Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-07-24 00:00:00

THE BROADSrONE MURDER,

To say that any one is satisfied with the evidence upon
which a committal of the accused has been made out, would
be to negative the public voice—it would seem that the
magistrates were driven to the course of sending the
matter to the higher court for investigation and adjadi-
cation, lees by the cogency of the evidence, than in
obedience to
.a not unnatural feeling that this accusa-
tion so strange, this denunciation so unnatural, Fhonld
be followed up by the fullest inquiry that the criminal
judicature of the country alto as of. Horror of
criminal seems swallowed up in the repugnance, Mt for
his accuser, and while the testimony of ihe unhappy
enspicions which the
children
nry places indicated could not
odfeetpheensmtohneeyvaetry,:ae grave
fail to have exci'kki, yet the anxiety is more intense
that satisfac'ery reasons for the revelation should be
arrived at, than that fur:her evidence should bind
together the un nun e etc I circumstances that press
against, but do not convict the prisoner. No credence
is given, by the people at least, to the wife's alleged
anxiety for her husband's salvation ; a;most as little to
the existence of fears for her own safety ; every motive
rather than those she had herself given is suggested to ac-
count for the denunciation of the father of her children,
and keenly enough it is perceived that every fact which the
revelations have disclosed are compatible with the assump-
tion that the crime was really committed by another rather
than Spollen, It would be hard to tell how strong are the
expressions of disgust which the women especially give
vent to here, at a wife betraying her husband uuder any
circumstances. How well our bard knew an Irishwoman's
heart

" Oh ! what is love made for, if 'tis not the same
Thro' jay and thro' sorrow, thro' glory and shame ?
I know not, I ask not, if guilt's in that heart,
I hut know that I love thee, whatever thou arc
This will be a topic which a skilful counsel could urge
upon a jury, and if he would seek for an example of a
denunciation so unnatural and repulsive, he may find one
where •

"Tee green-ey-d monster which eo h make
The meat it feeds on,"
prompted a wife to disclose a set of circumstances so
damning, that the husband, even though innocent, could
not escape the meshes they wove around him, and perished'
on the scaffold. " The story is extant, and written in very
choice Italian," most probably as it occurred in Pisa, and
is to be found in the Annual Register for 1795. The
playgoer will recognise there the story upon which Dean
Mdman has founded his fine tragedy of " Fazio' or the
Italian Wife," from which a passage may be taken as
eloquent, perhaps, as even our own eloquent bar coed
supply, with which to address this accusing wife of to-
day :

" 'Tis thy husband then—
Woman, take heed, if, petulant or rash,
Thou wou'ds't abuse the righteous sword of law,
That brightest in the armoury of man,
To a peevish ins-rument of thy light passions,
Or furtherance of some close secret guilt :
Take heed—'tis in the heaven-stamp'd roll of sins, •
To bear false witness—oh, but 'eainst thy husband,
Thy bosom's lord, flesh of thy flesh ! To set
The b'ood-hounds of the law upon his track
If thou speak'st true, stern justice will but blush
To be so cheer'd upon her guilty prey. •
If it he false, thou givest to flagrant sin
A heinous immortality. This deed
Will chrdnicle thee, woman, to all ages,
In human gui]', a patent and an era :
'Tie of those crimes, whose eminent fame Hell joys at ;
And the celestial angels that look on it
Wish their keen airy vision dim and narrow."
Correspondent of Cork Reporter.