The Press. — London, England, 1855-12-15 00:00:00

1192 THE WEEK. So far as public opinion can be gathered from the press, it does not appear unfavorable to the pacific negotiation now acknowledged to be proceeding. The tone of our leading journals has been wonder fully modified during the last few weeks. Then it was authoritatively proclaimed that the time for negotiation was past, or had not arrived ; that peace was not to be thought of until Russia was completely sub dued ; that Russia must pay all the expenses of the war ; that the Crimea must be wrested from her; and that, in short, she must be " thumped" into a jelly which could be moulded into any shape her conquerors pleased. Quite a different tone is now adopted : proba bilities of peace are calmly discussed, and the conditions on which it may be concluded rationally considered. The Morning Post thiS" week, in a tone of bluster which is natural and excusable, considering its source of inspiration, says : " Not a Russian ship on the Black " Sea ; not a Russian fort at Sebastopol ; no Muscovite gripe on the " throat of the Danube ; no more protectorates and interferences. " . . . . These main terms secured by material guarantees, would, " there is not a doubt, secure peace." We are not informed what the "material guarantees " are to be however. The Times assumes a more moderate tone, and begins to hint that Russia may be, after all, a party to the negotiation. Of the London press, the Morning Advertiser alone seems inclined to be " ruinpageous," and to overthrow the French alliance. But it wants heart for so bold a course, and still pins its hopes tO PALMERSTON. The speech of Mr. HENRY DRUMMOND at Guildford yesterday is significant. Ho seized the whole point of the present situation. " Shall we continue the war without France ?" asked he. A shout of " No, no," was the answer. Then he hinted we must be prepared to accept reasonable conditions of peace ; and this is the conclusion to which the mind of the country is fast tending. The Burdon poisoning case adds one more, and not the least sin gular, chapter to the Causes Cilibres of Criminal Jurisprudence. The loading facts of the case are simple. It is indisputable that Mrs. WOOLER died from the effects of arsenical poison, administered con tinuously for a lengthened period, and in small doses. She was ill for fifty days, and from her first attack, or at all events a few days after it, to the time of her death, her symptoms were the same. All the facts of the case exclude the supposition that arsenic could have been given her by accident, or in her medicine. The only question is, who administered it ? The crime must have been committed systemati cally, and with some skill. It must have been done by a resident in the house ; and for the first three weeks of Mrs. WOOLER'S illness, there were in the house only Mr. WOOLER, his wife, and their servant, ANN TAYLOR. Suspicion fell, not unnaturally, on the husband. Briefly summed up, the points against him were—that poisons, espe cially solution of arsenic, were in his possession ; that he had some knowledge of the use of medicines ; and that he was in constant attendance by his wife's bedside. As to all the other circumstances of suspicion, they were evidently suggested by preconception of his guilt, and would not bear calm examination. On the other hand, his con duct towards his wife had always been affectionate and natural, and continued so to the last. On the day she first complained of illness, he had, against her wish, called in medical assistance, and succes sively summoned Dr. JACKSON, Dr. DEVEY, and Dr. HAZLEWOOD. He reproached the first with not having earlier acquainted him of his wife's danger, that he might have had other advice. He made no secret of his possession of the Indian basket and its contents, but showed it to both the doctors in attendance on his wife, the solution of arsenic being placed with the rest. He had invited to his house Miss LANCEESTER, that she might be n constant attendance on his wife, and also his niece, a girl of fifteen. According to the statement of Miss BUCKNELL, his wife's sister, he had sent " numerous pressing requests" to her to come. It was at his instance that the body was exhumed and the examinations made, all costs being defrayed by himself; and it does not appear that he had ever been seen tampering with the medicines, or had any hand in preparing the injections. Assuming his innocence, who is the criminal ? Who prepared the in jections into which arsenic was introduced? Who had charge of the deceased's evacuations? Who collected all the bottles? And upon whom did Mr. WOOLER'S suspicion first appear to light? But could an ignorant person have administered poison with so much subtlety, skill, and persistence? Great art must have been combined with great hardihood, and one would imagine with the most unrelenting hatred towards the unfortunate woman, whose cruel sufferings never once moved her murderer to compassion. There must be new exer tions made to discover the criminal ; and social safety demands that such guilt should not be allowed to remain undetected. At the conclusion of the trial Miss BUCKNELL and ANN TAYLOR still seem to have been left in charge of the house. The conduct of the medical mon is not the least extraordinary part of this extraordinary case. Dr. JACKSON and his assistant, Mr. HENZELL, arrived at the conclusion on the 7th of June that poison was at work, yet they took no steps to intercept the deadly process, or to save the victim. Nay, Dr. JACKSON does not seem even to have communicated his suspicions to Dr. HAZLEWOOD until ten days after they first met in consultation; and then for ten days more these practitioners, supposed to be faithful guardians of health and life, watched the evidences of poison accumu lating—anticipated what fatal symptoms should follow next—saw their patient sinking under the deadly potency of arsenic—witnessed her distress—incessant vomiting, intense thirst, continual restlessness, IMM. THE PRESS. SATURDAY, unceasing nausea, severe spasms—yet took no step to save her. " She suffered frightfully," said one of her medical attendants ;—‘, I had strong suspicions that she was agonized with arsenic," said another ;—" I said poison is there, and some one in the house knows how to use it," deposed a third ; but they did nut even take the trouble to verify their suspicions at once by subjecting the evacuations of the deceased to chemical analysis. A medical man cannot be expected to play the part of a detective, but his first care should be for his patient. A sacred trust is reposed in him, and all other considerations should give way to the faithful and scrupulous discharge ofhis duties. Whenever he perceives or suspects influences at work adverse to his patient's recovery, and much more when life is threatened with poison, it is his part to frankly communicate with the patient's friends, and to avoid that selfish reserve which, by affording guilt an opportunity to ac complish its object, is not easily distinguished from connivance at crime. These, "par excellence," are the days of sanitary improvement Wash-houses and baths, model lodging-houses, and model cottages, are erected in and out of every town in the kingdom. Old streets are swept away, and new ones built ; filth rooted out, and fresh water let in. The Board of Health issues minute instructions upon the use of purgatives and the effect of chalk mixtures, and impresses upon us the necessity of keeping down our dust heaps, while rival systems of thorough drainage are advocated one against the other with a virulence as acrid as the matter they are supposed to remove. In such halcyon days of drainage and cleanliness, who would believe that in the centre of the great thoroughfare of London a festering heap of human flesh and bones lay rotting in unctuous putridity, and moreover that such a heap, the pet private property of the Church, was daily added to and increased, in spite of the Home Secretary's prohibition, and in the face of the Board of Health and the City Commissioners. Yet such is the case. In St. Andrew's churchyard on Holborn-hill, on the south and secluded side, little more than half an acre in all, can be seen to what extent burial fees will educe a nuisance, to which those of Belle Isle are agreeable fictions. For drawing public atten tion to the present state of this churchyard, we must thank Dr. LETHEBY, who visited it on Saturday last, and briefly told the result of his investiga tions to the City Commissioners on Tuesday. It appears that two years ago this churchyard was so overcrowed with dead bodies that the Homo Secretary ordered its immediate closure, but since that date, Dr. LETHEBY tells us, nearly 3,000 bodies have been added to the soil. The result is obvious—bones protrude on all sides, coffin has been heaped on coffin till three feet, and less, of earth alone covers them, the soil is " saturated " with decomposing organic matter. " From two " ounces of this soil," Dr. LETHEBY continues in his report, " I distilled " a disgusting fetid liquor, which will convince you that churchyard earth " is not so innocent or so innocuous a thing as many have supposed ; " and, finally, from the continued burials the soil has risen so high above its level as to require the interstices of the railings to be planked up in order to prevent the bones and coffins from falling on the passers-by. This is a pleasant state of things in the centre of the City, and it must be borne in mind that an average of twenty-one dead bodies are being now weekly put into this self-same " sweet spot." We may talk of the blessing of having done away with Smith field, and of preserving its site for sanitary purposes, but here, close at hand, is a curse of forty Smithfield power to breed cholera and malignant fevers, in spite of open spaces and sanitary regulations, and apparently in spite of every effort of the law to put it down. Are the City Commissioners, and the Board of Health, and the Home Secretary all ciphers, that such an intolerable breach of every duty, and of every law, sanitary, moral, or otherwise, can be committed with impunity ? Other persons who allow nuisances upon their pre mises or property are summoned before the district magistrates and subjected to heavy fines : we do not see why the culprit in this case should enjoy an immunity from the common law. The Rev. Mr. JowErr, Regius Professor of Greek in the University of Oxford, and author of " A Dissertation on the Atonement," has been called upon by the Vice-Chancellor to make a profession of faith, in the shape of signing the Thirty-nine Articles and the three articles of the Thirty-sixth Canon. The reason of this proceeding was an allega tion lodged in his hands by the Rev. Dr. MACBRIDE and the Rev. Mr. GOLIGHTLY, to the effect that Mr. JOWETT'S views on this great doctrine were heterodox. It is said that a similar complaint is about to be preferred against Mr. BADEN POWELL, who has certainly gone much further in the path of novelty than Mr. JowErr,—as his essays, re viewed in this Journal last April, abundantly testify. At the same time, though we should profess our entire disagreement with the theories put forward by either, we would be allowed to express a doubt how far such proceedings as those lately taken aro desirable. Abstruse metaphysical speculation is a matter in which much latitude was in ancient times allowed. And as long as the fact of the Atone ment is not denied, we think it is a stretch of authority to call a man to account for any particular way of looking at it. After all, Bishop BUTLER'S remarks on the subject might be readily interpreted as being nearly as much at variance with the language of the Articles as Mr. JowErr's. The former endeavoured to show that the Atonement was in accordance with the course of nature ; the latter, that it ought to be in conformity to our moral perceptions. To what extent Mr. JowETT may have compromised himself by his method of treatment, we can not determine ; but we should be sorry to see opportunities of raising theological disputes multiplied among us. The reappearance of JENNY LlND—as she continues to be called — at Exeter-hall on Monday drew together an immense audience. Con sidering that there is at present no one in town, the aspect of the great room in which the oratorio was given was a marvel. Every seat