TASMANIA.

Lyttelton Times, Volume III, Issue 124, 21 May 1853, Page 8

TASMANIA.

Launceston, April 8,

Public interest is concentrated on the one topic of the week, the trial of the Van Diemen's Land bushrangers, Dalton and Kelly. They were tried yesterday, before Judge Home, convicted, and sentenced to death, without hope of mercy. Throughout the whole of the solemn scene they evinced the most callous indifference to their fate. In fact, they are two of the most hardened ruffians that ever stood in the felons' dock. To use the words of the learned Attorney-General, in his opening address to the jury, their case was without a " parallel in the history of the colony." Well it may be if it provoke not imitation; for in a convict settlement such as Van Diemen's Land we are never secure against the repetition of these terrible crimes.

The accused were charged with the murder of a convict constable named Buckmaster, on the 6th of January last, at the residence of Simeon Lord, Esq., near the township of Avoca, in the police district of Fingal. The deceased at the time held the office of watch-house, keeper at the first-named place. On the day iv question alarm was brought to the township that there was something amiss up at Mr. Lord's house. It was thought that it was nothing more than a drunken riot among the " shearers," a number of whom were employed uponMie estate ; and it was imagined that the disturbance, whatever it might be, would be easily quelled. Accordingly a party of constables, amongst whom was Buckmaster, set out for Mr. Lord's, taking with them, merely for the purpose of making " a show," some of the useless muskets standing in the guardhouse. On their arrival, as the party were passing the drawing-room window, a shot was tired, and Buckmaster fell, dead. Dal ton's was the hand that fired the falal shot—Kelly, likewise armed, standing by a guilty accessary. These two men had " bailed up" the family, and a host of servants, and were in undisputed possession of the house when the police arrived. On the death of the constable his companions seemed to have been stricken with the paralysis of fear; for they offered no resistance, and allowed the villains to despoil the house of all its valuables. After a while, the robbers having obtained a "mount" from Mr. Lord's stables, left the premises, their last words being an injunction upon their prisoners not to follow them, on pain of death. With the exception of two cases of robbery, committed on the same day, nothing certain was known of their movements, until their capture in Melbourne about six weeks after. Meantime a large district of country, where the settlers are wealthy, and their houses isolated, and where firearms were but in the hands of a few, was agitated with terror. Many were the false alarms given. Active magistrates were continually afoot, and parties of police scoured the bush in all directions. Up to the time of their being taken in Melbourne, they were believed by the terrorstrickened inhabitants to be still lurking about the neighbourhood where their first terrible crime was committed. But the ruffians, enriched by their achievements, were meantime making a most desperate effort to escape—and they nearly succeeded.

Both the condemned criminals arrived in this colony as prisoners of the Crown. Dalton, the more hardened ruffian of the two, was originally sentenced for the term of seven years' for the commission of a petty larceny. He was very young; then, and it was intended that his sentence should be worked out at home ; but his conduct was so bad that he was eventually sent out to this colony. Since his arrival in 1835 he lias been advancing in his career of crime) from bad to worse, up to the commission of the horrible crime which will bring him to an untimely and disgraceful end. He has before been a " bushranger," and this is not the first time'his name has been a terror in the country where his last exploits took place. A few years back he was out in the very same district/ On that occasion a merciful Executive spared his life, and he was transported for life to Norfolk . Island^ If the convict authorities had acted on their own impressions, and had been consistent enough to adhere to their blue book professions, the life of the deceased would have

been spared, and the wretched beings now in the condemned cell, criminal as they ever have been, would have been free from the stain of blood. The Executive of the Island and the Comptroller of Convicts Lave frequently in their despatches to the Home Government, pointed out the danger of allowing the thrice-con-victed criminals of Norfolk Island to revisit the scenes of their former exploits. Yet have these authorities, contrary to the dictates of their own sober judgment, and with the conscioubness of all the danger, and all the folly of the act, ordered the re-embarkation of hundreds of these wretches to our shores. Under the new system Dalton once more found his way to Port Arthur. Thence it was not difficult to abscond, and- he found a willing helpmate in the person of Kelly, who, though much younger in years, is almost his equal in iniquity. his trial Dalton defended himself. He endeavoured to screen Kelly from the consequences of his acts, allowing the onus to fall upon himself alone. He admitted to have been the murderer of Buckmaster ; but withal he seemed to glory in the act. To use his own words he ''killed Buckmaster on account of the treatment he had received from him. On one occasion Buckmaster and another man were searching him ; Buckmaster saw him put something in his mouth, and to obtain it he nearly strangled him." For some time Dalton had been waiting for his revenge; and the opportunity offered at length. The wretched man attributed all his crime in this country to the ill-treatment of masters, to the petty tyranny of the overseers, and the seventies of convict discipline, which inflamed his resentment against society, and made him equal to the commission of the most atrocious deeds.

The day of execution is not yet fixed. Their fate is regarded by most right-minded- persons as a harsh necessity ; but at the closing- scene in the Court there were not wanting those who could echo for sympathy the last words which, they in bravado addressed to the mob, " Good bye ! good bye I"

Dalton and Kelly have made two futile attempts at escape. On one occasion they had managed to secure two small crowbars which had been left in the yard where they were allowed to walk, and with these they were detected in the act of removing the wall of their cells. On a second occasion they made an attempt to secure the musket of a sentry.