MR. ROBERT BUTLER, THE PIOUS BURGLAR.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 143, 5 October 1876, Page 2

MR. ROBERT BUTLER, THE PIOUS BURGLAR.

The following is a copy of the statement handed up to his Honor Mr. Justice Williams by the prisoner Butler, alias Donnelly. We do not by any means wish to paint the devil blacker than he really is, but we imagine there are but few persons who will place much reliance on the self-accusing tone which pervades this speciously - worded document. If the prisoner be really sincere in his protestations of a desire for amendment, we trust during the period of his incarceration he will steadfastly adhere to his good resolutions ; but we cannot help thinking that he is made of the stuff which sympathising chaplains love to take under their especial care and protection. Butler is evidently a man of ability and education, two qualifications, excellent in themselves, but most dangerous to the community when allowed to flow into a wrong channel:—

May it please your Worship, I have acknowledged my guilt, and do not desire to excuse it. I myself can too clearly see the magnitude and meanness of my crime to hope to make it appear less in the eyes of others. I was a stranger in a strange country, unfortunate, unwillingly out of employment, in distress, and suffered myself to be led away. This was my condition. I state it as a matter of fact, for I am aware of its utter worthlessness as a plea. I make no defence, and do not ask you to stint the full justice of my punishment. But, your Honor, while I do not deprecate punishment and justice, I do venture to ass for mercy. I am a young man, and I yet hope to retrieve even this disgrace. I am not one of those criminals by practice and inclination which society dreads. In becoming a criminal I rebelled against myself, and my own mind and soul seconds the law in my punishment. While I am willing to bow to the just penalty of the law, I

humbly hope that if your fit or expedient to shorten the &but>\MMJ&» of my pnnishment by adding to its 3»W jj£s and severity, you will so far be to me and be so. lam yet of that age wßfcritl I can (if I may) still hope in the fnS»J B t< and I venture to trust that your H^K OW i will so deal.with me that, while I < justly punished, I may not be the hope that the fairest and most energetic of my future years wllfcpie, 1 spared to me. My own sense of mypMgj], ; tion, my sense of how I must appeaEgnel others, makes me hesitate to say QV ac have felt contrition. Some of it might have appeared to your in the fact that I have submitted position with patience, and that, althJffifoj I might with some hopes of success lK e iH I denied part of my crime, I have My,llL.™ of my own free will, acknowledged** and have rendered all the aßsistaact ■ my power to repair the mischief done, in restoring, or causing to JwWvLj stored, all the property that had l>JL e , taken. I trust your Honor will pity'JKTg! hopes of a redeemed future, and exW?" £ some mercy to me. My heart is notffi u£ lous and hardened by crime, but by hope that I trust will not be out of it. Recollect, sir, that it ijj leniency I ask, but mercy; thafyo Honor will inflict such a punishment will be rigorous and severe, and aw< | u deserved punishment, while still I m A € not be weighed down by the despairi misery of knowing that the best, the mo e valuable, and the most redeemable of a .. j future yearsshall be wasted in the livn -„ j death of a prison. t Robert Botieb. •■