The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-07-12 00:00:00

FUTURE FATE OF FRANCIS

John Francis, when he reached his destination, will not
be placed in a comfortable situation, and after a short time
obtain his liberty with a chance of advancement. There,
confined to a spot where there is no escape but through a
line of armed officers and fierce dogs trained to give an
alarm, and to seize, if need be, with devouring fury, the
flying convict, he will have to perform the most irksome
labour, and become, probably, " the wretched prcedial slave
of some harsh master, compelled by the lash to work till his
strength fails, and liable to be placed in chains for the
slightest offence. There have been cases in which the con-
vict appears to have committed a new crime, in the hope that
the hand of justice would terminate his deplorable existence.
Dr. Ullathorne, a Roman Catholic priest, gave evidence to
this effect.

In 1831, he said, in Norfolk Island, to v7hich place John
Francis will probably be sent, a conspiracy to take the island
had been formed. The attempt was made and failed. Some
of the prisoners were killed and wounded, and thirty-one
were condemned to death. Dr. Ullathorne and a Protestant
clergyman were sent to attend those who were to suffer. On
his arrival at the island, though it was late at night, as those
who were to be executed had but five days to live, he went
to the prison, and there he witnessed such a scene, he says,
as he never witnessed before. The thirty-one wretched men
were confined in three cells, and on his proceeding to an-
nounce the names of those who were selected to suffer, the
effect of his speech was exactly the opposite of what would
have been anticipated. As he mentioned the individuals who
were to be put to death, one after another dropped on his
knees and thanked God that he was to be delivered from that
horrible place, while those whose lives were spared stood
mute and weeping in profound dismay. This gentleman
added, it was very common for culprits, on their way to the
scaffold, to express joy that they were not going to Norfolk
Island ; another Catholic minister, who bad attended seventy-
four executions, declared that the greater number of those
he had attended in their last moments had exhibited the
same feeling. _

It would-be to sicken our readers to enlarge on all the
horrors of " the living death," which is the unhappy lot of
him whose crimes send him to Norfolk Island. There may
have been some abatement of them, and such we hope is the
case since the report to which we have referred was made ;
but hard fare, hard labour, and misery in every shape, awaits
the guilty being, whose forfeited life is not taken by the
executioner. Eight long years must pass before any material
relief will be afforded, and when penitence has earned
some moderate amelioration, the criminal must still remain,
till the close of life, a despised exile, far from his home, his
relatives, and all who would look upon him with kindness,
or cheer him with their society. Let those who have listened
to the nonsense which has been uttered about Oxford bear
this in mind, and repress the mad throbbings, before it is
too late, which would urge them to seek wretched notoriety,
beset as it is with enduring reproach, and intolerable pain.

A ROMANTIC INCIDENT.—The last rays of an autumnal
sun were gilding the tops of the spires of the old Abbey of
Westminster, when a figure emerged from the dark gothic
archway and darted, with the rapidity of
n we lightning, along the
side t
hon
ere the monastic
b
The stranger was
fallingt
which fello andi wore round
rerfe the
formerly
d wall
had which
their m ar ksthieiis sitec dwelling. i!
ample folds
his dressed
neck a i n a dark
profusion tunico of
mohair,
otf i
and was fastened inside his vest by some invisiblei process.
His legs were covered by a woollen material, shaped into a
Canova, Nollek "
s' ore
garment, in accordance with the age in which he l
his feet were cased in leather, cut into the fantletic form • and
i
characteristic of the period which we are writing
head, which was moulded much after the models which Phiiis
dwiaess,tmCaacroetwt,mPigrhatxihtealve
es,
produced,
rßoedhuneeesd was disfigured in some
, ens
degree by a round black covering, which was pulled down
almost to the eyebrows, and the finely chiselled chin of the
stranger was concealed in a bird's-eye handkerchief. His
nose looked as if it was fresh from the studio of the sculptor,
so delicately did it appear carved out into alto relievo from
the countenance, and the stranger's eyes might have been
just wet from the easel of Michael Angelo, Buonarotti, or
Martin Archer Shee, so strikingly did the pupil appear to be
thrown in between the lowering lashes. Scarcely had the
stranger gained the eastern angle of the cloister, into which
he was about to dart, when an individual muffled up in a
cloak stood before him, and producing two papers, placed
one in the hand of the mysterious individual in the tunic,
and having merely called his attention to the other, hastily
retired. The stranger sunk exhausted upon the stone bench
that runs round the cloister, and the paper fell from his
hand. I darted forward—l picked up the writing that had
produced such an effect upon the stranger's frame, for he
was by this time in strong convulsions. Having restored his
animation by the usual means, I proceeded to peruse the
paper * * * it was—the copy of a writ t—Punch.

" Execution, in all cases, as well capital as otherwise, must
be performed by the legal officer, the Sheriff, or his deputy ;
whose warrant for so doing was anciently by precept under
the hand and seal of the Judge, as it is still practised in the
Court of the Lord High Steward, upon the execution of a
peer ; though, in the Court of the Peers in Parliament, it is
done by writ from the King. Afterwards it was established,
that in case of life, the Judge may command execution to be
done without any writ. And now the usage is, for the Judge
to sign the calender, or list of ail the prisoners's names, with
their separate judgments in the margin, which is left with
the Sheriff. As, for a capital felony, it is written opposite
to the prisoner's name, " let him be hanged by the neck ;"
formerly, in the days of Latin and abbreviation, "sus. per
col." for "suspendatur per collum." And this is the only
warrant that the Sheriff has for so material an act as taking
away the life of another. It may certainly afford matter of
speculation, that in civil causes there should be such a variety
of writs of execution to recover a trifling debt, issued in the
King's name, and under the seal of the court, without which
the Sheriff cannot legally stir one step ; and yet that the
execution of a man, the most important and terrible task of
any, should depend upon a marginal note."
Thus, it is seen, that the only case where a writ from the
Sovereign, or a " death-warrant," was ever required, was
on the execution of a peer, in pursuance of a sentence of the
peers in parliament. This court is now entirely disused. It
will be remembered, that upon the recent trial of Lord Car-
digan, Lord Denman was created Lord High Steward, and
the prisoner was tried in the Court of the Lord High Steward,
and not the Court of the Peers in Parliament. The Queen
has, personally, no more power to pardon than she has
power to condemn. A pardon, to be valid, must have
certain formalities, which formalities can only be given to it
by some responsible officer. For this, we cite another
passage from Blackstone :
" 1. First, it must be under the great seal, a warrant under
the privy seal, or sign manual, though it may be a sufficient
authority to admit tha party to bail, in order to plead the
King's pardon, when obtained in proper form, yet is not of
itself a complete irrevocable pardon. 2. Next it is a general
rule, that, wherever it may reasonably be presumed the King
is deceived, the pardon is void. Therefore, any suppression
of truth, or suggestion of falsehood, in a charter of pardon,
will vitiate the whole ; for the King was misinformed."
The keeper of the Great Seal is the Lord Chancellor ; the
person responsible for the affixing the privy signet to the
warrant for the pardon is the Home Secretary. Both these
officers of state, but especially the latter, are responsible to
the country if they should allow the personal and private
feelings of the Sovereign to interfere with the course of
public justice.