The Sun.
London, England, 1868-06-15 00:00:00

TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF O'FARRELL.

The trial of O'Farrell for the attempted assassination of I
the Duke of Edinburgh commenced on Monday, the 30th
March, and occupied two days. No attempt was made to
dispute the facts of the case, and the defence set up by his
counsel was that of insanity. The evidence which they
adduced, however, while sliming that the prisoner had
at former periods of his life suffered from temporary
Iberration— attributed to severe drinking failed to
prove that ske was not in his senses at the time of
committing the act. The rebutting evidence submitted
by the Crown shewed that the crime must have been
planned with care and deliberation, and that the prisoner
while about it had not shewn any signs of insanity. None
of the evidence tended to inculpate any other party, or to
spew that the crime was instigated by any organisation.
The jury found the prisoner guilty, and he was sentenced
to death. An address from the prisoner's relatives was
presented to his Excellency the Governor of New South
Wales, praying that his sentence might be respited, and the
case referred to the decision of the Queen. His Excellency,
on the advice of the Executive Council, declined to accede to
the petition, and the execution of the prisoner was fixed for
Tuesday, the 21st April. From the time of his conviction
the prisoner maintained a quiet and reserved demeanour.
A few days before his execution he was visited by his
sister, and daily received the ministrations of a Catholic
clergyman. On Tuesday, April 21, at nine o'clock, the
extreme penalty of the law was carried into effect in
Darlinghurst Gaol. The doomed man passed the night
in his usual manner, and did not appear to suffer
from any nervous excitability at his approaching fate.
He was attended at an early hour by a minister of
the religious persuasion to which he belonged. Pre-
cisely at nine o'clock the sheriff demanded his body,
and O'Farrell appeared at the cell door in obedience
to the summons. He submitted to the process of pinion-
ing without a murmur, and walked unconcernedly to the
foot of the scaffold. Here he knelt with the priest, and
for a few moments was engaged in religious devotion.
He then mounted the ladder with a firm step, and before
taking his place under the drop looked up, apparently at
the rope and the fatal beam overhead. He then took his place
directly under it, and looked up again in a very composed
manner, but whether vacantly looking up at the dread
engine of death, or making a last appeal to Heaven for
mercy, can only be conjectured. He, however, appeared
thoroughly resigned to his fate. The cap was then ad-
justed over his face ; he shook hands with the priest ; the
drop fell, and the last act of the Clontarf tragedy was over.
A single contraction of the leg was the only visible sign of
suffering, and death appeared to be instantaneous. After
hanging the prescribed time, the body was taken down,
and, not being claimed by his friends, was buried at
Haslem's Creek. Before his execution O'Farrell sent
a letter to Mr. Parkes, the Colonial Secretary, with
an injunction that it should not be opened till
after his death. On the evening of the day of
execution Mr. Parkes was questioned in the
Legislative Assembly with regard to the letter, but
declined to make public the contents. On the
following day the letter was again asked for and refused,
whereupon a member of the House rose, and read the fol-
lowing copy of the letter , declining at the same time to
state how he obtained it " Being now about to appear
before my Creator, I feel it my duty to give expression
to my heartfelt sorrow at the grievous crime I have com-
mit ted. From the very bottom of my heart do I grieve
for what I have done. I have hitherto said that I was one
of many who were proposed to do the deed had I not
done it. I had not the slightest foundation for such
a statement, I was never connected with any man or any
body of men who had for their object the taking of the
life of the Duke of Edinburgh, neither was I in any other
than in an indirect manner connected with any organisa-
tion in Ireland or elsewhere, which is known by the name of
the Fenian organisation. I wish, moreover, distinctly to
assert that there was not a single human being in existence
who had the slightest ideaof the object I had in view when I
meditated on, and through the merciful providence of
God failed in carrying into effect, the death of the Duke
of Edinburgh. I have written to the printers of two
Irish periodicals an address to the people of Ireland.
So certain was I of the death of the Duke of Edin-
burgh that I stated therein that which I believed would
be the fact ; and I think I have more than implied that I
was but one of an organisation to carry the same into
effect. I need but say that the truth of the latter portion
rests upon a slighter foundation than the former ; in fact,
that, unless from mere hearsay, I had no foundation for
stating that there was a Fenian organisation in New
South Wales. From continually thinking and talkirig of
what I may still be allowed to call the wrongs of Ireland, I
became excited and tilled with enthusiasm on the subject,
and it was when under the influence of those feelings that
I attempted to perpetrate the deed for which I am now
called unon to suffer.—H. J. O'FARRELL."