Glasgow Courier. — 1848-02-17 (Glasgow, Strathclyde, Scotland)

THE SOUTHERN CONVICTS.  Yesterday another of the wretched murderers, John Reneluin, convicted at the Limerick Special Commission, underwent the extreme penalty of the law in front of the county jail According to the Reporter— " The unhappy man made no declaration of his guilt or innocence, but from the day of his committal to prison, after his conviction, he gave himself up to prayer and repentance, and went to meet his ignominious end with perfect resignation. In fact, such was his conformity to the Divine will, that he declared to his mother, who took her last farewell of him a few days previous, that if the prison walls were thrown open, and he had it in his power to escape, he would not avail himself of the opportunity. The unhappy man died almost wfthout a struggle. There were never so few persons at an execution in Limerick. The cars could pass with ease at the time, and so little pressure was there, that it was not necessary to have military or police in front of the jail." It is a melancholy fact, that there are to be found anion the Irish journals Liberal several which are not ashamed covertly, if not openly, to exress sorrow for the fate of the miserable men who, unpitying, hurried their victims to a premature grave; and to create distrust in the minds of the peasantry by insinuating doubts as to the justice of the verdicts and the propriety of carrying the sentences into execution. The taste of such writing is at least questionable; but here is a sample of another method of exciting the evil passion's of the lower orders, apd which so far is without parallel in the annals of newspaper literature; it is from the Limerick Reportey "It ip said that the statement of the Limerick Chronicle, that an executioner was brought down from Kilniainham to hang Ryan (Puck) and Andrew Des, is untrue. The statement was put forward to divert attention from the finisher of the law, euphemionsly thecribed by our local contemporary as 'the local functionary' who 'officiated on the occasion last year.' It was the same wretch from the work-house who perpetrated the job on Monday last, and proved himself worthy of his calling by the inhuman way in which the unfortunate Ryan (Puck) was tortured. It was not by mere accident that the fatal noose was so adjusted , as to prolong his sufferings for several minutes after the other criminal. We know not whether be got a hint from head-quarters to that effect, in order to make an example,' ,1 and thus render the spectacle more imposing; but we presume he considered he was carrying out the wishes of his superiors. Whether from his own malignity, or from torturing, the fact is certain that the rope was deliberately so placed as to ensure a slow and painful death; so much so that a friend of ours obzerved it at the time, and predicted exactly what happened. As torture k no part of the sentence of the law, we think means ought to be pdo pted to prevent the recurrence of such gratuitous inhumanity. buch ia the craving of the English appetite for everything connected with great crimes and remarkable criminals, that the clothes of Ryan (Puck) have been, or are about being, purchased from the hangman for the celebrated Madame Tussaud, to whom, we understand, is also to be forwarded a cast of his head, and his blunderbuss' in order that his image may be taken in wax, and that dressed in the clothes he wore, and bearing in his hands the formidable weapon with which be nmrdered, it may appear so like life that Cockney grandams will scream at the sight of the monster "  • •