THE EXECUTION OF O'FARRELL.

Southland Times, Issue 951, 15 May 1868, Page 6

THE EXECUTION OF O'FARRELL.

It now only remains for us, in connexion with the visit of the Duke of Edinburgh, to complete the history of the wretched man, H. J. O'Earrell, who attempted to assassinate the Eoyal visitor. His trial commenced on Monday, the 30th 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 adduced, however, while showing that the prisoner had at former periods of his life suffered from temporary aberration — attributed to. severe drinking — completely failed to prove that he was not in his senses at the time of committing th.9 act. The rebutting evidence submitted by the Crown showed that the crime must have been planned with care and deliberation, 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 organisation. Thejury found the prisoner " Guilty," and he was sentenced to death. An address from the prisoner's relatives was presented to His Excellency the G-overnor of New South "Wales, praying that his sentence might be respited, and the case referred to the decision of the Queen. His Excellency, 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 April. Erom the time of his conviction the prisoner maintained a quiet and reserved demeanour. A few days before his execution; he was visited by his sister, and daily received the ministrations of a Catholic On Tuesday morning last, at nine o'clock, the extreme penalty of the law was carried into effect in Darlinghurst Gaol. The I doomed man passed the night in his usual manner, and did not appear to suffer from auy nervous excitability at his approaching fate. He was attended at an early hour by a minister of the religious persuasion to which he belonged, and to his ministrations and the attention paid to tbem, may perhaps be attributed in a great measure the calm self-possession with which the unfortunate man met his fate.

Precisely at nine o'clock the sheriff demanded his body, and O'Earrell appeared at the cell door in obedience to the summons. He submitied to the process of pinioning without a murmur, and walked unconcernedly to 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 the rope and 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 conjectured. He, however, appeared thoroughly resigned to his fate. The cap was then adjusted over his face ; he shook hands with the priest; the drop fell, and the last act of theClontarf 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 in Haslem's Creek.

Before his execution,. , O'Earrell 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 at present 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 the copy of it : —

" Being now about to appear before niy Creator, I feel it my duty to give expression to my heartfelt sorrow at the grevious crime I have committed. Erom the very bottom of my heart do I grieve for what I have done. I have hitherto said that I was one of many who were proposed to do the deed had I not done it. I bad not tbe slightest foundation for such a statement. I was never connected with any man, 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 Eenian organization. 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 bad in view when I meditated on, and through the merciful providence of God failed in carrying into effect, the death of the Duke of Edinburgh. I have written to the printers of two Irish periodicals an address to the people of Ireland. So certain was lof the deed of the Duke of Edinburgh that I stated therein that which I believed would be tbe fact ; and I think I have more than implied that I was but one of an organization to carry the same into effect I need but say that the truth of the latter j portion rests upon a slighter foundation than the former* in fact, that, unless from mere hearsay, I had no foundatiion for stating that there was a Eenian

organization in New South Wales. Erom continually thinking and talking of what I may still be allowed to call the wrongs of Ireland, I became excited, and filled with enthusiasm on the subject, and it was when under the influence of those feeling that I attempted to perpetrate the deed for which I am now called upon to suffer.— H. J. O'Eabrell."