The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-03-12 00:00:00

frIE STOURBRTDGE OBSERVER.

Mr. Codd : Did you coy one word of the story you have
now told until after you had heard that the prisoner had
threatened to tell your husband of something that had
occurred 7—lt is not true.

The Lord Chief Justice told her to answer the
question, and after a deal of pressing she admitted
that some charge had been made affecting her character
LW a married woman, and that ehe had heard that the
prisoner had threatened to tell her husband something
upon the alibied. It was after this that she went to
the police ad made the etatement which led to the
apprehension of the prisoner upon the charge of murder.
tog the child.

Rebecca Smart, the daughter of the prtlnner, was then
examined, anti no stated I hot her nit titer assiated her at the
delivery, but she never heard the child cry, and after it was
horn she took the child away, arid witness did not know
what had become of it, until her mother told her some time
afterwards that she had buried it.
Cross-examined She heard Mrs. Starks say to her mother,
" If I was yuu I would not let it live, and no one should know
anything shout lt."
Thomas blowers, one of the Essex constabulary, proved
that, in consequence of directions he received, he went to the
cottage where the prisoner had lived at Nazeitig, and, up on
digging In the garden, he found a number of bones, ap-
parently those of a c lid, and a quantity of decomposed
matter tied up in apiece of black cloth.
Mr. eirepson, the superintendent of the constabulary at
lipping, deposed that in consequence.of information he re-
ceived he went to the prisoner and told her who he was, and
said that he wishui to rack her a few questions, but she
need not answer Omni unless she pleased, lie then told
her that Mrs. Starks had accused her of having pet her
finger Into the throat of her daughter's CAM, and with
having strangled it with her garter, and she said the state-
ments were false, and that the child was ilead and she
buried it in the garden. She added that she had never been
happy since.
The Lord Chief Justice observed that the witness had ex-
ceeded his duty in putting questions to the prisoner undo
such circumstances.

_
--The superintendent explained that he did not believe there
was any truth in the statentent of the witness Starks when
she made it, and he merely went to the prisoner to give her
an opportunity of explanation.
The Lord Chief Justice said he did not impute any impro-
per motive to him personally and he believed that he was
merely anxious to do his duty. It should, however, be un-
derstood that police officers had no right to question any
party who was in the position of the prisoner.
Mr. Coda, on behalf of the prisoner. said it was perfectly
clear that the charge made against the prisoner rested en-
tirely on the evidence of the woman Starks, whom he
characterized, from the admissions she bad made in the
course of the trial, as a disgrace to her sex. If the story told
by the prisoner's slaughter was trite, if a murder had been
committed. it was done at the suggestion of the witness he
referred to, and the proper place for her was the dock, and
not the witness-box, tie went on to contend that the charge
of murder had no foundation, and that the story had been
trumped up by the witness Starks out of revenge.
- - - - -

-o-.-
The Lord Chief Justice, in summing up the case bo
the jury, said that undoubtedly the charge rested
almcfet entirely upon the evidence of the witness Mrs.
Starks, and it would be for them to say whether they
could possibly rely upon it. She not only admitted
that when the prisoner put a question to her that was
tantamount to asking her whether she was to kill the
child ornot, she told her that she was to please herself
but afterwards admitted that she sat coolly looking on
while • deliberate and cruel murder was being per-
petrated upon a helpless infant. If a murder had
actually been committed, thin witness really almost
' stood in the position of an accomplice, and the jury
would consider how far it was possible to place any
reliance upon the testimony of such a witness.
The jury immediately returned • verdict of not
guilty of murder, but guilty of endeavouring to conceal
the dead body of the child.
The Lord Chief Justice, addressing the prisoner,
said that she had been very properly acquitted of the
more serious crime, but there was no doubt that•he
had committed the offence of which the jury had found
her guilty. It was one of a serbdis character, and
required that severe punishment should attend it, and
be sentenced her to be imprisoned and kept to hard
labour for six months.

As soon as the real nature of the disaster became
known, all the available resources of the city were ; iit
in requisition for the relief of the victims. The syndic
and the prefect, the officers and soldiers of the garrison
the Brothers of Mercy, medical men from the hospital,
were soon on the spot; the people opened their houses
for the reception of the wounded, as one by one they
were extricated from their fearful position; subscrip•
tions were at once set on foot for the benefit of the
sufferers, and a daily allowance voted for the support
of their families; every one, in short, did his utmost
to mitigate the consequences of the calamity. Strange
to • ay, all the persons who had been surprised by ti•i•
somewhat rare catastrophe were found still alive,
although many were frightfully mutilated, and are
now lying in a very precarious state. There are in all
about fifty members of the society now lying with
fractured limbs in the hospital, or in other public esta-
blishments, without counting those who are being
tended at their own houses, or who escaped with minor
casualties.

An event like this of course cast a gloom over the
concluding days of the Carnival, which has been this
year rather unusually fruitful of disasters (remarks a
1 Florence correspondent). At Florence, during the
masked procession on Shrove Tuesday, is young man
was crushed to death beneath the wheels of a gigantic
car representing a ship, the masts and rigging of
which were thi,Arly studded with maskers in nautical
costume, showering a profusion of flowers, comfits, &TA
coriancioli upon the double line of spectators. A short
time after the accident just mentioned the car itself
was overturned, and the crew dashed in a he opupan
the pavement. Many of them got fractured limbs,
and even worse, from their fall from their gitloy eleva-
tion upon the stone pavement.

are collectively the constant objects of denunciation end

"1 see some people are labouring to turn the stream of
emigration to Canada, but this is merely turning it by a
roundabout course, into the Northern States into which,
sooner or later, a large proportion of the emigrants straggle
on. The climate of Canada is terribly severe for the emi-
grant, the winter, terribly long, devoitring a great part of
the fruits of his summer labour, and the soil being so heavily
timbered, clearing is a severe work. I heartily wish prosperity
to Canada, with which I am myself coanected, and which Is
In fact my home on this continent lint, depend upon it,
Virginia is the land of hope for the goghsh in America.
There is a Virginia Lend Company with an offing in New
York, presided over by Ceneral lmboden, one elf the con-
feilende commanders, who has "accepted the situation." I
have hail some communication with these gentlemen and
seen their 'meters, and probably you will hear of them in
giittland. It Is a pity there is not a direct peonage. to
Virginia; had there been, emigration would probably have
aken that course before.—l am, kc., "COLDWIN SMITH."