In compliance with your request I have pleasure in giving you a certificate as to the manner in which you conducted the execution of Peter Cassidy in H.M. Prison, Kirkdale. I may now report the statement which I gave in evidence at the Inquest, "that I had never seen an execution more satisfactorily performed." This was very gratifying to me. Your rope was of excellent quality; fine, soft, pliable, and strong. You adjusted the ring, directed forwards in the manner in which I have recommended in my pamphlet, "Judicial Hanging." You gave a sufficient length of drop, considering the weight of the culprit, and completely dislocated the cervical vertebræ between the atlas and axis (first and second vertebræ). I have reckoned that the weight of the criminal, multiplied by the length of the drop, might range from 1120 to 1260 foot pounds, and I have calculated that this _vis viva_ in the case of Cassidy amounted to 1140 foot pounds. The pinioning and other details were carried out with due decorum, I hope, whoever be appointed to the post of public Executioner, may be prohibited from also performing the part of a "showman" to gratify a depraved and morbid public curiosity. JAMES BARR, M.D., Medical Officer, H.M. Prison, Kirkdale. To Mr. James Berry. A few days after Conway's execution I received a letter from a gentleman in the South of London, shortly followed by a second letter, and as they throw some useful light upon the subject I give them in full--omitting the writer's name, as he does not wish it to be published. _August 22nd, 1891._ _Re_ the Execution at Kirkdale. Sir, As the accident attending the execution on the 20th inst. at Kirkdale may be falsely, and very unjustly, charged to your account, and at the same time be brought forward by a mass of misguided people as a reason for the total abolition of capital punishment, I think the following remarks on the subject of hanging may not be out of place.