The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-07-10 00:00:00

[We deem it right to state that we do not at all times
identify ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.

I

I

The splendid summer weather which has lately
been gladdening the land, together with the prospects
of the crops, shows a bright contrast to the experience
of twelve months ago, when a period of agricultural
depression and of industrial paralysis seemed to have
reached its climax. It is just a year since the Royal
Agricultural society of England held its annual show
at Kilburn—one of the prettiest and most pleasant of
the north-western suburbs of London—and never had
the weather been worse in the history of that
important organization. The Queen had announced
her intention of visiting the Exhibition, but was
compelled to delay it several days in consequence
of the drenching rain. The Society lost £12,000
through the awful weather, for people did not
care to go to Kilburn to get wet through.
Looking back over the twelve months, it is seen that
the nation has much to be thankful for now. Busi-
ness is in the full tide of activity, and the London
season is at it-Theight. The financial year, so tar as
its first quarter is coneerned, has produced satisfactory
revenue returns, for there was an actual increase on
the Excise, the land tax, and house duty, the property
and income-tax, and still more markedly on the Post-
office and telegraph services. Altogether, the
national position and prospects are much better than
they were a year ago, and things are in every way
looking more cheerfUl both in country and in town.
The attractions of the London season have not yet
begun to wane. For a veritable feast of light and
colour nothing has yet been done to equal the
brilliancy of the summer fdte at the Royal Botanic
Gardens. The visitors passed out of the dreary streets
of monotonous London into a scene which combined
at once the beauty of scenic art with the reality of
nature, The Gardens, with their gentle slopes, fine
awns, frequent trees, devious pathways, and lovely
lake, lend themselves to illuminations. To those
who had not previously seen the Gardens lighted
up the effect was as startling as the spectacle
was picturesque. Tens of thousands of coloured lamps
marked the contour of the flower beds, twined them-
selves round the trunks of the trees, swung from the
boughs, and traced the outlines of the gravelled walks.
They formed a magnificent device over the lake which
reflected them back again in gleams of silvery light.
Then at a given signal coloured fires blazed forth from
a dozen points at once, making the thousands of
visitors in full dress, with all their varieties of moving
colour, look like some picture in Eastern romance.
The music of several bands, stationed in different Darts
of the gardens, floated over the fairy-like scene. Tents
full of rhododendrons andezaleas on the one side, and
of the choicest tropical plants on the other, combined to
add to the beauties of a gathering which those who
had the privilege of attendiug are not likely soon to
forget.

So far as the general celebration of the Sunday
School Centenary was concerned, there can be no
question that it was joined in by a.ll religious denomi-
nations without distinction of sect or creed. The
Prince and Princess of Wales testified by their pre-
sence at one of the gatherings how much they appre-
ciated the value of the work begun by Robert Raikes
a century ago. The Centennial Bible, which has
been prepared as a souvenir of the occasion, is a very
interesting and curious compilation. It gives the
various readings of all the numerous manuscripts and
versions of both the Old and New Testament, It has
brief critical notes from some passages gleaned from
modern critics; contains essays on all matters of
Biblical lore; and is a concordance, a gazetteer,and an
encyclopcedia all in one. It summarises the books,
tabulates the prayers, and classifies the discourses. It
is a work complete in itself, and brings a whole
Biblical library into a single volume.
Of the numerous expeditions to the North Pole
which have endeavoured to penetrate to that mysteri-
ous region, that projected by Commander Cheyne
possesses at all events the merit of novelty. It was
held 1317 Sir George Nares that any attempt to pene-
trate the 400 miles of icebergs that lay between the
point reached by him and the Pole would be useless,
and that the Pole itself was impracticable. Com-
mander Cheyne proposes to get over the difficulty,
not by taking the sledges through the ice, but by
avoiding the icebergs altogether in a balloon.
One subscriber has promised £1,000; Lord Derby has
given £108; Captain J. C. Bailey, 100 guineas; Mr.
Samuel Budgett, £100; Mr. Hugh Mason, ALP., £5O;
and Lady Stuart Monteith, 4:50. Mr. Rose has
offered £6OO worth of lime-juice for the expedition.
Admiral M'Donalcl gives the boats. The Admiralty
now has the matter under its consideration, and there
are great hopes that with Government assistance
Commander Cheyne's plan may be carried out.
An experiment is on trial in the House of Lords
this week which is intended to increase the possibility
of the Press hearing what is said in that illustrious
assembly. Times have indeed altered since Parlia-
ment and the newspapers were so fiercely antago-
nistic, and the former visited with heavy penalties
any attempt at the publication of its debates. The
Lords now, moved by the frequent representations of
the reporters in their House that many of their lord-
ships are heard with difficulty, and some are not heard
at all, have agreed to the erection of a temporary
staging in front of the reporters' gallery, so as to bring
the occupants nearer the speakers. Earl Beauchamp,
the chairman of the committee which has been
inquiring into the subject, was determined to
ascertain for himself ; and one evening, whilst
Earl Granville was speaking, Earl Beauchamp
went up.into the gallery and occupied The Times' box.
The result was that his lcrdship could hear scarcely
a wovd of what was being said by the Secretary of
State for Foreign Affairs. Lord Granville might have
been giving utterance to declarations of the highest
political consequence, but they were lost amid the
reverberating echoes of the Peer's Chamber.
The Berlin Conference has held its last sitting, and
has done very useful work in a short time. What-
ever else may happen, a distinct step is made towards
the settlement of one of the many questions of the
East. No doubt the Greek question is very far from
being settled by the decision of the Conference; but
the Greek claims to an extension of territory are con-
clusively defined, and the settlement is thus
brought within the inner circle of practical
politics. It is much to have accomplished this
and to have contributed towards an adjustment
which will be highly appreciated by the disturbed
populations of Eastern Europe. The action of Russia
at the Conference has tended to allay the suspicions
entertained in some quarters as to the probability of
a Russo-Turkish alliance. Had Russia contemplated
such an alliance, her representative would scarcely
have been instructed to demand greater concessions
to Greece than even France was prepared to sanction.
The visit of the King of the Hellenes to England, and
his close family relationship with our royal family
have, there is little doubt, helped to favourably affect
the claims of Greece when these have been under the
consideration of the Berlin Conference.
Avery interesting ceremony was that at Winds or
Castle when the Siamese Minister, on behalf of his
Sovereign, presented her Majesty with the Order of
tne White Elephant, and the Queen conferred upon
the Ambassador the Grand Cross of the Order of St.
Michael and St. George, and companionships of the
order upon the members of the Embassy. The cere-
monial seems to have been of a very imposing cha-
racter, the distinction of the White Elephant being
a high one; and Sir Albert Woods, Garter King at
Arms, was present to give due erkit to the occasion.
The names of the Siamese visitors, as published
in the Court Circular, read very curiously. The
King of Siam is, fortunately, for himself
and his country, at peace with other nations,
which aeeording to all accounts is more than can be
said of China. It is true that the actual outbreak
of hostilities between the Russian and Chinese forces
in the heart of Central Asia is not believed in at
St. Petersburg; but the scene of disturbance is so
faar from the outposts of oivilization that authentic
intelligence travels slowly even if it can be obtained
at all. It is well to remember that the region of
unrest, and in which, for anything we know to the
contrary, the forces of Russia and China might ere
now have come into collision, has never been trodden
by a European; so that we really know as little of
it as of the mountains of the moon.

The depression in trade has been so long and severe
that every sign of revival, however faint, is watched
with an eagerness perfectly intelligible, when it is
remembered that England is, par excellence, the
"nation of shopkeepers." The hope deferred has
made many a heart sick, but at length it seems as if
the bit of blue sky distinguishable in the early spring
was a tangible symptom of its returning prosperity.
The half-yearly accounts of the Railway Companies
are infallible tests of the commercial condition of the
country, and those for the six months just ended tell
a welcome tale. The increase on the North-Eastern
lines, a system which covers the North and East
Ridings of Yorkshire, as well as Northumberland and
Durham, with its many ramifications, amounts to
'Aalf-a-million as compared with the corresponding
'period of 1879. a fact which signifies a most important
revival in the iron and coal trades. The London and
Worth-Western Company, trading from London to
Manchester, Liverpool, Carlisle, and Scotland,
sweeping the Western Midlands of England in
course, shows an increase of over three hundred
thousand; the Midland, one of the most enterprising
-of lines, has a balance on the right side of two hundred
thousand more than 18W; and the Lancashire and
Yorkshire, whose greatest peculiarity is that its main

1

1, •
I

and ,
its 1

1..

A

all

line is shorter than its branches, is an extra hundred
thousand to the good.
The increased attention which has been given of late
in this country to the education of the blind will be
stimulated by the viiit to London of the pupils of
the Institution Natlonale des Jeunes Aveugles.
Perhaps there is no infliction more calculated to win
sympathy from the body of the people than that of
loss of sight; it touches every heart and appeals to
every sentiment; and when once it is seen how much
can be done by teaching to mitigate the horrors of
never ceasing darkness, the charitable instincts of the
English nation may be relied upon to assist all institu-
tions having as their aim the improvement in position
of the blind. The fact that one deprived wholly of
sight should recently have been appointed to high
office has drawn more general attention to the fact
that in these days of progress even the severest bodily
afflictions cannot stand in the way of a high order of
intellect, and this alone should be of the utmost
encouragement to those similarly afflicted, and per-
haps, similarly blessed. The pupils of the French
institution before-mentioned are likewise standing
proofs of the great capacity of those bereft of one of
Nature's greatest comforts • their musical perform-
ances are in every way admirable. Not only has
royalty testified to their value, but they have been
appreciated by many prominent London connoisseurs.

-.1111

were broken. The prisoner had gone to a neigh-
bouring gunmaker's shop the same morning, and asked
to be supplied with the largest shot in stock, and
he bought a pound of size No. 2, saying "they would
do fine." The shot he had been in the habit of buy-
ing previously had been much smaller. There was
nothing then which attracted the shopkeeper's attention.
The prisoner was a very good shot and fond of pigeon-
shooting. The cartridges found on the prisoner con-
tained No. 2 shot, but the cases had been made for
smaller shot, and they appeared to have been
opened.
Mr. Frederick William Wilson, a surgeon, who had
been called in to see the injured man after the occur-
rence, said that there were gunshot wounds on the left
side of the head and shoulder, and that forty shots had
penetrated his body. After his death witness made a
post-mortem examination, and found that one shot had
penetrated the brain, causing severe injury, another
had entered a lung, and the skull had been fractured.
Injury to the brain was the cause of death.
At this stage the case was adjourned until Saturday
morning, when
Dr. Carpenter, the medical officer of Her Ma-
jesty's Prison of Clerkenwell, deposed that he had
seen the prisoner repeatedly since he had been there.
When he was first brought, on the 22nd of May, he
was perfectly calm and collected. The prisoner, he
was of opinion, was quite sound in his mind. In
cross-examination, he said it was possible for a man
to suffer under a particular delusion and yet he sane
on other points. When he saw him on his arrival at
the prison on the 22nd of May, he did not notice he
had been drinking. The prisoner had been in custody
then about twelve hours. Supposing a man was given
to excessive habits of intemperance, he would pro-
bably show some signs of it even after that time.
Mr. Gibson, surgeon of Newgate, who has seen
Sweetland daily since his commital for trial on June
4, described the prisoner as being calm and rational,
and exhibiting no signs of insanity. On the head he
found two wounds, one apparently penetrating to the
bone. Since the arraignment, he had questioned the
prisoner as to whether he thought he was watched by
the deceased, and he replied that he did. Prisoner
had never opened any conversation, and occasion-
ally led off from the topic that might have been
started.
Cross-examined by Mr. Jones, the witness said that
Sweetland manifested no excitement when he alleged
that he had been watched. It was a dangerous delu-
sion for a man to believe that he was being watched,
and one that frequently led to the commission of vio-
lence. Supposing that delusion existed in this case,
the present calmness of the prisoner would be quite
consistent, because he would be under the belief that
he had relieved himself of the watching. Brain dis-
turbances often arose from apparently slight injury to
the head, and such a delusion as that of being watched
might occur without any injury at all. He considered
the circumstance of the prisoner reading a newspaper
just before he shot the deceased hardly consistent
with the act of a drunken man. The statement of the
prisoner that Buckler was about to attack him with
a knife, assuming it to be untrue, was unquestionably
a hallucination. Loss of money, intoxication, as well
as other things, were factors in insanity, especially
where it had previously existed in a family.
Mr. Atherley Jones then opened the case for the
prisoner, contending that the relations between the
parties showed no motive for the commission of the
crime, and that, in the absence of the motive, coupled
with the general conduct of Sweetland previous to the
murder, the jury would be justified in coming to the
conclusion that the prisoner was insane. He then called
a number of witness to speak to the strange conduct
of the prisoner shortly before the murder.
Dr. Claremont, who attended the prisoner on one
of the occasions of his being thrown from his trap,
stated that the injury he then sustained to his head
was very serious and likely to produce concussion of
the brain. A person injured in that way would be
very much excited by drink.

After Dr. Bucknill and Dr. Tidy had given evidence
in support of the theory of insanity, the trial was ad-
adjourned until Monday, the jury in the meantime
being taken to an hotel.
Mr. Atherly Jones, on Monday, summed up the
evidence he had brought forward on behalf of the
prisoner. He said that it would, of course, be
impossible for him to deny that the unfortunate
deceased had met his death at the hands of the
prisoner, and the only answer he could make
to the charge was that at the time the dread-
ful act was committed the prisoner was in such
a state of mind as not to be responsible for his
conduct in the eye of the law, and he should ask them
to acquit the prisoner upon that ground. He then
argued that the whole of the conduct of the prisoner on
the previous day and on this fatal morning was only to
be ascribed to insanity, and that he had acted like a
madman and not like a drunken man. He said that
the evidence negatived the fact that the prisoner was
drunk, and on the contrary the constable who appre-
hended him said that directly after the fatal occur-
rence the prisoner appeared to be quite calm and col-
lected, and did not exhibit any appearance of being the
worse for liquor. The learned counsel reviewed all the
facts of the case at some length and submitted to the
jury that the prisoner could not have had any rational
motive for destroying the life of the deceased, and that
the jury could only come to the reasonable conclusion
that at the time the prisoner fired the four shots at the
deceased he was labouring under the insane delusions
that the deceased was armed with a knife, that he
intended to attack him with the weapon; and that
what he did was absolutely necessary for theyreserva-
tion of his own life, if the jury took this view of the
matter, he said the prisoner was entitled to an acquittal
on the ground of insanity, and he submitted that the
decision of the judges in the case of the prisoner
M`Naghten, who was tried for the murder of Mr.
Drummond, fully supported him in this view of the
case. In conclusion, he said that under any circum-
stances, if the jury entertained the slightest doubt
upon the question at issue, he was sure it would be
their pleasure as well as their duty to take a merciful
view of the prisoner's conduct and say by their verdict
that, although it was perfectly clear that the prisoner
had committed this dreadful act, still he was .n such
a state of mind at the time as not to be criminally
responsibl..
Mr. Montagu Williams, replying upon the whole
case for the Crowu, said that it was a most painful
duty that was cast upon him, but still it was a most
important duty, and he felt compelled to say that in
the event of such a defence as the one now sought to
be established being succepsful, no man's life would be
foie. He then called the attention of the jury
to the most material facts that had been given in
evidence in support of the prosecution, and to the
observation made by the prisoner immediately after
the occurence, that he had done what he intended to
do and did not care if he swung for it; he argued that
the defence of insanity had entirely failed, and that
all the facts of the case pointed only to one irresistible
conclusion, which was that the prisoner had delibe-
rately destroyed the life of the deceased, that he
knew perfectly well what he was doing, and that it
would be a most dangerous thing for the safety of the
whole community if the prisoner were to be acquitted
on the ground of insanity

Mr. Justice Hawkins, in summing up the case to
the jury, said the duty cast upon them to determine
the guilt or innocence of the prisoner was a very
serious one. They had, by their verdict, to determine
whether the prisoner was guilty of the wilful murder
charged against him or whether he was to be ac-
quitted--not on the ground that the deceased met his
death from no action of the prisoner, for there could
be no doubt about that, but because he was not re-
sponsible, by reason of his state of mind at the time
of the commission of the crime. The prisoner's de-
fence had been most ably put forward and conducted
by Mr. Atherley Jones, and it was urged that he
should be acquitted on the ground of insanity—that
was to say, that at the time he committed the crime
he was irresponsible for his actions. Before calling
their attention to the facts of the case, he thought it
desirable to lay down to them the law of the country
as regarded cases of insanity. By the law every one
was presumed to be sane and to be possessing reason
in a sufficient degree to be responsible for his crimes
until the contrary was proved. To establish a defence
on the ground of .insanity it must be clearly proved
that at the time he committed the act the accused was
labouring under such a deficiency of reason from disease
of the mind as not to know the nature or quality of
the act he was committing, or if he did know what he
was doing that he was not aware that the act was wrong.
The burden and onus of proof rested on the person
who set up that defence of insanity. Merely tem-
porary insanity occasioned by drink would not excuse
a man, but voluntary drunkenness might be carried
to such an extent that the man's mind became
diseased, and then the case became different. If a
born idiot was to commit an act under a delusion it
was quite clear that, whatever the man intended to do,
no man could come to a conclusion that he was aware
of the nature and quality of the act he was committing.
A man might be aware of the nature of the act, as, for
instance, if a man killed another person uuder the belief
that he was doing a laudible act and not one which was
wrong or contrary to the law, and, again, if a man com-
mitted a murder under the delusion th at he was making a
de fence of his ownlife. The man in such cases might know
that he was striking and injuring another, but he
would not know that it was a wrong act if he was act-
ing under a belief which was a delusion. It was im-
possible to define what insanity was, but as far as the
criminal law went it must be that state of mind which
made ii porson unconscious of what he was doing and
that'it was a wrong actihe was committing, even though
he knew what that act was. It was not sufficient to
say that in a moment of intoxication he lost his rea-
son and faculties. The law did not tolerate a person
excusing his crime on the ground of mere drunkenness,
which was a voluntary act. If that were the case
there would be very few crimes of that kind punished
at all, for he had found that drink was the cause of
most cases of violence. It must not be a mere un-
hinging of the mind, but it must be that insanity
which prevented a man from knowing the nature
of an act or that it was wrong. A man's mere
inability, for instance, to make a will in law would
not excuse him from the consequence of his acts. A.
delusion which would excuse a man from the con-
sequences of his crime must be a delusion connected
with the act. Having explained the law applicable
to the case, his Lordship then turned to the evidence,
which he carefully went through and commented
upon. In conclusion, he asked them to say by their
verdict whether at the time the prisoner committed
the murder his mind was in such a state that he
was aware of the nature and quality of his act, and,
if he did, whether he was aware that it was a wrong
actwandnexatrpearyrsotonlwawho; or, on onofthpee
rcloenettriyarysa,
nwehmethinedr
he as
and responsible for his acts. If they found that he did
know that it was a wrong and unlawful act, they
would, however painful the duty was, say that he was
guilty of the crime of wilful murder, and if they found
that at the time of the commission of the 'mime he was
a person not accountable for his acts then it would be
their duty to say that he was not guilty on the ground
of insanity.
The jury retired at five minutes past two o'clock,
and they were absent until a quarter to four, when
they came into court and found the prisoner guilty of
"Wilful Murder."
The prisoner, who hung his head upon his breast
and exhibited a roost dejected appearance, did not
evince the slightest emotion when the verdict was de-
livered.
Mr. Wilson, the senior usher, then made the usual
proclamation for silemice, and the prisoner was asked

whether he had anything to say why judgment of
death should not be passed upon him.

The prisoner made no reply.
Mr. Justice Hawkins then put on the black cap,
and, addressing the prisoner, said that after a long and
most patient inquiry, and after hearing and paying the
fullest attention to all the arguments of his able and
learned counsel, the jury had found themselves com-
pelled to find him guilty of the crime of wilful
murder. That he had caNsed this poor man to be
hurried into eternity without giving him one
moment's warning there could not be the slightest
doubt, and the jury, after paying the most
serious attention to every point that had been
raised in his beb)lf, had felt themselves com-
pelled to come tci, the conclusion that upon the
circumstances under/which the act was committed he
was guilty of the crivae of wilful murder, and he must
be prepared for the awful consequences. For the
crime of murder the law of England only knew of one
penalty, and that penalty was death, and it was now
his duty to pass that sentence upon him for the crime
of which he has been convicted.

His lordship then passed the usual formal sentence
of death, and the prisoner, who appeared in a semi-
unconscious condition, was removed from the dock.