The Press.
London, England, 1857-07-11 00:00:00

THE GLASGOW POISONING.

THE extraordinary trial upon which public
attention was fixed for nine consecutive days
has terminated very properly in the acquittal
of the prisoner. That there were circum-
stances of suspicion, nay, of strong suspicion
against her, it is impossible to dispute. But
the chain of evidence was incomplete. There
were some essential links wanting, without
which no jury would have been justified in
sending the heroine of this terrible drama to
the scaffold. The evidence, consistent though
it was with her guilt, was also consistent with
her innocence. Her composed and dauntless
demeanour throughout, from the moment
when she was first charged with the murder,
until the jury pronounced their verdict of
acquittal, was consistent with either hypo-
thesis. The mystery is still unsolved, and so
it will in all probability for ever remain. But
enough is known of this unhappy case to
invest it with a degree of painful interest for
all coming time.

We learn from the evidence for the defence
that some two years ago Miss SMITH first
became acquainted with her supposed victim.
He was about ten years her senior, and he
appears to have made various attempts to
obtain an introduction to her before he effected
his object. He employed for this purpose a
lad of seventeen who happened to be ac-
quainted with the family of the prisoner. The
introduction obtained in this irregular way
was followed by a clandestine correspondence,
commenced, we may assume, by L'ANGELIER.
Miss SMITH'S letters at this time show clearly
she felt the impropriety of this proceeding, and
that she wished to put an end to it. But she
had thoughtlessly placed herself in the power
of her experienced and designing lover. It was
an object for the penniless adventurer to gain
the affections of a girl in the position of Miss
SMITH. and he contrived to retain them. After
a twelvemonth's acquaintance he finally
seduces her, by what arts and under what cir-
cumstances we do not know. But this we do
know, that from that time forth her letters
betray a degree of licence and a disregard for
decency which, in one so young, it is truly
painful to contemplate. Was this inherent
depravity, or was her mind as well as her per-
son debauched by her seducer? We cannot
tell, but the natural inference is obvious. The
clandestine meetings continue, and one
passionate note after another is despatched by
the unhappy girl to her lover. But she soon
awakes from her guilty dream. She probably
begins to penetrate the weak points of
her lover's character. She wearies of his
selfish and exacting temper. Another person
appears upon the scene—a rival for her
hand, more eligible in every point of
view than the foreign adventurer who had
first won her affections. To excuse, or even
to extenuate, her conduct at this point of the
case, is impossible ; but bad though it was, it
was innocence itself when compared with the
baseness of her lover. His refusal to deliver up
the letters which contained the damning evi-
dence of their intimacy, and his repeated
threats to make them public, show such an
utter want of all manly feeling that we can
feel neither interest nor sympathy for one so
worthless and designing. According to the
theory of the prosecution, it was this obstinacy
upon the part of L'ArnmEs which led to his
murder. It was necessary for MADELEINE
SMITH to get rid of him in order that she
might marry his rival. But to this theory
there occurs a very grave objection. The
great object of Miss SMITH in the latter
months of their correspondence was to get
back her letters, for she well knew that their
publication would be fatal to her reputation.
Could she hope to attain this object simply by
making away with her lover? Clearly not.
Nay, on the contrary, she must have known
that in the event of his sudden death the fatal
letters were morally certain to come to light.
The motive suggested by the prosecution is
thus weakened in a material point, which, we
doubt not, had its weight with the jury in in-
ducing them to pronounce a verdict of
acquittal.
We cannot close these remarks without
adverting to the tone of the Lord Advocate's
speech in summing up the case for the prose-
cution. It was unfair to the prisoner through-
out. He assumed her guilt from first to last.
He put forward his own inferences as estab-
lished facts ; nor did he, as he was from his
position bound to do, state a single circum-
stance in favour of the prisoner. He would
not admit the possibility of her innocence.
He spoke throughout, not as a responsible
officer of the Crown, but as a zealous partisan.
Fortunately for the interests of justice, both
the Court and Jury took a more unprejudiced
view of the case ; and no one, we believe, on
this side of the Tweed will dispute the pro-
priety of the conclusion at which they
eventually arrived.