The Express.
London, England, 1849-08-25 00:00:00

EXECUTION OF THE POISONER, REBECCA
1 SMITH.

The execution of Rebecca Smith, for man.—
beast child, took place on Wednesday, in (mat of the
Prison, Devisee.
The Devises Gazelle says: " It is impossible to give any-
tiles hke a comet ealealation of the number of peruse
to witness the seen. They were ersantlem. Frees
I=Bll o'clock, people poured into the town eheals—
em
leek in waggons, in boats; end by the lathe hew, the
CatMditatkilbetinitrsaerieti sovaelesi:iderdsseard
eissimmd. Still the roads were lined witk proem Umeging
to Ike spot. People were there from every part of the
isemsty—old end young, end infants ; bat they were chiefly
et the classes, and there were thousands more of
mom thanof men.
" From the p:riod the miserable woman entered the
prim to the moment of her execution, her conduct was
ma becoming. Mild and contented in her manner and
depesoment, it might be thought that she wee totally in-
capable of the unastural crime of which she wes convicted.
She atones unhesitatingly confessed her crime, and acknow-
ledged the knit', of the punishment that awaited her, and
frequently expressed a hops that others would take a warn.
leg by her fats. At the same time she was extremely igno-
rant, and betrayed a want of any deep feeling. She could
and bat imperfectly, and what she did read she was scarcely
able to understand.
On Tuesday her husbAnd and daughter, accompanied by
her brother and sister, Itia seine other =embus of
fataiig, VON admitted, for the last time, to see her. There
was such a total absence of feeling on the part of the hus-
band, as to induce some remarks on his conduct.
The sister was deeply affected, as wee her brother. As the
time approached forher execution she appeared to Gel more
deeply her dreadful situation, and she passed rather a ri
at-
night. But she afterwards recovered her wonted :calm-
nen and ate • m 3lerate breakfast in the morning.
" Shortly before 12 the tolling of the prison bell an.
rouneid that she had but a few usinutes more to live, and
she was ushered from her cell. Accompanied by the proper
euthoridis. she wes at once conducted to the gallows. the
chaplain reading portions of the butosl service us the pro.
canon pr. (—tiled. Paring this time she did not utter •
word. ROT aid a sigh escape her, but her countenance
the
peered quite eempsteed and her step fira. Arrived on the
drop, the rope was ID moment round her neck ; she shaped
and raised her hands together, as it in fervent prayer, and,
after a slight struggle, she was dead.
"She was about 44 years of age, had beenmarried eighteen
years, and had eleven children—the eldest only, • daughttit er
is now alive. The 'mad, a boy, died of diarrbir aat ;
age of 14 weeks. AU the rest, with the exception of the last
but one, the unhappy woman acknowledged that she
poisoned a day or two after their birth. She was extremely
all herself when this child was born, and it was in COOK-
qualms taken to a neighbour; it died a fortnight afterwards,
bat she never even saw it after it was taken from her.
Seven of her children she destroyed by administering to them
a poison she called "blue," used for destroying rats
and mice, and which she said she took from the ricks,
where it had been placed for that purpose. The
last child she poisoned with arsenic, and in
each can she put the poison in the child's
mouth with her finger. She implicated no other
person in the crime—she, and she alone, did it, and no ens
else knew anything about it. From the first week of her
marriage down to the last which she lived with her husband,
he had been given to drunkenness; and " it was that," (she
said) drove her to her crimes. He scarcely ever brought
home a shilling of his wages. She herself toiled bard in the
field during the day, and at night she came home and washed
and did all the household work. With nothing then to
maintain the family, but what she herself earned, which was'
4s. a week, and that only when she could procure work in'
the fields, the fear that the children would come to
want operated so powerfully upon her, that she de-
stroyed them in the way stated. Her father and
mother lived at Bretton, and attended the Baptist
chapel at that place; her mother being a mem-
ber. They were much opposed to the marriage; and,
knowing tae husband's habit of drunkenness, they fre-
quently endeavoured to persuade her to leave him and come
again to their home. As was stated last week, on the death
if her father, she came into possession of 1001. ; and about
this time she and her husband went to live at Westbury, and
rented ten sere§ of land; but the money was soon dissi.
pa•ed, and there ',is no doubt the woman underwent many
and severe privations.
"This is the fourth person that has been executed in front
of the prison since its erection in 1810, viz., Goodman and
Amer, on the 201 April, 1842, for robbing and assaulting
Mr. Thomas Alesandsr, of Allcannings, on the highway ;
and George Maslen, on the 6th September, 1838, for mali-
ciously skeeting at Kr. Bryan gombald."

RAILWAYS.

TRAFFIC RETURN FOR THE PAST WEEK.

Named Railway.