breast, though none of them proved fatal. Holmes escaped with a trifling scratch. The robbers ran away, leaving Buchannan lying on the ground. Holmes having loosed his bonds, freed Buchannan, w h o yvith great difficulty and suffering m u c h agony, yvas got back to the station by his companion, and intelligence of the atrocity was sent by mounted express to the police authorities at Geelong. It was believed that Buchannan yvould die of his wounds, but he recovered. The cashing of the stolen cheque at a bush publichouse afforded a clue which led to the arrest of the prisoner. Stratton disappeared and all traces of him were lost until the following year. Abbott was found "Guilty," and Judge Jeffcott, in pronouncing sentence of death, yvas so m u c h affected that on concluding he shed tears, and the prisoner, on his return from the Court-house to the gaol, remarked to one of the turnkeys, " W h a t a kind-hearted m a n that Judge is ; he seemed so m u c h affected in sentencing me, that I be blowed if he did not almost make m e cry." John Abbott went under the tyvo aliases of Sullivan and Slater, and was nicknamed " Jack the Sawyer." H e was born of Irish parents and as a sailor he knocked about the world for some years, until he arrived in Port Phillip. H e was sent to prison for three months, after which he took to the bush, and nothing further yvas heard of him till this Mount Rouse affair. H e was believed to be a desperado, so after his condemnation he was heavily ironed, and confined in the most secure portion of the gaol, and was constantly watched by a warder day and night. H e declared that yvhen he stood on the scaffold he yvould make such horrible revelations as yvould frighten all w h o should hear him. T h e public looked for his execution, but the miscreant dodged the hangman, as the Executive Council had commuted the capital punishment to transportation for life. T h e discovery of some technical flaw in the trial was said to be the cause of such mis-timed leniency, but the real reason will be found set forth in the chapter on " Executions." A reyvard yvas offered for the capture of Peter Stratton, and when in Melbourne he was arrested for drunkenness by Chief-Constable Sugden, w h o fancied he answered the description ofthe m a n so m u c h wanted. Further inquiries established his identity, and he was convicted of the same offence as Abbott, on the 14th March, 1845. H e yvas also sentenced to death, but for the same reason as interposed to save the neck of his companion in guilt, was relegated to the same period of penal servitude. AN ACTION FOR LIBEL.—2ND AUGUST, 1844.
Stephen v. M'Combie. This was an action tried before Judge Jeffcott and two Assessors, to recover damages for the publication of " a false, scandalous, and malicious libel." Counsel for plaintiff, Messrs. Barry and Pohlman ; for defendant, Mr. Williams. T h e parties to this suit were well-known public characters for many years. T h e complainant was Mr. John Stephen, a m e m b e r of the T o w n Council, an Advocate at the Police Court, and a free lance in newspaper circles. Defendant was Mr. T h o m a s M'Combie, a voluminous, if not popular writer, also one of the Civic body, and Editor and proprietor of the Port Phillip Gazette. T h e plaintiff had ordered a coat from a tailor named M'Namara but did not payforit. " M a c " was about the last m a n in Melbourne to be done out of his money; so he sued Stephen, got a verdict, and levied upon a boat supposed to belong to the defaulting debtor. Mr. James W a r m a n , an attache of the Stephen connection, claimed the boat as his property, and the execution was withdrawn. S o m e short time before this the boat had been placed in the hands of one Watsonforrepairs, and Watson, taking a fancy to it, was disposed to stick to the craft, when he was s u m m o n e d before the Police Court for unlawful detention by Stephen, w h o deposed that the boat belonged to him. Stephen's affidavit was filed in the Court, and M'Namara's Solicitor applied for a copy with the intention of commencing ulterior proceedings against Stephen. This led to the affidavit being looked up, but look up or look down, or anywhere, no affidavit
