NEWS BY THE SAN FRANCISCO MAIL.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4898, 14 January 1884, Page 3

NEWS BY THE SAN FRANCISCO MAIL.

[Per Press Association.] [Per s.s. Australia, via Auckland.] STORM ON THE ENGLISH COAST. Despatches of Dec. 12 describe the effects of a violent gale throughout England. Much damage was caused in London and in the provinces. Huge trees were torn up and earned away. The low-lying districts of Birmingham were flooded. A portion of the roof of the Church of St Chad, in Derby, was demolished, and the Congregational Church was also injured. The parish church in Rotherham was much injured. Chimney shafts were thrown down in Manchester, Leeds, &c. A large gasholder near Bradford was capsized. The Leicester carriage works were destroyed, and at Birkenhead great damage was done. The chief officer of a steamer just arrived from Glasgow was killed, cabs were overturned, and many buildings destroyed. At Lincoln the parapet of the tower of the cathedral was blown down. A ship was blown from her moorings in Belfast harbour, and at South Shields a vessel broke adrift, and three wharries were sunk. The British ship Liverpool, from Quebec for Greenock, is a total Wreck near Stramair, in Scotland, and only a man and a boy were saved of the ci*ew. Two persons were killed at Hull, and several injured. A portion of Portsmouth was flooded, and at Hartlepool many ships were damaged. At Birmingham two persons were killed, and a number injured. Three were killed at Manchester, and tliree at Dewsbury. At Chester a man was blown down in the street and killed. Two persons were killed at Liversedge. A portion of the roof of St Mary's Church in Berwick was destroyed. Several houses in the suburbs of Nottingham were blown down. At Kildwick the gasometer was demolished, and a postal telegraph inspector at Leeds was cut in half. At Bradford a monument under the cliff in the cemetery, and a portion of the Midland railway dep6t, were blown down. Several vessels docked in the Mersey were damaged. Two yessels were wrecked at Dunure, in Scotland, and two men drowned. At Glasgow the damage to property was very great.

EXECUTION OF O'DONNELL AND POOLE. O'Donnell paid the penalty of his crime within the walls. of Newgate on the morning of Dec. 17. The drop fell precisely at 8 o'clock. The previous night O'Donnell went to bed about 10 and remained apparently asleep till 5.30. At 6 the priest came, and the prisoner remained in prayer for some time. At the conclusion of prayers the sacrament was administered. O'Donnell partook of a light breakfast, and appeared to eat with relish. At 7.45 the prison bell began tolling, and a similar warning was sent from the belfry of St Sepulchre's Church on Holborn Viaduct. Directly after, the Governor of the gaol, with the head warder entered, and O'Donnell was at once led to the pinioning room, half way between the condemned cell and the prison yard. Here they found the executioner Binns awaiting them, together with the Sheriff of London, three warders, and the prison doctor. Binns bound O'Donnell's arms with leather thongs, O'Donnell' submitting quietly. A procession was then formed, and they quietly marched to the prison yard, passing so close to the few spectators admitted that they could touched O'Donnell but for the lattice work which separated them. The scaffold was half bordered up so that O'Donnell's attendants were seen by those present only from the waist up. Binns lost not a moment in placing the white cap over the victini*B face, and adjusting the noose, and a moment after O'Donnell disappeared, a quivering cord being all that remained to show where he had stood. The governor and doctor gazed a moment into the pit in which his body swung, and then hurried away. Outside the gaol, a considerable crowd had assembled. They dispersed directly the black flag was hoisted. Twenty police were detailed inside the gaol, and constables were posted around the walls outside. - The body of O'Donnell, after hanging an hour, was cut ■down, and later in the day the inquest was* held, with the usual verdict. The remains were interred in quicklime under one of the flags in the corridor, known as Birdcage walk. While being pinioned O'Donnell smiled and seemed indifferent to his approaching fate. He expressed to the governor regrets for the scene he had made in dock after' being sentenced. He walked firmly to the scaffold. His death was instantaneous, the fall being eight feet. His brother was not admitted to the execution, but remained outside praying excitedly. The morning was wet and gloomy. The crowd around the gaol was quiet. Strenuous efforts were made, especially by Irish . Americans, to procure a mitigation, or at least respite, and delegations waited on President Arthur to ask that the United States should intervene in the matter, which was accordingly done through Minister Lowell in London. For this action, as well as for the resolutions passed by the United States House of Representatives, the New York Tribune and Post have only language of the strongest censure, and charge the President with yielding to Irish clamour and thus putting himself in an absurd position. Outside the Irish American element in ths United States there is no feeling in the matter whatever. Such American newspapers as discuss the sentence and its execution admit its justice. Joseph Poole, who was convicted of the murder of John Kenny in July, 1883, after trial in Dublin last November, was hanged within the walls of Richmond Gaol at eight o'clock on the morning of Dec. 18. Quite a crowd assembled, composed principally of women, who denounced the murdered man and eulogised Poole. No disturbance occurred. Kenny's murder took place in Dublin. He was killed because he was suspected of giving information concerning the Phoenix Park murders. Poole was held for trial on this account with two others. He was released in September, and re-arrested' at the funeral of Detective Cox, charged with being concerned in that murder, and again released. He owes his fall to his brother-in-law, Lauri, who, at the trial of Gebney and Kingston, two conspirators, on May 4, testified that Poole came to him on the night of the murder of Kenny, and described how it was done. He was tried twice on this charge, the jury failing to agree the first time.