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.,.■————11■■■■■■■■■■ THE CENTRAL…

TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF O'FARRELL.

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TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF O'FARRELL. The trial 6f O'Farrell for the attempted assas- sination of the Duke of Edinbugh commenced on Monday, the 30th of March, and occupied two days. No attempt was made to dispute the facts of the case, and the defence set up by his counsel was that of insanity. The evidence which they ad- duced, however, while shewing that the prisoner had at former periods of his life suffered from tem- porary aberration—attributed to severe drinking -failed to prove that he was not in his senses at the time of committing the act. The rebutting evidence submitted by the Crown shewed that the crime must have been planned with care and deli- beration, and that the prisoner while about it had not shown any signs of insanity. None of the evidence tended to inculpate any other party, or to show that the crime was instigated by any organi- zation. The jury found the prisoner guilty, and he was sentenced to death. An address from the prisoner's relative was presented to his Excellency the Governor of New South Wales, praying that his sentence might be respited, and the case re- ferred to the decision of the Queen. His Excel- lency, on the advice of the Executive Council, declined to accede to the petition, and the execution of the prisoner was fixed for Tuesday, the 21st of April. From the time of his conviction the pri- soner maintained a quiet and reserved demeanour. A few days before his execution he was visited hy his sister, and daily received the ministrations of a Catholic clergyman. On Tuesday, April the 21st, L-Y at nine o'clock, the extreme penalty of the law was carried into effect in Darlington Gaol. The doomed man passed the night in his usual manner, and did not appear to suffer from any nervous excitability at his approaching fate. He was attended at an early hour by a minister of the relitious persuasion to which he belonged. Precisely at nine o'clock the Sheriff demanded his body, and O'Farrell ap- peared at the cell door in obedience to the sum- mons. He submitted to the process of pinioning i without a murmur, and walked unconcernedly to I the foot of the scaffold. Here he knelt with the priest, and for a few moments was engaged in religious devotion. He then mounted the "ladder with a firm step, and before taking his place under the drop looked up, apparently at L the rope and the I fatal beam overhead. He then took his place directly under it, and looked up again in a very composed manner, but whether vacantly looking up at the dread engine of death, or making a last appeal to Heaven for mercy, can only be conjec- tured. He however appeared thoroughly resigned to his fate. The cap was then adjusted over his face; he shook hsnds with the priest; the drop fell, and the last act of the Clontarf tragedy was over. A single contraction of the leg was the only visible sign of suffering, and death appeared to be instantaneous. After hanging the prescribed time, the body was taken down. and, not being claimed by his friends, was buried at Haslem's Creek. Be- fore his execution O'Farrell sent a letter to Mr Parkes, the Colonial Secretary, with an injunction that it should not be opened till after his death. On the evening of the day of execution Mr Parkes was questioned in the Legislative Assembly with regard to the letter, but declined to make public the contents. On the following day the letter was again asked for and refused, whereupon a member of the House rose, and read the following copy of the letter, declining at the same time to state how he obtained it:—"Being now about to appear before my Creator, I feel it my duty to give ex- pression to my heartfelt sorrow at the grievous crime I have committed. From the very bottom of my heart do I grieve for what I have done. I have hitherto said that I was one of manv who were proposed to do the deed had I not done it. I bad not the slightest foundation for such a state- ment I was never connected with any nian or any body of men who had for their object the taking of the life of the Duke of Edinburgh, neither was I in any other than in an indirect manner connected with any organization in Ireland or elsewhere, which is known by the name of the Fenian organi- zation. I wish, moreover, distinctly to assert that there was not a single human being in existence who had the slightest idea of the object I had in view when I meditated on, and through the merci- ful providence of God failed in carrying into effect, the death of the Duke of Edinburgh. J have writ- ten-to the printers of two Irish periodicals an address to the people of Ireland. So certain was I of the death of the Duke of Edinburgh that I stated therein that which I believed would be the fact; and I think I have more than implied that I was but one of an organization to carry the same into Z5 effect. I need but say that the truth of the latter portion rests upon a slighter foundation than the former; in fact, that, unless from mere hearsay, I had no foundation for stating that there was a Fenian organization in New South Wales. From continually' thinking and talking of what I may still be allowed to call the wrongs of Ireland, I be- came excited and filled with enthusiasm on the subject, and it was when under the influence of those feelings that I attempted to perpetrate the deed for which I am now called upon to sufler.- H. J. O'FARRELL." DIABOLICAL ATTEMPT TO BLOW UP A HOUSE.— A diabolical attempt to blow up a house and murder three people is reported from the Isle of man. On the night of Tuesday, about twelve o'clock, John Collister, who resides along with his brother and wife, near to Peel, in that island, was startled by hearing the noise of breaking glass, followed by a loud crash. He got up and looked out of the window, and saw a man whom he is said to recognise as his brother-in-law, named John Quine, strike a match. In an instant there was a terrible report, which shook the house to its foundations, tore up the floor, shattered the win- dows, and sent the slates and portions of the roof flying in all directions. As soon as the startled inmates had recovered from the alarm into whieb they bad been thrown, they descended into the room or kitchen, when they found that the explo- sion had been caused by a bag of powder being thrown into the room, the window being previously broken, and that this bag had been ignited by means of a fuse some 50 yards in length. Infor- mation was given to the police, who were speedily on the supposed offender's traces, and on Wednes- day he was arrested and brought before the high bailiff of Peel. It appears that for some time past considerable ill-feeling has been engendered be- tween the parties on account of a lawsuit which has been going on. The prisoner denied his guilt, but he was sworn to positively by Collister. Mr Kermode, ironmonger, of Peel, deposed that on the previous day the prisoner had purchased three pounds of powder and fifty yards of fuse at his shop. Prisoner did not deny this statement, but said that both powder and fuse were in his stable but on being taken thither by the police, neither one nor the other could be found. After examination, the prisoner was committed for trial on the charge of having attempted to murder three persons, as also upon that of attempting to blow up a house. The room in which the powder was thrown is exactly underneath the sleeping apartment of the Collisters, and had the powder been placed in a canister instead of a loose bag the consequences would, in all probability, haye been fatal, ——— 1—MMll"

MR. LONGFELLOW IN ENGLAND.

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A PATRIARCH IN BANKRUPTCY.

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MILFORD BRANCH LINE OF RAILWAY.

PEMBROKE AND TENBY RAILWAY.