The Sun.
London, England, 1865-09-30 00:00:00

THE CONVICT CURRIE.

The following letter has been received by a com-
rade of Currie's, who belonged to the same com-
pany, and was also a room-mate :

"Maidstone Prison, 26th Sept., 1865.
" Dear friend and brother soldier,
" Dear William, —I now write you a few lines as a
brother ; you see in what a sad state I am now placed
through my own foolish and irritable disposition and tem-
per, but may it please Almighty God to take that from
me before I depart. from this sinful world ; you know as
well as I know myself that if it had pleased God to have
called me to him, that I was not then prepared for that
solemn change which all of us must come to—Death.
Let me give you a little advice as a friend and brother
in this ovorld ; do for my sake, William, drop all man-
ner of vice and sin ; I know very well that you have great
temptations to go through in the service, but, oh, I now find
it out as I now sit locked up in this prison &waiting my
execution ; but I hope it may please Almighty God to pre-
pare me for meeting death in peace. I should very much
like to have seen you all before I departed, but it has pleased
God that I should not do so in this world, but I hope to
meet you in the world to come, in which we must all stand
before the bar of God. Oh, if I only had the opportunity
you now have, I would lead a different life than I did be-
fore.

I now ask you for my sake to leave off all bad habits,
ask God to give you grace for the sake of yourself and
your dear mother, never let your temper get the better of
you as I did, but ask God to help you to resist the Devil ;
it is all through hire we do all these evils—give way to
what he says, and then we get into trouble. Of course, as
you will know from experience, my poor family are
severely cut up ; my poor father is almost broken-hearted;
had 1 just thought of them before I thought of doing it I
should never have done it ; but you see I cannot mend it,
so I must pray to God to help me and to save my soul from
Hell.

I must now conclude, hoping this will find you and all
in the room well ; thank God lam pretty well. Do your
duty well, and do not think of any vice or malice against
any one, but ask God to help you through the trials
of this world, as you know as well as I do that
there is nothing but trials and troubles in this sinfu
world. I hope you are all getting on well at Chatham
Remember me kingly to all my friends and acquaint-
ances ; tell them to call upon the Lord while he is near. I
often think of you all, and though I cannot see your faces I
can picture you all. I never forgot the times we used to go
out together, but that's all done for in this world; prepare
to meet thy God, William ; don't carry on like that any
more. I do hope that you will never come to this awful death
I have come to ; ask God every day and night to keep you
from all sins and malice against any one. Kind love
William ; I thank you greatly for your kindness to me
when you came to see me in Chatham. 1 shall never
forget it, and if I could repay you I would do so, but you
see I cannot get to do that ; kind love to all the rest of
them, and tell them I often think of them. Good-bye, old
fellow, for ever in this world. I remain your ever affec-
tionate friend, "J. A. Cullum, R.E."

The young man to whom the letter was written,
and whose name is William Carter, 36th Company,
and who occupied the same room as Currie previous
to the unfortunate affair, visited Currie on Thurs-
day. Currie was affected to tears at the sight of
his old comrade,' and particularly requested him to
curb his temper, and obey the orders of his officers ;
he also told Carter that he was very sorry for what
he had done, and hoped God and Mrs. de Vere would
forgive him. Carter had about an hour's conver-
sation with Currie ; but Currie's conversation was
merely a repetition of his letter.