EXECUTION OF THE FENIANS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume III, Issue 24, 29 January 1868, Page 2

EXECUTION OF THE FENIANS.

(Abridged from the Home News.) The Peniaa convicts, Allen, Larkin, and Q-ould, were hanged for wilful murder on Saturday, November 23, at Manchester, and the event excited more public interest than any execution within the memory of living man. The most formidable military preparations had been made in anticipation of the threatened rising of the sympathisers with the prisoners, who were all Roman Catholics, who, as far as could be ascertained, have left no confession beyond that which they made to their spiritual advisers, the tenor of which, even, could not of course be known, but they each most solemnly denied having shot Brett, and asserted' that they died martyrs to their country. At about a quarter to 8 o'clock the prisoners who had received Holy Communion at an early hour that morning, were pinioned by the hangman, not a word being uttered by them, their clergy exhorting them to firmness and submission J

in what they had to face before passing into eternity. Whilst this was going on inside the prison, the tramp of soldiers was heard through the fog in the gaol .yard, and detachments of the 72nd Highlanders were drawn up beneath the scaffold and on the platform erected on a level with it. Soon a low monotonous chaut came through the tog, the words of which— the Litany for the dying in the Catholic Church — and the solemn chant. ' Lord have mercy on us,' ' Christ have mercy on us,' were audible before those who uttered it came dimly into view. Allen came first with the Rev. Canon Cantwell by his side. None would have known in him the thick-necked, stout, bullet-headed young man who stood before the judges on his trial. His face was not to say pale, but a ghastly clay-colored Isok that was inexpressibly painful, especially as those who saw it could also see that he tried to conceal all outward manifestations of weakness by an almost desperate effort. He seemed engaged in prayer, and his lips moved to all the responses of the Litany, but no sound was emitted, and, though he looked quickly from right to left around him, he seemed to see nothing, and never raised his eyes to the spot on which he was to die. After him came Gould. He was a stouter and a more powerful man than any. He, too, seemed perfectly resigned, and looked anxiously and fervently on the little crucifix which was clasped between his hands, but it was only now and then he joined in the responses to the Litany for the dying, though when he did so his accents were clear and firm and fervent as .he said, ' Christ hear us; Christ graciously hear us.' Larkins a thin, small, and uudersized man, came last of all. The fervency wfth which he prayed rendered him audible throughout the whole gaol yard. Yet his physical strength had evidently given way, for though the tones of Li* utterance were loud and clear, and he never tor an instant missed a word of the prayers, he was still so nervous and physically prostrated as to make ic necessary f>r two warders to partially support him on either side. All in the gaol remained bareheaded as they passed. » Allen went up the flight of wooden steps laboriously and slowly, but still with the same unflinching expression of determination written in every line of his ashy face. The same may be said of Gould, except that of the two he appeared less concerned by the awful situation in which he stood. Larkin trod up painfully with shifting and uncertain steps the last of all but still always repeating the responses to the Litany, ' Lord have mercy on us, Christ have mercy on us.' For a second there was a pause behind the little black door which led out to the scaffold fill all the three convicts were together, and after that one brief interval, scarcely a minute passed till all was over. Allen went out first, and at his appearance all noise in the crowd below was hushed. Every head wa3 uncovered, and some few hands, it is said, were clapped, but whether as rejoicing in his execution or sympathising with the murder he had done, it was impossible to say. The rope was put round his neck, his feet were fastened, and the white cap drawn over him amid solemn silence. Gould came next, now loudly praying, as all the clergy were— ear nestly and fervently. When Gould came out upon the drop he shuffled near to Allen, and as well as his bonds allowed, shook hands with him and kissed him through his white cap. It may have been that Larkin saw something of this final leave-taking between men passing into eternity ; or it may have been that seeing his companions thus capped and bound for death unnerved him ; at all events, his courage seemed to sink at the last moment, and he could barely totter on to the drop. He mustered strength enough for that, however, and, praying, like the rest, most earnestly, he took his place. Hardly had he done so and the white cap been drawn over him when he fainted, and fell heavily against Gould.' In an instant the under-hangman and a warder seized him and held him upright ; while the exhortations to bear this last ordeal with firmness as an atonement for their great sins were pressed upon them in loud prayers, and the men turned their facns towards where the sounds came from, and gave from beneath their white caps muffled sounds of earnest responses. In spite, however, of his evident efforts Larkin seemed to grow more faint. His knees sunk two or three times, and the hang • man, hurriedly warning those near at hand from the vicinity of the drop, stepped back, and casting one professional glance of eager interest to see that all was right, drew a little bolt; amid a loud boom the men dropped, and as they did so the long suppressed noises of the crowd broke out in a subdued muffled hum of terror and surprise, above which the solemn words of prayer for those that are dying arose distinctly. Almost as the drop fell a loud explosion was heard on the left side of the gallows, followed quickly by another. Every one was startled by it, and the riflemen got ready to use their arms instantly. It happened that they were only fog signals placed on the Bolton branch of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, passing almost over the gaol. Still their effect was terribly startling, and none who saw through the fog the great mass of white, upturned faces below, the soldiers handling their weapons round the scaffold, the priests praying loudly that God would take the great sufferings of the convicts then as some atonemont for their sins in this world will forget a scene which is difficult to describe, and almost impossible to efface from the memory of those who saw it. On this, however, we need not dwell. Allen died almost instantly. So also did Gould. The sufferings of Larkin, however, seemed very great, aud it was nearly two minutes before he ceased beating the air in ineffetual struggles, which made the halter by which he hung quiver and jerk as ff every moment it would be broken. It is said, thought we know not with what truth, that the hangman had so clumsily adjusted the rope round the culprit's neck that he suffered more than he would have done, had the duties of the scaffold been more carefully performed. During the whole, time that the criminals remained hanging the clergymen continued their prayers audibly. Before thfi bodit-s had hung for about half an hour the crowd, with the exception of the special , constables, had almost entirely dispersed. So passed oxer, without word or sign, either of approval or dissent, the first Feniaa execution for murder in Great Britain.