The Express.
London, England, 1864-05-19 00:00:00

Eh, ervreoll.

Lthertlausiato fatio—ded for " Thelkathl" Lathes Smith
Pow, moth be M the •dl••. 10. Bouveriotheeth Or Two
oa the day of ealtheolioa.

HAYMARKET.
THU MEMO. THE BALANCE 0? CO?fFORT. MI Angel.
—DAVID GABNICIL k.w anthem Buckstom.Chl
Arlog; Mesdames Snowdon. IttzwilllamErlfra
sADONIR Mies L. &s q.—And MBE. WILITIL

PILLICCEDas.
Tins Emma. THE OLD STORY. Mr. Dominick Murray.
—THE COMEDY OF WAR& M. Vining, Nelson, arid
CDs brothers Willik.—And BORN TO GOOD LUCK. Mr.
Dominick Murray.

eisrmuuriA.
Thu imam LAMM TO THE HELP.—DIMO.LLUI.
Manier Tarty Ecnita• and Mom C. Bt Came and Seca t. —And
Two Parte ot THE LILT-HANDED SLAILLIAGL an. &Lana.
and TEE GEZAT GHOST 1312CT.—Coinnianoe at 61.

HIM VAT'S AT 110110091 samea.
MO DaT Iferiana. 4111. 17m.....Mtaseas.OR O.
T 041014011 Mandy& ft. Ma.. .Alleraisis. '20.4.

LONDON, THURSDAY, MAY 19.

AT length LA Pommsams, the French doctor,
has been found guilty of poisoning Madame DE
PACW, without " extenuating circumstances," and
has been condemned to death. It is difficult to
believe that the jury could have come to any
other conclusion. Only a few days ago, however,
a man, who had been proved to have murdered
his mother-in-law, appealed to the jury on the
ground that for tweaty-five years she had lived
in his house, and in answer to his appeal the jury
qualified their verdict by finding "extenuating cir-
cumstances." It would have excited little surprise,
therefore, if the ingenuity of L► PonxestAis had
suggested some equally available excuse.
Following the ordinary practice of French tri-
bunals, the President of the Court, with the fine
dramatic instinct and epigrammatic smartness
of his race, questioned LA POMNERAIS as to his
life and actions during the whole of two days.
He seems to have been turned out of medical
societies—he had applied through a friend to the
POPE for some holy decoration—had adver-
tised for a wife—and had succeeded in marrying a
girl of some fortune by borrowing shares from a
friend, of which he represented himself to be the
proprietor. The man seems to have been a philo-
sopher in his way. He professed the grossest mate-
rialism—denied the existence of a future state—
and gave the strictest injunction that if he were ill
no priest should on any account be admitted to his
bedside. But he was something worse. For having
taken advantage of the passionate love with which
be had inspired poor Madame DE PAuw, to obtain a
fortune by robbing the insurance offices, he de-
nounced her as an abandoned profligate. LA Povt-
MERAIS' conduct during the trial exhibited a cool-
ness and audacity that roes with the occasion. In
prison he seems to have written a comedy, in which
he caricatured the witnesses produced against him ;
and when the President told him that he had
attempted to commit suicide by putting some
copper pieces into vinegar in order to generate
poison, the prisoner said :—" You may add also
" that I endeavoured to open my vein', but failed
" in the attempt."
The case against LA PestmzeAm was so strong,
that escape was almost hopeless. He was de-
fended by M. LACHAED, who also defended Ma-
dame LArrAsoe, and who probably made the most
of a hopeless case. The facts stated in the in-
dictment were conclusive, and the prosecution
seems to have succeeded in establishing the mate•
rial portion of them. One great difficulty which
M. LAI HALL, had to explain was the fact that
LA POMMERAIS had insured Madame DE PAEW'S
life for 20,0001. What possible explanation
can be given of so singular a proceeding f Here
was a miserable woman living in a garret in Paris
with her two children. Assume that she was the
mistress of LA PoicezaAns--admit that he gave
her money—how could he be her creditor I As
the Advocate-General said, "the loan of money
" to a mistress ! c.- West pas Francais. No one lends
" to a woman whom he loves or ever has loved."
But even if such a thing could be, he had given
her only some five and twenty pounds, and for that
the infatuated wretch had bartered her body and
her soul Indeed, LA POMMERAIS himself did not
venture toclaim more than 400/. And what creditor
for 4001. would insure his debtor's life for 20,000/. 1'
Very true, said M. LACRAI:D. it is absurd to sup-
pose that LA POMMERAIS was a creditor of his mis-
tress. But:then Madame DE Par,/ knew the whole
matter was a swindle. And she was ready to join
in a conspiracy to defraud the Insurance Companies.
If Madame DE PArw, by feigning illness, could
manage to extract an income out of those com-
panies, she would not only gratify her paramour,
but would raise herself to comparative comfort.
That Madame DE PAEW did feign illness is ad-
mitted on her own confession. The only question
was whether she died by poison. The proof is
somewhat singular.

It was impossible to find by analysis any traces
of the poison. The body was examined by
the physicians. They could fiud no trace of
organic disease. The organs wera all apparently
healthy. Bat there were certain appearan ea
which denoted that Madame DE Pant/ had not
died a natural death. She had bean in perfect
health up to the night before she expired. On
that night LA Pomasitais had had an interview
with her which lasted a long time. The
wretched woman was thoroughly disarmed, and
eaten up with passion for Ls POMMERAIS. There
is something loathsome and yet pathetic in the poor
wretch decking herself in her worn-out finery to
receive her paramour, who in the dalliance of a
simulated passion was about to administer poison.
Did LA POMMERAIS administer this poison ? What
evidence was there of the fact? Recourse was
bad to a horrible experiment. Part of the body
of the dead woman was administered to a dog.
The " poor dog," as the counsel said, was sick,
but he recovered. Nevertheless the symptoms
which he exhibited were consistent with the
effect which would have been produced
by the subtle poison " digitalis." Not satisfied
with this experiment, M. TARDIEU collected
together the matter which had been ejected on
the floor of the room by Madame DE PACW. A
decoction was made of it, and in twenty-two hours
another dog, to which it was administered, died.
It is impossible in a few lines to present an ana-
lysis of the evidence of the physicians and
chemists on the question as to how the poor woman
met her death. But it is certain that the jury
believed the opinions delivered by the scientific
witnesses for the prosecution.
It is not often that such a crime as that com-
mitted by Le Poirmee•is has been, or indeed can
be, perpetrated. It is next to impossible that it
should be perpetrated with impunity. There is
perhaps nothing very singular, in France at least,
in the circumstance that a man's friend should
carry on an intrigue with his wife after his death.
But in this case, unless LA PuKMERAIS had been

a physician well versed in poisons, r.-r
nik.l4ol4_
been blinded and inflamed with avarice, and vas=
the woman had been so absorbed in passion for
her paramour as to be ready to do his bidding,
the murder would never have been committed.
It was • strange hallucination in La PossitasAis to
believe that the insurance offices would pay 20,000/.
without some sort of inquiry, or that the sus-
picions of Madame DC Pauw's family would not
be excited by her sudden dowses& On the other
hand, La POMMULAIS displayed an almost heroic
confidence in his own powers over his mistress,
when he dared to bring her to the gates of death
without eliciting from her the slightest remon-
strance. She was living in her own hone—she
was surrounded by her friends and her children.
It is seldom that Death, violent and stealthy,
approeches all at once without striking some
presentment in his victim. If, indeed, as we
may assume, the woman died of poison ad-
ministered by the hand of La PoismintArs, it is
singular that no word should have escaped from
the lips of Madame DC Paves that he administered

anything whatever. According to the prosecution,
she was in excellent health until the evening
which immediately preceded her death. Next
morning she was dying. She must have
felt herself sinking. Yet it is most certain that she
never spoke one word from which it could be in-
ferred that is Poinczasis gave her a morsel
to eat, or even a cup of water to drink. Ls Pox.
maws!' knew the woman he had to deal with, and
he dealt with her accordingly. But his sin has
found him out, as he ought to have expected if he
had reflected calmly on the subject. Widows do
not die suddenly without exciting suspicion.
Married men do not insure the lives of their cast-
off mistresses, who are living in abject poverty,
for 20,0001. ; nor do insurance offices pay such
demands without reasonable inquiry.