O n the 20th April the prisoner was called up for judgment, and his Counsel yvas heard in mitigation. Evidence as to good character was given, and stress yvas laid upon the fact that Mr. O'Shanassy had sustained no injury of a serious nature. Judge A'Beckett passed a sentence of six months' imprisonment, and at its expiration to enter into iecognizances to keep the peacefortwelve months, himself in £ 5 0 , and tyvo sureties of £ 5 0 each. It was generally believed that the prisoner had been the scapegoat of others—more cunning and cowardly who put him up to assail O'Shanassy out of feelings of vengeance engendered by the party spirit that remained smouldering in the embers of Orangeism permeating a small exclusive section of the community since 1843. However this might have been, Johnstone paid the penalty of half a year's incarceration. ROBBERY OF THE PORTLAND MAIL.—17TH MAY, 1849.
Peter Devlin and Thomas Jones, were jointly indicted for highway robbery, and "putting in bodily fear and danger of his life one John Ross, and stealing from his person three bags, of the value of 3s, containing a warrant or order for the payment of £ 3 9 8s. 6d, and another for £ 6 , the property of the Queen, at the Moorabool Creek, near Ballan, on the 25th March." A second count laid the property of the stolen orders in Ross as mailman, and a third in M r . F. P. Stevens, the Belfast postmaster, who forwarded them to Melbourne. T h e prisoners were undefended. It appeared from the evidence that Mr. Stevens, on the 23rd March, placed the two cheques in a letter, which he posted in a mail-bag that was not to be opened until delivered at Melbourne Post Office. This bag he sealed up and handed over at noon to Samuel Harrison, by w h o m it was to be conveyed as far as the Hopkins. This was done in due course; so it passed on until it reached the custody of John Ross, the relieving mailman at Mount E m u , who started for Ballan. About eight a.m. of the 25th, when between Buninyong and Ballan, and as the mail cart was jogging quietly on its way, tyvo m e n armed with pistols rushed from behind a tree, and commanded the driver on pain of death to pull up. This he did, and the prisoner Devlin declared that if Ross stirred " he yvould blow his brains out." There yvere tyvo passengers, Messrs. Lyall and Kirby, in the conveyance, and they were told to get off, after yvhich they were searched and put standing aside. Ross was next requested to produce the mail bags, which he refused, whereupon Jones jumped into the cart and pitched them into the road. There were three bags—one large and two small; and cutting open the lot they crammed the contents of thefirstinto their pockets, and then decamped on the horses, after telling the driver and passengers to be off about their business, as there was no further need of them. Devlin wore no disguise, but Jones had his face wrapped in green mosquito gauze. Search parties were hunting about everywhere, but no tidings could be learned of the highwaymen. A Mr. James W a r m a n occupied a station on the Tarwin River in Gippsland, some sixty-four miles from Melbourne; and about seven o'clock in the morning of the 5th April, two men, armed yvith pistols, rode up to the homestead and inquired if they could have breakfast. W a r m a n replying in the affirmative, the strangers dismounted and unsaddled their horses. They remained for the day, and represented themselves to be brothers—the sons of a Mr. Devlin, a shareholder in the South Australian Burra Copper Mines, who were on a horse-purchasing trip, andforfear of accident their circulating medium consisted almost entirely of cheques. Several of these they displayed before W a r m a n , who recognised one as bearing the signature of S. G. Henty, of Portland. O n e of them left in a foyv days, the other remaining, and offering to help his hospitable entertainer to any pecuniary accommodation he should require. Warman said he was out offlour,when the other handed him a cheque for £ 8 ios., drawn on the Bank of Australasia by J. F. Palmer, in favour of John Bennett; but taking it back, exchanged it for other cheques. Warman, who had up to this heard nothing about a mail robbery, began to have suspicions that things were not quite as stated; and in this m o o d intimated to his guest that he should procure some flour from a store twenty miles away. H e left h o m e accordingly, making for the Kentish Hoy Hotel, about four miles off, and informed Mr. Hook, the landlord, of all that had taken place at the Tarwin. O n arriving there he learned all the particulars ofthe robbery of the mail; and the two men
