TRIAL AND CONVICTION OF THE MANNINGS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VI, Issue 481, 13 March 1850, Page 4

TRIAL AND CONVICTION OF THE MANNINGS.

On the 25th and26th of Oct, the Mannings were tried and convicted for the murder of O'Connor. The Judges were Chief Baron Pollock, Mr. Justice Maule and Mr. Justice Cresswell. On the evening of the 26th, the jury, after deliberating for three quarters of an hour, returned a verdict of guilty against both prisoners. It is unnecessary to repeat the evidence. The following is the conclusion of the trial : — The prisoners having been asked in the usual way whether they had anything to say why sentence of death should not be passed upon them — Mrs. Manning, in a state of great excitement, addressed the Court as follows. She spoke with a strong foreign accent, and with remarkable vehemence, her excitement appearing to supply her with fluency of speech: — There is no justice, she said, and no right for a foreign subject iv this country. There is no law for me. I have had no protection —neither from the judges, nor from the prosecutors, nor from my husband. lam unjustly condemned by this Court. If I were in my own country I could prove that I had money sert from abroad, which is now in the Bank of England. My solicitors and counsel could have called witnesses to identify shares that were bought with my own money. Mr. O'Connor was more to me than my hus-

band. He was a friend and brother to me ever since I came to this country. I knew him for seven years. He wanted to marry me, and I ought to have been married to him. I have letters which would prove his respect aud regard for me ; and I think, considering that I am a woman and alone — that I have to fight my husband's statements, that I have to fight against the prosecutors, and that even the judge himself is against me— l think that I am not treated like a Christian, but like a wild beast of the forest ; and the judges and juiy will have it on their consciences for gir ving a verdict against me. I am not guilty of the murder of Mr, O'Connor. If I had wished to commit murder, I would not have attempted the life of the only friend I had in the world — a man who would have made me his wife in a week if I had been a widow. I have lived in respectable families, and can produce testimonials of character for probity in every respect, if enquiry is made. I can account for more money than was equal to the trifling shares that were found upon me. If my husband, through jealousy and a revengeful feeling against O'Connor, chose to murder him, I don't see why I should be punished for it. I wish I could have expressed myself better in the English language. Manning said nothing. Mr. Justice Cresswell, (who in the absence of the Chief Baron delivered judgment) then put on the black cap and addressed the prisoners as follows : — Frederick George Manning and Maria Manning, you have been convicted of the crime of murder — Mrs. Manning, vehemently — No, no ; I won't stand it. You ought to be ashamed of yourselves. There is neither law nor justice here. She then turned round as if to leave the dock, but was prevented by Mr. Cope, the Governor of Newgate, who stood behind her. Mr. Justice Cresswell — You have been defended by able counsel. Every topic which ingenuity or experience bad taught them would be at all available for your defence has been urged by them. You have been found guilty by a jury upon evidence which, I will venture to say, could leave no rational doubt upon the mind of any human being who heard it. A verdict of guilty is the only one which the jury could conscientiously return. Had they failed to return that verdict, it would have been very difficult indeed to convince me that they had not shrunk from their duty. — The female prisoner again attempted to speak, but the judge, without noticing the interruption proceeded. Murdejr is the highest crime that one individual can commit against another in this country. It is at all times a horrible offence ; but the present murder was one of the most cold-blooded and deliberately calculated I ever remember to have heard or read of. Under the pretence of friendship, or rather affection — for such was the description of the invitation of the 8th — under that pretence you unhappily deluded him to a place where his grave was probably then prepared, and where the deed was afterwards committed which had, no doubt, been for days contemplated. It was one of the most appalling instances of human wickedness which the annals of this court can furnish. It has been suggested that the deceased led a vicious course of life with one of you prisoners ; but whether that was so or not I profess not to judge ; that rests with your own conscience. But whatever was his course of life, without a moment's warning or preparation, without the slightest opportunity of thinking of futurity, or endeavouring to seek pardon for any offences he had committed, that unhappy man was hurried into eternity. The law, more merciful, allows to you a space of time for preparation. It appears that on a former occasion a conversation passed between one of you and the witness Massey, as to where the soul of a person who had committed murder would go. The time has arrived when you should ask that question again. As I cannot hold out the slightest hope of a commutation of the sentence which I am about to pronounce, I am bound to tell you that, as far as my judgment goes, your doom is irretrievably fixed when that sentence is passed. I advise you therefore to resort with all humility and all contrition, to the minister of the Gospel appointed to attend you. From him you will receive all the consolation which, in your unhappy condition, he can, in the faithful discharge of his duty, afford you. From him you will learn what you have to fear. He will no doubt point out to you in strong, terms, the full extent of your guilt ; and I am sure he will rejoice if he can conscientiously hold out to you any hope of that pardon hereafter which, in this world, is impossible. I consign you to his advice, and pray you to profit by it. Whatever sorrow or even indignation you may really feel, or affect to feel, as to the course of proceeding this day, depend upon it that others will judge differently ; and I doubt whether every one who has heard the trial will not be as well satisfied as I am that the result is the only one consistent with justice. Having given this

warning and advice, which I pray you once more to receive in all humility, it remains or me only to pronounce the dread sentence of the law, which is that you be taken hence to her Majesty's gaol for the county of Surrey, and thence to the place of execution, and there to be hanged severally by the neck until you be dead ; and that afterwards your dead bodies be buried within the precincts of the gaol in which you shall be confined after this sentence, and may the Lord have mercy on your souls. Mrs. Manning was again proceeding to address the Court, when she was ordered to be removed. She exclaimed that it was shameful to pass such a sentence upon her, and some perspns near her allege that they heard her add " base England ;" but these words did not reach us. According to custom the bench in front of the dock was strewn with rue. Taking some of this in her hand she threw it into the body of the Court, as if by that contemptuous act she could find some relief fiom the excitement under which she laboured. She was immediately removed by Mr. Cope and a female turnkey. Manning merely bowed to the Court and retired. He seemed very subdued, but retained his self-possession. The proceedings closed shortly after seven o'clock. Immediately after the sentence of death had been pronounced on Friday, the Mannings were taken back to Newgate previous to their removal to Horsemonger-lane The violence of the female prisoner became still greater when she left the dock, and rose to such a height that she poured dreadful imprecations upon all around her. She was offered refreshment, but furiously refused to take any, and bitterly inveighed against her legal adviser, against the jury that had condemned her, and against England generally. The terrible excitement under which she laboured may be conceived from the oath which she frequently uttered — " Damnation seize you all !" When a handcuff was first placed on her wrist her rage and despair knew no bounds ; and she shook her clenched fists in the faces of the officers. Manning, on the other hand, exhibited the same submissive and dejected manner as during bis trial. At halfpast seven o'clock they were both removed in separate cabs from Newgate to Horsemangerlane Gaol. The execution will probably take place on the 12th of November ; for it is not at all likely that, after the unanimous adverse decision of the three judges, any delay will arise on the application of Mrs. Manning's counsel for a jury de medietate linguee. It was rumoured yesterday that Manning had instructed his counsel to assert, in addition to what he had before stated as to the manner in which the murder was committed, that after his wife had shot O'Connor upon the staircase, she came up to him with a loaded pistol in her hand, and exclaimed — " Now I have shot him ; come down stairs and help me to bury him, or I will shoot you." The learned counsel, it would appear, did not place any reliance upon the statement, and he made no allusion respecting it to the jury.