sitting, and looking about him like a wild beast at bay. AVho can tell what new-born hope was throbbing in his heart, or yvhat were the feelings with yvhich he beheld the grinning, excited, merry-looking faces circled round him. There being no further impediment, the criminal resumed his ascent of the ladder. The executioner, yvho was noyv an adept at his business, placed " Roger " under the beam, quickly arranged the rope and cap ; after yvhich the drop fell, and with three or four struggles, life was gone. The deceased was reputed to be a great fighting m a n amongst his people. H e was brother of the chief of the Jarcoota tribe, yvho occupied a large territory in the westward, about 100 miles from Portland. H e was a m a n of a robust, well-built physique, and left two wives and several brothers, but no children. His oyvn tribe had been once numerous and powerful, but was almost extinct through native warfare, infanticide, and disease. It was said that the Judge had recommended that the sentence should be carried out at the place where "Roger" had committed the murder, in the hope of striking terror into the blacks; but this was not done in consequence, as was believed, of the large expense that would be incurred thereby. T h e scaffold was in some measure an improvement upon the one employed for the execution of the bushrangers, but it was an uncouth and repulsive looking object. T h e Executive of the time was very penurious in all matters appertaining to Port Phillip, and to save a paltry £ 5 note—the cost of removing it—it was actually alloyved to remain up for some time, until the Press indignantly denounced the standing eye-sore as an outrage upon public decency, and at length, through mere shame-sake, the Superintendent had it taken down. For more than four years, though there were several convictions for murder, no criminal was executed, in consequence of the existence of some doubts as to the legality of the amoval of Judge Willis. The difficulty was said to have originated with Judge Jeffcott, the immediate successor of the unbenched Judge; and, though it was also stated that the Judges and law officers at Sydney did not concur, there was yet a disinclination to carry out any extreme penalty of the law, pending the decision of the Privy Council on Willis's appeal. Even the semblance of an obstacle was at length removed by time, and henceforth there was no restriction to the law taking its course, whenever the Executive thought it desirable to enforce it to the uttermost. THE BUNINYONG MURDERER.—27TH JANUARY, 1847.
Jeremiah Connell, the convict condemned to die for the murder of Edward Martin, at Buninyong, bore his fate with much firmness. H e entertained some wild hopes of a reprieve, as nearly all criminals do though there was no tangible reason yvhy the prerogative of mercy should be interposed on his behalf so long as capital punishment for murder remained the law of the land. A memorial had been forwarded) praying for a commutation ; but the grounds for clemency were weak, and only non-compliance with its prayer could have been expected even by those who signed it. By a singular coincidence, the " Shamrock," steamer, from Sydney, which brought the unfortunate man's death warrant, also had as a passenger the official who was to give it effect. This was thefirstduly appointed executioner in the district, which had noyv a hangman provided for on the Estimates. His name was Jack Harris, and he was as great a scoundrel as hangmen usually are. T h e 27th January was fixed for the execution. After this Connell appeared doggedly indifferent as to how time went, or what happened, and more than once declared " he was quite content to die." H e attributed his crime to gross ill-treatment, which he averred he had received at the public-house yvhere the murder occurred, and at other times would say that the murder scene was a complete blank in his memory, for he had not the least recollection of it. For thefirsttime in the Province the execution yvas to be intra-mural, and the scaffold was erected in the north-western yard of the gaol, adjoining the treadmill—the drop on a level with the outer wall, so that the criminal would be wholly visible until "turned off," and the moment the bolt was drawn about three-fourths of him would disappear, leaving only the white calicoed face, shoulders, and breast to be seen by the outsiders. T h e reason for changing the place of execution from outside to inside yvas said to be some vague apprehension in the mind of Captain Lonsdale (then Acting Superintendent during a temporary absence of Mr. Latrobe in Van Diemen's Land) that a rescue was meditated. This notion was simply preposterous, as there never was any such intention. A very unpleasant episode occurred in the prison, arising out of this business. The
