The Sun.
London, England, 1864-06-11 00:00:00

EXECUTION OF POMMERAIS,

PARIS, Friday.--The execution of Dr. Conty do
la Pommerais took place at six o'clock yesterday
morning. Every night since Monlay crowds of
people thronged the Place de la Roquette, and ro.
mained until daybreak. Tusy desired to see the
execution with their own eyes, and resolved to
sacrifice their rest to their curiosity, particularly
as there were rumours that a commutation of the
sentence was probable. They egain went to the
ground as early as nine o'clock on Wednesday
evening, and took their station es before. The tide
advanced every hour, and soon after the prison
clock struck one their attention was roused by the
rumbling sound of approaching carts. Any doubts
they might have had were at once dissipated, for
the carts were laden with the pieces of the instru-
rrent of punishment. As the night wore on the
multitude grew more dense, and before five o'clock
there could not have been less than 30,000 people
of all classes. The bearing of many betrayed the
feeling which urged them to the foot of the
scaffold. An ignoble ballad, called " The com-
plaint of La Pommerais," had circulated for
some days past in the streets of Paris. It was
hummed, or drawled with others of the same
style, close to the place of execution ; and the
pastime was diversified with indecent jeste, which
were received with loud laughter by many, and re-
proaches by a very few. Atter the fashion men,
women, and boys passed the hours till every star
had gone out, and the beams of morning fell on
the walls of the prison.
La Pommerais, who was not informed that his
petition to the Emperor was rejected, but who had
evidently lost all hope, seemed much more collected
since his sentence than he had been during his trial.
His father and wife were allowed to see him on
Wednesday. The interview took place in the par.
lour of the prison ; but they were separated by a
double grating, through which they were just able
to clasp each other's hands. The anguish of the old
man and the poor creature who was so soon to he a
widow was heartrending. She clung to the grating
as if she would not be torn from it; her husband
was more self-possessed. They lingered as long as
they could, but at last the moment for parting came.
The prisoner went to rest at the usual early hour,
and still under the supervision of the prison officials;
and he slept soundly the whole night. At half-past
5 in the morning the governor of the prison entered
the cell. La Pommerais started up in his bed, and
before ho had time to speak, the governor told him
that'all hope was over; that the petition for mercy
was not granted, that he must prepare for death, for
his last hour was at hand. He evinced no surprise;
he only said, "I am ready." In a few moments the
chaplain of the gaol, the Abbe Croze, entered the cell.
The guardians fell back a short distance, but not
out of sight. The convict had previously several
interviews with the Abbe, confessed his sins, and,
it is said, received the sacraments—but what he
confessed will remain a secret for ever. When the
priest made his appearance La Pommerais rose to
meet him, and threw himself into his arms. He
had hitherto been unmoved, but as the reverend
gentleman clasped him to his breast he shed tears.
While undergoing the last preparation, in which the
hair is cut close at the back of the head, he listened
apparently with attention to the exhortations of the
chaplain, and the prayer for those about to die.
When all was ready he was asked to take some re-
freshment, but declined. Before he quitted the cell
the head of the Department of Public Security
asked him whether he had any disclosures to
make, or whether he wished to say anything.
"I have said all I had to say," was the reply.
These were his last words, and from that moment
ho answered only by a nod of the head to any re-
mark that was made by those about him.

The gate of the prison was thrown open at a few
minutes to 6, and the crowd outside became sud-
denly silent. La Poi/morals, with a paletot thrown
over his shoulders, was seen to mount the steps of
the scaffold, supported on one side by the Abbe
Croze, who held up the crucifix before his eyes, and
on the other by one of the gaolers. The cord which
bound his feet did not prevent him from moving,
and he advanced with a steady step, but with his
head bent, towards the fatal instrument. He
paused for an instant, once more embraced the
priest, gave himself up to the executioner, and was
laid on the plank. The cord that held the machine
wee cut, the ponderous blade rushed down, and

PRICE ..4d.
STAMPED ....sd.

exactly as the prison clock gave the last stroke of
six human justice and the inhuman curiosity of the

mob were satisfied.

The headless body was placed in a coffin, and the
, coffin in a carriage. The good priest who stood by
his side to the last moment of his life did not quit
him in death. He entered the carriage containing
' the coffin, and, still praying over it, accompanied it
to the cemetery, and saw it laid in the earth.
The curiosity of the people did not end with the
execution ; they rushed towards the spot where the
cirriage wood or to the scaffold, in order to touch
the boards, and it required all the tint-is of the
large body of police and of the Mounted Paris
Guards to keep them at a distance and maintain
order. Though the deed was over, the crowds
lingered some time on the spot, and the morning
was far advanced before they retired.
Had Pommerais' sentence been commuted, the
penalty of death must have disappeared altogether
from the Code. Now that the wretched man has
paid the penalty of the crime of which he was
found guilty, not to speak of others of which
it is said there were strong suspicions, I may
say that public opinion was unanimous as to his
guilt. The humanitarians themselves, who are
trying to get up a movement for the abolition of
capital punishment, have not a word to say for this
man. Among all classes the conviction is the same
—that he had committed a foul murder under cir-
cumstances most aggravating, and for vile purposes.
A commutation in his favour would have roused
bad blood among the lower classes. They knew that
only a few days ago a butcher's boy who had mur-
dered a man at Versailles, and mutilated the body
of his victim to conceal his crime, suffered death on
the scaffold. Were mercy shown to one who had
far less to plead in his favour, it would have been
attributed to his position in society ; and not a
working man in France but would have said that
the one had no mercy shown him because he wore
a blouse; while the other escaped the guillotine
because he spoke and dressed like a gentleman.
The Emperor's kindness of heart would have in-
clined him, had there been any fair pretext, to
save the criminal from the ignominy of a public
execution, out of regard to the prayers of the father
and the tears of the wife. But the fact that the
jury, who are ever ready to avail themselves of a
trifle to add the saving clause to their verdict, de-
tected not a single extenuating circumstance; that
the Court of Cessation, after long and anxious de-
liberation, absolutely negatived his appeal ; that
only a minority of the jury would sign the petition
in his behalf; and that the majority of the Minis-
ters urged that the law should take its course, made
it impossible for the Emperor to act otherwise. The
prisoner's counsel, M. Lachaud, exerted himself
greatly after the sentence was pronounced. As I
have already mentioned, he had an audience both
of the Empress and the Emperor. The Empress,
who listened to the supplications, shed tears while
she heard the wife's story, but nothing could be
done to justify disturbing the verdict or the deci-
sion of the Superior Court. The commutation of
the sentence on La Pommerais would, I repeat, have
been followed by the abolition of the penalty of
death, and the guillotine would have disappeared
from France for ever.

Of the origin and history of this famous instru-
ment of punishment an erroneous idea generally
prevails. The popular version is that it was in-
vented in 1785 by Joseph Ignatius Guillotin, an
eminent physician, and deputy for Paris in the Con-
stituent Assembly. This is not correct. An instru-
ment differing from the guillotine only in its heavy
and cumbrous construction already existed in Icaly.
It was known in Genoa by the name of manunja,
and it was by that manuaja that Beatrice Cenci
was beheaded at ROM 2 in 16U5. The maiden, an
instrument not unlike the guillotine, was long
known in Scotland, and. it was employed on the
Regent Morton, who is said to have introduced it.
It was used; also, in Halifax, Yorkshire, in the
reign of Q,..teen Rizlbeth. The Dike of Mon tmo•
reney was beheaded at Toulouse in 1632 oith the
manuopz.

All that Dr. Guillotin, who was a man well
known for his humanity, had to do with the matter,
was preparing the draught of a law in the Consti-
tuent Assembly, in 1789, to the effect that the mode
of inflicting death on criminals should be the same
for all alike, without distinction of nobles or ple-
beians; in fact, that it should be uniform. Before
the Revolution of 1789 the inequality that existed
during life was maintained in death ; the noble was
beheaded, the villain hung from the gallows. But
the inequality was a trifling grievance in compari-
son with the cruelty which accompanied the exe-
cution. There was the stake and faggot for those
convicted of sacrilege or heresy; the tearing from
limb to limb by horses for regicide; the breaking
on the wheel, with the additional refinements of
barbarity for crimes of other descriptions.

Railway and Public Companies in Parlia-

ment.

Further evidence in favour of the East London
Railway occupied the committee on metropolitan
railways yesterday, Mr Bowley, manager of the
Crystal Palace, being examined in its behalf. He
appeared to be of opinion that the proposed line
would furnish facilities to the vast population of
the east end of London, in connection with the
fresh air and scenery of Sydenham, and the at-
tractions of the Crystal Palace, and stated that
since the Palace had been opened, now for some 8
or Q years, upwards of 15 million people and visited
it. Mr Durke, the engineer of the line, was also
examined at cou.;derable length. The case for the
Stonehouse and Nansworth Railway was opened.
It proposes to run from thtli Qtation at D unbridge
to the Great Western west of Stroud, to raise
£27,000 by extension shares and .£9,000 by loan,
to attach a preferential dividend to unissued shares
to the amount of £20,000 in the company's autho-
rised capital of £66,000, and to contract with the
Great Western and Midland to work it. EngiTe73;-
ing evidence chiefly engaged the committee on the
North Staffordshire Company's new lines, Messrs.
Bauch, Forsyth, and Harrison being examined by
Mr. Denison, Mr. Aspinall, and others, The com-
mittees on the Brecon and Rhymney, and St. Helens
and Lancashire lines, were engaged
tails and clauses. In the co •
mmittee on the Sheffield
Inundation Water Bill, Mr. D • emson opened the
opposition to the measure on behalf of the inhabi-
tants and corporation of Sheffield and the district,
who object to being taxed for damage occasioned
by a public calamity. In Lord Redesdale's com-
mittee the bills of the Oswestry, Ellesmere and
Whitchurch, Royston and Hitchin, Exmouth
Docks, 1-1-
-olywell Railway, East Norfolk, South
Eastern 1 and 3 Bills, and London, Chatham, and
Dover, for establishing steamboats between Rams-
gate, Boulogne, and Rotterdam, wcre passed.

ADVERTISEMENT.)- -Avoid medicines: they always aggra-
vate chronic complaints, but Du Barry's Delicious Health
Restoring Revalenta Arabiea. Food, which saves fifty times
its cost in other remedies, invariably cures them, restoring
perfect digestion, strong nerves, sound lungs, healthy liver,
pure blood, refreshing sleep, functional regularity, and ener,7
to the most disordered or enfeebled. We extract a few out
of 60,000 Cures :—Cure No. 58,216 of tho 31archloness
seven de
Brehan, Paris, of a Aver complaint, wasting away for
years, debility, with a nervous palpitation all over, bad
digestion, constant sleeplessness, the most intolerable nervous
agitation, and dreadfully low spirited.—Cure No. 1.771. Lord
Stuart de Decies, Lord Lieut. of Waterford, of many years'
dyspepsia.—No. 49,832. "Fifty years' indercribable agony
from dyspepsia, nervousness, asthma. cough, Constipation,
flatulency, spasms, sickness, and vomiting.—Maria Jolly."
igstaiothneariadevtos.
torpi-
dity —Cure No. 46,270. Mr. James Roberts,.. of Frimley, surrey, of
thirty years' diseased lungs, spitting of blood, liver derange.
ment, ment, and partial deafness.—Cure No. 47,121. Miss Elisabeth
Jacobs, of extreme nervousness, indigestion,
weniuhachm,hNadorfreoslit,te"lot
spirits, and nervous fancies.—Cure No. 54,816. The Bev. Jas,
all medicalvi treatment."
In
t0241:n
In tins, 1 lb., Is. 9d. ; 21b., 4s. 6d ; 61b., Ils •
40,.._Barry Du Barry and Co., No. 77, .
drrityCamor Pthbeellii'vFerak,
Regent-street, London;
also Fortnum and Mason ; and all Grocers andbC"h22eroB.
every town of the United Kingdom.

• •

:7-0--d-4-,!l- 6,

/z 2

EU

Lord Derby and the Universityof lAiri;i;-Zi'i:l-.lli

.....--,4-?,
nifita Oxford, Ju ::".7`" 4
.11±•“:
Professor Conington presents his complimeLl o a
the Editor of The Sun, and requests the favour of
the insertion of the enclosed correspondence I so-
tween Lord Derby, as Chancellor of the Univerak ty
of Oxford, and himself.
" 124, High.street, Oxford, June 4.
" My Lord,—Several newspapers during the pax t
week have contained a report of a dinner of a Uni-
versity Conservative Association, which took plea e
in Oxford, on Saturday, May 2S. I find there that
after your lordship's health had been proposed in-a
speech which dwelt on your position as leader of
the Conservative party in the country, the toast
was responded to by Dr. Wyrt,:r, President of Sr.
John's College, as Chancellor's Secretary.
" I do not know whether your lordship's atten-
tion has been called to this fact ; but 1 can hardly'
doubt that you must regard it with disapprobation.-
" An association to promote the objects of one or
the parties in the University may be desirable or
undesirable, but at any rate it is capable of defen co.
But it would surely be indefensible if it utternp• bed.
to claim the patronage of one who, as Chancellor of
the University, is charged with the interests of th e
whole acadena',cal body, not of this or that party .
Yet this is what is virtually done, when one who i 3
paid by the University as an official of the Chan. •
cellor speaks in that capacity at a dinner of an
avowedly party character. •

"Your Lordship has shown more than once of
late, by your guarded language in discussing Uni-
versity matters in the House of Lords, that you re-
gard your position as head of the University 715
quite separable from your position as head of ti le
Conservative party in the country. Surely tl ie
same distinction should hold good in the case of your
Official Secretary. Whatever may be his privis to
opinions on University politics, in his connection
with your Lordship as Chancellor's Secretary, his
duties are to the University as a whole, not to one
of its parties.

"I will only add that, as the retort to which. I
have called your Lordship's attention is public, it
may be necessary to publish this letter, together
with any answer with which your Lordship ma y
favour me.
"I have the honour to be, my Lord,
" Your Lordship's obedient humble servant,
" 3.011 N CONINGTON.
"I shall send a copy of this letter to Dr. Wyntor.
"To the Earl of Derby, &c."

"St. James's-square, June 5, 1864.

Sir,—l have the honour to acknowledge the re-
ceipt of your letter of yesterday, in which you call
my attention to the fact that at a recent ' dinner of
a University Conservative Association' my health
was proposed in my political character, and re-
sponded to by Dr. Wynter, President of St. John's
College, as Chancellor's Secretary;' and you ex-
press no doubt but that I must regard this fact

with disapprobation.' I confess that lam unable
to follow you to this conclusion.
" I may premise that neither had I any previous
notice of the intention of having such a dinner, nor
have I, since it has taken p'ace, had any intimation
given to me respecting it, except that which I have
derived from the public press and from your letter.
" You do me justice in inferring from my
guarded language in discussing University matters
in the House of Lords, that I regard my position
as head of the University as quite separable from
my position as head of the Conservative party in

he country,' and I hope that as Chancellor I have
never done anything to indicate a confusion in
my own mind between the duties imposed upon
me in these several capacities. But, on the other
hand, I must claim for my Private Secretary the
most entire liberty of expressing, in any way that
he may think fit, his own personal views on
public subjects; and while I rejoice that I
have the political sympathy of a man so distin-
guished in the University as the President of St.
John's, I cannot admit that his personal connexion
with me rendered him an unfit exponent of my
thanks (had I known of the fact) for the exprEssion
of the Association as to my political conduct. You
will, I am sure, allow me to remind 7c,u that the
eificc of Private Secretary to the Chancellor of the
University ie one of very long recognised standing,
but that on the death of my predecessor the Duke
of Wellington, the University declined to continue
the salary; that D Wynter consequently accepted
the office wholly iniependently of any obligation
to the University, and as my Private Secretary
without salary; and that, it was not till a consider,
able time had elapsed that the University sane*
tioned a greatly reduced salary, Cancellarii qui
nutty est, seeretario.' As long as Dr. Wynter per..
forms his duties as Private Secretary to my satisfac.
tion I do not claim for myself, still less can I admit
to anyone assuming to speak on behalf of the Uni.
varsity, the right of calling in question any expres-
sion of his political opinions ; and if, agreeing with
me, my Private Secretary be present at a public
meeting, there is nothing extraordinary in his take,
ing on himself, in the absence of any one more
intimately connected with me, the duty of acknow-
ledging the compliment paid to me.—l have the
honour to be, sir, your obedient servant,
"Professor Conington.
" P.S. You are at perfect liberty, in pursuance of
your announced intention, to public this correspon..
dence."

"DERBr..

" 124, High-street, Oxford, June 6.

My Lord,—I beg to thank your Lordship for
the very full explanation of your views, into which
you have been so courteous as to enter, in reply to
my letter of the 4th, at the same time that I regret
to find that those views are not what I had ventured
to predict.

If I offer one or two additional remarks on the
matter, I do so in justice to my own meaning, not
with a wish to draw your lordship into further cc )r•
respondence.

" My position was, that while the Chancellor's
Secretary is free to express his political sympathiE s

in any Way he pleases, in his private character or ita
any other public capacity, as Secretary he is limited
by his relation to your lordship as Chancellor and
to the University. _

" In support of this I took the liberty of appeal•
ing to the distinction which your lordship appeared
to recognise in your, own conduct between your
academical and your political position. Your lord-
ship has had the goodness to assure me that I
rightly appreciate your view of this distinction ;
and your language evidently shows that so far from
regarding it as arbitrary, to be observed or neglected
at pleasure, you feel that to ignore it would indix
cate a confusion between' different ' duties.' lam
unable, then, to understand the grounds on which
you seem to claim a liberty for your Secretary as
Secretary which you emphatically disclaim for
yourself as Cnancellor. He represents your Lord-
ship, not in your political, but in your noq-political
oe l a s himself.
involving your Lordship in a
character: he cannot, it seems to me, rise as your
non-political representative to acknowledge a poli-
ticalc,o,llifvutiiigin twithout
regard to the office f
between duties' as w
Secretary, I am
afraid of entering into details which might lead me
away from the immediate object of this
correspond-
ence_ I will, therefore, merely b o sorve that, as far
as I have been informed (and I
tools pains, when
the question of salary was agitated two years ago,
to obtain informal ion), the cessation of
payment by th© University upended on the
cessation of duties • itch had been abolished before
the present Secretary was appointed. But I would
respectfully submit that the receipt of a saleryfrom
the University under whatever circumstances, places
even v. Private Secretary in a relation to the Univer-
sity as weal as to the Chaneellcr, and entitles Int.tn..
hers of the University to comment on and thing in
his public conduct which they may think incon-
sistent with that position. And it
simply as a
member of the University, and not as aasuming to
speak.' in any character which does not belong to
me, that I have ventured to address your lordship.
" I have the honour to F.
-e, my lord, your lord•
ship's obedient humble servant,

" JOHN CONINGTON.

:~'..
~ ~;

4 Tao Earl of Darby, &c."