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16 th January 1813
In our last publication, we inserted an account of the execution of the murderers of Mr. Horsfall, which contained the following
paragraph:—
"George Mellor prayed for about ten minutes. He spoke with great apparent fervency and devotion, confessing, in general, the greatness of his sins, but without making any
confession of the crime for which he suffered."—This statement is controverted by an anonymous writer in the Intelligencer, who asserts that Mellor admitted in his prayer at the place of
execution, that he was a murderer.—We can only repeat, that our statement was perfectly correct; and reassert, that neither in his prayer, or in any other part of his... did he make the
confession imputed to him by the office; nor did he say one word about not doing game. The case is this: — These men were impressed with a conviction, a most erroneous one, that the wicked and
ignoble oath of secrecy they had taken, was burning upon their consciences. This fact we have from the best authority, from a Gentleman whose official situation gives him the best opportunity of
observing the demeanour and conduct of the prisoners, and who was present on the fatal occasion. This Gentleman also distinctly stated to the writer of this paragraph, that neither Mellor, or any
other of the prisoners did, in any manner make any admission of their work. He had also the same assurance from the Rev. Divine whose office it was to attend these unhappy men in their last moments.
To which he would add his own personal testimony, for conceiving it as a part of his duty, and a painful duty it was to be present at the execution of these unhappy men, he attended to all that was
said by them, with the most anxious solicitude, to ascertain whether they had profited by the admonition of the Judge in making a confession of their guilt; but he did not have a single expression
admitting that they were guilty; much less a confession, in direct terms, that they were murderers. We have conceived it a duty we owe to ourselves and to the country, to state the grounds upon which
we made, and now justify the assertion in our last publication, "that the murderers made no confession of their enormous crime." That they were guilty no reasonable being that has heard or
read the evidence, can entertain a particle of doubt.
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