Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-07-09 00:00:00

WEDNESDAY-EIGHTH DAY.

The C ,urt met again to-day at ten o'clock.
The Dean of Faculty addressed the jury for tho prisoner. He
said :—Gentlemen of the Jury—The charge against the prisoner is
murder, and the punishment of murder is death: and that simple
stat-ment is sufficient to aug_ est to us the awful solemnity of the
oc asion which brings you and me fat •to face. But, gentlemen,
there are peculiarities in the p esent case of so singular and strange
a kind, and there is an air of romance and mystery in it from the
beginning to the end—there is something so touching in the age, the
sex, and the social pos lion of the accused—aye, and I must add that
pub is attention is so directed to this trial, that they watch our
proceedinas, and hang on our very accents with such anxiety and
easerness of expectation, that I feel almost bound down and overt:
whe med by the magnitude of the task which is imposed on me.
You are invited an•t encouraged by the prosecutor to consign to an
ignominious death on the scaffold one who within a few short months
was known only as a gentle and confiding and affectionate girl—the
ornament and pride of a happy family. Gentlemen, the tone in
which my learnek friend addressed yen yesterday could not fail to
strike you as most remarkable. It was characterised by gre it
moderation—by such moderation as I think must have convinced
you that he could hardly expect a verdict at your hands; and in the
course of that address—for which I give him the highest credit—he
could not resist the expression of his own deep feeling of commisera-
tion for the position the prisoner was placed in, which was but an
involuotel7 homage that the arida:l prosecutor pays to the kind and
gen, roils nature of the mani But, gentlemen, lam going to ask you
for something different from commiseration. lam going to ask for-
that which I will not condescend to beg, but will loudly and im-
pntunately demand—that to which every prisoner is entitled'
whether she be the lowest and vilest of he sex, or the maiden whose
purity is of the unsullied snow. I ask you for justiee, and if you
will kindly lend mo yovr attention for the requisite period, and if
Heaven will give me patience and strength for the task, I shall tear
to tatters that web of sophistry with which the prosecutor t as striven
to invest this poor girl and her cad, strange story. The Dean
then referred to the first introduction of the prisoner to the
deceased—msda on the street by a young man in circum-
stances el hich plainly showed he could not have procured an
introduction otherwise, or elsewhere, And what happened ?
Having east intruded himself on the society of this young lady, he
next clandestinely introduced himself to her father's house, an un-
known adventurer, whose history and antecedents were unknown to
any one. The Dean then referred to the earlier history of the de-
ceased, describing his character as vain, conceited, and pretentious,
boastful of his personal attractions, and ever courting and endeavour-
ing to get into the society of ladies above him in station, and endea-
vouring to push his fortune by means of marriage. He referrt d to
his changeable and exciteable character, and his frequent threats of
suicide while suffering from disappointment in love. He then re.
turned to the period of L'Ar gelier's first acquaintance with Miss
smith, and thanked the Lord Advocate for his admission, that at that

time, though their correspondence was improper, because clandestine,
yet the letters of the ycung lady breathed nothing but gentleness and
propriety. The correspondence, however, also showed that if LlAnge-
lier had originally in his mind to corrupt and seduce this poor girl, he
entered on the attempt with considerable ingenuity and skill. Their
correspondence was apparently soon after droppi d by the young
lady's own sense of propriety, bat in the spring of 1855 it was un •
happry renewed, end in the spring Of 1816 the corrupting influence
of the seducer was successful. Her let'er of the 17th May showed
how corrupting that influenco must have been, and how vile the arts
were to which he resort• d for his nefarious purpose could never be
bimtd so well as by looking to the altered tone of this poor girl's
letters. She hod lost not her viginity merely, but as my learned
triend had Laid, her sense of decency. Whose fault was that? Whose
doing was it? Think you that without temptation, without vile
teaching, a poor girl fcll, into those depths of degradation No•

Influence from without, most corrupting influence, could alone
account for such a fall. And yet, gentlemen, through th, midst of
this frightful correspondence, which I wis'i to God could have been
concealed from lour eyes and those of the public—and if it had not
been, as my learned friend thought, absolutely necessary for theends of
justice that it should have hem produced, I feel sati,tied e would not
have done so; bet even through tl.e midst of th s frightful correspond-
ence there breathes a spirit ef devoted love towards the man who wronged
her that Strikes me as most romarkable. The Dean referred to the
little evidence that existed that the parties had ever met in the house
in Blythswood-square. Frem the 18th November till the death of
L'Aneller, the e were only two interviews proved to have taken
place within the house - one occasion being that of which Chri•tina
Haggart spoke, and which, he believe I, took place, net on the 19th of
February, but the 10th of January. inconsequence of the letter of that
day's date. On the 28th January the prisoner accepted Mr blinnoch,
My learned friend rays the whole character of the prisoner's Mina
was changed, and she set herself for the perpetrati n of one of the
most cool and delibera'e murders that ever was committed. I will
not say that such a thing is absolutely impossible, but I do venture to
sty it is well nigh inc, edible. He will be a bold man who will seek
to set limit, to the depths of human depravity, but on that subject all
past experience teaches us that the perfection even of depravity is not
rapidly etc tined. It is not by such short, easy stages as the prosecu-
tor ha f been able to trace in the career of Madeleine Smith, that a
gentle, loving girl passes at once into the savage grandeur of a
Medea, or the appalling wretchedness of a Borgia. No, gentlemen,
such things are not possible There must be a certain progress in guilt.

It is q-.ite oat of all human experience to suppose that from the tone
of love in which the letters that had pa3sed before were written, there
zhould be a sudden transition, I will not say io the loss of affection for
that particular object, but to that savage desire of remouing, by any
means, that obstructiou to her wishes which the prosecutor imputes
to the prisoner. TI ins for a moment how foul and unnatural a mur-
der that h imputed to her ; the murder of one who within a very
shot t space was the object of her love—an unworthy object—an un-
holy love ; but yet while it lasted, and its endurance was not brief,
it was a deep, absorbing, unselfish, devoted passion, and the object of

it she now conceives the purpose of murdering. Such is thd theory
you are at.ke to b.,lieve ; but, gentlemen, before you believe it, you
will ask for demonstration, 'you will not be contented with corjecture
or suspicion, and it would not Le enough to say that tl e theory of the
prosecutor li the most probable that is offered to us. Oh, gentlemen,

is that the manner in which the jury are to deal with such a case

Is that he kind of rroof on which yon are to convict of a capital
offence ? The Deau then entered into an examination of the first
charge against the prisoner—namely, the administration of arsenic
On the 19th or 20th February. Mrs. Jenkins—than whom he never
saw &nacre accurate a d trustworthy with, ss—was able to,fis a date
for ilia second illness, namely, the 23rd February ; but she said that
the tint wa., eight or ten days t,,reviously to the second—which would
bring them lot etc to the 13th, or thereby ; and that he was ill about
the 13th, was proved by ono of the letters, and by the testimony of
Mr. Mlle.'. As to Miss Perry'd recollection of the 13th, she did not
recollect the first, second, or even the thirdtime she was pre ..!ognoseid,
and it was o❑ly by the most improper interference of one of the Fiscal's
clerks, wLo read to her a date out of a book that had been rejected as
worthless in fixing dates, that she axed upon t e 19th. Rut suppose
the 19th was the date, notwithstanding that the prosecution had

foundation of the prosecutor's case. As to the second illness, there
was no proof whatever that the parties met after this purchase at all,
Mrs. Jenkins said she did not think he was out of the house on Sun-

day night the 22nd. She said she had not given him the latch-key
that night, searched all the druggi'ts' shops in Glasgow, they had
been unable to find that the prisoner bought any arsenic at all till the
21st, when she went so openly into Murdoch's, signed her name, and
let it go to her father's account. He left his learned friend to chr,a,4l
one or other of the horns of this dilemma, either th it the deceased
w,s ill from the effects of arsenic on the first occasion—in which care
it must have been administered by other hands, or that he was ill
from some other cause—a fact which destroyed the whole theo,Y, and
which she always did when he was to be out late ; that she would
have recollected it had he borrowed it that niiht ; End M. Thuan said
he certainly did not let him in that night, which was the only way he
could get in if he left without the latch-key. The letter No. 107,
however, was founded on to prove they met that night ; a letter on
which had no date—which, though it had been found in an envelope
with the clearest date, it would be madness to convict upon , but with
all the possibilities of such a letter finding its way into a wreog en-
velope, even in the hands of decease l, and still more in the hands o'
those by whom it was recovered, at-id with the date quit!: illegible,and
which the Crown witness raid had anr
" - " in + -tie month, which
showed it couid not b 3 February, so that eren the Crown dis-
carded Wit' own Ivltness to,
bat their theory. he

was entitiedi to say, that there was not merely a conflict
of evidence on the point,. but as accumulation of evidence disproving
the theory Hest they met that night at a 1; and the failure to prove
centainlY put an end to the charge. if, then, deceasr d was ill from
arsenieal po son on that cccasion, the inference he again draw was
that he -was in the way of receiving arsenic from some other hand.
The Dern-then proceeded to consider the third and last charge.
He referred to the missing letter deceased received from the prisoner
at the Bridge of Allan on Friday. The letter evidently contained an
appointment for a cere in night, and when Le found he could not
keep it, he knew it was useless to come without a special
appointment: He then came to the eee ,nd letter forwarded to ate
Bridge of Allan, bearing thcpcstmark 21et March, aid as he held,
making the appointment for the Saturday evening. When was it ahe
waited and waned ?: Triursdny evening. The letter from deceased
to Miss Ferry conclusively peeved that When was it likely she would
write ter mess summons. I should think the next evening, for sl e
almost invariably wrote in the evening, and when she did net write
in the evening, she wrote tke hour of the day. This all-important
letter was written therefore on the Fri., ay evening, and posted vet
the Saturday morning, to Mrs Franklins, and appeitting the meeting- .
for the Saturday evening. It wan written with the came notice, and
sire believed him ts be in Geasgow. But, says my learned friend,.
they were not in the habit of meeting of a Saturday evening. But
keeping out of view time letters not teal, this theory is negatives bys
the letters that have been read. Ia October, 1555, :he eays, it Write,
me for Saturday, if you are to be (here) on Saturday night." In No;
I l 1, "I snail not be at home on Saturday, but I shall try, sweet love,
and give you even if it should bee word," Here were two hitters nega-
tiving the only supposition set up against my statement: There is
uo appearance terouginint this correspondence without previous
arrangements made, and she had constantly repeated her 'warning
against his malting any signal at the window, eeit was sure to lead to
discovery and risk of verione kinds. On every ocasion she watched
and waited for him, he never came without preconcert. Having
broken his ain-oistment for the Thorsday, her never supposed he
could procure an appontment for the Frinay. He waited teen° got
another letter, and when he broke Ms app abetment on the Saturday,
why should he expect to have-one on the Sunday. On the Sunday
night the family are at prayers, the servants c irne down stairs and go
to bed one I y one, the cock not returning till eleven. They take half
an hour to undress. The prisoner gees to bed with her sister, and so
far as human evidence goes, the house is unriisturbed and neap-
preached up to the following morning. DJ you think th-re could
have been a sneeting, and no evielesiee of it ? The policeman eh°.
knew him, had not l een him that night. There is• not the slightest
vestige or ground of suspicion, that the meeting appointed for
Saturday took place on Sunday. Than as to - L'Angelier, it
is said he came to the house to see the prisoner on Sun-
day night. Even if that was a reasonable assumpeenin it
would not advance the prosecutor's case one step ; but
the supposition was not a reasonable one —to suppose that
ho came that distance to keep a meeting for another evening.
We do not know what other letters ire may have received at Bridge
of Allan, and in one of his own he sus, "I: have received no letters
from Mr. Mit hell, snd I should like to know what he wa its with
me." The Crown has not told us who he was, and Ido not know.
Who can tell that he received no other letters at Bridge of Al en. and
for what purpose he came in ? There is cons derable mystery throne
over the identity of this man in the course of the journey. Ross did
not describe a person like the prisoner, and Ross was not shown the
photograph. The mail guard professed to identify him from it, and
yet the Crown objected to our relying on the photograph when iden-
tified by the druggists. No one is celled from the inn to identify
L' Angelier ; and what was the acr cunt the supposed L'Angelier gave
of himself to Ross? why, that he had- come from Altos, and that he
was going to Glasgow to cash a cheque, of which payment had been
refused to him as a stranger—an account which the Crown had taken
no means to test. L'Angelier was not with Ross, he gin s no false
account of himself, and the evidence of the druggists at Coatbridge,
Bailieston, anal Gatlowgate, who all identify th a likeness, and one of
them the purse out of which the money was paid, were consistent
with each other. If these three witnesses were correct, he was ill;
and, fin Ily, in Miss Kirk's shop, he purchased a white powder, and
Mas Kirk can't tell yon what this white powder vers. He comes
to his lodging—he goes out at nine—is seen in different streets--
which proves nothing at all. He calls on M'Alester. Why is
M'Alester not here, that he might, per hence, tell what brought him
to Glasgow, and if he knew any thing of Mr. Mtehell ? From half-past
nine to half-past two he is absolutely lost sight of, and the Lord
Advocite admitted that the fact that the prisoner and deceased met
that night is founded on inference and conjecture. Good heaven,
inference and conjecture Inference and conjecture whether on the
night he was poisoned he saw the prisoner who is charged with this
murder! I never heard such expressions made use of in a capital
case before as indicating or describing a lick in the chsin of the
p osecntora case. That is knew to me. I have heard them many a
time in the mouth of a prisoner's counsel, and I daresay you will
hear more of them from me t -clay, but for she prosecutor him-
self to daseribe such a part of his evidence as a piece of
conjecture and hypothesis, is to me a most startling novelty.
And yet my learned friend could not help himself. It was a necessity
he should so express himself; for if he intended to ask a verd bt at
all, he ceuld ask for the verdict he did only on a series of unfounded
and incredible suspicions and hypotheses. The Dean then referred to
the statement 4 as to L'Angelier having a suspicion on his mind that he
had received poison fromthe prisoner, and said if that were true, they
were asked to believe hart he took the poisoned cup from the prisoner, in
Which there lurked so great a quantity of arseeic as was sufficient to
leave on his stomach St grains, and from the hands of one whom he
suspected had been praetising on his life. It was a dose which.
according to Dr. Christison, might have amounted to 250 grains, and
it iris a dose that, so far as exporter/co went, never was before suc-
cessfully administered by a murderer, and it was most difficult to
conceive a vehicle in which so great a quantity could be administered,
far less to one who had had his suspicions previously excited.
Then, the Crown had shown that the colouring matter of any
arsenic could afterwards be found in the stomach, but their w.tnesses
say their attention was not c Iled to that circumstance. Whose fault
was that? The Crown must have known the importance of thin..
inquiry, and the prisoner bad no means of being represented in
this chemical analysis. Such was the evidence of the last charge.
the case is a failure on the first and second charges, it is a far mere
complete radical failure in the last. In fact, I have demonstrated.
that it was absolutely impossible to bring guilt against the prisoner,
It remains not only not proved, but the whole eviaen. e connected
with the proceedings of that day seems io go to negative such a sap-
poiltion. I mieht stop there. for nothing can be more fallacious tnento
suppose that it is for me to explain how the prisoner came by his death -
His lordship will tell you a defender in this court has no further duty
but to stand on the defensive, and maintain that the canter the prose_
cation is not proved. No man living, probably, can tell how
L'Angelier came by his death ; nor am I under the sliehtest obligation
even to suggest to you a possible• manner in which his donne may
have been compassed, without being at the hands of the erisosmr.
But it is but fair that, when dealing with matters of suspicion end
conjecture, you should consider whether the :appositions
on which this charge is founded on are prefeeable
in respect of higher probability to other euppositiona
that may be fairly made. After adverting to the strong presumptions
of suicide there was in this case as well as the possibility of acemnt-
ing for the death from other causes, the Dean of Faculty concluded
h s address by an eloquent and impassioned appeal tc. ta a minds and
feelings of the jury, and said he felt so persone2 an interest in
the result of this case, that should there be. any failure of
jastice here he should even attribute It to his own incapacity
to conduct the defence,. and the recollection of this dagr and of this
prisoner should haunt him as a dismal spectre tonna grave. Slay, he
raid, the spirit of all truth guide you. to an honest, jnet, and true ver-
dict ; but I pray you to reeve:lnner, that no veyeacts will be either
honest, or just, or true, maraca sit at once sanafee the conscientious
scruples of the severest judgment, and yet .leave. andisturbed and
unvexed the tenderest connc'tences among yon.

A burst of applause follylifed the conclusicu. oZhi& speech

PROGR.ESS• OF TIM ARCTIC YACHT ..Fox.—A letter has.,
been received from Captain M'Clantock, written by the.
light of inidnialA, in the Pentland Frith, on the 2nd of
July. He writes--" I think, you wilt be glad to know
that I have gut through thc, Pentland, Frith, having had
beautiful, calm. weather since leaving Aberdeen. The
pilot will take 'this on shore. All on, board are well, and
we have settle, down into a. very comfortable and syste-
matic way of life. The ship performs well, and we have
not discovered any detects or wants. We ars. ex.ictly
twelve days in advance of the Isabel. I like my c'ew
well, and nothing can exceed the attention of Yang to his
duty. Hobson is ecually zealous. We are only twenty-
five in number on board, myself included. I may take
another man out of a whaler, and I hope to get an
Esquimaux in Creenland.—Yours, very sincerely, F. L.
M'CLINTOQIC."

TRAN.PORTATION OF AFRICAN NEGROES TO THE FRUNCH
COLONIEI3.—The Assembles Nationale has the following
statement :—." The Council-General of Martinique, having
been consulted by the government wit respect to the pro-
ject of introdneing into that colony of 10 000 Alricans,
enraged as labourers fora certam number Lf years, has
replied i
hat it opposes n in
this emigration of
Africans, but that it nevertheless accepts the consequences
of the contract made by the Minister of Marine with the
firm of Regis, of Marseilles, for the introduction, as a trial,
tt 801 i Africans, inasmuch as that contract is definitive
and. irrevocable. The cone:Al b3gs that the minister
wilt, annul the contract coacladed with the finu of
Regis, in virtue of the right reserved to him,
so that the introduction of Asricans may riot
exceed that number. It desires that in order
to remedy the actual recruitment of labourers amongst
Asiatic races, the monopoly granted to the company, styled
' maritime' should cease, and that every ves,el bringing
Indians to Martinique, in conformity with the laws and
regulations concerning emigration, shall receive the usual
premium. It proposes, moreover, to grant a higher pre-
mium to those Indians who, at the expiration of their iive
?yrehaersse'
eminently prudent, in our on'
and they prove
i that the Assoinblee Nationale
erensgoalguetroen are' may
consent to contract a new on-
understood the interests of the colonists. Orr
bers of the council who opposed the Gist-
the greatest warmth is of African o--
the question in its moat elevated r
that nothing could be snore io;•
portion of the colonial posy
uncultivated savages,"

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