Star.
London, England, 1824-11-30 00:00:00

EXECUTION O' MR. PAUNTLERdr.

,
Since the time ofthe unfortunate Dr. Dodcl, ieho.wa
executed in 1777. no case of forgery has excited so much
interest as that of Mr. Fauntleroy. Both were in a re-
spectable rank in life, and great efforts were made to
save both of them ; the public sympathy was no doubt
stronger on behalf of Dr. Dodd, into the reason why it
was so, it is not now necessary to inquire; the petitions.
in behalf of Mr. Fauntleroy were signed by 13,000
persons. In the case of Dr. Dodd, the petition for
mercy was signed by upwards of seventy thousand
persons, and occupied twenty-three skins of parch-
ment. Men dressed in mourning went from house
to house inviting signatures; and even the Lord Mayor
and Corporation went up in a body to invoke the Royal
clemency, which would, no doubt, have been granted,
had it not beeis.represented to his Majesty that in a
commercial country it was necessary to visit forgery
with capital punishment. Since that period, numerous
indeed have been the victims to the severity of the law.
The last of these,-Mr. Henry Fauntleroy, met his fate
this morning, and unappalled by one of the awfullesti
spectacle, that can be exhibited, the metropolis poured
forth its thousands to witness it. Even last night, hun-
dreds of persons were assembled in front of Newgate,
some of whom, we are assured, remained all night, in
order to secui e places near the scaffold.
On Saturday, Mr. Fauntleroy's sister visited him, and
although the interview was mutually distressing, yet it
proven a source of great satisfaction to him afterwards.
He was visited yesterday by his son, and his brother ;
Mi. Forbes, Mr. MA y hew, aid his kind and excellent reli-
gious instructor, the Rev. Mr. Springett, who was with
him during the whole of the day, and who attots•ied
him to tl:e scaffold. Much having been said on the
subject of its being the duty of Mr. Fauntleroy, before he
left the world,to afford a complete developement of every
circumstance connected with the affairs of the banking-'
house which might be involved in any intricacy, one,
of his friers had some communication with him on,
this point, when he declared that he had already given all
the information that he supposed would be important;
yet be was ready to enter into every explanation that
might be required, although, considering himself on the
borders of eternity, be could have desired that his
thoughts might be as much as possible abstracted from
the concerns of the present life. It was intimated to
him that there existed certain difficulties in the accounts-
which it was in his power alone to elucidate ; he replied,
that if the books were brought, he would cheerfully
devote one of the few hours which remained to him, for
the purpose of throwing light upon parts of them that
had lii:lierto been obscure. The books were accordingly
yesterday sent for ; and sitting down with his solicitor,
with very remarkable composure, he entered into the
detail of each circumstance that required explanation,
with that clearness which he hoped would be well un-
derstood, and deemed satisfactory. Throughout yes-
terday he maintained an extraordinary measure of self-
possession and serenity.

This morning, almost before day-light, the great
leading thoroughfares of Holborn. the Strand, Fleet-
street, St. Paul's Church-yard, and Smithfield, were
thronged by persons of eve'? class of society, hurrying
forward in one general body to catch a glimpse of the
final conclusion of the existence of ;his unfortunge cri-
minal. Many hundreds of the mass that assembled
could not even obtain a sight of. thi scaffold, and those
who did succeed in getting near theylatform, evidently
suffered much from the tremendous pressure occasioned
by the crux d.