The Sun. — 1849-11-07 (London, England)

THE CONDEMNED CONVICTS.  Yesterday, at eleven o'clock, a messenger from the Home-office arrived at Horsemonger-lane Gaol, bearing a respite, during her Majesty's pleasure, for the convict Alfred Stephen Jordan, alias Dowland, capipitally convicted of attempting to murder a woman with whom he cohabited, in Dulwich-wood. The act of clemency was communicated in a letter from Sir George Grey addressed to the High Sheriff of Surrey, who lost no time in forwarding the intelligence to the Rev. William Sloman Rowe, chaplain of the gaol, who immediately visited the convict and informed ' him of the fact. The wretched youth received the intelligence with stoical indifference, betraying no emotion of gratitude, and appearing perfectly careless as to what became of him.  The convict Manning was yesterday permitted to have another interview with his brother Edmund Manning, who arrived at the gaol about one o'clock, accompanied by a married sister, who had come to town for the purpose of seeing her wretched relative. The Rev. Mr. Rowe and Mr. Keene, the governor of the gaol, were present at the interview, which was of an extremely painful nature. After the first outburst of feeling had subsided the convict was addressed by his brother at some length, and urged to communicate all he knew on the subject of the murder. Manning expressed his readiness to do so, and commenced by reiterating his former statement to the effect that his wife shot O'Connor as the latter was proceeding down stairs to wash his hands. He further stated that O'Connor had ,noticed the hole dug in the back kitchen on the occasion of former visits paid to Mit-o'er-place, and that he had been told by Mrs. Manning that it was a drain they were making. On the day of the murder, when the unhappy man went down stairs, Manning states that on reaching the back kitchen he heard him address his wife, and say, " What haven't you finished the drain yet ?" These, he says, were the last words O'Connor uttered, for immediately afterwards he heard the report of a pistol, and then a heavy fall on the fluor. The wretched man, in answer to other questions put to him by his brother, has confessed that he pledged a pair of pistols, with one of which the deceased was shot, on the evening of the day his wife left town, being at the time almost penniless. He has also confessed where the watches belonging to the late Patrick O'Connor, and the crowbar with which the murder was completed, may be found. The brother, Edmund Manning, on taking leave yesterday, promised to see the convict again on Saturday, but the sister took a last farewell.  Manning is more resigned to his fate than he was for two or three days after conviction. At first he would neither eat nor drink for some hours together, but he now takes his meals regularly, and expresses himself prepared for the awful change he has to undergo. He is not less anxious than heretofore to have an interview with his wife, but she positively refuses to see him. Edmund Manning, when at the prison yesterday, sought to obtain an interview with her, but she declined to see either him or his sister. There has been no application to see the female convict on the part of her own friends ship her conviction.