The Sun.
London, England, 1865-12-29 00:00:00

The Attempted Suicide of a Prisoner.

A second edition of the Leeds Mercury of Tues -
day says :—" We published this morning, so far as
we had been able to gather them, the circumstances
connected with the attempt to destroy himself made
by Sykes, who is at present confined at Armley
under sentence of death for the murder of Hannah
Brook. We have since obtained some additional
and more accurate particulars. The prisoner,
after his conviction, was placed in the cell which
was occupied by Sargisson, one of the men exe-
cuted after the first asszes held in Leeds. This is a
corner cell of the first storey, and is appropriated as
the condemned cell because of its being somewhat
larger than the • others, and being therefore better
suited for the reception of more than one inmate.
The rule adopted by Mr. Keane, the governor, in
such cases is to place a warder in the cell with the
condemned prisoner. The cell is doubly locked
from the outside, and it is the duty of any person
leaving it to see that the door it properly secured.
On Saturday evening the chaplain of the gaol, in
the discharge:of his solemn duty to condemned men,
visited Skyes. During his visit the warder continued
in charge. The rev. gentleman retired from the cell
about half -past six o'clock. By some inadvertence
the door was slightly left open, andSyke.s seems to have
been ready to avail himself of the first opportunity
which presented itself of escaping from the awful
death which he knew awaited him, rushed past the
warder, ran up to the second landing, and deli-
berately threw himself over the balustrades to the
floor beneath, the fall being about 25 or or 26 feet.
The officer in charge having recovered from the
surprise which the conduct of Sykes had produced
ran to his assistance, and found him lying insensible.
He was taken up and conveyed to his cell, and Mr.
Price, the surgeon of the gaol, and subsequently
Mr. Wheelhouse, were called in. Sykes regained
consciousness in about half-an-hour, and, although
seriously injured, he is not, it will be seen, from the
letter we subjoin, in that hopeless condition which
the exaggerated reports which have been circulated
might lead the public to suppose :--6 Having ob-
served the paragraph in the Leeds Mercury of this
morning respecting the injuries sustained by Sykes
at the gaol, 1 regret that your informant was not
careful to ascertain the true facts of the case. I
have only to do with its medical aspect. Both legs
are not shattered from the ankles to the knees.
The feet have sustained some injury; in the left
ankle there is a compound fracture of one of the
bones, and there is some contusion and a small
wound of the right. Not only is the brain not ex-
posed, as stated, but it is yet doubtful whether the
skull is seriously fractured at all. So far from his
being at present insensible, he never was so for more
than half-an-hour, and he is now perfectly clear
and intelligent.—l am, &c., Wm. NI CHOLSON PRICE,
Surgeon. Borough Gaol, Leeds, Dec. 26.' "

Two hundred convicts have just left France for
New Caledonia. The first cargo sailed last year, and con-
sisted of 72 assassins, 115 robbers, with a fair sprinkling of
men convicted of forgery, indecent assaults, and other
offences. These figures prove that capital punishment,
though it may be awarded by a majority of seven to five in
the jury-room, is the exception, and not the rule, where
murder has been proved.