The Sun.
London, England, 1864-05-19 00:00:00

(From the Edinburgh Corresponient of the Telegraph).
The unlucky Irishman Reilly, or Bryans (ho went by
both names), who was convicted at the late Glasgow circuit
of the murder of a Mrs. Lt.tily on a cold, stormy night in
December, was executed at Ulasgow yesterday morning. In
the whole annals of hanging it is doubtful if there ever were
death-struggles like his. He was violently convulsed for
about three minutes, and there were muscular twitchings of
his body for nine minutes, And the city magistrates had the
full benefit of his death agonies. When the drop fell the
body spun round from the rope untwisting itself, until it was
stopped by Ca'craft, with the face to the portico of the
Jueticiary Court-room, under which the mt gistrates stood,
and the white cap being partially pulled off by the rope,
those who could look saw with terrible distinctness all the
contortions of that blackening and dying face. Much
good may this horrible execution do the people of Glasgow.
If it moderate the unthinking self-conceit and rashness of
the classes out of which jurymen are drawn in the west of
Scotland, it will be of some value in its effect. They decide
on the lite or liberty of a human being in the same way
that they speculate upon a rise or fall of stocks and ruin
themselves or make fortunes, and with them a
very slight degree of probability is complete proof.
Their zeol for convicting all who cannot prove their
innocence is a eutject for jesting among lawyers,
both on the bench and at the bar. Whether that man
whose life was choked out of him in the course of
nine minutes yesterday morning was guilty or not, it is
difficult to say with COLfiIeLCO. But I hare a strong con.
viction that, had he been treed out of Glasgow, and had he
not been a friendless Irishman and Roman Catholic of
rather repulsive, richless asp :et, he would have escaped. The
evidence against him was what is called circunistentiel, or
indirect. It did not point to his guilt, except afar off, and
it was perfectly compatible with his innocence. No one saw
him in the woman's company, no foot.oark of his showed
"that he had taken part in " the protracted struggle" which
she had maintained with her assailant or her own drunken
incapacity. The evidence rather showed that ho had not
time to hold any protracted struggle with her, and there
was no mark of violence upon him. very little public in-
terest was taken in the case. The Roman Catholics of Glas-
gow signed a petition in his behalf, but they were too late
with their sympathy. Lord Dees' opinion was very evi-
dent from his charge, and he reported against a com
mutation of the sentence to technical Sir George Grey,
as did also the Lord Justice Clerk, who would of
course be guided solely by the notes of evidence taken
by Lord Deas. Supposing the woman to have died
from violence, and not from drink and cold, he may
have been guilty of the whole of the violence or of part
of it. That is all I could, on oath, say against him,
and I know more than was proved. For one thing, I
know that when he was fleeing from justice or from suepi
clog on the first evening of his flight, he sought lodgings in
a house in Biggar, being apparently very weary, and hav-
ing, it is believed, walked from the place from which he
absconded, about 35 miles, on that day, He obtained the
promise of lodgings, but in two or three minutes after he
sat down in the house he happened to catch a glimpse of
a young woman who also saw and recognised him. He
made some excuse, and left the house and never returned.
This young woman upon whom he bad come in his
flight stated to the Crown authorities, that about
two years ago, on a lonely road, about eleven miles from
Carlisle, where he was captured, and where he used to
work as a navvy, she was assaulted by an Irishman, who
attempted to ravish her; that she had never seen him
again until that night, when he came in asking lodgings,
and that Riley was this man who criminally assaulted her,
She was not examined at the trial, Evidence of a fact of
this kind could not be competently adduced in Scotland.
It could be and would have been in France, and it would
have had some weight either in connecting him with the
murder or in explaining why he should bo conscious of a
crime, or attempted crime, which was not murder, and in
his panic think it safest to flee, which it certainly was not.
Had he not absconded he would have been quite safe,

Beautiful Little Piece of Chaff!

Omibus Driver (to Driver of Police Van)—Any room ?
Driver of Police Van—Yes, just one place. Saved it

a-purpose for you!
Omnibus Driver—What's the Fare ?
Driver of Police Van—Bread and water—same as you
had afore I
Omnibus Driver is shut up.

--Punch.

SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE—(This Day.)

LONDON, May 19.—Wind this day at noon—East;
moderate bretz9 and brilliant weather.

PLYMOUTH, May 17.—Wind S.E.—Arrived—Gertrude,
screw steamer, from London fur Buenos Ayres—Johone,
steamer, from Newcastle for Singapore.
NEWPORT, May 17.—Wind E.—Arrived—Sarah A.
Stapleton, from London for Buenos Ayres—Eva, from
Bristol for Quel3Qc.
Gitimsri Y, May 18.—Wind S.E.—Sailed—Port-au-
Prince, for Hayti.
PORTSMOUT 11, May 18.—Wind variable,—Arrived—Her
Majesty's ship Orestes, from Jamaica,
FALMOUTH, May 18.—Wind variable—Arrived—
Adolphe, from Rio Grande—Alexa, from Rio Janeiro—
Jar6sa, from Sagua La Grande.

BY MAGNETIC TELEGRAPH.

GRAVESEND, Thursday l'Uorning.

_ -
Arrived, May 18—Eskdale, from Madras—lLM.S. Fox,
front G ibi attar —.Margaret, from Dominica—Dunloe, from
Point do Galle.
Sailed, May 19—La Plata, steamer, for Dieppe.
DEAL, Thursday Morning.
Passed—Beta, screw steamer, from the north, for the
wes..—London, screw steamer, from London, for Gibraltar,

LORD PETIIE has signified his intention of pro-
hibiting steeplechase meetings on his property, in conse-
quence of the fatal accident wjaich befell Mr. Tilbury while
riding in one of the South Essex steeplechases at Brent-
wood.

."Ihe loss of a life," says the Siecle, "has just
occurred in Paris from the practice of keeping
flowers in bedchambers. A lady residing in the Rue des
Trois-Moulins had received from a friend a quantity of
May lillies, which she placed provisionally in a large closet
slept in by her daughter, a weakly child, aged six years.
At night the mother forgot to remove the flowers, and the
door was closed, but,in the morning, not hearing any move-
ment in the closet, she went to see if her daughter was not,
yet awake. The child's sleep did not seem natural. The
mother attempted to awaken her, but in vain, and on a
medical man being called in, he declared that she had been
Poisoned by the carbonic acid gas emitted from the timers.'