THE CONDEMNED CONVICT JONES.

Otago Witness, Issue 746, 17 March 1866, Page 2

THE CONDEMNED CONVICT JONES.

[The following appeared in the Daily Timt3 r March 14rh]

{To the Editor of the < taoo Dailt Times )

Sib — Without entering into any controversy in reference to the expediency of capital punishment, on which question there is great difference of opinion, it will be admitted by many, that the case of the present convict, John Jonee, is one in which the extreme penalty of the law may be commuted to a sentence of penal servitude, and the interests of society at the sirne time fully vindicated.

He is 26 years of age, was born in Liverpool, early left an orphan, and allowed to grow up in utter ignorance, he not being able either to read or write. In these adverse circumstances, his conduct appears to have been good. He came to Otago by the Star of Tasmania, in 1864, and Capt. Culbert certifies that while under his command, his behavior was uniformly correct. His demeanor is quiet and gentle, and he has nothing of the desperado about him. His rime is to be attributed not to any malice or evil intention he entertained towards the deceased, but solely to the delirium of drunkenness. He had been drinking with some companions for a day or two^ and he declares that when he assaulted the deceased he did not know what he waa doing. On any rational grounds bis conduct is unaccountable, and it can only be explained by believing that the crime wa3 committed when he was in a condition of temporary insanity from the effects of intoxicating liquor.

I do not justify his conduct in any way, but I feel if there is to be any distinction drawn at all, this seems a proper case for petitioning for a commutation of the sentence. The jury who heard the evidence unanimously recommended the prisoner to mercy, and this mny be supported by all those who are of opinion that crimes, the result of cold- blooded depravity, and those where there was no premeditation or previous felonious intent, ought not to be punished in a like degree.

I refrain from remark upon the medical treatment of the deceased, the circumstances being widely known.

Let those who are in favor of hanging" criminals consider what they might have betn themselves, if left fatherless, te grow up without education or training of any kind, aad encounter all the temptations which surround ua, Let them thank God far the privileses they have enjoyed ; and in looking on the ca?e of a fellow creature, perhaps of a better natural disposition than rhey have, let them temper in humility judgment with mercy.

An opportunity to subscribe a Petition to the Governor i« favor of the Prisoner will be given to those who desire it. Yours, &c, John Bathgate.

Tub Ice Cone or Montmorenct. — One step forward towards the torrent, a slip, a slide cf three short seconds, a shriek drowned in the mighty voice of the waters, and the creature standing fall of life — is gone ! gone ! has disappeared for ever without a trace, never more to be seen or heard of. This is no dream, no idle possibility of what might be. The horror has been, and that more than once. Not many years ago a stranger drove down with his wife, but lately married, to see this famous court of the Winterising. Under charge of a guide, they climbed the steps, and stood at length on the pinnacle of ihe great ice-tbeone. Suddenly, while looking over the mighty sweep of the St. Lawrence, with his back to the Falls, the gentleman missed hia companion from his side ; and turning, (perhaps carelessly enough) oh ! terrible to think of — she was not. Gone ! gone, instantly, silently, without a trace or vestige of her flight. She had, doubtless, stepped back some three or four feet, slipped on the glassy surface ; and, before 3he could think of her fate, was in the midst of the whirlpool, and sucked beneath the frozen river on which her husband still all unconscious stood. Who is there among us would elect to watch that man turning to look for her? to mark his glimmering faltering knowledge of the horrible truth ? to see him fall with clasped hands over his forehead, within which more than possibly dawns the idea of following her? yet still to follow him, dragged down, by the slope which leads back 'to life, from the fatal throne, by men attracted by his cries to the place ? or ride with him in the halfempty sleigh back to the city-gate f Not a trace, not a vestige of that fair woman was ever seen again by human eye. Some* times, when we little think it, " the one shall be taken and the other lefc."— •" The Throne of the Winter King," in " Once a Week."