The Express.
London, England, 1864-03-08 00:00:00

LONDON, TUESDAY, MARCH 8.

WE learn from Birmingham that great concern
is felt amongst all classes in that town and
neighbourhood for the young man, GEORGE
Ham., who was sentenced to death last Thum
day, at the Warwickshire Assizes ; and that
a strenuous effort is about to be made to in-
dnoe the HOME SECRETARY to consider his case
and give effect to the jury's recommendation to
mercy. It is at such a moment as this, when it
is necessary that local opinion, if sound and
just, should receive support from as many
points as possible, and when not only the life of a
fellow -creature, but, what is of more importance,
the interests of social justice are in peril, that we
feel keenly the mischief done by attempts,
reiterated with mechanical punctuality as often as
a murderer is sentenced to capital punishment, to
create • false public sentiment and excite pre-
judice against the law. It would only be natural
if the public, perceiving that its sympathies are
systematically claimed for the perpetrators of foul
crimes, should decline altogether to entertain apperls
on behalf of criminals, and leave them alone in
presence of the law they have broken. We do
no more than our duty, however, in making this
case known, and have confidence in the readiness
of the public to form an unbiassed judgment upon
the facts.

The prisoner, Geoeoe HALL, by trade a
jeweller's stamper, is twenty-two years of age.
His parents were poor, but in the estimation of
persons on the spot well qualified to judge, both
he and they were in point of character considerably
above the average of Birmingham work-people.
Last Christmas-day he married a young woman
named SARAH ANN SMITH, whom he had courted
many years. It says little for his discern-
ment that he believed her to be a virtuous and
respectable girl, for it is proved that for • long
time she bad been carrying on an intrigue
with another man, named MARTIN Toy. On the
day of their marriage HALL took his wife to a
house which he had prepared for their future home.
On the same evening she left her husband, in
opposition to his remonstrances, and late at night
went to her mother's house and slept there. On
the following day her parents took her back to her
husband, but the next Sunday she visited Toy
without the knowledge of her husband, and then
returning home with the latter, lived with him for
s week, treating him haughtily and unkindly. On
Sunday, Jan.:;, she left her husband without
assigning any reason, and returned to her father's
house. On the.; day she saw Toy, and during the
following week was much with him, and by the
man's own admission committed adultery with him
more than once. On Saturday, Jan. 9, she went to
the Prince of Wales's Theatre with Toy. A fel-
low-workman of HALL'S, seeing her there, sent
for the husband, who went thither and met
the couple as they were coming out. He asked his
wife what she meant by going with some one else,
when she replied, " I mean what you see, and I
"shall continue to do so." After a short alterca-
tion they parted, and on that night, and subse-
quently until shortly before her death, the adul-
terous intercourse with Toy was repeated. On the
12th of January HALL's wife took out a summons
against him for having, as she alleged,
threatened her outside the theatre ; but the sum-
mons was dismissed, the magistrates adsising her
to go home with her husband. From the 14th of
January to the 16th of February she con-
tinued to live at her father's house, Toy visiting
her there. From the time that his wife left him to
the day when he committed the fatal crime
HALL'S distress of mind was so great as to attract
the notice of his master and fellow-workmen. To
Mr. Si emoNs, his employer, he said, " I love her
"so much that I could die for her. I would
" have done right by her. She never let me
" know before we were married that she did not
" care for me, and when she was short of work I
" have often helped her. I am doomed to be
" miserable for life." At intervals during that
period of separation he saw his wife, in the pre-
sence of her mother, who tried to persuade her
daughter to return to him. On these omissions
his behaviour is described as having been moat
kind. The last of these interviews took place on
the 16th of February. Upon this occasion his
behaviour to his wife, according to the evidence
of her mother, was moat affectionate. On his
rising to leave she followed him to the door,
and there he appears to have asked her
to pat on her bonnet and shawl and ac-
company him, promising to bring her home.
What passed between them may never be known,
but about an hour afterwards she was brought
back wounded in the neck by a pistol
ball In his incoherent but thrilling address
to the court, the prisoner, after conviction,
referring to the occurrence, while fully admitting