THE MURDERER WALSH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5359, 20 January 1879, Page 2

THE MURDERER WALSH.

[PER "HERALD" SPECUL WIRE.]

licvercargill, Saturday. Considerable indignation is felt here regarding reports that Walsh, the WalcaVi murderer, was to escape capital punishment The Times of yesterday has a strung leadin? article on the matter. It shews that no extenuating circumstances whatever hav« been adduced to warrant any mitigation of the law. The plea of insanity which is now set np was not even referred to at the trial by the prisoner's counsel, who made every endeavour to save his client, and whose reputation as a special pleader would hare been considerably enhanced had he done so. Tha only defence set up was an attempt to prove that the deceased committed suicide, but against the weight of evidence oa Che other side thU fell to pieces like a house of cards. It goea on to say :—" With the sentence we fully concurred. There were no extenuating circumstance* of any kind to warrant tit slightest modification of it, and if ever man deserved hanging for a cruel and barbarous crime, that man was James | Walsh. We think we shall only do Justice Williams bare justice in stating that "had anything transpired in the course of the trial to lead to a mere supposition of unsoundness of mind on the prisoner's part, he would not have overlooked it, and would certainly havs been influenced by it wheu, as we were advised the other day by telegram, he wa3 uuable to say auything in favour of commuting the extreme sentence. In the face of this, however, we hear that the Ministry has seen fit to recommend the prisoner to the merciful consideration of the Crown; in other words, that the sentence should be commuted to imprisonment for life on the grounds of insanity!" How. then, we should like to know, did the' Ministry derive inspiration on this point ? It is somewhat remarkable that the evidence of insanity should have been quite overlooked by numerous people at this end of thecolony who were brought into close communication with the prisoner, and yet disclosed to officials at ellington. X'litre can be ao question about certain representations having been made to Ministers, or they would not have placed matters as they did before His Excellency; but for al! that, it strikes as that they have been very considerably misled, and been wasting sympathies for an unworthy object. If there had been a political end in view, it is quite possible the Ministry would have used Walsh as a lever to have gained it, but the man was a nobody—a hewer of wood and drawer of water,—from whom nothing was to be hoped for and nothing wa3 to be feared."