The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-04-23 00:00:00

EXECUrION AT TA.UNTON

The execution of Thomas Nation, convicted at the late
Samerset Ass.z,s of the murder of John Aplin, near
Wiveliseombe, in December lev, took place on Tuesday
morning in front of the county gaol at Taunton. Tie'
prisoner, who was-only twenty two years of age, has had
good general health since his conviction, has taken his food
as usual, and with the exception of occasional depression of
spirits, has not manifested much anxiety at his aoproaching
fate. Since his conviction the ministrations of the Rev.
R. Meet, the gaol chaplaia, have been unceasing, and at
the prisoner's awn desire he has been visited by the Rev.
J. liere, the minister of Upton (Nation's pariah), the Rev.
J. felewellin, of Wiveliscomir, and the Rev. F. J. Smith,
incumbent of Tren'ly, Taunton. His father and brother
also bad interviews with the culprit on .Monday and
Thursday last, but on none of these oceasiens would he he
induced to make ana# direct confession of his guilt. Ho
admitted that he deserved his late for other crimes., but
resolutely denied that he was the murderer of Aplin. On
Sunday the condemned sermon was preached by the Rev.
Man t, from Celossiaus, i. 28. The prisoner paid marked
a'tention to the discourse, and aveared to be impressed by
some portions of it. On Tuesday enoreing, the Under
Sheriff, Mr J Micholette, attended at the gaol 3t seven
o'clock, and shortly afterwards the cony:et, who had pre-
viousiy been vished by the chaplain, attended divine ser-
vice in the gaol chapel, at which all the other psis
were present. After thikservice, the sacrament was admre
nistered, and at a few minutes before eight the culprit,
ace ampuni.d b 7 the chaplain, the governor (Mr W. 0 tkley)
and severs,' otfieers, proceeded to one of the ward rooms,
where the prisoner ,7as pinioned by Calcraft, the execu-
tioner. The procession, headed by the chaplain reading the
burial service, then moved towards the scaffold, which had
been erected at the north west end of the gaol. The prison
bell announced that the last sentonce of the law was about
to he carried iuto effect. The turnkeys mounted the
platform, followed by Calcraft, nat whom came the
prisoner (dressed in a gamekeeper's dark ja&et, a crimson
waistcoat, and drab breeches and gaiters) ; whey walked to
the drop with an unfaltering step: Toe prisoner's head
and face were quickly covered with a white cap ; he "was
placed under the beam, the rope was adjusted, the execu-
tioner and his assistants withdrew from the platform, the
bolt was withdrawn, and after several convulsive struggles,
Thomas Nation was dead, The crowd who had witnessed
the execution was variously estimated at from 6,0",t0 to
8,000, almost exclusiv, If of the lower orders. Theis'
behaviour was, for the most part, becoming ; and after the
wretched cul:erit ceased to exist, the mob quietly dispersed.
After hanging for an hour, the body of the malefactor was
eat tiown and interred within the precincts of the prison,
in pursuance of the sentence.

THE FRIEND 3 AND THE FINLANDERS.— Thl Bristol
Mercury states, on good authority, that upwerds of £350
has beee subscribed by members of the Society of Frie- di
in Bristol towards the funds for the relief of the starving
Finlander((.
PHOTOGRAPHIC VIEWS FROM EGYPT.—Among the pas.
stingers by the Pere, which has just arrived home wich
the India mail, was Mr. Dix, the photographer, who has
brought home a large collection of photographs, stereo-
scopic and ethers, of rome of the most interesting scenes
on the borders of the Nile, particularly of stoc.'o which are
adorned with sphynxes, and ruins of temples and cities of
ancient Egypt.
MELANCHOLY OCCURRENCE.—A farmer named .lame(
11I'Creary;Thelonging to Aughnameyle, near Omagh, oa
Saturday night last, took as a draaeht a spoonful of lini•
ment, eontaieing aconite, which had been prescribed for a
p lin in the leg by D. Mixweil, and did not survive more
than an hour. It appeared the bottle had been labelled
'‘ to be applied externally," so that no blame rests on the
eoctor. Mr. Orr held an inquest on the body—ver&ot,
"death front takinglen outward application in mistake."
—Tyrone Constitution.
EMIQRATION FROM THE NORTH OF SCOTLAND.—The spring
fleet has just sailed for Canada from the south-east coast of
Scotland, clrrying out 1,500 passengers. They are
chiefly agricultural labourers, and for the most part young
and newly married people. Large sums of money continue
to be received from the settlers in Upper Canada who had
previously gone out, chiefly from Aberdeenshire, and there
is every prospect that before many years few agricultural
labourers will be left at home. Wages have risen, but
when we state that the highest rates do not exceed £2O
a year, it will not be thought surprising.
A RLVAL TO Ida. SPURGEON.—The Rev. IT. G• Guin-
ness, who has achieved considerable popularity tienengst
the Dissenters, appi.ared at the Sutherland CongregatiMea
Church, near St. Peter's Walworth, on Tuesday night,
which was d,nsely crowded. The reverend and youth-
ful, but eloquent divine; having emounded portions of
Scripitve, and devoted himself to rrayt r, proceeded to
deliver a sermon of intense beauty, of originality of
thought and religious fervour rarely equalled, an I which
occupied an hour in delivery. The greatest feature of
the learned and rev. gen human's discourse was on the
subject of Slavery, which was most vigorous and poeti-
cal ; as also that ot his e illy call, interspersed with many
an cdotes, to Christianity, and to become a preacher cf
'the Gospel.
A GAANDMOTHER AT TWENTY•NINE YEARS OF AGE!--.
A woman who was last week brought before the magistrates
of Wigan, for an assault committed upon a neighbour,
affords a striking instance of recklessly early marriages.
She is the wife of Rerick Casey, a tailor. They reside in
Douglas terrace, Wigin. lie is 40 years of age, and she
is 29. They were married before she had attained the age
of 14 years, and she was a mother at the age of 14 years
nd sei,cn month,. Since that time she has had eleven other
children. Strange to say, the eldest girl, who was 15
years old on Wednesday week, is the mother of two
children, the elder of whom is nearly two years of age, she
having InarriA earlier in life than her mother. Mrs.
Casey is; therefore, at the age of 29 years, the mother of
twe've, and the grandmother of two children.—Man-
chester Guardian.

THE BISHOP AND HIS LADY.—At a religious meeting
held a short time back in Islington (says a corn spon.
nt), when the chair was taken by the Bishop of Landon,
the crowd that assembled to see and hoar his lordship
was so great, th it it was found necessary to station two
or three police at the doors, to prevent the ingress of any
more people. In the course of the evening. however, a
carriage drew up at the doors, and a lady alighted, and,
on perceiving the great crush, sail to one of those im-
portant pub;ie functionaries, " I am the bishop's lady.'
" No, no," repited he ; " that dodge don't pay." " /
a sure yon that I em Mrs. Tain" reiterated the lady.
" There I've hot you," replied the unecclesiastical Bobby,"
" for his lordship's" name jest happens to be Archibald
Campbell !" At leng.h some geotlem.en came forward,
and immediately escorted her ladyship to a becoming
place on the platform, The bishop seemed highly enter-
tained at the joke.—Essex Herald,
THE, SHIP'S CILEW STARVED IN THE NORTH SE.t.—The
unfortunate vessel picked up off the coast of Norway,
wafer-logged and dismaeted, with the corpses of six sea-
men on board, has been identified as the barque Palarmo,
of Shields. This unfortunate vessel left Memel for Eng-
land in the middle of January, and, besides her ordinary
crew, she had on board four shipwrecked seamen belonging-
to the llolycon, of Hell- She had passed Elsinore on the
30th of January, aed it appears had fallen in with the
fearful easterly gale that swept the North Sea about that
time. The principal portion of her crew appears to have
been swept off the (I,:cks with the round-house, boats, &c.,
and there is no doubt that the six W:-.;n whose bodies were
found in the vessel hat died of hunger anti cold.
Tile CANADIAN PitEss.—The Canadian News contains
a paragraph showing the rapid growth of the press in
Canada during the last few years—a growth which cor-
responds with the advance of wealth, intelligence, and.
puelic order in that distinguished province of the British
empire. F ,rty years ago wo learn there were only sit
newspapers published in the whole of Upper and Lower
Canada. At the present time Canada alone, exclusive of
Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward's Island,
supports no less than 19 daily and 172 bi-weekly, tri-
weekly, or weekly papers, us well as 35 monthly or quads'
terly publications. The total number of newspapers and
periodicals issued in Canada is 22. i. In the wake of a
' journalism so active and enlightened a colonial literature
of less ephemeral sort will probably follow.
THE DECLINE OF FVANGELICAL ITEROIS3I.—A crisis of
signal importance in the hist 'onr of the evangelical section
of the Chu-ch. of England was marked by the attitude
which it assumed in reference to the closing events of the
last parliament, and to the elections for the new one. For
the first time, that party formally deserted what. for want
Of a better expression, we must call the cause of religious
philanthropy. We can quite understand the feeling which
tells an Englishman that the most delicate points of law
ought always to be carried through with a high hand when
a Briton and a foreigner are concerned—which declines to
admit that, if the English disputant makes a mistake, his
Chinese opponent his any business to take advantage of
the slip—and which insists that a remote insult to English
dignity. inflicted by a " perplexed barbarian" functionary,
is only half avenged by the destruction cf the larger part
of a great city, the sacrifice cf some thousand lives, and the
dissolution, through several vast provinces, of the law and
social order which were only just recovering from the
shock of a terrible rebellion. This is the vein of sentiment
which ordinarily translates itself into the roar of the
British lion. We have no difficulty in comprehending it,
any more than we have a difficulty in understanding the
indignant ejaculation of the West Indians, thirty or forty
years ago, " that things had come to a pretty pass" when
a man mightn't do what he would with his lawful property.
But we do say that the fathers of evangelicalism would
have suffered themselves to be burnt alive rather tbia
allow such arguments.—Saturday Review.