The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1883-06-16 00:00:00

THE FRENCH AND TONQUIN.

At the Cabinet Council in Paris on Saturday the
Minister of Marine communieated sundry despatches
received from the East. Writing on the at of May,
which preceded the sortie from Honoi, in which Com-
mandant Riviera was killed, Admiral Meyer, the com-
mander of the naval forces at Tonqsin, estimates at
500 the number of men necessary for holding the
fortress. The admiral would seem to have foreseen
the action taken by Commandant Rivihre, for in the
same letter he dwells on the danger that would attend
a sortie from the garrison in a country of rice and
bamboo plantations.
From Saigon has been received a despatch, Rated
the Bth of June, which conveys news from Tonquin
up to the Ist inst. It announces the arrival at Hanoi
of all the reinforcements and the battery of artillery,
and pots down the force now there at 1,500 men, in.
dependently of the companies on board ship.

General Bonet, the Commander-in-Chief, has tele-
graphed from Tonquin for apparatus of optical tele-
graphy.
It is further stated that in the Delta there are no
Chinese troops, and also that a despatch addressed by
the Consul of Canton to the Govenor of Cochin-China
reports an absenoe of any warlike preparations either
in the town or the province.

Coriolis rain have fallen throughout Russia, and the
condition of the summer wheat crop is excellent.

A sad accident is reported from the town of Aargau,
in Switzerland. Colonel Schmidt, Chief Instructor of
Cavalry was on horseback on the parade ground, when
his horse swerved aid he was thrown. Aid was frame.
diately at hand, but on being picked up the colonel
was found to be dead.

THE PMENIX PARK MURDERS.

EXECUTION OF TIMOTHY KELLY.

In Dublin, on Saturday morning, Timothy Kelly,
the last of the five men 'condemned to death for the
murder of Mr. Burke on the 6th May, 1882, was
hanged by Marwood within the walls of Kilmainham
prison.
The number of persons present was larger than at
any of the preceding executions except that of Brady.
The demeanour of the people was very quiet and
orderly. There were no relatives of the condemned
man in the crowd. Several of the spectators were
females, some of whom were most demonstrative in
their expressions of grief. Kelly, who had latterly be-
come pious and attentive to the ministrations of the
priests, arose a few minutes to five o'clock, and paced
his cell until the arrival of the Rev. Canon Kennedy
and Rev. Mr. Fennelly, who drove up to that prison
gate in a cab at a few minutes to seven o'clock. ¶1 hey
proceeded to the chapel whither Kelly was conducted,
and there the Holy Communion was administered to
him, and he received the last rites of the Roman
Catholic Church. He remained in the chapel praying
devoutly, until at a few minutes before eight o'clock the
sub-sheriff, with the governor of the gaol and a number
of prison officials came to demand Kelly's body, in pur-
suance of the warrant which he produced. The custo-
mary procession was then formed. The culprit walked
firmly, conoealing his emotion wonderfully well, and
repeating the responses to the Litany for the dying in
a clear but tremulous voice. He carried a small
crucifix in his hand; another similar emblem of re-
ligion was hung round his neck. He submitted to the
pinioning operations of Marwood with fortitude, and
bowed to the chaplains as he moved up the scaffold
steps, still muttering the responses.

At eight o'clock precisely the black flag was hoisted,
and the people knelt down and repeated the Litany for
the Dead with impressive fervour. Soon afterwards
they quietly dispersed. There was not the E lightest
hitch in the execution, and death was instantaneous.
A large number of persons called at the residence of
Kelly's parents and expressed sympathy with them in
their bereavement. A large bunch of crape was
affixed to the knocker on the hail door, and a card
with the inscription, "Timothy Kelly, died 9th June,
1883. May be rest in peace."

At Kelly's request, the flowers which had been given
to him, and some religious books, together with a lock
of his hair, were brought to his family, whose grief on
hearing of his death is stated to have been intense.
His mother fainted; his father could only repeat—
" And is my dear boy dead? My darling child, my
darling child!"