The Express.
London, England, 1866-12-22 00:00:00

4
Tux CITY BY DAY AND BY NIGHT.

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THE EXPRESS, SATURDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 22, 1566

who exhibited the greatest coolness, when
N had concluded, turned round end walked
Maps leading from the dock, apparently

The prisoner,
the leaned judge
quickly down the at
quite unconcerned.

MIDI)LESEX SESSION&

HONE CIRCUIT. —MiticsroNS, DSc. 21.
(Before Baron ChinaslL)
red TUNBILIDGI-WILIS MT-16DM
The trial of Anne Lawrence, 28, for the wilful murder
of her child, Jeremiah Lawrence, four years of age, was
resumed this morning at nine o'clock.
Mr. Ribton addressed the jury for the defense in a long
and eloquent speech. liefoommnd by expressing his
opinion that the jury wl not, by acquitting the priso
ner, necessarll7 intimate that the murder was committed
by the man Iligharne, but it would merely show that they
entertained a doubt upon the point, and the
prisoner was entitled to the benefit of that doubt.
He admitted that the defence he was nut:noted
to make for the prisoner was that the murder
was committed by the man, but the police seemed
to have at once jumped to the conclus;on that the priso-
ner was the guilty party, and all their efforts were directed
to establish that fact, and to met up the man Highams and
make him appear innocent. Two persons were suspected,
and only one was taken into custody, and it was the object
of the other, of course, to clear himself, but he could not
help expressing hie opinion that the evidence would almost
have equally applied to fix the crime uponHighamsag upon
the prisoner. With regard to the question of motive,
he said he should not attempt to deny that the prisoner
was actuated by a feeling of deep hatred to the man
Highams, and she had good grounds very probably for en-
tertaining that feeling towards him. He had taken her
away from her husband, he had broken up her home, and
it was clear that being satiated with the possession of his
victim he was about to abandon her and form a oonnection
with another woman. Under such circumstances it was
natural that the prisoner shouldbe actuated by a feeling of
hostility towards him, and that she should desire to do birn
some personal injury, but what earthly motive did this
suggest for destroying the life of a child who, there was
no doubt, she tenderly loved ? It appeared to him that
the case in reality depended entirely upon the evidence of
Highams, and that without his testimony no grand jury
would ever have found s true bill against the prisoner, and
he called upun them most earnestly to consider the whole
of the facts to which that witness deposed, and he should
submit to them that they ought sot to rely upon that
evidence. He asked the jury whether it was not
an extraordinary fact that when Highanis was
first examined, he said that he found the pri-
soner awake at five o'clock in the morning of the
murder, but in the evidence he had given on the present
occasion he altered the time to four, and he said it was for
the jury to consider whether he bad not been thinking the
matter over, and probably considered that it would be
better to fix the hour at four o'clock, because that would
allow more time to the prisoner to do what it was sug-
gested she bad done. He then remarked upon the fact
that Highams hail originally admitted/that the razor with
which the wound WWI inflicted belonged to him,whereas now
he professed to throw some doubt upon that fact, because
he no doubt thought that, knowing the prisoner had
charged him with committing the murder, it
would be a strong fact against him that it was his razor
with which the fatal injury was committed. Another
point which, he said, was well worthy their consideration
was the fact that Highams said he did not see the dead
body of the child when the alleged attack was made upon
him by the prisoner, and that lie did not know it was
dead until lie had been taken to the adjoining cottage,
whereas it appeared by all the testimony in the case that
it was impossible that this statement of the witness could
be true, as the ghastly spectacle of the dead body of
the child was the first thing that presented itself, and
every one who went into the room saw it immediately.
He urged that there must have been some motive for this
conduct on the part of the witness Highams, and that the
discrepancies he had rehired to were well worthy of their
consideration. The learned counsel then proceeded to re-
mark upon the other facts in the case, and concluded
by reminding the jury that from the very first moment
the prisoner hail charged Highams with being the
murderer, and that under all the circumstances in
which she hail been placed, and down to the present
moment she persisted in the truth of that accusation.
Baron Channel!, at the commencement of his summing
up, said he thought it right to express his opinion that
there was nothing to complain of in the manner in which
the prosecution had been conducted by Serjeant Parry,
who, he said, it appeared to himhad done no more than his
duty as counsel for the prosecution in laying the whole
of the facts that were material before the
jury. He also said he considered
Mthere was
as
uo just ground of complaint against r. Emer
the superintendent of the Tunbridge Wells police,
and he considered he was perfectly justified in bringing
the matter before the consideration of the magistrates,
and when he had done so the matter was out of his hands,
and the magistrates were responsible for all that was done
afterwards. His lordship then referred to the evidence,
and said that, supposing they should come to the conclu-
sion that the murder must have been committed either by
the prisoner or the witness Highams, it would then be
their duty to consider to which of the two the evidence
applied and appeared to establish guilt. As to the ques-
tion of motive, it would be a fearful thing indeed if a
guilty party were to escape punishment because no as-
signable motive was apparent for the commission of the
crime, but in the present case it appeared to be assigned as
a motive that she was actuated by a desire for vengeance
against Highams and that having committed the
fix cri the
ehe
herself she sou/it, in order to be revenged, to
crime upon Mg ams. If the crime was merely attribut-
able to jealousy, he certainly thought it was rather ex-
traordinary that the prisoner should have destroyed her
own child and not his, particularly as the removal of
the former might have relieved him from the liability to
its support.
The jury retired at one o'clock to deliberate upon their
verdict, and returned into court shortly after four, and
found the prisoner Guilty.
When she was calledse upon to
of state whether shnote habe
d
anything to urge why ntence
passed upon her, she said that she should have declared her
innocence before the coroner, but she was toll to sit down,
and she afterwards had no opportunity of doing so. With
regard to killing her child, she declared she was quite
innocent. " I declare," said the prisoner, in a firm voice,
" before God and man that I did not kill the child.
There is no ground for convicting me of that charge. My
counsel has defended me well, but if I coull have crow-
examined Highams myself, I would have made him tell
the truth. I am innocent."
The learned judge, having assumed the black cap, ad-
dressed the piisoner,anil said that after a most patient and
protracted inquiry the jury had felt themselves compelled
to return a verdict of guilty. Every topic had been urged in
her behalf by her learned counsel, and he hoped that in his
slimming up he had not omitted any circumstance that
was calculated to weigh in her favour, and the jury had
felt themselves compelled to return a verdict of guilty
against her. She had stated that she did not kill her
child, but the jury hail found by their verdict that she
did, and it was his duty to pass sentence upon her for
that offence. She had, no doubt, been very ill-used by
the man Highama, and whether she had committed the act
in order to fix the crime upon him out of revenge,was only
known to herself. He (the learned incise) had nothing
t ed to
do with the question of motive. The ;ury had convic
her of the crone of wilful murder, and it was his duty to
pass sentence upon her for that offence. The learned
judge concluded by passing the sentence of the law.
The prisoner, who is a tall, good-looking woman, did
not exhibit the least emotion when the sentence was
passed, and she left the bar declaring that she was inn.>
cent.

(Before Mr. Welkin, assistant Judge.)
Themes Cheteemd, 61, and James Swift, 50, were
fu
dieted for embezzling the sum of 255. received by them for
in HuckTherester's
were (lessee
and on aseount of Mr. John Ba ldw of
alao
the Haymarket Theatre), their muter.
two indictments against Swift alone for stealing opera-
allures, the property of Mr. Henry Foskett and Mr. James
Bollaert Bendel.) instructed by
Mr. M. Williams and Mr. Warren Leigh (
Mr. E. T. Lewis), prosecuted ,• Mr. G. S. Griffiths an
de-
d
Ur. Edward Palmer (instructed by Mr. Hubert Wood)
fended Chetwynd ; and Mr. Metcalfe and Mr. Collins (in-
structed by Mr. Charles Bassett, of Great James-street)
apeared for Swift. Williams,
From the opening statement of Mr. Montagup
and also from the evidence of the witneues called in sup-
=ofietltilyiteappe:drede that
ttnhetreo pets:nen
tllintoewers
taker and check-taker (the latter as keeper of the free
list and check-taker to the dress circle) at the Hayeparket
Theatre. It was the practice of Mr. Wright,
the treasurer to the theatre every night to issue
to the prisoner Chetwynd, 'the money taker, 161
' checks, or metal tickets of admission to the
I dress circle, inch checks being issued to every visitor to
I the theatre on the payment of ss. each. It was the duty
' of Swift, on receiving these metal checks, to drop them
into the,
open mouth of a locked box • and at the conclu-
sion of the performance this box was Laken to Mr. Wright,
the treasurer, who unlocked it, examined the number of
checks found in it, and for every check so found re-
quired Si. from the money-taker, be handing him back the
unissued checks to make up the number of 161 issued the
night before. From some cause not explained in coas not
urt, it
appeared that suspicions were excited that all w
going on properly. Mr. Wright, the treasurer. obtained the
assistance of a police-constable, and the policeman, in his
meaner with a
presence, marked 161 checks in a peculiar m
watchmaker's tool, and these, in due course, were handed
to Chetwynd to be issued by him in the ordinary manner.
After the night's performance was brought to a close, two
boxes containing checks, one kept by the prisoner Swift,
and another by a checkaaer named John Gibling, were
examined, and in one of them, believed to be the box kept
by Swift, five checks were found had
that didb not bear the mark
of those issued ou the previous night, ut as there
been a mixing up of the two boxes, although Sir. Wright
was strongly of opinion that it was in Swift's box the un-
marked checks were found, no furtherl6l ma rked active measures
were then taken. The following night checks
were again placed in the hands of Chetwynd, and the
same night, on Swift's box being carefully examined sepa-
rate from that of Gibling, and again five unmarked
checks were found. Both these persons, Chetwynd and
Swift, were then given into custody. The theory of the
prosecution was that a quantity of checks had been surrep-
titiously obtained, and that in lieu of the marked checks
issued other checks had been substiteted to make up
the
ruired number of 11;1, and that for every substitute d
check is. was obtained, which VIM divided between the
money-taker and check-taker. Both the prisoners had
been for some years in the service of Mr. Buckstone, one
for six years and the other for nine years.
When the case for the prosecution had been gon elmsthru
atgha
,
The Assistant-Judge said it did not appear to h
ease of felony could be sustained, and, under his direction,
The jury returned a verdict of Not Gouty.
The prisoner Swift was then further indicteketd for stealing
two opera-glasses, the property of Henry Foa.
The same learned counsel appeared as in the former