Swansea and Glamorgan Herald, and South Wales Free Press. — 1867-11-30 (Swansea, West Glamorgan, Wales)

THE CROWD—AND THEIR CONDUCT. The period of the night during which there were fewest people in the neighbourhood of the scaffold was the hour from twelve to one. From midnight, and even before that time, the crowd had been gradnally iliminisliing, and at one o'clock it Was clear that none remained but those who intended to may out the eight. Why ally one should flavorsmauled it la difficult to conceive (says a writer in the Deily ' Nimes, from whose account the following is condensed), for they must have pert ectly well known that of the important proceeding. of the morning they could witness nothing whatever. Stay they did, however, and as the time wore on their numbers gradually increased. The mob which was lii collected, although for such an occasion remarkably quiet arid orderly, was not a little different in character from the crowd which had watched the construction of the scaffold and the erection of the barriera Its principal components , were evidently members of a lower social scale, and among them the criminal classes were more prominently represented. The proportion of females was smaller, but there were among the spectators a few factory women and girls Some of the men were mill hands, but a good many appeared to be miners, and besides those who live by morass more or less dishonest, costereuengers and street dealers of various sorts, there were many others whose occupation was not so olivione One thing was most noticeable. The anticipated spectacle Dad decidedly collected around its scene the entire class of night prowlers, or the bitter coldness of the weather —and it was a November night of severest kind—had driven them within doors. Except in the immediate vicinity of the New Bailey the streets of Manchester were entirely deserted. Ni drunken rowdy lounged against the corner posts, no footpad or housebreaker pursued his stealthy course under the shadow of the wall. The street-welkers had deserted their usual beats, and *Mine, and silence reigned alike over the highways and the most retired byways. The public buildings of both Manchester and Salford had been placed under special protection, the whole of the tire I brigade was on duty, and many of the warehouses were lighted up and guarded by armed men. At first the crowd near the prison increased very slowly, but as the hour fixed for the execution drew nearer it was recruited by considerable accessions. At no time, however, did it reach anything like the proportions that had been anticipated, and far beyond its outward bounds on both riles of the river stretched the unnecessary but prudently erected barriers. Rougn as were the people of whom this crowd Was composed, they conducted themselves with more propriety than might have been expected of them Whether it was that the coldness of the night chilled them. or that the solemnity of the occasion had awed their generally callous netting, certain it le that there was much less boi-terous meiTitnent, much less •iolent conduct or vile language than we are accustomed to witness on the part ef the crowds which assemble to witness executions in London The principal means that was adopted to relieve the tedium of waiting was the !Milting of various, popular melodies of the music-hall school-- Champagne Charlie' and "John Brownie body "were two of the principal favourites—and in listenieg to these choruses it was impossible not to be confirmed in the opinion which ocular observation had previously suggested, that there was a very ' smaff number id Irish among the crowd. The lower Irish popu'ation are those among whom, if among any, erie might expect to find sympathy with the convicts au,t bow it was that PO few of them attended at their execution it is impossible to say. Perhaps they were actuated by a eel'cn aversion to witness their doom, or were influenced by a bet. lug of submission to the sentence, and a conviction of the hopelessness of any attempt to interfere with its mulmllmneet. Among that crowd there was, no far as it was possible to judge, little or no sympathy with the cause for which the unfortunate convicts were about to suffer. There were to be heard m expressions of pity for their fate and some belief that they bad not really intended to perpetrate the murder for which they were snout to die, but no one appeared to quest on the participation of ally one of them in the offence no one seemed to doubt that the crime committed was murtier—muriler, and nothieg else. Th,re was apparent no confusion of the acts of the convicts with a mere political offence : not the slighte4 disposition to regard them as political victims or nurtyre.