The Northern Daily Times. — 1853-12-29 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

EXECUTION IN FRANCE.—The trial and condemnation to death about a month ago of a man named Bony, by the Court of Assizes of the Seine-et-Marne, for the murder of a banker and his wife at Provins, will not be forgotten. The case, it will be remembered, was one of peculiar atrocity. The man murdered the banker as he sat at his office desk by striking him furiously on the head with a hatchet ; then he murdered his wife, who went to his assistance, by assailing her in the same way ; he afterwards collected all the money he could find ; then he attempted to commit a criminal assault on the servant girl, and he afterwards drank rum and other liquors until he became partially intoxicated and fell fast asleep. The servant girl, on seeing him in that state, slipped out of the house, and gave information to the Gendarmerie. He was immediately arrested. After his condemnation he paid great attention to the exhortations of the chaplain, and expressed repentance. He appealed to the Court of Cassation against his condemnation, but when his appeal was rejected he refused to pray for pardon, saying that after such crimes as he had committed his life would not be a sufficiently great sacrifice to expiate them. On the sth of this month he addressed the following letter to his mother from the gaol at Melun : "My dear Mother,—My greatest sorrow is to see that I cause so much to you. The chaplain has communicated your letter to me. Poor mother ! How happy 1 should be if all my afflictions only concerned myself ; and with what courage I should support the weight of my chains if the greatest part of my sufferings were not to fall on my dear mother ! Alas ! the band of God weighs terribly ou us; but let His holy will be done ! Let us pray to Him to accord us the patience and resignation necessary to support the great trial. Let us place our confidence in the Holy Virgin Mary, the consoling mother of repentant sinners, and let us abandon ourselves to her. She will open to us the holy path in which I have had the happiness to enter, and which alone can give us the hope of meeting in another world. How much I feel at present all the affection which my heart contains for you, dear mother ; and with what bitterness, what sorrow, and what regret I feel the privation of being able to confide it to your maternal bosom ! It is one of the greatest sacrifices which I offer to God before, making that of my life ; and I hope that He will be merciful enough to accept it in expiation of my faults, and to grant to me my portion of eternal happiness, where I can await my dear mother. Let us place ourselves in His holy keeping. Adieu! Adieu ! dear mother,—worthy of a better recompense for your old days. Oh ! pardon your unfortunate and guilty son the torments which he has caused you, and let that be his last consolation on earth. Once again, adieu, dear mother, and adieu to my brothers and sisters. Pray for me, as I pray for you. I embrace you all with a sorrowful embrace, and for the last time." He likewise addressed a letter, expressing the most fervent piety, to the sister superior of the hospital of Provins. On Wednesday the order arrived for his removal to Provins to be executed. He received it with resignation. He was asked if he would not make an appeal to the government for a commutation of his sentence, but he again refused, saying that his strongest desire was to expiate his crimes by his death. On Thursday morning the scaffold was erected in the Place Saint Ayoul, at Provins. Although the cold was very great an immense crowd assembled. At 8 o'clock the condemned ap -eare.l •' he was listening with great humility to the exhortations of the priest. The crowd, which had been rather noise, became silent the Moment he was seen, and when he ascended the scaffold, a great number fell on their knees and prayed. The scone at this moment was peculiarly solemn. A few seconds after the knife fell. —Galignani's Messener