The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-12-16 00:00:00

'ls" • 'I
EXECUTION OF THE CHELSEA
MURDERER.

In London, on Monday morning, at eight o'clock,
Charles O'Donnell, aged 57, a discharged soldier, wha
wee convieted at the last session of the Central
Criminal Court, before Mr. Baron Hawkins, of the
rourder of his wife, was executed within the goal of
Islewgate, pursuant to Er, sentence. The case of the
prisoner was a rnther reale, kable one. He had only
been married to the deceased two yeare, and they
aPpeared to have lived on toleraele good terms,
and the only motive that was supgested 2 1. the
commiasion of the crime was that the deeetteed re-
fused to hand over to the prisoner a sum of about
£4O which she had in her possession. There was no
doubt, however, that while under the influence of drink
the prisoner made a savage attack upon the nuhappy
Woman with a pair of tongs, and literally smashed her
head to pieces, causing almost immediate death. The
conduct of the prisoner after the dreadful occurrence
was more like that of a person bereft of his sen-es than
of a sane individual, for he appeared to have remained
With the body for three dais, and slept at night in the
tame room, and the matter was only bri-tuht to light
through the prisoner going to a person with whom he
Was acquainted, and asking him to make a will, and
tc, become his trustee; at the name time when
releationed with regard to the deceased, he said
that he hoped she was in heaven. The defence
aet up for him at his trial was insanity, and evi-
deace was addneed to show that while serving with his
regiment in India he had suffered a sunstroke, end
that he had subsequently been confined for a coneider-
able time in a lunatic asylum, and other facts tending
to show that he was not of sound mind when the act
Was committed; but, on the other hand, it was shown
that ever since he had been in Newgate he had acted
Perfectly rationally, and there were no grounds for
'ill:Posing that his mind was at all affected, and the
jury found him guilty of the murder without any recom-
Mendatios to mercy.
Both before and since his conviction the prisoner
aliPears to have behaved remarkably well, and as far
he was .personally concerned the awful fate that
awaited him did not appear to excite the least terror or
alarm, and when he was informed, immediately after
ls
LUB convlctionrof the day on which beeves to-suffer, he
received- the announcement with perfect calmness, and
erpressed.himself to be perfectly prepared, -and made
411 °ball:wagon -to the effect that the softer—it was
o'ver the. better. He has- attended to his religious
(laths with great regularity and decorum, and paid
the greatest attention to the exhortations of the Rev,
tlr. Jones, the Ordinary of Newgate. As regarded his
crime, he has all.along made the same statement with
gard to it, declaring that his mind was a perfect blank
refer, to the matter, and that he had no recollec-
tioo whatever of what had cc :urred on the fatal day
hen his wife met her death by his hand.
The prisoner went to bed at half-past nine on Sunday
*light, and slept soundly until six o'clock on Monday
°awning, when be had his breakfast. Shortly after.
Warda the Ordinary want to his cell, and re-mained
With bun till the time arrived for the carry log 611 Z; of
_ e sentence. The prisoner prayed with apparent sin-
and earnestress, and said he admitted the justice
01 his sentence. He walked to the scaffold with a firm
steP, and appeared to be praying while the ening pre-
Phrations were being made by Marwood, the exe-
Fotioner. The drop then fell, and the prisoner appeared
to have died almost in an instant.
The body,after hanging the customary time, was
tak en down, and, having been made the subject of a
coroner'e inquest, according to modern usage, was
9rered with quicklime and buried within the pre-
illets of the gaol in less than four hours after the
execution.

NM. S. CAVE, M.P., ON EGYPT AND
TURKEY;
eiOn Monday the Right Hoe. S. Cave, MP., spoke
at the Steyning Fat Stock Show dinner. After some
,Jetnarks of a local nature he observed that a certain
"caPortant mission had been alluded to which pre-
vented his being with them last year. People had
to him, "You have been in Egypt, tell us whether
;:ie &re going to have peace or ware.' (Laughter.) He
bled hardly state that he was unable to prophesy.
had, however, been r A much struck with the
illYatem of taxation there. In semi-civilised countries
here was a difficulty in collecting the taxes; there
Nee no banks or cheques, and very little actual
but the taxes were taken in kind, which
of itself, was an inducement to fraud, of which he
was sorry to say advantage was often taken. The
Plungers and rulers were anxious to collect taxes
Cy Could
but those who gathered them got as much as
y could and paid as little as possible into the
;,zelleetter. This system caused discontent, and ine-
iiru-led the security of property. Tee more a man had
e•
More the tax collector took, and it often happened
44.‘oet at the end of the year a man would be werse off
uif he had not tried to improve his position. This
"aa at the bottom of the discontent in Egypt, and he
-eved-was the primary cause of the outbreak in the
rTreincea of Turkey. lie had no affection for the Turks;
f e never knew anybody who had. Our policy, Was not
an°llrabKe to Turkey,' but our policy was to maintain the
el -,4143
/Its, to prevent one power of enormous magnitude
ee?4,ine en -avenue of the utmost important% Anybody
tlgnt have 'Constantinople provided it was not'such a
"wer ete Russia, who, if she held it, would.endahker
Y Moat necessary to our commerce. It was ell very
Well to talk of a free passage through the Dardanelles
tueel the Hellespont. If Russia had those she would
It able,
shut the rest of the world out from the
b "381 en and Danubian provinces, and that would make
'l34d dearer. The Crimean war was not brought
about by a Conservative government, butit was rightly
undertaken to prevent a great evil happening to the
Icerainerca of the world. He and Sr W. learttelot had
,134rueYed through Russia some time ago. No one could
aye been better treated there than they were, and he
did not know if they would have been treated so well
il
f they had been suspected of Liberal opinions (laughter
.ked cheers). He had also travelled in Poland at the
tirne of the insurrection. Poland was well governed
now, bet she had not the government that she wanted.
he wished to rule herself. Nearly ten years after the
„Crimean war the indignation in England with reference
to, Poland was intense. One meeting was attended by a
ueall who was present at the St. James's Hall
Ike Friday, and he then said England ought
gO to war against Russia. We could not shut our
°Yee to these things. Russia said she did not want to
'2llle to Constantinople. They were bound to believe
and to believe that the Emperor was sincere, but
re the same time everyone knew of the intrigues that
tued been going on for years and years past. He re-
rie,rebered Sir Robert Peel making a report which re-
fr'otod in the English commissioner being withdrawn
er 41 a province in consequence of Russian intrigue.
he' Gladstone felt exactly as he (Mr. Cave) did when
ta " the official element and the army of RuAsia
eettt be watched." He (Mr. Cave) said the same. What
riglecl Reside want to keep her enormous army fur? It was
for the purposes of defence, lithe official element
v‘1.43 Watched we started with our eyes open. From
peZtedhe saw he the papers the prospects of peace ap-
eotee. to be very promising. (Hear, hear). We must
guTme Russia. If she was aiming at conquest we had
ee
ti°ll" to many places which it might be said it was not
ite t for us to go to. Did the Spaniards think
• ht for us to go to Gibraltar, or was it considered
rs? Per for us to take Aden and India? But we had
r(3.1 to those places and we meant to stop there.
Cr.) It was a matter of policy for us to keep
ferqa from Constantinople. Referring to the con-
/41,1/u% he said it would be guided by the best talent,
ctatv" 11210 ed they would find a way out of the diffi-
reee'ee* 1., Ile then spoke of the Bulgarian outrages,
Utee,e--:lng that he had the greatest horror for the
th‘e--"ea ; but what some gentleman had said about
)54 resPonsibility of the Government in the matter
had sometimes made him angry. The Opposition
1311,11.,..a Perfect right to say that the Ministry
V.see.—ued affairs badly. It was just what the
t 1387, ervatives would say of the I.tiberals were
111 'their places—(hear)—but when the Govern-
Tecii weeili 'told that because Would not tarp, the
Th ult.* Aida it made one .raher angry. (Cpeere.)
• Waii an- 'objeetiott to indignation, meetings, be.
*lam ..tneetheho spoke at them were not SO careful about
teetalleY eftlaaa they height to be. They knew they
thei not be liable to be questioned on any point of
r BPeeehee as would be the case in the House of
er4l33°, us. -It would not do to be led away by the
heel tunuma of those meetings. The largest meeting
tr„" LePresented a very small part of the whole corm-
eert', Jdedid not wish to make any invidious comparison
N u reference to • "the tailors of Tooley-street"
portif;hter). but the meetings only represented a small
eee.°4 of the community. Men full of enthusiasm
gmd of speaking went to crowded rooms, and there
tr:4 a mesmeric influence on the people. If a man went
une of those meetings with opposite views he would
`
ree"obably be converted, not because reazon had been
11,Plel'but because his nerves had been acted upon. If
'n'e Went to a meeting of that kind, and sentiments were
'llttacia.ted with skill which were not In accordance
with his own, he should cheer just as anybody else
%tvotald. But because he cheered it would not follow
h t at he had his reason convinced. Too much impor•
'was not to be attributed to these public meet-
Olt When a subject was debated in parliament,
to"Lere one speaker answered another, they were likely
• get Eomething worth hearing. in conclusion, he
47reteed a hope that the conference would obtain
pme for those people who had much to complain of
le „t" Provinces of Turkey, and that it would conclude
that would be conducive to the credit and
- our of this country. (Loud cheers.)

T ill
-1 WRECK OF THE "ST. LAWRENCE."
virTbeet.e Cape papers tc hand contain details of the
Of the troopship St. Lawrence, which ran
-vaterson Rocks ninety miles north of Cape
etb`9o,” three o clock on the morning of November
and i ' night was clear and fine, with smooth sea
„ha ttle"
g ,uu The chief officer, Mr. Shelton, was in
toic„elvhen land was reported. He went below, and
tain Hyde, who was lying down, being unwell.
cloE-;`,lttling to deck Seelton saw laud was much
blare;"4,ll he had supposed, and altered the course sea-
elreeci,-i: 'le again went to tell the captain, and
()n
,his return "breakers right ahead' were
Was3-..sed,'tend the engines were reversed. Before way
u however, the ship went stem on to the
Arksg:' reef, but with 80 little force that the sleeping
tiee—nßera were not awakened. The soundings showed
Dater everywhere except at the bows, where there
41-1 feet, and the fore compartment rapidly filled.
enel.Pearson, commanding the 3rd Buffs, paKaded
Bre 1344 in marching order on deck, and with the,
~ateat'noolnesa and perfect discipline firtit 1.20 women
e,llildren and then the 550 soldiers. Were landeel,
toebitnure,
-Lug one Mile distant. Efforts-were.*ade
trisi the 43hip Oft, but these prOving frnitle:Li pro-
ob,..,_°lleNvere got Out and Wicked, and Captain WAle
rot7Ln,, ed horse and rode for eighteen hourkthi-pugha
cetuitry to Cape Town. Her -M .
ajestyli
kcitte and a .steamtug were immediately- dispatched,
dolibtacl, they arrived. twelve hours earlier would on,
hftp."etui have got the St. Lawrence' off, ,a 4 two days
tid:',.greturdlng she was nearly.-fluated at the top of the
th:,OY her own engines and sails; but .the next•night
b infloiv of water put out the fires, and she
_soon sank
ozi 3"he Stern,•
remaining at the latest acbriceo.,:bartAing
bo rocks by the bow, full of water, Mit imt"bAalting
The St. Lawrence had on board, besides the troops,
te„tlt 800 tone of various military stores, including
`erkl field•pieces, shot and shell, about 50 taus of

gunpowder for Natal, and a large quantity of clothing,
very little of which had been rescued from the wreck.
Among so large a crowd there was not, the Cape Argue
says, a single case of drunkenness and the general be-
haviour of the troops was excellent.