The Sun.
London, England, 1864-11-01 00:00:00

The Convict Muller.

Yesterday morning the Sh riffs of London, Mr Alderman
Dakin and Mr Alderman Besley, accompanied by the
Under-Sheriff3, Mr Davidson and Mr Da Jersey, the Rev.
Mr Davis, the ordinary of Newgate, and Mr Jonas, the
governor, visited the convict Franz Muller in his cell, and
announced to him that Monday week, the 14th of Novem-
ber, had been fixed for his execution. The convict received
the intimation with calmness. The Sheriffs took occasion
solemnly to exhort him to make the best use he could of the
interval which remained to him to live, and he appeared to
understand the full force of the entreaty. Daring the inter-
view he acknowledged that he had had a fair trial, but he
was understood to say, in cif:Jet, that the evidence in sup-
port of an alibi had done him more harm than good. Ho
spoke in broken English and in a low tone, and his remarks
on that subject left somewhat different impressions on the
minds of the deputation. By some he was understood to
refer to the prejudice which his case had suffered by recourse
having been had to the evidence of two women of immoral
elaract er, an:: by others he was supposed to have questioned
a line of defence which, though undertaken with the best
intentions, tended, in the result, to weaken his case, as it
previously Etc od on its merits, and was eventually need to
strengthen that of the prosecution. lie wis told by one of
the Sheriffi i.i effect that bat for the alibi the case for ene
prosecution would have remained partially unanswered.
and that his counsel were justified in resorting to it if they
believed, as no doubt they did, there was anything in it, and
sifting it to the bottom. He appeared to adhere to his own
opinion upon the point, and the profitless conversation wad
not further continued.

After sentence had been passed on Saturday afternoon ho
seemed hardly at first to realise the po,ition in which it left
him, but on reaching his cell he gave Kay to a paroxysm of
grief which in ono sense had the cfEct of relieving him, and
by 7 o'clock in the evening he had fallen into a sound sleep,
which continued far into the night. There is reason fot
believing that he slept but little if at all on either Thursday
or Friday night, while his trial was pending, and that on
Saturday evening, after all was over, he succumbed to sheer
exhaustion. On Friday evening, while his counsel, Mr
Sergeant Parry, was addressing the jury, he was repeatedly
overcame by his feelings, and gave way to tears which her
sought to conceal by holding down his head as he satin the
dock. On Sunday ha attended the ordinary service in the
chapel of the prison, and yesterday he was visited by a Ger-
man clergyman from the west end of the town, understood
to be of the Lutheran persuasion. At the Central Criminal
on trials for murder it is usual to remove the prisoner from
the public gaze while the jury are deliberating on their
verdict. On Saturday Muller was asked to retire while the
jury were so engaged, but he declined the proffered consi—
deration, preferring to remain in court, awaiting their re-
turn, and ho sat in the dock amid the hum of conversation
in which the audience indulged while the judges and the
jury were absent from the court. He was ghastly pale,
and his solicitor, Mr Beard, spoke occasionally to him, evi-
dently with the view to sustain him in the'awful interval of
suspense. He heard with apparent fortitude his doom as
it was pronounced by Mr Baron Martin, and it was only
at its conclusion that his courage seemed to forsake him.
In a few parting words which he addressed to
the Bench in broken English he struggled hard
to c)nceal his emotion. He held his hand over his mouth
as he spoke, and it was difficult to hoar what he said. Mr
Jonas, the governor, withdrew the hand in order that ho
might be the better understood, but after that he said no-
thing more, and on leaving the dock ho had the presence of
mind to turn round and bow to his counsel, as if ha token of
his gratitude for their services on his behalf.

The jury who tried him were most impartially chosen—
that is, one man was taken in turn from the list for each of
the five counties which send prisoners for trial at the Cen-
tral Criminal Court, and in the end, after there had been 1G
peremptory challenges on the part of the prisoner and one
on behalf of the Crown, 12 men were empanelled wholly
unknown to each other, and presenting in their general
appearance, and in the questions they occasionally put to
the witnesses, a fair representation of the intelligent middlo
class of the community. They paid the most anxious atten-
tion to the whole proceedings from beginning to end, so
much so that when towards the end of the summing up,
the Loid Chief Baron put the question to them, they de.
dined to trouble him to read the evidence. They were ab.
sent a quarter of an hour, and their verdict was given with.
complete unanimity. A great crowd had collected for somo
hours outside the Courthouse in tho Old Bailey to await the
verdict, and when it was given the people separated in,
great excitement. Mr Beard, tho convict's solicitor, had
to be escorted along the Old Bailey into Ludgate-hill by
policemen, but whether this was to protect him from tho
mere curiosity of the crowd or from any apprehended
danger did not appear.

ELOPEMENT OF A YOUNG LADY„—.B. young lady
has disappeared from Mamhead, near Dawlish,
under circumstances Which have greatly distressed her
parents. She is the daughter of the heads of one of the
most respectable and well-to-do families in the neighbour-
hood, is 19 years of age, and has been an object of marked
adniiration on account not only of her personal charms, but
of her fascinating manners and educational accomplish-
ments. Her tuition had been under the care of a resident
governess, and no pains had been spared to cultivate the
intellectual parts of one whose fine figure and handsome
face had rendered her the pride of the family. On Thurs-
day morning she was missed from her room, and inquiries
were immediately set on foot to discover her whereabouts.
Front what has been ascertained at tho Dawlish Railway
Station and elsewhere, there is too much reason to believe
that this young lady has becu accompanied in her bight by
a young man, only about 18 years cf age, who has been up
to a week ago working for the tawilY as a farm labourer.
Ile was discharged last week, but was seen near the house
on Wednesday. The friends of the youth live at Jerery,
and it is supposed that the couple have already or will seen
direct their steps thither.— Western _Honing .stews.
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