The Sun.
London, England, 1868-05-19 00:00:00

THE ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF

THE DUKE OF EDINBURGH.

The Australian papers received supply interesting details
relative to the atrocious attempt on the life of the Duke
of Edinburgh. The Sydney Morning Herald, afterAile-
scribing the attack on the Prince, says :

The scene which followed almost defies description.
No sooner had Mr. Vial grasped the man who
had fired the shots than several other gentlemen
also seized him ; and, had it not been for the
closing in around them of fte police and other
persons, they would speedily have placed him beyond the
reach of the law courts. The people shouted, " Lynch
him," " Hang him," " String him up," and so on, and
there was a general rush to get at him. Unfor-
tunately for Mr. Vial, some of the people mis-
took him for the Prince's dastardly assailant, and
for a few seconds he was treated unmercifully. He
was pulled backwards by the hair of his head—he was
kicked and beaten, and his hair and whiskers torn out by
the handful—and it was not until some gentlemen who
knew Mr. Vial came to his assistance that he was released.
In the meantime the police, headed by Superintendent
Orridge, got hold of the assassin, and they had the
greatest difficulty in preventing the infuriated people from
tearing him limb from limb. The task of putting the
prisoner on board the ship was not an easy one, and it was
fully ten minutes before ;they got him on to the wharf.
By that time all the clothing from the upper part of his
body was torn off, • his eyes, face, and body were
much bruised, and blood was flowing from various
wounds ; and when he was dragged 'on to the deck
of the Paterson, which was lying at the wharf, he
appeared to be utterly unconscious. No sooner was he on
board than a number of sailors had a rope ready to string
him up, and it was only by the interference of Lord Newry
that his life was spared. Some of the police were very
roughly used, Detective Powell getting about the worst of
it. In the scuffle he fell over some stones, and had a
chance of being trampled to death.
The people out of whose hands the prisoner had been
rescued immediately gave vent to their disappointment,
and at an indignation meeting, summarily convened, deter-
mined to bring him back from the steamer, and despatch
him at the scene of the crime. A rush was then made for
the steamer, which had just hauled off a few feet from the
wharf, and they shouted to the captain to haul in. For
a moment this officer appeared to waver, but the Hon.
John Hay, who was on the bridge, doubtless divining the
intentions of the crowd, peremptorily ordered the captain
to haul off. This he did, and the vessel accordingly pro-
ceeded on her way to Sydney.
Upon the arrival of the Paterson at Sydney the prisoner
was landed and conveyed in charge of Mr. Orridge to the
gaol. He made no secret of his intention to have assasi-
nated the Prince. 'While in charge of the police he said
to one member of the force, " I have made a mess of it,
and all for no good." To another, " I don't care for death ;
lam sorry I missed my aim. I made a mess of it ;" and
to another, " I am a Fenian. God save Ireland." He
also said, " I have done my duty, and can die for my
country." He then added, "It can't be helped now ; I
I'ave made a mess of it."

The Colonial Secretary, Mr. Parkes, soon afterwards
proceeded to the gaol, saw the prisoner, and asked him how
he came to commit such an outrage, to which he replied,
" Come, come, it is not fair to ask me such a question as
that ; the Prince is all right ; the Prince will live; you need
sot fear about him ; it's only a side wound. I shall be
hanged ; but the Prince will live." The Colonial Secre-
tary, taking with him two police-constables, went to the
Clarendon Hotel, where the prisoner had slept. The
people there knew nothing about the affair beyond hear-
ing a rumour that the Prince had been shot. They ad-
mitted that such a man as the prisoner was described
to be had lived there, and the room in which he had
slept was at once searched. Some articles of wearing
apparel were found in a broken box and in a table drawer.
In various places (in the drawer and in the pockets of his
clothes) were found percussion caps, detonating cartridges,
wadding for revolvers, a Douay Bible, a Roman Catholic
Prayer-book, and a number of other religious books, in
which his name was inscribed ; also a crucifix. Having
secured these things, the Colonial Secretary ascertained
that O'Farrell had been in Sydney from about Christmas
last, and that whilst the Prince has been here, whenever
the other lodgers in the house spoke of him this man
got out of temper and denounced him. He went out on
Tuesday evening to go to the fancy dress ball at the Prince
of Wales Theatre, but for some reason did not get in, ani
came back. The Colonial Secretary also ascertained
that he had lived at Tierney's, Currency Lass Hotel,
corner of Pitt and Hunter streets, and to that house they
proceeded. Here, in a box said to belong to O'Farrell
they found a number of articles of clothing and some
written papers, from which it was shown that he had
resided in Melbourne.

A letter from Melbourne, dated March 31, says : "The
family of the O'Farrells came hither from Dublin 25 years
ago or more. The old man, who was a butcher in Eliza-
betli•ntrccb, h..d two ouus and two da.Q:nte.rs. From the
❑ature of the youngest son's late performance, you will
imagine that he must have followed his father's business.
Very different, however, his profession was intended to
be. He was to be a priest of the Roman Catholic
Church, and at 20 was sent to Europe to qualify for it.
He had been so apt a scholar that at sixteen he made a
speech at a meeting of the St. Patrick's Society here, in
March 1846, that called forth praise from our oldest
colonist, Mr. J. P. Fawkner. The speech was 'On Edu-
cation.' However, the education and the priestly studies
led to nothing, for O'Farrell came back here as he went,
and, for the Church, took to store-keeping at Ballarat
with one Kennedy. Hay, corn, and straw were their
specialities. They prospered, and a liking for the
bottle seized Kennedy, and he drank and died.
O'Farrell was left alone in every sense, for it was one
of his peculiarities that he talked of his vows of
celibacy, taken on his going in for the priesthood, having
been always kept. In one of the mining manias at Bal-
larat he lost all his property and took to the bottle. He
often talked of suicide, and on his two sisters, who are
well married here, going up to Ballarat to aid him, he
attempted the life of one of them with a sword-stick. His
relatives kept him at St. Kilda, near Melbourne, for some
time, and then let him go for a change to Sydney, sending
him remittances. What he did there the world will
know."