O'FAREELL'S LETTER.

Westport Times, Volume II, Issue 244, 13 May 1868, Page 3

O'FAREELL'S LETTER.

Sydney, April 23. Tn the Assembly this evening, Mr Macleay read a certificate which had been given him by Archbishop Polding to the effect that the copy of the letter which he (Mr Macleay) had read to the House the previous evening was received from OTarrell by the Rev. gentleman. The following is a correct copy of the statement left by O'Farrell ;—■ " Being now about to appear before my Creator, I feel it my duty to give expression to my heart-felt sorrow at the grievious crime I have committed. From 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 prepared to do the deed had I not done it. I had not the 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 organisation, in Ireland or elsewhere, which is known by the name of the Fenian organisation. 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 had in view when I meditated on, and, through the merciful' providence of G-od, 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 I of the death of the Duke of Edinburgh, that I stated therein that which I believed would be the fact; and I think I have more than implied that I was but one of an organasation to carry the same into effect. I need but say that the truth of the latter portion rests upon a slighter foundation than the former; in fact, that from mere hearsay, I had no foundation for stating that there was a Fenian organisation in New South Wales. From 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 feelings that I attempted to perpetrate the deed for which I am now justly called upon to suffer.— H. J. O'Fakkell."