The Glasgow Chronicle. — 1849-08-22 (Glasgow, Strathclyde, Scotland)

EXECUTION OF MARY' BALL, AT COVENTRY.  The prisoner made a confession of her guilt to Mr. Stanley, the governor of the gaol. "For some days (says Mr. Stanley) after the trial, the prisoner appeared to be very Indifferent to the awful situation in which she was placed. The Rev. H. %Hairs, rector of Bedworth, visited her on Tuesday after the trial, and used every effort to bring her to a sense of her solemn position. He again visited her on the following Friday, and soon after his departure a change for the better was observable in the state of her feelings; and to Rebecca Vernon, a woman in waiting, she said that she had something to say, but that she would say it to the governor, and to no one else. She also said to two other womea who sat up with her the same night, I wish me and my husband had been separated before, and then I should not have been here.' At the same time she repeated to those persons that what she had to say she would tell to the governor himself. On Sunday morning last, she said to Rebecca Vernon that she liked to hear the governor read, and she wished to see him. I immediately attended upon her, and after reading to her a short time, she appeared anxious to say something, and taking me by the hand, she made the following confession. She said, will tell you something.' I asked her what she wished to say, and she replied, "I did not like to tell any one else but you. I told Mr. Bellairs a lieon Tuesday last." I then asked her what she had said to Mr. Bhllairs, and she answered, 'I told him I knew nothing about it myself; but that is false, and I will tell you all about it. I put the arsenic on the mantel-shelf, and told him (her husband) there was some salts on the shelf; he might take them, they would do him good, though I knew at the same time it was not salts; but I thought if he took it himself, I should not get into any scrape about it, for the people would think he took it in a mistake.' (Mr. Stanley continues)—l then said to her, 'For God's sake, Ball, what made you do it ?" She answered me, and said, 'Why my husband was in the habit of going with other women, and using me so ill; no one knows what I have suffered; but had I have known as much as I do know, I would not have done it, for I would rather have left him and went to the workhouse; but I hope God will forgive me.' I then asked her if any one else knew anything about it, and she .said no one did. I further asked her how she came to say anything to her husband about salts; to which she replied that he was not very well, and she thought she would tell him there were salts on the shelf, though at the same time she knew it was not salts. The murderess maintained her self-possession and firmness in a remarkable degree to the last. Immediately after ten o'clock on Thursday morning, the officers of the prison appeared •on the platform in front, and the prisoner was led forth, accompanied by the governor, under-sheriff and his officer, and the Rev. Mr. Sandberg, reading the service for the occasion. She proceeded up the steps with little assistance, and, as far as we could observe, uttered no word while thus awaiting her end, but, with closed eyes and saddened countenance, stood motionless whilst the rope was placed round her neck. In an instant afterwards the drop fell, and she passed from this life in the presence of from eighteen to twenty thousand persons. A subdued thrill of horror appeared to pass over this immense multitudeas the fatal bolt was drawn, but otherwise there was no manifestation of feeling. The victim in this dreadful scene appeared to die without any perceptible struggles or distortions. It is 18 years since the last execution at Coventry—that of Mary Ann Higgins.—Coventry Herald.