THE TRIAL AND CONVICTION OF RUSH. (From the Times.)

New Zealander, Volume 5, Issue 353, 11 September 1849, Page 3

THE TRIAL AND CONVICTION OF RUSH. (From the Times.)

It will be no surprise to the public to hear that Rush lias baen found guilty of the Norfolk murders. The series of assassinutious and attempts at assassination perpetrated at Slanfield-hnll, will occupy a prominent place in the annals of crime rather from the atrocity of its circumstances than from any singularity in the evidence which led to Ihe conviction ol the assassin On the night of the murdprs, Rush wenr to his bed a condemned man. Eliza Chebtney, the poor gn] whose life he had attempted, lived to identify him ; Emily Sandford, the unfortunate woman whose ruin he had previously effected, was living* under his roof at Potash Farm, when he sallied forth to execute, and when he returned from the execution of the bloody deed. She conld not but give evidence to show that he was absent fro.n home ,»t the precise hour when the murder was cuminitted. On his return ull circumstances of demeanour and agitation were such as would correspond with ihe supposition oi hid guilt. Then there was the motive — the forged deeds of which the murderer was to avail himself when his victim was no longer able to give testimony against the imposition. There were many minor circumstances iv corrobomtion of these damning tacts. Lastly, there was the murderer's own rambling and incoheient defence. It is but the language of sober truth to 3iiy that not a sinjjle fact came out upon the trial which was irreconcilable with the hypothesis of Rubh's guilt. Never was a murderer convicted upon clearer evidence, or of a more atrocious enm r . 'Ihe ciicumstances of the trial will not be easily forgotten. It was distinguished by a certain dramatic tftcct, arising from the relation in which the two principal witnesses stood to the piisoner. Of Eliza Chestney, the poor girl whose life Rush had attempted to lake iv so daßtardly a manner, it may be said that she wji as one risen from the dead to hear witness against him. Pale and emaciated from the effect of her wound, she was borne iv a litter into the couit, into the presence of the man who had directed his murderous weapon against her life, and of those who were sitting as judges of his fate. One would have supposed that the cowaidly ruffim would have quailed at such a sight, and felt an overpowering consciomnest that his tissue of incoherent lies must be scattered to the winds by her testimony. The simple words— " That is the man!" when she was asked who it was thttt fired on her at Stanfield-hall on the night her masters were murdered, sliould have been enough to convince him that his guilt was ducoveied, thai his fate was sealed. No such thing happened. There is something characteriatic of the man in his conduct of hit own case, and the manner in which he peisisied to the last, against hope, ami against conviction, in his absurd and irrelevant ex uninatioii of the witnesses. He had deceived hun&elf;; he imagined that he could deceive others in the same manner. We douot, however, if the full meubuics of execration would have been poured out upon his head but for the appearance in court of a far more unfortunate perton tbnn the wounded servantgul. II was when Emily Sandford stepped into the witness -box, and disclosed the circumstances of Rush's previous connexion with her ; the promises of marriage under whicb he bad effected her Him ; the blabpheimous sophistry with which he justified the crane ; the lons and sinuuus course of his contemplated forgery upon the unfortunate Mr. Jercny ; then, and not till then, diJ the character of the man stand fu'ly revealed in its complicated atiocity. A painful shudder ran through the court, as though her evidence, which all had exp"i ted to he-tr, had exceeded their expectation, and almost their capac ty of belief. It would be difficult, iadeed to ire agine a situation more f' diful than that in which the unlortuna'e Emily Saiultoid was placed. The prisoner at the bar, alioriously as he had deceived lur, was still the lather of her child In the course of delivering her testimony ag,iinsc the fa'her, the mother was conbtrjiued to a e k peiutiiMon to re'ne horn the couit in order to sudtlc hen child. To say this, is to say lint her position was as dreadful as the human imagination can cone ive. It seemed loiemblv clear that, so far fiom being actuated by any ill-will "rtp,ainst her destroyer, could she have done t>o, she would gladly lnve saved him. Bur the fact* were too strong. TUs ordeal of public elimination in an open court is too searching for any one not hardened by a long couise of perjury and crime. She «ppear> to hive lelt that hei only clianre lay in speaking the plain and simple truth,— and she did '■o. It it weie possible, or did it answer any puu pose to follow out the workings of Rubh's mind previous to the comnmsion of the murderi, it would I almost se^m ai t'aough he Lad deceived himself with

the expectation Hint tins unfortunate womin'g testimony would be given on his side. He had not rightly calculated either her weakness or her Hfergth. She was pvid' nUy too good to have bi-'ii it. trusted with the 6(Ci ct nf his intention ptv iou p > to t 1 <; commission, ot the C!i,ne. She leeoiled evi'ti at the bare suspicion that the deeds she l'«d b<en secured to copy »■ ere forgeries. How much moir, then, would she huva ahi nk from thf* contemplation of the j.enea of bluorty net-, by which Rish v. tended to woikout his pmp'isc! Trust her beforehand he could not. JRut afterwards— wlicn the deed was done — when lie had returned ltdhanded to his home— wnen he onteied thr room at the dead hour of tii^h' — when he was aw.ue thai yd h few hours and the avenue-is oi blood wnuld ho on bis tiack, and lifi testimony nn^lit he all poweiful to save him — Cv.ii then— at (he te'dfth hour, might he not disclose whut he had done, and trutt to her woman's instinct to save the father of 1-uu fluid from death? It was not in Ruah's character to do this. There might c\cn be danger in the agitation of her manner when the ofiicers entered the farm next day, even had Emily bandlord been inclined to save him. Alone ho would stand or fall. It is, however, usclpS3 lo follow out such a speculation. The hiotory of crime is but the record of the fr.lly and madness as well as of the guilt of criminals. The very precautions they take become the links and steps by winch their conviction is inoured. So it was in Couivoisure's case; so it has been in the instance of Rush; so it will be with othero to the end of time. We know but of one favourable feature in the horrible lustoiy of the Standfield-lull mmclors. It U the story of a crime which is not likely to breed others. There is nothing of that fascination about, it which existed in the case of Madams Laffrage. Danudcd as it was at once of all mystery, it degenerated into a vulgar butchery f which is not likely to find imitatns. The murderer went down to his work j><st as a butcher would descend lo the slnmblei. ll.s name will live in the annuls of assassination merely .'l3 Hie j'trpetistor of one ot the most causeless .mil bloody muiders upon record. Execution or Rush. — The papers at the besinnin.fr, of ilir week ivcre teeming with voluminous accounts of the execution of Rush the <nuiderer t atNorwic'i s '-stle, on Saturday last, but the chief mtciesf is passed. Hush asseveiatcd his innocence to the last moment, and busied himself with trying to impiess this idea on all who saw him. His bchivioui to two clargymen who visited him, at first respectful and aft rwdrds the reverse, app j ared to he regulated by his hopes of convincing them. He asked the chaplain to administer the sacrament to him, but it was ' refused. On the morning of the execution, his. deportment was collected and decorous. To Calcraft, thu hangman, he said a few words on his being pinioned. On his way to the scaffold, he asked as a favour, that the drop might fall at the moment the la a t word* of the benediction were pjonoutu'cd. '* He wa* 1 dressed in black, wore patent leather boots, and h*d his uhirt collai-, wnich was scrupulously clean, turned over." " His sl<'p never faltered, and he regulaily marched to his doom. On catching sight of the scaffold, h« lifted his eyes to heaven, raided as fur as lie could hi* pinioned bauds, and shook his head mournfully from hide to side once or twice. The pantomime was perfeuf, conveying almost as clearly as words a protest of innocence^ combined with resignation to his fate." On the platform, observing Ui.it the hangman seemed to be hurriod, he said, " Take your time — don't be ma hurry ;" and he diiected him as to the . j asy and effective aljustment of the rope. The signal was given for the falling of the drop a little before the words which lie had mentioned. He died instantly, and without * single struggle; "the ceremony hating been performed as vrell as practicable, and with fewer revolting circumstances than usual." The number of persons assembled to witness the execution is estimated at tnunty thousand— many from a great distance; and they behaved with less levity and disorder than is usual on such occasions.

Emigration to California —The Latter* day Saints. — On Tuesday week Swansea was quita enhtened in consequence of the arrival nf several waggons loaded with luggage, attended by boijis scores of the " bold peaoantiy" of Caermartheivhire, and slmoit an equal number of the inhabi'-nts of Merthyr, and the surrounding di&tricts, together with their families. The formidable party were n arly nil "Latter-day Saints," and came to the town for toe purpose of proceeding to Liverpool in the T:ou!>:idour steamer, where a ship is in readiness to transpottthem next week to the glittering regions of California. The company is under the command of a popular saint, known as Captain Dau Jones. Amongst the group were many substantial farmers from the neighbourhoods of IJrechter and LUnybydder, Oinnarthetubiie ; and although they were wfll to do, they disposed of their possessions to get to California, their new Jerusalem, at they deem it, where their fauaticism tea hes them to believe they will escape from the general de~ struction and conflagration that is shortly to envelope the earth. It is their intention not to viiit the gold regions, but the agricultural dKtricti, wher.i they intend, they say, by helping one another, to revde iv peace and harmony, and to exemplify the truth of " brotherly love," not in name but in practice. Amongst thi* number are several aged mm, varying from 70 to 90 yeirs of age, and whose " noary locks'' not only proclaim their " lengthened yen's,' 1 but render it very improbable they will live to see Anieiica; yet go deluded are the poor and simple (t Saints," that ihoy believe that every one amongst them, however infirm and old they may be, will as surely land in ''dlifornia safely at they started from Wall s. Their faith is most extrdordinary. On Wednesday morning after being addressed by their leader, all repaired on. board in admirable order, and With extraordinary lesignatiou. Tueir departure was vmncbfi'd by hundreds of spectators, and whilst the steamer gailypassed down the river, tlie Saints commenced singing a favourite hymn. On entering the pier, however, they abruptly stopped sinking, and lustily responded to the cheering with which they were greeted by the inhabitants. Tun Ovkr&and Route to California.—Lieutenant Morrison, of Colouel Sfcireorun's New York Regiment of Vo-untcers, gives the following piece of advice to whom it may concern. We commend it to the particular attention of those who in this, and in some of the cities west, are proposing to take the overlaud route to California: — "Ciiutmn to Emigrants. I hope that thos.* who intjad to emigrate by land here will be careful that they ,ire not overtaken by storms, or snows, or want of provisions, on their toilsome 011 rney acrops the Rocky Mountains. I have seen those who started fiom the bonidrt of R!is»ouri hale and stalwart mon, hobble down into tue plains of California crippled for lilu. I have seen brothers who, in the madness of hunger, have founhi, ii r T the last bit of thtfir father's dead botiy, having shared the rest at their pscvious meals ! —having been cncompasied with, snow on the tops of those dreadful mountains. Maidens who lett thcii housei rejoicing in the pride o£ joulh and beauty, in joyous antii-ip <tioas from this iar-off land, by the lu^ois ani siiffennas of that fjarlul journey, despoiled of their loveliness and bloom r withered into premnture old ag- I.—lVew1 .— IVew York Paper, t