The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-06-05 00:00:00

THE CONVICT PALMER.

Accounts received from Stafford, and dated Tuesday
last, mention that up to a late hour on the previous even-
ing, Palmer, had not made tha slightest communication to
the authorities of the gaol in which he is confined, which

may be construed into a confession of the enormous
crime with which he stands convicted. He has been
made acquainted by some of his friends who have visited
him with the exertions which Mr. John Smith, his
solicitor, has made to obtain from the government a
remission of his sentence, and of the manner in which
some of the London newspapers have contended that
while a doubt exists as to the administration of the
poison to Mr. John Parsons Cook, the execution of the
sentence passed upon him by Lord Chief Justice
Campbell at the close of the recent trial at the Central
Criminal Court ought at all events to be delayed. Palmer
has very frequently, within the last day or two, expressed
to Captain Fulford, the governor of the gaol, and to the
Rev. R. H. Goodacre, the chaplain, his conviction
that, in consequence of those exertions, his life will
be spared, and that the government will take further
means to testify the truth of the charge to which he
was put upon his trial, as well as those other charges
on which he would have been arraigned had the jury in
Cook's case returned a verdict of acquittal. The cool-
ness and self-possession which Palmer displayed during
the first few days of his incarceration, after his return
from London, are deserting him, and he betrays much
anxiety in reference to his approaching fate. He passes
sleepless nights, and during the day time his mind appears
to wander. Until the last day or two he would talk upon
general subjects with freedom, and sometimes with ap-
parent cheerfulness, but a feeling of depression seems to
have come over him, and his whole thoughts, when he is
calm and collected, are engrossed with one subject—the pro-
bable result of the intercession with government on his be-
half. Another account states that since the wretched man's
arrival from Newgate, he has:moved about but little, and
has declined to take the customary walk allowed prisoners
under sentence of death, in the prison yard, intimating, a *
his reason for not doing so, that he was anxious to have
some repose and quiet after the fatigue he went through
during the twelve days' trial at the Central Criminal
Court. In the course of Friday, the under sheriff and
the governor had an interview with the culprit, and in-
formed him that the law would be carried into effect at
eight o'clock on the morning of Saturday the 14th of June.
He partakes but very sparingly of food; and, save now and
then, protestations of his innocence and expressions of the
probability of his sentence being remitted, he has not
alluded to the crime of which he has been convicted. Two
of the warders are constantly in the same cell with him.

It will not have been forgotten that, at Palmer's trial,
the Attorney-General, in the course of the cross-examina-
tion of Mr. Herapath, of Bristol, who was called for th•
defence, intimated to that gentleman that he (the Attor-
ney-General), was aware that the witness had expressed
an opinion somewhat in contradiction to that he had
given in evidence. The grounds on which the Attorney-
General made that intimation will be collected from the
following narrative :

The chief magistrate of Bristol, Mr. John Vining, was
during Palmer's trial waited upon by a stranger, who
introduced himself as the Solicitor of the Treasury, and
asked his worship if Mr. Herapath had not said to him
in conversation that " he had no doubt that Cook died of
strychnine, but Dr. Taylor had not the talent to find it,
and that had he (Mr. Herapath) examined the body he
had no doubt he would have discovered the poison." As
the gentleman asked the question he held a memorandum
in his hand, to which he apparently referred. The Mayor
replied that he could not exactly repeat the words Mr.
Herapath had usel, but that he made some observations

to him and some other members of the Improvement
Committee, while attending a meeting of that body some
time ago, and that the impression made on his (the
Mayor's) mind by what Mr. Ilorapath said was to the
same effect as the statement made by the Solicitor of the
Treasury. Upon this, the latter proceeded to the
Telegraph office, and communicated with the Attoiney-
General, who was in court, the result of his interview
with the Mayor. The Attorney-General telegraphed to

bring up the Mayor at once, so his worship was instantly
subpoenaed, and started for London with the Solicitor of
the Treasury. The way in which the Crown came to be
made acquainted with Mr. Herapath's observation to the
Mayor was this :—The Attorney-General received an
anonymous letter, stating that Mr. Herapath had made
such a remark to the Mayor and others. The note, how-
ever, had the postmark of a village in Somersetshire,
and by this clue they traced it to a solicitor residing
there, who at once, on being questioned, admitted it was
his letter, and further added that he had heard the cir-
cumstance from the Mayor himself. Mr. Herapath, it
will be remembered, was one of the principal witnesses
for the defence of Tawell, the Quaker. Oa the evening
before Tawell's execution, Sir Fitzroy Kelly, the prison-
er's counsel, is said to have waited upon Sir James
Graham, then Home Secretary, in company with Mr•
Herapath, and to have urged upon him the duty o
respiting the prisoner, on the ground of Mr. Herapath's
profound conviction of his innocence. At the very same
hour Tawell was confessing the particulars of his crime
in Aylesbury gaol.

It may be recollected that after the charge delivered

by Lord Campbell, the jury were absent from court one
hour and ten minutes before they returned, and their
foreman pronounced the verdict " Guilty." From this it
may be inferred that some doubt existed in the mind of
one or more of the jury which gave rise to considerable
discussion before it could be removed. It may therefore
be satisfactory to the public to know that such was not
really the case. On their retirement, the jurymen, with-
out discussing amongst themselves the subject of the
prisoner's guilt or innocence, agreed that each individual
juryman should write his verdict, and place it under his
hat. Within ten minutes from the time of leaving court
this determination was carried into effect, and on raising
the hats, the word " Guilty" was found under every one
of the twelve ! The delay in returning into court with
the verdict originated in a feeling that, considering the
life of a fellow-being was at stake, may with great
propriety be said to have been commendable and con-
siderate—that any suggestion compatible with the inno-
cence of the prisoner which might occur to the mind of
any individual juryman should not be precluded from
discussion by a hasty verdict. The verdict may with
truth, however, be said to have been virtually given in
ten minutes, and in the satisfactory manner already