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THE MOUNT RENNIE OUTRAGE. EXECUTION OF THE FOUR PRIS- ONERS. SHOCKING SCENE ON THE SCAF- FOLD.   [FROM THE ARGUS] Sydney, Friday. The execution of the four prisoners who were condemned to pay the utmost penalty of the law for complicity in the Mount Rennie outrage took place in Darlinghurst Gaol this morning. The event excited unusual interest, and   the sheriff received an extraordinary number of applications for permission to witness the execution. The hanging was fixed to take place at 9 o'lock, but long before that hour a large crowd of men and women had assembled outside the gaol gates. There were at least 140 persons, including doctors and scientific men, members of the bar, and repre- sentatives of the press, who were fur- nished with tickets of admission, and a great deal of unseemly crowding and confusion took place before these were all ushered into the central corridor of the gaol, where thie exccution was to take place.     Shortly after 9 o'clock the condemned men were conducted to the gallows. The first to enter the corridor was Martin, a priest being by his side, who was praying earnestly. Then came Read, followed by a Presbyterian chap- lain and two other Presbyterian cler- gymen, one of whom had been with the prisoner all through the night. It is stated that the condemned youth was in a very religious state of mind, and quite resigned to his fate. The other two youths, Duffy and Boyce, then fol- lowed, attended by the Rev. Father Byrne, chaplain to the gaol, and another reverend father from St. Mary's Cathedral. All the four prisoners were pinioned, their arms being bound tightly down to their sides but their   hands were loose. The Roman Cathol- lic culprits wore a cross over their prison garb. They were ranged under the fatal beam in the following order: —Read, Martin, Duffy, and Boyce; Read being placed on the left and Boyce on the right, fronting the spectators. Boyce was deathly pale, but the others were not, and all four had apparently worked themselves up to face death bravely. Before the ropes were adjusted the sheriff said Read handed him a long written statement to be held secret until after the execution. " He solemnly declares his innocence," said the sheriff " trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ and Saviour, but has a clear conscience as to his innocence. Robert Read wishes also to say that so far as his small knowledge of the affair ex- tends, and from all he has heard from the other condemned, he believes that those who also have been reprieved, saving Donellan are also innocent." The other prisoners said nothing at all, and no statement was made on their behalf. The white caps were then ad- justed. Boyce being the first to be de- prived of sight, as he was the last to be deprived of breath. Then Duffy, Martin and Read, in the order named, had the caps fixed on by the execu- tioner and his assistant. The ropes were quickly adjusted, and at a sign from the hangman the bolt was drawn and the four prisoners were left strug- gling in the air. Then followed a most horrible scene. The drop was at least a foot too short, and instead of the pris- oners being killed outright by the breaking of their necks, as should have been the case, they were slowly strang- led to death, the struggles of Boyce being terrible to witness. It was bad enough to see Read drawing deep breaths for what seemed fully a couple of minutes after the drop had taken place, but the contortions made by Boyce lasted far longer, and his clench- ed fists showed how hard had been the final struggle. Martin in falling was caught by the arm, in a bight of the rope, and hung for half a minute with his pinioned elbow bent up under his ear. After this lapse of time his arm was jerked loose by an agonised spasm, and he dropped about a foot. The whole affair appeared to have been ter- ribly bungled, and the sight was alto- gether too sickening to describe with anything like fullness. The sheriff stated that there were far too many persons on the scaffold at the last moment, whose presence interfered considerably with the hangman and the performance of the work. There were no less than seven clergymen on the scaffold, all of them remaining there while the men were being hanged. This so upset the hangman that he had some difficulty in placing the noose round Martin's neck, and his fall was broken in consequence. Three of the prisoners died according to the doctor's statement, by strangulation, only one of the four (Duffy) having his neck   broken by the jerk.

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