The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-09 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF

PosT.—lt is every day becoming more and more
manifest that there has been a sod failure of justice
in Townley's case. The proceedings of the Derby-
shire magistrates, given in our impression of Thurs
day, have confirmed some, at least, of the suspicions
we could not help entertaining, and felt it our duty
to express; and further inquiry, which can hardly
be refused, will, we fear, show still more conclusively
that there has been iii this miserable affair a flag-
rant departure from the of dinars course of proce-
dure. We are willing, and
beendesirous,
deceived to be-
Hove that the Home Secretary ia
and misled ; but be that as it may—and 'lo the mat-
ter stands the public cannot afford to cononder
Sir George Grey's position—a full and authorita-
tive explanation is imperatively demanded. All
who are said to be concerned in this transaction—
the Home Secretary, the judge, and the justices
and physicians who signed the certificate of lunacy
everybody who has been compromised by reports
and so-called explanations, and everybody whose
conduct is arraigned in the remonstrance which the
county magistrates have signed and forwarded to
Sir George Grey—must concur in the general con-
viction that nothing short of the largest and most
thorough investigation can now be accepted. We
gather from the statement of Mr. Mundy the
chairman of the visiting justices, that the certificate
of lunacy under the Act 3d and 4ila Victoria was
signed on the Tuesday after the commission ap-
pointed by the Home Secretary had examined
Townley and his friends on the Sunday, and, as the
reprieve arrived at Derby on the same Tuesday
evening, we do not see how it could possibly have
been granted on that certificate. The commis.
sioners sent down by the Home Secretary arrived
in Derby on Saturday, and had an interview with
the prisoner. On the Sunday morning following
they were present when the " condemned sermon"
was preached, and during the afternoon of that day
they were engaged in the examination of witnesses.
On the next day they presented their report at the
Home-office, and it was at once sent to Sir George
Grey, who was then in Northumberland. This re-
port could not have come into the hands of the Home
Secretary before Tuesday morning, and the mes-
senger carrying the reprieve arrived at Derby Gaol
on that same Tuesday evening. But before his
arrival the prisoner's attorney had left Derby with
the intention of going direct to Sir George Grey in
Northumberland, and there can be no doubt that he
tcok with him the certificate of lunacy which had
just been signed by two justices and two medical
men, as the Act required. He was, however, tele-
graphed that Townley had been respited, and, we
presume, though it does not much matter, returned
to Derby and sent the certificate to the Home Sec-
retary by post. So much for the attempt that has
been made to escape from inquiry by referring to
the provisions of an Act of Parliament, and to a cer-
tificate of lunacy o 7 which the Home Secretary could
have had no official knowledge when he respited the
convict. But, as good often comes out of
evil, this
attempt to explain away the stubborn facts of the
case has called attention to the manner in which the
certificate was obtained, and will, most likely, lead
to the reconsideration of an Act which can be so car-
ried out. This Act of Parliament, Mr. Crompton
says, was " made use of by those interested in the
defence of Townley to introduce into the gaol a com-
mission, formed of certain justices who had previ-
ously formed and expressed an opinion upon the case
they were to investigate," and of two medical men,
one of whom " is the partner of another medical
gentleman in Derby who gave most powerful evi-
dence in favour of the prisoner, and who holds the
office of surgeon to the gaol." These four gentlemen,
who were selected to visit Townley under the pro-
visions of the Act of Parliament, and to report upon
his state of mind, had actually, all of them, pre-
viously signed a memorial to the Home Secretary
stating it to be the opinion of the memorialists that
the convict was insane ! It would be a work of supe-
rerogation to comment on proceedings so tainted
with suspicion, no matter whether founded or not,
and we are quite content to leave the bare facts as
they have come to us to the appreciation of the pub-
lic. Nor is it worth while to follow the shifting sub-
terfuges which are still being resorted to with the
view of diverting attention from what we will for
the moment call only an error of judgment. A. t
first it was said that Sir George Grey had no dis-
cretion, inasmuch ae under the provisions of the
Act he was compelled to respite Townley and place
him in a lunatic asylum on the certificate of two
justices and two medical men. But that having
been found to be a rope of sand, it is now said—no
doubt hastily and unadvisedly—that the certificate
left Sir George Grey no discretion as to issuing a
commission to inquire into the state of mind of the
convict ; whereas, in point of fact, the certificate
was not even signed when Sir George Grey sent off
the reprieve, and the Act, moreover, says not one
word about directing a commission as is alleged.
The truth is, the Home Secretary ordered the com-
mission upon reading the memorial which was pre-
sented to him, and seeing that the justices and the
medical men who signed the memorial also subse-
quently signed the certificate, it is just possible that
the confusion into which the would-be exculpatory
of the Flome-eflice have fallen may bo so accounted
for. That, at all events, is the most charitable ex-
planation we can offer in their behalf. As to this
being a question of etiquette or jealousy between
county magistrates and borough magistrates, the
question is simply preposterous. It is, as we know
but too well by this time, a question of the adminis-
tration of justice, and, as such, it has been put in
the remonstrance which the county magistrates have
addressed to the Home Secretary. That remon-
strance, too, we will take leave to observe, applies
equally, and with almost equal force, to the pro.
ceedings taken under both the commissions. Both
were one-sided investigations. Both were private
and ex parte. In neither was the prosecution heard
nor the interests of the public adequately repre-
sented. It is also incontrovertible that, as the
magistrates state, " justice has been turned aside by
the power of money." Of course, no one believes
that Sir George Grey has been influenced by the
fact that Townley's friends were well-off in the
world, but people do feel, and they cannot help feel-
ing, that if this had been the case of a poor man,
without friends, the result would been different.
Perhaps there hardly ever was a case in which there
was so little sympathy for a convict ; and while the
report, said to have been made to Sir George Grey
by Mr. Baron Martin, is withheld from the public,
they can come to no other conclusion than that the
paid machinery which has been set in motion has
been the means of saving Townley from the gallows,
and of inflicting, in its sequence, a grievous wrong
upon society.
TIMES.—At the Derbyshire Quarter Sessions cn
Tuesday last a remarkable expression was given to
the feeling created by the late respite of the convict
Townley. We have already indicated the unsatis-
factory aspects of that proceeding, and the general
ccraplexion of the affair is certainly not improved
by the statements now made. It is not to be anti-
cipated that the reprieved convict could now, under
any circumstances, be taken from the asylum to
which he has been consigned, and sent to the gal-
lows. It is not clear that the gallows rather than a
madhouse should in justice have been his end, for
it appears that he is certainly mad at this moment,
and perhaps that fact yields some additional pre-
sumption that he was mad when he committed the
murder. But the whole case from beginning to end
bears so forcibly on public interests, and the pre-
cedent is likely to be of such grave importance, that
we are not sorry to see it re-opened by tho Derby-
shire magistrates. Townley's fate is decided, but
there may be other Townleys in future times. The
Derbyshire magistrates do not mince their words in
addressing Sir George Grey on the point :—" The
result of these private proceedings has been a respite
of the prisoner and an order for his removal to a
lunatic asylum. The effect has been to cause much
dissatisfaction, to create a feeling greatly to be
lamented—that there is one law for the rich and
another for the poor; that justice has been turned
aside b y the power of money, and tbat if Townley
and his friends had been poor he would have been
executed, as a man named Thorley was in this
county last year for a murder under like circum-
stances." Wo hope that the inquiry now prayed
for, whatever it may establish respecting the Derby
Commission, will lead to the recognition of such
principles as will place the administration of justice
on an unexceptionable footing for the future. If a
trial
bijury is to be followed by a trial of another
kind, let the second be as fair as the first, with no
advantage, either direct or indirect, for the rich over
the poor. If the sanity of a convict is to be tested
as, Townley's was tested, provision should be made
for the cases cf those who may not have Townley's
resources, in friends and money. Money did not
buy Townley favour, but it bought him " energy
and effort," employed unsparingly in his behalf.
One of the magistrates candidly admitted that he
could not blame those who were thus engaged, and
who did their best to earn their fees. Of course he
could not. Townley's family had a perfect right to
employ the best advocacy available on his behalf;
but the
misfortune in such cases is, that whereas
nothing is lett undone on the side of the prisoner, a
good deal may be left undone on the side of the pub-
lic. 'The feeling,however, now abroad is snood sign.
It is so easy to incline to mercy, and so cruelly in-
vidious to press for the last rigour of the law, that
strong opinions must be entertained before any
persons would move as the Derbyshire magistrates
have moved in the matter before us. We wait for
the result which such a movement may produce.
It would. be satisfactory to learn that; the Derby
Commission was not opens to the objections advance,
by the protesting. magistrates, but it would he still
more so to find that the course of justice in such
cases will be left espozed to objections no borgcr.

It will be remembered that= a few weeks ago a
good deal of excitement was occasioned at the vil-
lage of Himbleton, near this town, by the death of
a young lady named Husband, aged 20, the adopted
niece of the Rev. J. Vernon, curate of Himbleton,
who expired on Oct. 7, after a short illness, during
which she was unattended by a medical man. It
seems Mr. Bishop, surgeon, of Worcester, who at-
tended the family, had been sent for in the morning
by Mrs. Vernon, but was unable to get to Himble-
ton until the evening, when he found Miss Husband
dead. From the symptoms as described to him, Mr.
Bishop came to the conclusion that she had died
from bilious cholera, and she was buried. Some
time afterwards, however, a rumour got abroad to
the effect that she had been poisoned, and accord-
ingly the coroner of the district, W. S. P. Hughes,
E,q., ordered the body to be disinterred and ex-
amined by a medical man. It was then discovered
not only that deceased had died from poison, a large
quantity of arsenic being found in the intestines
and stomach, but that she was six months gone
with child. At the inquest a young carpeuter
of the village, named Cole, admitted that he
had been on intimate terms with the de-
ceased, and that he wished to marry her, but his
friends objected. It came out that the servants at
the rectory connived at the acquaintance, and that
Cole used to visit Miss Husband in the kitchen and
back premises with the knowledge of the servants,
but unknown to the master or mistress. Mrs. Vernon
had heard rumours of the intimacy of her niece with
Cole, but Miss Husband had always denied it to ber
aunt. A quantity of arsenic was found in a cup-
board at the rectory after the deceased's death, but
Mrs. Vernon and the servants on the inquest denied
all knowledge of it. The inquest ended in a verdict
that deceased had died from the effects of poison,
but how administered there was no evidence to shove..
The result has by no means satisfied the public
mind, and other rumours having got abroad as to
the cause of the deceased's death, the magistrates of
the district determined to reopen the investigation•
Accordingly some magistrates have been sitting
here yesterday and to-day, the Right Hon. Sir J. S.
Pakington in the chair, for the purpose of making a
preliminary inquiry into the circumstances. A great
number of witnesses have been summoned on the
inquiry, and have been examined, but the magis-
trates having decided to conduct the inquiry pri-
vately, we are not in a position to go into details.
The result of their deliberations will be made public
at the close of the inquiry.