The Sun.
London, England, 1864-11-17 00:00:00

The following is the letter' alluded to above

Sir,—My notice has just been called to some injurious
observations to myself, made by you in reference to the
German Legal Protection Society's memorial in favour of
Muller, in which my name becomes very prominent. I read
in the Times of Friday, Nov. 11:

" Muller was condemned by public opinion Moro ho was
brought to England at all, in the same way as, but in a
stronger degree than, Dr Smethurst was. This gentleman
was convicted of poisoning before the Lord Chief Baron
Pollock, who expressed himself satisfied with the verdict,
and gave him no hope ; yet when, on a memorial like this,
he was respited,',the accusation was found to bo false, and no
ono ever since doubted that he was wrongfully convicted of
the crime foiwhich he was adjudged to death. It is confi-
dently hoped that, a similar result would follow the respite
prayed for in this case."—Memorial of the German Legal
Protection Society.
Then follow your cwn comments on the above, which in
my opinion are alike injurious to myself, the Government,
and the people. You say, in the same paper—

" We believe that if Mr Beard had been consulted about
the composition of this address so unfortunate an illustra-
tion would not have been introduced. Dr Smethurst's case
is the very last which ought to be quoted as a precedent for
the interference of the Home Secretary. With the justice
of the final decision wo have nothing to do; it is enough
to cay that while the circumstances under which a pardon
was granted were peculiar in the extreme, the reference of
the matter to one eminent surgeon, aftera solemn investiga-
tion in court, has been reprobated ever since by the,whole
legal profession."

The question of any doubt as to my innocence in this case
has been fully settled, if not by the entire public opinion,
at all events by the late Home Secretary, Sir George Lewis,
who possessed every ready means at command to assist him
before coming to a determinate conclusion, and the follow.
ing is his explanation of the aff sir before the House of
Commons.

In the limes, January, 28, 1860, Mr Edwin James, Q C .
is reported to have said that—

" He wished to bring under the notice of the Secretary of
State for the Home Department one or two facts connected
with the case of Dr Smethurst, who was lately convicted of
murder and pardoned by the Crown. The case was a most
important one, had engaged a large share of public atten-
tion, and was likely to ,affect very seriously the criminal
jurisprudence of the country."
His further observations referred to the overruling of the
verdict of the jury and the sentence of the judge, and called
for an inquiry.
Sir George Lewis said—

" With regard to the particular case of Dr Smethurst, the
course which I adopted was to call for the shorthand writer's
notes of the trial, to hear everything which could be alleged
on the part of the prisoner by his friends or legal advisers,
and to refer all the papers which were brought before me to
the learned judge (Pollock) who tried the case. The learned
Chief Baron, after long consideration of the subject, made
a very full report, in which he recommended that the mat-
ter should be referred to some eminent medical practitioner,
and I accordingly placed his report in the hands of Sir
Benjamin Brodie, whose eminence and fitness will, I think,
be universally admitted. In a conversation which I had
with him in order to obtain his permission to the reference,
ho assured mo that he had but a superficial knowledge of
the subject, and had formed no opinion whatever with re.-
gard to the case; and therefore, I believe that it would be
impossible for me to find a more impartial referee. After
full consideration given, I can assure the house, with the
utmost attention of which I was master, and after hearing
a variety of opinions from different persons, I came to
the conclusion that the proper course for me to adopt was
to advise the Crown to grant a free pardon ; and I can only
say that nothing which has occurred since I gave that ad-
vice has made me entertain any doubt as to its rectitude.
(Hear, hoar.) I think it ;right to state that the Chief
Baron expressed an opinion 'that the prisoner ought
not to bo hanged ;' and ho subsequently made the sugges-
tion that Dr. Smethurst did not administer drugs to Miss
Isabella Baukes with the view of taking her life, but pos-
sibly with a view of procuring abortion." That was the
hypothesis which a consideration of all the evidence had
suggested to him, but it was an hypothesis wholly different
from that which was adopted by the prosecution at the trial,
or from that which was submitted by the judge to the jury
—and it is impossible for me to say whether, if that view
of the evidence had been submitted to them, they would
have found a verdict of guilty.' "
It is in evidence that the deceased fell ill on Sunday, the
27th of March, 1859, and died on the 3d of May, making the
duration of her illness five weeks and two days; and that
Messrs. Palmer and Barwell, who performed the post mor-
tem examination, deposed on oath that she was advanced in
pregnancy from five to seven weeks. Now, according to the
Chief B.ron's statement, I must have begun to administer
arsenic and antimony with a view to " effect abortion, but
not to kill," on the instant impregnation occurred, for the
sickness and dysentery commenced about the same time—
flee weeks before death. I challenge the whole medical
profession to say that I, or any one, could know of her
pregnancy at this early period—and would ask the question
is it likely that such deadly mineral poisons would be used
for such a purpose by a medical man of many years' expe-
rience, when lc is generally known in the profession that a

stiletto would have done the business in the course of an
hour or so ?

If we wish to recognize the medical opinion on early
pregnancy, let us now our attention to what medical
authority does say on this subject. The following conclu-
sions are admitted in cases of early pregnancy by the best
authors on midwifery :

"During the first two months the diagnosis is extremely
obscure, and connot be made with any degree of certainty.
There are no signs by which pregnancy can be determined
before the third month."—Byan and Beck's Medical Juris-
prudence.
We may all read in the daily newspapers of the 14th of
May and 6th and 7th of November, 1861, the following
observations made on the " Royal Pardon," by Chief
Baron Pollock himself in the Court of Exchequer :
" The Royal Pardon is a most authoritative declaration
that the party has been wrongly convicted, and that he was
an innocent man."—May 14, 1861.

"I say this, that I think it must be taken, according to
the administration of our criminal laws, that when a person
has been convicted, and the Secretary of State has advised
her Majesty to grant a free pardon, that individual has
established his innocence in the only way he can according
to the administration of the criminal laws of this country,
and that he is entitled to the full benefit of that fact."
—Nov. 6, 1861.

These facts at once put an end to the alleged will motive,
and the case altogether, by the Chief Baron's own showing.
A case of greater hardship and cruelty, or ono more strik-
ingly illustrating danger to the life of the people can scarcely
be imagined. I therefore ask yes, for the sake of truth,
justice, and the satisfaction of the people, to insert this
communication in your next impression.—l am, Sir, your
obedient servant, T. SMETIIVRST, M.D.
London, Nov. 15.

Post —We are glad to learn that the proper
authorities at Liverpool took yesterday a course
that is calculated to protect British subjects from
the unscrupulous efforts of the recruiting agents in
this country of the Federal army. As the ship Great
Western was leaving Liverpool yesterday afternoon
she was stopped, on information that she had on
board a certain number of passengers who had been
decoyed there under false pretences. It is not for
the first, but rather for the hundredth time that a
case of this sort has occurred. But the present ape
pears to be one of the first instances in which false
pretences have been established in time to obtain
the detention of the vessel. In such cases as these
all that we can do is to exert our own vigilance and
to apply restrictive measures whenever the event
happens to warrant it. It is difficult to perceive
how we can do more. Against our own fellow-sub-
jects we may apply the rigorous terms of the Fo-
reign Jurisdiction Act where the terms of the act
and the circumstances of the case really apply. But
in the present instance the circumstances appear to
be just the reverse, for the passengers on account of
whom the vessel has been stopped are alleged to
have been kidnapped. We may also adopt the al-
ternative of making representations to the Ameria
can Government. But here again the difficulty of
the case is that the Cabinet of. Washington is cer-
tain to deny all complicity in any attempt to decoy
British subjects into service in the Federal army.
Indeed, after the declaration which the American
Government recently made, it is hard to suppose
that it could possibly do otherwise. Mr Seward fore
malty undertook not long ago that this sort of en-
listment—if that be not too mild a term—should not
henceforth be permitted in American ports, much
less by agents of his Government in the ports of this
country. It is therefore quite out of the question that
Mr Lincoln and himself can possibly do otherwise
than repudiate the acts attributed to the recruiting
agents of the Federal army. Even if the recruit-
ing were bona fide and above board, it would be
just the same; but, where it takes the shape of kid.
napping, all the more so. We have no doubt we
shall receive the usual answer, that the Federal
Government has no knowledge of these transacs
tions ; and that the subjects of her Majesty to
whom the grievance refers have been decoyed on
board the: Great Western by unauthorised agents
whom the Federal Government does not recognise
and does not employ. Mr Seward will greatly re-
gret that ihe circumstance should have taken place;
he will rejoice that the ship was stopped before it
had left British :eaters; and there will be an end of
that particular grievance, only to recur, however,
on the next occasion of a like character. If this be
so, all that we can say is that we must for the future
take care of ourselves. We must take more cognise•
ance as to who embarks, and for what distinct
purpose each person embarks on board ships
bound for Federal ports. Cases of this sort have
been of continual recurrence in Ireland. They
have been brought under the notice of both Houses
of Parliament on various occasions. The answer
of Lard Russell has invariably been that when-
ever any instance of complicity in a violation of
the terms of the Foreign Enlistment Act is to
be brought home to persons residing in this
country, whether British subjects or_ American
citizens, they shall be proceeded against in the
manner pointed out by law. But hardly an in-
stance is to be found of any prosecution on ac-
count of Federal enlistment having taken place ;
and, to tell the truth, these covert violations of our
law have been so cleverly contrived that it has
been difficult to bring a case hoir.?., with the de7
finiteness of legal evidence, against any particular
individual. Meanwhile, those whose business it
has been to support the intetests of the Federal
Government in this country have been singularly
vigilant in bringing under the cognisance of our
tribunals of all cases in which enlistments have
taken place on behalf of the Confederate navy. The
truth is that, by the uniquil operation of a law de-
signed to be just and uniform, our neutrality has
swayed altogether to the Federal side. The
Northerners have throughout had the immense ad-
vantage of possessieg the command of the sea, while
the ports of the Southerners have been blockaded.
The practical distinction in the result has been that
the North has been enabled to make its enlistments
in its own ports, while the South has been com-
pelled to make them in British ports. It became
therefore very easy for Federal agents to represent
cases arising on the part of the Confederates for an
interference under the Foreign Enlistment Act; but
it was very difficult, on the other hand, for Confe-
derate agents to pick legal holes i❑ the conduct of
Federals for enticing British subjects to New York.
What was done at Liverpool or Southampton in the
one case was done at New York or Boston in the
other. On the present occasion, however, the falsity
of the pretence under which British subjects have
been led to embark appears to have been unusually
transparent ; and hence the information under
which the Great Western has been stopped. The
Federal recruiting agents, in a word, have bungled
the matter, and have accordingly been detected.
It would be hard to conceive any course more
impolitic than that which the Federal Govern-
ment—to a greater or less extent, at all events
have allowed their agents to pursue in
this country. What they have been doing simply
tends to stop the tide of emigration from this coun-
try to America. From the moment that British
subjects begin to be impressed with a belief
that faith will not be kept with them on American
soil, they will make the best of the ills they have,
and cease to seek their fortunes across the Atlantic.
For every ten men, therefore, that Federal agents
might obtain for the Union army in a surreptitious
manner in this country, they would lose the assist•
ance of hundreds of voluntary emigrants. On this
account it would seem, if even on no other, impos-
sible to believe that the Federal Government could
for a moment countenance a petty and higgling
wrong of this description. They must be at least
as alive as we are to the fact that their true inte-
rest lies in the encouragement of full emigration to
the Northern States to supply the lesser which this
slaughtering war has made among the population,
and they would even obtain more military and re-
cruits from an ample tide of free emigration than
they could do by kidnapping small bodies of men at
the cost of discrediting emigration itself. However
great may be the difficulty of obtaining fresh sol*
diers in the Northern States, we should be stow to
believe that the Federal Government had really au•
thorised such an impolitic expedient as their zealous
Agents in this country have just devised in order to
fill the gaps in the ranks of their exhausted armies.

BREAKFAST BEVERAGE.—Homoeopathic practitioners,
and the medical profession generally, recommend cocoa
as being the most healthful of all beverages. When the doc-
trine of homoeopathy was first introduced into this country,
there were to be obt lined no preparations of cocoa either at-
tractive to the taste or acceptable to the stomach ; the nut
was either supplied to the crude state, or so unskilfully
manufactured as to obtain little notice. J. Epps, of London,
Homoeopathic Chemist, was induced in the year 1839 to turn
his attention to this subject, and at length succeeded, with
the assistance of elaborate machinery, in being the first
to produce an article pure in its composition, and so refined
by the perfect trituration it receives in the process it passes
through, as to be most acceptable to the delicate stomach.
For general use Epps's Cocoa is distinguished as an invigo-
rating, grateful breakfast beverage, possessing a most deli-
cious aroma. Dr. ilassall, in his work, "Food and its
Adulteratiols," says —" Cocoa contains a great variety of im-
portant nutritive principles—every ingredient necessary to
the growth and sustenance of the body." Again: "As a
nutritive, cocoa stands very much higher than either coffee
or tea." Directions—Two teaspoonfuls of the powder in a
breakfast cup, filled up with boiling water or milk. Secured
in tin-lined ilb., ,lb., and 11b. labelled packets, and sold by
grocers, confectioners, and chemists.- [Anv'r.]

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