Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-07-11 00:00:00

THE GLASGOW MURDER.

THE TRIAL. OF MISS SMITH.

OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.

If on-Monday the intemst of the' public had partially
declined, it was greater than ever of the 7th day. From

an early hour, a crowd btsieged the doors of the Justiciary
Court ; standing room was hardly to• be obtained ; and.

the pressure from behind became very severe. At last,
the doors were opened. Like a peat-up mountain
torrent, when swollen by melting snows, it sweeps
away an obstacle interposed, by accumulated ice
and boulders, the multitude surged in, and would,

half bewildered, have lost themselves in the passages,

had they not been prevented by iron inner gates, and
the policemen who stood by each, as the genii foci. In a
minute the whole of the portion of the court allotted to
the public was filled. At ten, when the proceedings were
resumed, the hall was more crowded than ever. The side
galleries appeared, by a curious process of compression, to
have acquired the power of holding nearly doable
the number which they had formerly contained,
crowds were standing near the further ends ; and
even the gallery passage behind the judges, where
the canopy projecting above the dies forbids a view
of the speakers, was filled with attentive listeners.
Of advocates especially there were present a greater
number than had previou.ly at'ended, eager to be wit-
nesses of the single contest in which were now to be en-
gaged two of their foremost leaders. In the earlier stages
of the trial the ability of the counsel engaged was con-
spicuously displayed in the rapid examinations of the
elweseoutet, +Tin aAarrhincr of thA Thmtn of
Faculty, and the confident assumptions of Mr. Young, so
difficult to deny. Yesterday, however, the great battle
really commenced. Hitherto there had been, as it
were, marching and counter-mareting, manosnvring
and concentration of forces ; now the leaders began
to marshal in array the opposing bodies of evidence
for the struggle on which the fate of the prisoner de-
pended. When the Lord Advocate rose to address the
jury, the accused turned towards him, an I watched him
uneasily and restlessly. Soon she recovered her self-
possession, and retained it during the greater portion of his
speech. Her veil, however, which had been raised as she
ascended the stair into the court, had now fallen, and this
was not to be wondered at. A universal silence prevailed
in the court. The Solicitor-General sat motionless,
with his arms folded, and his mild grave eyes steadily
fixed on the ground ; while the junior counsel for the
Crown, Mr. Mackenzie, looked alternately at his prin-
cipal and a printed paper wbich he held in his hand.
On the further side of the table sat the counsel
for the defence—the Dean of Faculty, listening calmly
but with compressed lips, now and then taking a
brief note with a pen which he held in his hand ; Mr.
George Young looking coolly at the jury, as
if to put them at their ease ; and the junior,
Mr. Alexander Msncrieff, writing as fast as his pen
could fly for the service of his seniors. The Lord Justice
Clerk is at once listening to the Lord Advocate, and
investigating a printed copy of the letters, or his own notes
of the evidence. Lords Ivory and Handyside are listening
intently, their eyes fixed on the speaker. Two of the other
judges, who are also present, li,ten, but now and then turn
to survey the court. The jury, finding themselves personally
addressed, become more fixedly attentive than hitherto, and
several take snuff to clear their understanding. In one
of the seats allotted to the Glasgow reporters an artist
is making a sketch of the crowded court, the wig-thronged
gallery on the further aide, the accused herself, and the
other actors in the great drama now in progress, evidently
with a view to its production in some illustrated news-
paper. Meanwhile the Lord Advocate, having made
some preliminary remarks on the verification of the
letters, and the management of prosecution in other
respec`s, entered upon the more vital parts of the case,
and began to draw the dark and mysterious out_
lines of this strange and lamentable story. One by
one, each of the links of evidence was riveted into its
P• lace He traced the course of the relations between the
prisoner and the dead man ; and read many of the letters,
of which parts had been formerly submitted by the clerk
of the court. Very different were they read no v ; the
passionate appeals which they contained fell from the
speaker's lips vehemently and truthful, with the vivid-
ness of an able actor. The prisoner shud lered. Then
he entered upon the proof ; and, by the aid of a mul-
titude of little points of circumstantial evilence,
unveiled the secret history of the deceased and the
accused during the months of February and March—an
investigation which had to be all the more minute in con-
sequence of the rejection of L'Angelier's pocket-book as
admissible evidence. Towards the close of a speech of
five hours and a-half, he examined and rejected the various
theories that might be propounded on behalf of the defence,
and fixed, as it were, the final link in declaring that, un-
less on the fatal night of the 32nd of March, the de-
ceased had an interview with the prisoner in her
father's house in Blyths wood-square, the idea of
suicide, in the absence of motive, was impossible;
and that if it was admitted that he had been there,
the evidence against the prisoner was perfectly overwhelm-
ing. In many of the most terrible dramas, whether of
real or fictitious life, there occurs some circumstance,
which, of itself ludicrous, only heigh.e s the effect by
contrast; as when poor Hamlet jests with the men who
are digging a grave for the lady of his 1 ve. Thus, if it
had not been for the solemn nature of yes'erday's proceed-
ings, it would have been positively amusing to have watched
the countenances of the jury changing during the
continuance of the Lord Advocate's speech. At
first, they were only attention ; then they became
graver; and by degrees their faces lengthened and length-
ened, and the corners of their mouths went down. It
appeared as if they had been formerly easy in the idea of
having to discharge a more agreeable office, and were
now awakening to a painful sense of having to fulfil a
stern and terrible duty. Tears stood in the eyes of two of
the jurors ; but this may partly be accounted for by the
magnetic influence arising from the fact of their being
stared at by one man for five and a half hours, and staring
at him in return. Bs this as it may, it will be curious to
watch the reverse of this proceeding to-day, when the
Dean of the Faculty will draw the opposite strings.
Caledonian Mercury of Wednesday.

The last and decisive day of this great trial has at length
arrived. Of all the eight preceding, yesterday was p-r -
haps the most exciting; for it was known that the Dean
of Faculty was to address the jury, and his well-known
abilities collected a greater assemblage than ever. The
rush made by the crowd into the gallery at eight was
alarming—parties, in a wild hubbub, bounding over
the benches down to the front—and it had abated
little daring the two hours that elapsed before the
commencement of the proceedings. At ten, the
galleries were filled to overflowing ; the back
of the gallery behind the Judges, and the windows is
that part of the court were crowded with persons standing.
Several daring individuals sat in the corners of the gallery
with their legs dangling over the front, and hats were
deposited in perilous positions on narrow ledges beneath.
For the first time the court and jury were in their places
before the prisoner entered. Miss Smith naturally appeared
somewhat worn, owing, no doubt, to the painful and pro-
tracted excitement of the last eight days, which must have
been all the more intense within, because its outward
manifestations were almost always so effectually subdued.
The Dean, on her entrance, went up to her, and spoke a
few words to her, smiling, in an encouraging manner, as he
has done ever glace the third morning of the trial. Then,
after the epeainig of the court, and a brief pause, he rose
to addre,.;sa the jury. Slowly he rose, and slowly, solemnly,
and mournfully, the words fell from his lips. At first his
voice was low, and yet it was always so distinct, that front