Alexandria Gazette & Daily Advertiser

From the Boston Intelligencer.

The discharge of Capt. Batchelder, Mr. Radford, the first officer, and Mr. Thomas C. Smith, the supercargo, of the ship William, from commitment on a malicious complaint preferred against them by some of the crew, has afforded general satisfaction.

A seaman belonging to the ship died a few days after her arrival, and the complaint alleged, that he came to his death in consequence of chastisement inflicted on the 24th Nov. last, on the passage from Calcutta.

It was distinctly and clearly proved by the testimony of the most respectable medical gentlemen, that from an examination of the body, he could not have come to his death from the consequences of any alleged chastisement, but that it was caused by the long continued intemperate use of ardent spirits, which had diseased every part of the system; and finally terminated in a serious appoplexy.

This was of itself entirely sufficient to produce the immediate discharge of the accused; but the gentlemen were not satisfied the testimony should rest here; they produced the most undeniable evidence that in the alleged affray the officers of the ship did no more than their duty required of them for the preservation and safety of the ship and of their lives, and as Chief Justice Parker feelingly observed, "unless the officers of our ships could be supported in the discharge of their duty, in resisting the threats and attacks of an infuriated and mutinous crew, our ships would become the graves of their officers." The owners of the ship having entered a complaint against several of the crew for mutinous conduct on board the ship, they were on Friday arrested and examined before the Hon. Judge Davis, and five of them, viz. John G. Martin, Andrew Armstrong, Thomas Hay, James Oliver, and William Jackson, were committed to prison to take their trial at the United States Circuit Court in May next.