The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-05-04 00:00:00

rise the despot and the tyrant to regard her as an
ally and a friend.

TFTE security of life and property is among the
foremost duties of all well regulated Govern-
ments. By general consent, all civilized commu-
nities condemn the murderer to forfeit his life by
the hands of the public executioner. We
transport, or send into penal servitude, the
midnight burglar, whilst thoae convicted of petty
larcency are sent for long or short periods to
perform daily penance upon the treadmill.
Poisoners, too, meet their doom amidst the
universal approval of an indignant populace.
The treacherous and fiendish deeds of a PALMER
and a DOVE, show the solicitude with which the
British Constitution regards human life, and its
utter horror and detestation of murder, under any
shape or form. This is a commendable and
wholesome feeling, and has many and beneficial
results. Unfortunately for society, however, the
dead sentence of the law, and the exercise of
" CALCRAFTS" profession, does not repress the
spread of crime. The infliction of capital punish-
ment has not stemmed the torrent of bloodshed,
and the desire to take away life, among the lower
classes of the population. The poaching assassin
still walks abroad, influenced with a satanic in-
tention, and armed with a deadly weapon. The
highway robber and the desperate burglar still
practice their unholy deeds, ruthless of the deadly
injuries they inflict upon the objects of their
plunder. Above all, the administrators of
deadly poison are increasing in number. The
adroitness with which they administer the fatal
drug, and the success which attends their diaboli-
cal designs, has arrived at a pitch which not
only alarms society, but pleads for an instant aad
energetic cure, for social evils o f such appalling and
tremendous magnitude. We can hardly lift up
a metropolitan or provincial paper without being
startled at the nefarious character of the poisoning
cases which they chronicle. The Observer, of
Sunday last, contained the details of no less
than five cases. One was designated "by mis-
take," another, " two children poisoned by
laudanum," and a third, " tampering with
poisonous medicines." In addition to these, there
is a fourth case of " suicide by poison." In our
own district we have the attempt made by the
servant girl of Mr. DUNN, the Cashier of the
Chester and Holyhead Railway, to poison
his two children. This is a pretty
good week's work in the poisoning line ;
enough to alarm the strongest minded member of
society, exhibiting, as it does, a phase of English
life not to be paralleled in any civilized country
in the world.

As to the partiCulars of the five cases referred
Ai. The poor suicide was a girl of twenty years
of age. She went to a druggist in Terrington
and purchased threepenny worth of sublimate,
and then despatched herself. The druggist, when
examined about the affair, coolly said that he
repeatedly sold the drug for the disease in sheep,
and did not ask the unfortunate victim
any ques,ions, as the poison is so frequently
used, he does not ask, or make a book entry of
the purchasers names. The poisoning by mistake
arose from a quantity of ammonia being inadvert-
ently left in the way of a melancholy man,
which led to his untimely end. Laudanum was
administered by a mother to two of her cross and
crying children to keep them quiet. The dose
was effectual, for it so quieted the little inno-
cents, that they were hurried into eternity, and
thereby ceased from troubling. The fourth case,
tampering with poisons, was in the case of an
aged washerwoman, 77 years old. She was
afflicted with a troublesome cough, and her
daughter purchased a pennyworth of " Paregoric"
from a Druggist in Gateshead, It was admini-
stered, and she, poor creature, fell into a deep
sleep, a sleep that awoke not, for, being of an
aged and debilitated frame, the poisonous
medicine carried her off,
.and there was an end
of her. Then, again, as to the attempt made to
poison MR. Duxbr's two children at Chester, by
giving them a quantity of poison spread upon
their bread and butter, we are told the girl got
it out of a paper, which was on the kitchen
mantlepiece. It would be an easy task to
multiply cases of these descriptions in almost
every quarter of the land, but they are quite
sufficient for the purposes of our present remarks,
and that is to ascertain where the blame of the
five deaths enumerated is to rest.
It may be argued that the wretched suicide
could have effected her destruction by other means,
even though she could not procure the deadly
dose, " Sublimate." It should, however, be
borne in mind, that the strongest temptation to
commit a crime is generally found in ready
access to the instrument, and this unfortunate
and misguided young girl procured the weapon
for self murder ready to her hand. It was put
within her reach through the culpable neglect,
and callous indifference of those who, having the
power' to provide for the public safety, omit to
exercise it. To that same culpable neglect and
callous indifference, are we to trace the other
four homicides by misadventure. The remissness
of the law in this respect is not only indefensible
but fraught as we have seen in the instances
quoted with the most fearful and dangerous con-
sequences. It extends its permissive powers to
all who choose to carry on a free bade in poison,
and there is no question that the Government
and the Legislature are accountable for a law so
inconsiderate and dangerous in its character and
results. They could apply a remedy if they
wished, to effect a proper regulation of the poison
trade, they only require to brave and overcome
the opposition of the chemists and druggists of
the Boroughs of England.

When the trial of WILLIAM PALMER was
concluded at the Old Bailey last year, it was
expected that some steps would have been
devised by the Legislature to put down the dan-
gerous practice of affording facilities to any one
to obtain poison, without giving a valid reason
for the purchase, and a clue as to identity and
whereabouts of the purchaser. From what has
been going on during the last twelve months,