THE PORTLAND TRANSCRIPT, November 21, 1874

                                                      
                                                               IN GENERAL

          Application was recently made to Judge Peters to have Charles T. Robbins
     discharged from the Insane Hospital and placed in custody of his parents at Deer Isle.
     It well be remembered the jury found him not guilty of the murder on board of the
     "Annie B," on the grounds of insanity, and in accordance with the requirements of
     law in such cases he was committed to the hospital.  Judge Peters of course refused
     the application, saying that if Robbins was a sane man, he was a guilty man, and his
     confinement in the hospital was not too severe a punishment; and on the other hand if
     he was not of sound mind, as the jury found in the verdict, the asylum was the proper
     place for him. Chief Justice Appleton concurred in the decision of Judge Peters, adding
     that something was due to the British government in the disposition of the case. The
     community will recognize the good common sense of the decision. Let criminals who
     make the plea of insanity be strictly held to it, and the plea may be less freely advanced
     in future to cover the most heinous crimes. Dr. Harlow, superintendent of the asylum
     at the trial expressed the opinion that Robbins was sane at the time he committed the
     murder (as the jury found), he would be liable to a recurrence of the malady; and
     therefore would be a unsafe man to set at liberty.
          The Kennebec Journal says that Wagner, in the State Prison, awaits calmly his fate
     with the full expectation that the law will be executed upon him. His mind in not
     particularly of a pious kind, but he thinks that after he is gone the Almighty will come
     forth from his hiding place and confess the dark deed; and thus, after his lips are sealed
     the would will see that he (Wagner) was guiltless. Hoswell is still stubborn and ugly, fat
     and saucy. He still chafes under what he calls his unjust incarceration, and thinks it a
     hard case that a man can't be allowed to strike a blow for the chastity of his own
     household, without being branded a criminal before the law. John Rogers, the Brunswick
     cashier is begging for executive clemency.

          Speaker Blaine has written a letter to the Portland Press in which he emphatically
     denies the rumor that he is attempting to be Mr. Hamlin's successor in the United States
     Senate. He says he has accepted the election of the Kennebunk District to the 44th
     Congress, and can not be driven from that duty, even were the Senatorship offered
     him.  He takes the Press to task for its alleged purpose to counsel the Republicans in
     the Legislature opposed to Hamlin not go into the caucus, and closes with a
     statement of Mr. Hamlin's claims for re-election, and reply to the charges that he is
     the office holders' candidate. He denies that (Mr. Blaine) has been at all activities in
     promoting Mr. Hamlin's candidacy among the legislature elect, but avows his belief
     that Maine will consult her best interest in returning him to the Senate. The Press in
     a leading editorial, replies to this letter, alluding to the task about its opposition to a
    caucus as "idiotic gabble," for the starting of which the Bangor Whig is responsible,
    and then gives its reasons for opposing Mr. Hamlin. It is not for what he has done, but
    for what he has not done. He allowed much bad legislation to pass unchallenged, when
    a manly protest from his lips would have been affective.  It prophesies defeat for the
    party in Maine next fall if Mr. Hamlin is returned to the Senate.

          A new Post Office is established at Lambert's Lake, Washington County, and Obed
     Foss made postmaster. The office at Easton, same county, is discontinued. William
     G. Mathews is appointed postmaster at Wells.