Chaos

or "What a lie", or "How could I have said so"? or demanded at once that she should be sent for. Yet, he never on one single occasion, before others, spoke to Mrs. Cox on the subject. The only reasonable answer to this criticism is that he did not understand that Mrs. Cox had accused him of taking poison wilfully ; and I do not see that any of the medical men put it categorically before him that she had done so. After carefully reading all the evidence on the subject of Mrs. Cox informing the medical men that he had taken poison, I see no reason to doubt that whilst, for fairly sufficient reasons, she did not tell Dr. Mo,ore, yet she believed that she did tell Mr. Harrison; though, in doi'ng so, she mixed up her statement that he had taken poison with bfer opinion that the poison he had taken was chloroform. Afterwards, finding the doctors thought he had not taken chloroform, and seemed /to doubt his having taken any poison, she repeated her statement to Mr. Royes Bell and Dr. Johnson. Her reasons for not telling Dr. Moore are, that she thought it would be such a scandal that he should have taken poison on account of jealousy for hit wife; and that, when he recovered (as having, in her opinion, only taken chloroform, he would), Mr. Bravo would be so angry at the circumstance having been made known. MIr. Bravo seems to have expressed no desire to recover, and no surprise at the suddenness of his illness, or at the fact that-putting poison on one side-the nature of it was obscure; or curiosity to know how, if he had taken poison accidentally, he could have got hold of it, or who could have given it to him intentionally. On the contrary, he determinately, and once rudely, put a stop to any such disquisitions. All this required the courage which he was said by his stepfather to possess. Witlh regard to motive, he was quick in temper; had (quanhtzem vakat) a sunstroke some years ago ; was so dominated by an irritating and depressing idea as to have been little less than a monomaniac ; had that day had the subject of his monomania prominently before him; had threatened to commit suicide; had a Turkish bath in the morning and a warm bath in the afternoon. He had been suffering more or less from facial neuralgia for several days; and at dinner had nervous twitchings of the face, and looked ill and seemed irritable. In the morning, he had received an annoying letter from his mother; and in the afternoon, one of a similar character from his father; had that afternoon had Ihis nervous system rudely shaken ; and, on going up to bed, had been agitated by an exhibition of his wife's weakness in a matter which was known to annoy him intensely. Under such circumstances, an insane impulse is very far from surprising. It is true, there are arguments on the other side; but these have been so fully and repeatedly set forward, that it is needless to repeat them. It is not to be denied that these are of some weight. Therefore, though I lean to the probability of suicide, as against murder, probably the sound conclusion to adopt is that, though Mr. Bravo was poisoned by antimony, there is not sufficient evidence to say positively how or in what shape it wasintroduced into the system. 4. That he was murdered. The discussion of this question is virtually included in that of the preceding proposition, for it cannot be denied that the issue in this case is practically murder or suicide. I have only to add that, on a careful perusal of the evidence, sufficient proof of the existence in the mind or minds of any person or persons of hopes, fears, desires, wislhes, or re&rets, which might be supposed capable of supplying an adequate motive for crime, has not been established. The fifth proposition I do not care to discuss, though arguments in its favour might be adduced. It is more satisfactory to the sensational cravings of the multitude to believe in a great crime than in a great folly or in an act of insanity: a human weakness which may have contributed to produce the la st verdict. It may be an inducement to some to believe in the crime, to admit that it is scarcely possible they can ever be proved to be in t 'he wrong; wlhereas those who believe in the folly may, if they are wronig, be convicted of their error.