The Express. — 1862-11-03 (London, England)

THE PRISONERS UNDER RELATE ICE OP DEATH IN NEWGATE.  On Friday afternoon the sheriffs, Mr. Alderman IJ. C. Lawrence and Mr. Hugh Jones, accompanied by Messrs. Farrar and Mackrell, the under-sheriffs, and the Rev. Mr. Davis, and Mr. Jones, the governor of Nirwpte, proceeded to the cell in which the prisoner Robert Cooper was con Sued, and the chaplain announced to him in bsoom, ing terms that the sheriffs had fixed Monday' the 17th inst., ' se the day for carrying out the sentence of the law, and he exhorted him to make the beet use of the short time that remained to him in this world, and by • sincere repentance to endeavour to obtain pardon for the great sin he had cora-1 mitted. This wretched man appears to be quite prostrated by his position, and he appears to feel an excel,sive terror at the thought of losing his life upon the scaffold. He has never, it appears, attempted to cast any doubt upon the propriety of the verdict of the jury, but still he seems to think that there was • sort of justification of the act he committed by the conduct of the deceased. He has repeatedly stated that no one could tell what his feelings were at discovering that his wife, as he always called the deceased, was unfaithful to him. On his being reminded that she was cot his wife and that he had a wife living, he stated that on account of his being in the army be could not live with the woman whom be formerly married, and that they mutually agreed to separate, and he had not seen her for many years, and thought she was dead at the time he contracted the second marriage with the deceased girl. This prisoner evidently entertains so idea that mercy will be extended to him, and he has expressed an intention of sending his own statement of his case to the Home Secretary, and making an appeal to the crown for mercy, but it is not probable, from the character of the crime, that this will be likely to have any effect. The prisoner has repeatedly stated, since his conviction, that on the day the fatal affair happened he west to Isleworth quite by chance, and be declares that be entertained no intention to do mischief to the deceased, but alleges that the object for which he carried the pistol about with him was to destroybis own life. The other condemned culprit, Samuel Gardner, the sweep, who was oonvicted on Friday, of the murder of his wife, appears to exhibit much more fortitude than his wretclued companion, and it seems that be has all along persisted in declaring his innocence of the crime of which he was accused. It will be remembered that the circumstances of the case were of a very peculiar character, but although the jury were in deliberation more than an hour and a half before they returned their verdict, it appearsithat eleven of them had made up their minds in a veq short time that the evidence bad established the guilt of the prisoner, and ally one of them entertained any doubt upon the point. The Lord Chief Baron, who tried the prisoner, is understood to have expressed himself perfectly satisfied with the verdict sod the prisoner's attempt, if he is really jruilty, to 6x the crime upon an innocent person, • similar proceeding to which, it will be remembered, was adopted by the man Mullins, who was convicted of the murder of Mrs. Emslie, is evidently • great aggravation of his offence. A similar announcement to that which had been made on the previous day to Cooper was made to this prisoner by the officials on Saturday afternoon, and he head it with perfect calmness, end merely observedthat he was prepared to die, and it appears that he did not utter any of those protestations of innocence that were made use of by him after his trial. On Friday evening, after the jury had delivered their verdict, the girl Elizabeth Humbler was liberated from custody, and she was taken away from New/gate in the charge of her mother.