The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1867-11-26 00:00:00

THE FENIAN lIXECIITIONS AT
MANCHESTER

The seminal of Allen, Larkin, and Gould, for the
murder of Sergeant Brett, took plater at New Bailey
Gaol, Manchester, ea Saturday, and passed otter with
exceedingly littl• ezeitement, and with en satire absence
of the violent feeling white previous florets led people
to expect. Shore, who bed apparently berme resigned
to meet the capital sentence, received the intimation
that • respite had been accorded him on Thnredef
night.
LAST VISIT.' TO THI CONDZYWIn MM.
On Frid.y morning Mrs. Alice was admitted to New
Bailey prison to see her son. A Water and a cousin, We
had come from Ireland tor the seeress purpose of amine
Allen, had to go back, along with his ',seethes. t, with.
out hoeing been able, as they bad hoped, to pay him •
farewell visit. Al LBO p.m. L.rkin's mother, wife, and
four children visited him. His mother, previous to
going to the cell, was very much Plated, and repeatedly
exoleimed whilst welting in the corridor of the prison,
that her son would not be ezeented, sad the rope was
not spun which would hang
Tel PITTATATIONS.
In anticipation of the preemies of • far larger number I
of spectators than ovTaTIIT made their appearance, and
also as • meann of em.bling the polio. and 'petrel
asset .hies to withstand m die easily any attempt girlish
milt be m.de by the crowd to reset, the
strong hornets h•d hewn emoted at short intervals in
all the streets surrounding the geol. and seen far saves
the bridge into the city of Manohester. Tipublic were
entirely enfiladed from the space in front of the east
side of the poi, and strong bodies of pace occupied tho
barriers at either extremity. f this same, and the central
division was reserved for special constables, large
numbers of whom bed been sworn in for the aseasion.
With the exception of the police and constable* no one
we. admitted into New Bailey-street, except the
escapism of the homes on its eastern side, which face
the gaol, and the represeetatives of the local and
metropolitan prem. A rigid surveillance was emend
by the polies on them houses, and as seeeent woe made
out of the names end addresese of every one who entered
them. While melt were the arrangements of the civil
form, the dispositions of the military authorities were
nil.. ecespiele. Not a soldier was at this period to be
seen ; but nevertheless, the prison and its vicinity were
occupied by • very formidable garrison. Within the
poi was the guard of 114 men of the 72nd Highlanders,
and a portion of the 57th Foot, who have occupied it
ever linos the conviction of the prisoners; while out.
side Were other companies of both these regiments, •
apadron of the Bth Human, and two b•tteries of
artillery. In the course of the evening a strong force of
infantry oceepied the railway viaduct which runs along,
end indeed overlooks the north side of the gaol; the
Salford Railway station, which is on theism° side of the
prison, was clotted, and was oesupied by nearly 300 men of
the 57th Regiment, who were under the command of
Colonel Warm, 0. B. The cavalry and the remainder of
the infantry, with the exception at 100 of the
Highlanders, who spent the night in the Albert.
street polies-station, were amomenodated, and at the
same time °ones .led, in some railway sheds on the west
and north-west of the gaol; and as the Arista in which
them buildings were situated were kept Weer of the
crowds, they might at • moment's notice have been
rendered available to resist an attack or cheek a dis-
turbance. At the same time preseutione had been
adopted to defend the militia and volunteer stores, and
the gunsmiths had, by the advise of the authorities,
Wren measures to protect their mocks of arms and
ammunition. The a-dice took entire control of the
river, the block and slimy irwell, which roes—if such a
term can be properly applied to its motion—past the
front of the , and no boat wa. allowed to approach
wi,hin a certain distance of the prima soles. the
occupanto were prod lad with an officiel permit.
Measures were also adopted teethe protection of private
preperty. The mayors of Manoliester and Salford netted
notifies, cautioning all well-di.posed inhabitenta to keep
sway from the scene of the execution. All the public
buildlnp in Salford were plesed under protection; and
to avoid any att rant to awry out the threats thee had
been made to fire both Manchester and Salford. men
were .tationed to watch the monies of the weer and
pa supply. Similar precentioos were adopted by the
m.vor and chief constable of Manchester. The whole of
the ere brined* were on duty at all the are Wallops,
and many of the Loge warehouses were lighted up,
and guarded by men armed with revolvers. Between
nat'llight and am o'clock on Saturday morning,
a welk throuph the ttreets produced the impression
that the city was voluntarily (not militarily) in • state
of siege.

Tlth SPECT•TOIM AND MITI DlffitiatOtra.
The spectators began to assemble an early SI ars
o'clock on Friday afternoon, and by ten o'clock Albert.
bridee we crowded. From that hour, however, till
midnight, there area • genteel diminuthin, aal by one '
o'clock on Saturday morning all had left the scene
exempting those who intended staying throurhout the
' night. Wit in the harriers to which the public were
not arimiMed there were more than 9000 special and
or man constables. Ti,, rpemals f..rmod a molly
norm of sli sea', all sines, rind all kinds .1 dresser.
They wirer. caromed by the ordinary whte badge lied
short truncheon. The few thousands who eonstitot d
the mob ,norearred very slowly throughout the early
hours of the morning, and till after six o'citock there
was no &faculty in securing what they would term •
good position. At three o'clock not Roes than 3,000
had settled into their places to wait through the remainder
of tbe sold and dreary night. The eomposition of this
crowd was certainly no eredit to the place or plane
whence the r•opte woe. Some of the spectators were
evidently pitmen. others were mill Sued., there were
• few factor, girls and women. All were very d,rty.
The keen pallid how, and spare and ragged clothing
of PORN exhibited deep trace, of hard working tier'
drinking. 'there were sh•ro prommi M. lade el
the criminal
al:iltalllw 07 10 with
ianl: m of the sternest
g:
sod behaviour
Sb ...d an iltg
realities of early life : and there {wits
and women was, habits form the darkest choosers
of our social history. But, with all them
elements there was no ruffianism. There were • few
spasmodic efforts to perform • little hosse-play ; and to
relieve the Witten of waiting, the singing of "John
Br-wh's Soul." "Champagne Charley, ' and other
popular airs contributed to the night's amusement. Ore
of the choicest forms of entertainment was to " shad
the bobbies." The specials came in for a largo share of
this kind of comment, and when they wen being
drilled—marthed, and counter-marched from benign to
barrier—in order to keep themselves warm, the crowd
enjoyed the performance immensely. The am&llest
circumstance was seised upon to •ffori • diversion and
relieve the monotony of killing time. The crowd was
esideotly much more English than Irish • in feet, there
were very few countrymen of the convicts present.
There wee also a marked absence of sympathy for the
convicts; • few regrets were expressed that the gallows
had to be resorted to, but there was nothing whatever
to show that any present sympathised with the move-
ment in which the three moo about to meet their doom
Lad been ooneerned. There was a laok, too, of that
moral literature and street preaching which no often
form incongruous elements of 011109i400 crowd,; but
advisers were not wanted to keep the crowd in order.
Their demeanour, as the morning advanced, was NI
peaceable as • large crowd could well in.. There was
excitement; but no mischief, no terrorism', and no
attempt to annoy the pqliee or those whose duties
required them to be present. As the day dawned, soon
after seven o'clock. a slight mist, which had begun to
wit in about two beers before, began to thicken into
a yellow murky fog. The crowd rapidly increased in
number, and as eight o'clock approached, the
SON* was as follows : In the central apses was a
tolerably compact mass of several thousand special
constables, who were strengthened by • large force of
the regular oonstsbulary. To the right and left, away
beyond the barriers, at least from 50 to SO yards away
from the scaffold, was the crowd, bow increased in
numbers to some 10,000 or 12.000, possibly, indeed,
more. In front of the gaol the windows of the homes
were most of them occupied. Immediately opposite
the gallows, however, the windows bad no spectator.;
the houses, two or three in number, had, it was said,
been abandoned by their ordinary inhabitants, and
been taken posemsaion of by the polies. Crowd, pollee,
suietators, and the occupants of the windows, all had
their &nem turned in one direction. All the thousands
f eye. were upon the black shapeless object which
loomed mysteriously through the be; ; for, although
the early part of the night wa. clear, • shill sold mist.
which ultimately increamed to • dense fog, was settling
upon the street.. Such was the state of things outside;
and chill, and.meigegboly, and repulsive as it was, the
seeps within we, still more melantholy, more
creative, and in some of its features more remarkable.