Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-05-13 00:00:00

pot was crowded

back of
Major

the bench, and among the foremost of whom were _
Price,-James Smith, Esq., Rev. Gardner Guyon, and severa
of the medical profession.
Mr. Sergeant Ballantyne, instructed by Mr.. Teesdale, o
the firm of Symes, Teesdale, and Sandiland, appeared for the
friends of the deceased ; and Mr. 11. S. Giffard, instructed

by Mr. Humphreys, attended for the accused.
The prisoner, a gentlemanly looking man, wearing a
moustache, having been brought into court, was allowed to
be seated during the examination.

Sergeant Banantyn

in commencing the proceedings.

said that. having been instructed by the relatives of the
deceased Miss Bankes to conduct the prosecution of the case,
he should not enter into any unnecessary length, but confine
himself to those facts which were of the greatest importance
in the present charge. Having referred to the lady's
osition in society, and' her highly respectable family, stating
_ ;cased had a life interest of £5,000, and apersonalty
if £1,700 or £l,BOO, under her father's will, which she could
di- learned counsel stated

that the dc

as she pleased, tl
igh the deceased lady had been living witl
o,n+ thni-

married to hin

Ravin

of the lady up to the time of her death, the apparent
affectionate terms upon which she and the prisoner lived,
the bedside attention of the prisoner, the contrary effects
of the medicine administered by the medical attendants,
and the finding of arsenic in the evacuations, and antimony
in the stomach, he referred to a will which had been
executed by a solicitor in Richmond in prisoner's favour,
from a document said to have been prepared by a barrister
in town, bnt which could be proved .to be in prisoner's
handwriting, and although the lady was extremely ill (inso-
much so that the will was executed on a Sunday), refused. .

clical attendant presen
ret that he and the lady were unmarried
led that the above facts bore terribb

to have any m
it a profound
The learned sergeant a

he wished to keep

import, particularly,as the prisoner was at the time com-
municating by letter with his wife. However- th- "--
facts would be dispassionately and impat
and God forbid that any other feeli
should enter into their minds

than that of truth

The examination of witnesses was then proceeded with
the first called being

Miss Louisa Ban'kes, of 10, Lanark-villas Maida-hill,
who deposed that she saw her sister after death. Her name

was Isabella, forty-three years of age, and unmarried.
Witness and the deceased did not live together. She recol-
lected her going to live at a boarding-house, No. 4, Rifle-

terrace, Bayswater

She went therein Sq.

Itember last

_her _...g-nouse, in .n.11.1.1.0.,0-were
were in Bayswater, and ini the neighbonrhood of her friends.
Witness was not in the habit of seeing her, and could not
say whether she was subject to relaxation of the bowels.
Witness was introduced to prisoner by her sister, at Rifle-
terrace, as Dr. Smethurst. She was in good health at the
time. After her sister left Rifle-terrace, she met her and

in ano

the prisoner in Kensington-gardens. She left the prisoner
and spoke to her. After that meeting, witness saw her at
Kildare-terrace. She then left Kildare-terrace; and witness
heard nothing of her until she received a letter on the 9th
of January, which she answered. On the 18th of April,
she received another letter, as follows

Dear Miss Bankes —Your dear sister Isabella wishes me to request

the favOur of your calling upon her as early as Convenient, as she

by coming alone, and

that you will greatly oblig

k for Dr. and

Mrs. Smethurst (that you have called to see your sister), and that

you breathe not a word of th

She further wishes me

She simply 801