The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-12-25 00:00:00

INQUEST ON THE BODY.

On Tuesday afternoon an inquest on the remains of
Henry Wainwright was held before Mr. J. W. Payne,
coroner for the City and Southwark, and a jury, in the
third court of the Central Criminal Court. The jury
viewed the body. The face of the deceased bore no
marks of contortion, although deadly pale. On return-
ing to court,
Mr. Sidney R. Smith, the governor of Newgate,
deposed that the deceased was a prisoner in his gaol,
and had been convicted of the murder of Harriet
Louisa Lane, and sentenced to death by the Lord
Chief Justice of England at the November sessions of
the Central Criminal Court. The sentence was duly
carried into effect that morning within the walls of
the gaol in his presence by hanging, and the body now
lying dead was thpt of Henry Wainwright, who was Co
convicted and executed. His age was 37 years, and he
was described as a brush manufacturer.
_ _

Mr. John B. Gibson, surgeon, said he was present
when Henry 'Wainwright was executed. The cause
of death was suffocation by hanging. The body re-
mained hanging an hour after the event.
The Coroner having pointed out that the abolish-
ment of public executicns gave occasion for the prac-
tica of holding an inquiry before a jury as representing
the public, recapitulated the evidence.
The jury returned the verdict that the sentence of
death was properly and legally carried oat.

A petition was presented to the Home Secretary, on
Friday, by Mr. Pelham, Henry 'Wainwright's solicitor,
praying for a commutation of the sentence. The
petition was influentially signed by prominent clergy-
men of the Established Church, well-known Noncon-
formist ministers, and others. In answer to this
memorial the following communication was forwarded
from the Home Office to Mr. Pelham:
Sir,—Mr. Secretary Cross having had before him the
memorial presented by you on behalf of Henry Wainwright,
under sentence of death for murder, Tam direoted to express
to you Mr. Cress's regret that,
,after fall inquiry and careful
consideration of all the circumstances, be can discover no
sufficient grounds to justify him in advising her Majesty to
interfere with the execution of the due course of law.—l
am, sir, your obedient servant, A. F. 0. LIDDELL.
The following is a copy of another petition, pre-
sented on the same subject by a lady, and supported
by many signatures :
" That the verdict was grounded on circumstantial evi-
dence. That, admitting the passibility of Henry Wainwright
having acted in a manner totally at variance with his
character, the crime might be manslaughter. Ithat -for many
years he had been known to lead a good and useful life, and
to have advantaged his country thereby. Finally, on the
gtound of mercy, none of us being sinlese, save One, whose
birth we are about to celebrate, and in whose Name we
plead."

On Monday the London papers published the following
letter, purporting to be from Stokes, and which had been
received by the Governor of Newgate for Henry Wain-
wright :
"34, Baker's•row, Whitechapel, Dec. 16.

"Dear Sir,—While there is opportunity will you
permit MG to address you a few lines to tell you how
extremely sorry I am when I think of the awful posi-
tion in which you are now placed. I feel I must write
to you to say that I trust that you will not consider that
what I have said against you was either said or done
from any personal malice towards you, or that I was
lacking in. friendship towards you, because I could not
bring myself to any endeavour to try and screen you.
On the contrary I, and all to whom I have spoken,
who were formerly in your employment, have always
esteemed you as a kind and good master, and always
a most generous friend. God and yourself only know
how much you were concerned in the terrible crime
laid to your charge; but I do hope and trust
you will consider that in giving my evidence against
you I only fulfilled a national duty, whioh I believe
was the will of God, and which I know was done in
the interests of humanity. When I say that it was
the will of God, I must now tell you more of the de-
tails of the strange promptings I had to open the
parcel than I have hitherto made public. Perhaps
yeti think, as I know many in the world think,
that I was only moved by a base and a prying
curioAty. But I can assure you, between myself and
God, that it was not that, but that I, in reality, was
urged ae it were by a strange mysterious agency for
which I can scarcely account. Probably the world
may laugh, and you, too, at what I am now going to
tell you; but I declare it to I e true. It has caused
me more than ever to be convinced that there is a God
and a superhuman. power around us, and I bore it
will cause you to Wink so too. Theae unaccouutable
proinptings began the very moment you left me With
that frightful bundle while you went to fetch the cab.
Tau very instant yeur bask was turned I seemed to
hear a supernatural voice say to me three times, as
distinctly as though it were a human voice flOrnewhere
near me, Opentlintyarcel I Opeu, that parcel! Look
in that parcel.' At first I thought that perhaps you
were carrying,tway hely, or something not belonging to
you, andT hesitat&l What I sioluld" db. 1 Seemed , to.
hear the voice again, and then felt pressed on by na.
irresistible impulse to openit. I immediately rent, it
open. The head andlatttla came uptogether, and as I
stood *for a momeut aghast at the mutilated head, leo
'grim and set apparently so pitiable, thinking over and
pezzling what I should say to yipu Oen You came bauk,
I seemed instantly possessed and controlled by a nov4er
and agency—by a cautionary prudence and energy riot
my own, and certainly not natural to me; and then, as
hastily closed up the parcel again, thinking that perhaps
it woulc: ba•best to say nothing about-it, I then seemed
to hear the same supernatural voice address me again,
and say, ' Murder ; it is a murder. Will you conceal a
murder?' I then said, 'No; not for my own father.
Oh! pray God direct me aright; but shall I give up
the very best friend I have had in my life?' You then
came up with the cab, took the parcels, and droire
away. As I stood for a momentin utterucelsternation,
with my hair feeling as though it stood erect oh nay
head, I immediately seemed to hear the same voice
again addressing me, and saying, Follow that cab=
follow that cab.' lat 011 CH did so; I set on to run AS
though I was propelled along. I ran till I neat
dropped of exhaustion, and certainly seemed sitstained
by a strength superior to my own. Thus, from the
remembrance of that strange inexplicable power
which so suddenly overruled me, I feel convinced
that I was 'really destined to he the humble medium.'
by which that mysterious and barbarous murder
was to be brought to light. Had I been left to my
own natural impulse in the matter, the probability is
that the crime would not have been so fully detected.
Under these circumstances then, I do trust that you
will personally forgive me. My own personal grief is