The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-08-17 00:00:00

THE EXECUTION AT STAFFORD.

On Tuesday morning, Christopher Edwards, aged
34, a loeksmith of Willenhall, WM hanged in
the Stafford County Gaol, in the presence of Major
Fulton], the governor of the ptison, the county
authorities, the warders, the Rev. NV. P. Vincent
Phe chaplain), and others whose busbiesa necessitated
their attendance.

Th.' cn'prit -cad murdered his wife on the night of
the lidth April last. How and under what CAYCLIIII•
btances the deed was done he told himself On Tues.
dAy nitirning, when, at the foot of the gallows, he
read a statement that had been prepsred at his own
dictation, for be could not write. Ile said that on
the morning of the day mentioned (Tueselat). be went
to his place of work (Mr. Lloyd's) and Soling HOMO
of his be iii missing he determined to do no work that
day. In the street he met companions, and with them
went to a public house, where he remained the greater
part of the day. At night he went home, fully deter-
mined to murder Into wife. He ordered her ursaairs
and followed her. He intended to use the poker an
the weapon; but not to arouse her suspicions, he did
not take it with him. As an excuse for returning he
told her he bad left his enuff-box downstairs. He
went back to their chamber armed with the poker, and
as his wife stood uosuspectinely at the foot of the
bed, still attired in her day habiliments, he struck her
to the floor by a blow on the forehead. She fell on
, her face. and called "George, George" (an eleven-
, tice boy sleeping in an adjoining room). He then
struck her several times on the back of the head,
which he explained occasioned the pool of blood of
which the surgeon spoke at the trial. Ile now put
down the weapon, but feeling sure that she was not
, yet dead, he lifted her on to his knees as he sat on the
rim of the bedstead, and " placing my hands round her
throat, I strangled her. I then threw her across the
bed, and grasping the poker, once more dealt
her several blows about the back of the head."
The statement then went on to show how at this
time he knocked down the lighted candle. He
I fetched another light from down stairs, and return-
ing, placed the body lengthways upon the bed,
no it was found. All this time his two children—the
youngest three years of age—were lying upon the same
bed. The youngest, with the peker and candle, he
now took up, and went into the room where the ap-
prentice was lying, as the apprentice had stated. It was
when he had got to the foot of the stairs carrying the
child that he was arrested. The statement concluded
with, " This is a true account of the way in which
the murder was committed. there was no quarrel, nor
had there been any words between my wife and myself
since the previous Saturday evening. But often whilst
under the influence of drink, which always inflamed
my jealous violence, I had determined to murder her,
and if I had been ruled by her we should have been
the happiest couple in the world. I yielded to drink
and bad companions, and it has been the ruin of me,
and is doing as much for many men in my class in the
neighbourhood." The statement was attested with
the mark of the culprit, and with the signature of the
chaplaio as a witness.
Edwards read this statement as he stood in an erect
posture, and without tremulousness. He professed to
have prolitted greatly by the ministrations of the
chaplain, and to regard his execution as the legitimate
punishment of his crime. He ascended the gallows
stains with a tirm tread, and Smith, the executioner,
had soon completed the horrible preliminaries ; but
Edwards died bard, for he was of lightweight.

On Monday afternoon he was visited by three sisters,
two brothers-hi-law, and his youngest child. He was
greatly concerned when they left.

The Timm of Wednesday has the following leader on
the executions :

Four nnhappy men have suffered the last sentence of the
law—three at Maidstone and one at StAford ; and another
man was executed at Worcester the day before So unusual a
concurrence of Executions must arrest attention, and may
recall the recent discu,siou in Puritans ut respecting
Capital Punishment. The clays are not beyond the memory
of men still liv.ng when such an event would have at-
tracted no more remark than the Anteuce of the
same number of criniimds to imprisonment. At almost
every Assizes tie Judo° left a string of prisoners for
execution, aid the Gallows was the most familiar
of all the it truments of Justlee. In the prerrent slay
even a single Execution is a pail nal incident, and by con-
ducting Executions in private we have deprived them or their
vulgar notoriety. The result, as is felt on such an occasion as
the pres. us, has been to add greatly to the solemnity at Car ital
Punishment, and to ',mince on the popular mind afar deeper
imprinslon than was caused by the more terrible, but more re-
vetting, spertactnuol former day s. The old rule for tr agic poets,
to avoid sickening. an audience by the display of horrors,
holds rotel in real life. The mind is hardened or revolted,
according as it is vulgar or refined, by excessive violence or
cwrspicacus scenes of horror, and the effect of awful
exampli sls entranced by 'hi., riling them under even. Even
the nnwt totcocstrt are now made to understand that I y she
Executi ns f inesday last four very atroch us clink"' *ere
visited with toe most terrible of human retributions ; and
the commohest minds who hear or read of the SCeDC in
Maidstone Gaol will feel that the low has stamped the crimes
of the prisoners with a brand of peculiar heinousness.
•

- - -
By his tirmnr,s in resiatlng all :applications for a reprieve
in these cares, the 11011. Secretary has est rblished an op-
portune precedent against relati.,g the administration of
the law on gronnil3 of mere sentiment 'Mare has of late
hen some apprehension in the putdid mind of the growth of
an unwholesome tenderness in Nlinisters ai al Judger, and the

trial of cue of the criminals who was executed prov..d
that juries re accessible to the sante influence. Bradford,
no of the three who were executed at 7.!tail_stone, was

(mud gollty of the murder of a comrade in the Barracks
at DUVI.r. He was noisy one night when going to bed,
anti lb, mardercd man complained to the corporal.
. .

haPVY.
-v lifeti

The in-'n got Ink bed, the lights wore put snit.
aud a few minutes afterwards Bradlerd alently crossed to
his comrade's bedside and sickbed him so violently with a
bayonet that lie shed in hell an hour. There was no ether
provocation offered ; and the murderer expressed no regret,
but said, as be seas being removed undsr arrett, "tie will
never report any more men." Several of the Jury, however,
recenuneeded this murderer to mercy "on account of his
extreme youth." Ile was nineteen years of age, quite old
enough to he mastor of himself and to have relaxed his
punishmeet merely because Is is a sad thing to see a
young man forfeit his life would have been to proclaim
impunity to murderers IR their minority. In these
days of sentiment, however, Mr. Bruce deserves credit for
upholding the stern sentence of the law. In the other CMC9
there Louie scarcely be a doubt of the necessity of leaving
the law to belie its course Of the other prisoners at Maid-
stone, one was a Marine who wilfully mit the throat of a
drummer-bey bec into, some time before, the noy had been
in etrumeeltal in "getting him lots trouble " He made no
secret whatever of bertha deliberately nurtured this cruel re-
venge, and pleaded guilty at the trial without any sign of re-
MOTS, The third criminal at Maidstone had driven his
wife from him by constant violence, and, meeting her
one day in the fields, strangled her with every inci-
dent of savage fury. Ile, too, had been a soldier, and, it
seems, had done good service. The crime of the murderer
at Stafford seems even more revolting. By his own con.
lessen, he had a good rem, wife; but she appears to have
checked his habits of drinking, and at the close ef one idle
slay, spent mainly in the publichouee, "he went home fully
determined to kill her." In the most cold-bloccled way he
ordered her to her bedroom, and there, in the presence of
his own little children, boat her to death with a poker.
It will not escape observation at the present moment
that at least two of these men owe their ruin to drunken-
nese, and the same curse appears to have brought to the
gallows the fifth of this sad list of criminals, who
was hanged on Monday for cutting the throat of his wife.
The tuff erine inflicted on the wives of men of this class by
"the drink" Is, perhaps, the most horrible s•f its conse-
quences, and recent trials have revealed a prevalent in-
difference to the maltreatment of women which is a heinous
disgrace to English nature. We horn we have just set on
foot a more effectual agency for checking this brutality at its
source •, but it is well that a signal example should have
hero afforded of the verigeauce with which, in its horrid
development, it is visited by the law.
The opponents of Capital Punishment will scarcely venture
to assert that in such instances asthese the infliction of Death
it disapproved by the sentiment of the community. In the
mines of the vast majority of the Euelish public, there is
only one punishment which would bear the character of
an adequate retribution for such offences, and that is an
ignominious death. Penal servitude might or might not he re-
formatory, but it certainly would rot satisfy the claims of
justice ; and if such murderers escaped the hands of the
hangman, it would he felt that the law failed either to 'Vin-
dicate the rights of society or to avenge the victims. This
is the eubstantial justification for the Executions. But, be-
sides this, can it be doubted that such passimes as are ex-
hibited in the shocking stories we have sketched need some
startlieg and overpowering influence for their restraint?
Men and women who argue on this subject in the repose
of a atttled order of society are far removed from the
raging passions which law and custom control, while,
as their sympathies hear witness, they are almost incapa-
eitated by the very excellency of their character from un-
derstanding the dark side of human nature. Violence hint
a word in their vocabulary. they do not know what it
means, and they can only shudder at its refleetian in the
solemn Infliction of Death by public authority. But such
cases as that of the man who stabbed his ceramics at a
moment's provocation, or of the man who deliberately beat a
good wife to death with a pnker, might to open the eyes of
the most tender hearted or most philosophic. Crimi-
nals with this temper and these impu'ses will not
listen to reason. 'I hey will not es Dilate the long am'
obscure sufferieg of penal 'servitude Their crime is not
s•ne of coleulation, and they would not be checked
by the thoueht of a penaltv which Call be measured. What
is neede.l is something which will overwhelm the imavination
which dread and identify the very thouelit of murder with
the extremity of horror. This influence is equally frus-
trated by extending the punishment of Death to minor
offences and by alxilisising it altogether. But when the
extreme pennity is reserved for murder alone, we are en.
countering the most sevaeo of human impulses with the
most powerful .1 human deterrents. There is good
reason to believe that we have in this respect beonglit the
law of England to as satisfactory a condition as has been
ever known in any country. Great difficulties are, no doubt,
occasioned by the necessity of bilging s discretionary
power of commutation in the hands of the Home Secretary.
But there is foree in the athument used by Mr. Bruce
in the late debate that some non-judicial authority
is required to control the execution of an irreversible
sentence. and, on the whole, our Home Secretaries
acqnit themselves well of a heavy and painful responsibility.
In this instaece it has beet; shown that the supreme authority
can be no less firm in Its justice then discriminating in its
mercy: used if, as Mr. 'alewdegete lately asserted, the iace hose
been deprivei of some of its terrors isy recent laxity, the
misapprehersion will now be dissipated by a dreadful
example.

BREACH OF PROMISE-DAMAGES £5OO.
At the Leeels Ass:z.s. the cause of " Parker r. Skelton"
has been tried, and was an Wien for breach of promise of
marrla4c.
The plaintiff, Eliza Parker, is a young lady of 20
yeais of age, and daughte r of a retired spaoe manu-
facturer in Sheffield. The defendant is a gentleman
farmer at Withersfield, in Suffolk, paying a rental
of £3O a year for about 187 acres. The plaintiff,
in July, 1871, was going on a virit to a relative at
Reepham, in Norfolk, when the defendant got into
the came railway carriage, and, after some cower-
Elation, hoped to have the pleasure of meeting her again.
They met rubsequently at Great Yarmouth, and
walked together on the sands and to and from church.
Their photographs were taken in a grOUP, consisting
of the plaintiff and her sister and himself. When he
left he sent her a post-card addressing her as 'Dearest
Eliza." Correspondence then passed between them,
and be sent the plaintiff his likeness. The defendant
met the plaintiff and her sister on their return, and
übsecittently visited the plaintiff at Sheffield, and was
introduced to the plaintiff's father. Re afterwards
- I er visit to Sheffield, and gave the plaintiff an
engager! ring. Ile also wrote to the plaintiff's father,
expressing his affection for the plaintiff, ad stating that
a proper sovitatisn would he sent by his parents inviting
the plaintiff to pay a visit, which was Accordingly done
and the. visit paid, lie presented her with a 'locket
containing his own likeness and that of the plaintiff.
During the time that the parties were engaged the
defendant wrote a great quantity of letters of the usual

character. He wrote, "It's happiness to perfection
when one's with the girl they love ;" "My own dear
pet, as long as our hearts are with each other the day
will come when I hope nothing will separate us dear.
My darling pet, you cannot imagine lmw uniettled I
feel since leaving you. It does seem strange to me to
he Co far away again. The i.ext time, love I shall not ,
be able to leave you behind, it unsettles me no. I must
have you with me my darling. Yours most loving
and true until death, GEORGE SKELTtiN." In another
letter, he said he had examined himself minutely, and
nothing would ever change him.
The plaintiff went to see the defendant's relatives,
and after an agreeable visit, returned home. From
that time the defendant's letters became colder in tone.
Writing upon the 10th of January, 1872, the defen-
dant added a postscript, "Don't put any more of
th,-in little spots of wax on the envelope. G7s3d by."
This appears to be the beginning of the coolneiis be-
tween the parties, and about the middle of February
the defelachnt wrote the following letters :
Mydear Elie-1 think you will think me lung in an-
swering your bitter. I have been out littely so much thst I
don't feel in letter.c thing form, only now and then, and
what NI ith the worry of olio thing and ainX,er it puts me
in a stra,ge fix. It is Impossible for me to tell you how I
am himilinitt,ed. I am very sorry Indeed. No doubt you
could scot strangeness in the old people when you was over.
It's a sad thing to he slighted by friends. No doubt }ou can
imagine why, and! know you have no slob to be made un-
happy. I have seen a little of it myself in families during
my lifetime. It must be prevented, and I have a great
wish to be looked upon by my friends as a member of the
family. It is strange you did not notice it. I can't write,
trusting you will always no happy. I have told you, so you
know what's the matter, and what to do.—Believe me to re-
main, . "GEORGE."

Plaintiff wrote a reply, stating she could not under-
stand the object or reason of his addressing her in that
manner. Ili the course of a few more days she received
the following:—
" • "

. -
"Dear tin.s rarker,—According to the cold letters re-
ceived from you and the quietness of manner the engage-
ment is thonght very little of by both of us II you with to
be honourable, pleauo send all letters received from me back,
and then I will return yours by poet.—l remain. &c.,
"Cilloxak."

In consequence of the above letter the plaintiff's soli-
citor wrote to kin, in reference to the non-performance
of his promise, and stated that unless he main.
tained his promise there would be no other alternative
than to commence an action.
. .

Eliza Ann Parker gave evidence in support et the
counsel's statement.

The defendant was galled and gave evidence for him-
self in reduction of the damages. He stated that he
had borrowed .£1,400 from the bank and owed kzioo
besides, and that he had only got £lOO of his own. At
the time of writing the letters breaking off the engage-
ment he was laid up with a broken leg.
The jury found a verdict for the plaintiff—Damages,