- By an act of royal clemency the woman convicted of the
wilful murder of her infant is suffered to escape the gallows for the
dreary experience of lifelong immurement, a worse penalty to a sensitive
mind. The Governor, Mr. Roberts has received the following
communication from the Home Secretary, marked as "pressing":-
- "Whitehall, 19th July, 1876.
- "Sir,-I am to signify to you the Queen's
commands that the execution of the sentence of death passed upon
Lucy Lowe, now in the Bedford Prison, be respited until further
signification of Her Majesty's pleasure.
- "I am, sir, your obedient servant,
- " R. ASSHETON CROSS."
- We are glad to escape the wretched task of having
to record an execution. The convict will be removed shortly to
one of the large penal depots.
- Only a few particulars remain to be stated.
On Wednesday the convict was visited by her father and three married
sisters, in the presence of the Governor, the matron and a female
warder. The interview was of a painful character. The
prisoner freely admitted her guilt, and stated that although she
gave herself up to death she shrunk from death by hanging, but hoped
she should be resigned to it when the time came. She seems to
have listened attentively to and profited from by the ministrations
of the Prison Chaplain, to whom as well as to other officials she
expressed her gratitude for the kindness shown to her. The
interview lasted and hour and a-half. On Thursday morning the
letter from the Home Secretary was through the kindness of Mr.
Stewart, postmaster, delivered to the Governor, about 6 o'clock, and
shortly afterwards the fact of her being respited was made known to
the convict, who accepted it as an answer to earnest prayer.
She was afterwards removed to an ordinary cell, where she is
detained pending further instructions.
