The Sun.
London, England, 1864-07-21 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, JULY 21, 1864.

with no other result than to find itself barred at
Spotsylvania Court-house by the immovable grate
presented by the right wing of General Lee's army.
Slowly the two armies drew near to each other once
more, but General Lee, well knowing his opponent's
character, awaited with calmness, and behind the
slight earthworks which are dignified in this coun-
try with the name of intrenchments, the onslaught
of the Federals. After four days of heavy skir-
mishing, from the Bth to the 11th of May inclusive,
the great shock of Grant's attack was delivered
on the 12th. I question whether in the annals of
modern history so frightful a "laughter has ever
been inflicted by an army act.- 'on the defensive
upon its assailants. It has aL a and again been
remarked in this war that there is but one way to
get sustained energy of attack out of the Federals,
and that is, to throw them in swiftly-succeeding
lines, and treading close upon each other's heels,
upon their enemy's guns, •T know not in how many
lines the hapless Federaletoo often I fear blinded
with whisky—were upon this bloody day thrown
into the deadly hailstorm which smote them like a
destroying angel, but the evidence that the slaughter
of Ball's Bluff, Shiloh, Chancellorsville, Murfrees-
boro', or Gettysburg was but as child's play come
pared with the carnarge of Spotsylvania Court-house
is ample and irresistible. Savage and callous as
&marrow, Grant drove his victims, line after line,
upon the death-dealing volleys of their foe. At in-
tervals the smoke lifted, and disclosed a dead, dying,
writhing mass of humanity, such as has not been
witnessed before during this century, if I except
the scene which on the morning of Sept. 8, 1812—
the day after the hitherto bloodiest battle of civi-
lisation—was to be seen in front of the great redoubt
of Borodino. It is not for me to estimate the damage
which, between the commencement of his campaign
and the close of the battle of the 12th, Grant's army
sustained, for I have lived long enough in the neigh-
bourhood of Gen. Lee to share his unwillingness to
guess at the loss inflicted upon his foe. That this
loss is nnprecedente d is abundantly manifest from the
mingled cry of pride and agony which has gone up
from the Northern journals, and I am in a position
to apprise them of the cost to the Confederates at
which that loss was inflicted. The estimate of Gen.
Lee, based upon the fullest returns from the medical
directors of each corps, places his killed, wounded,
and missing in the battles of the Wilderness and
Spotsylvania Court-house at 12,000 men, all told. If
it be true, as is here generally supposed, that these
two terrible battles- have carried the Confederates
over the slope of the dividing line which separates
hem from plenary independence, it may be said
hat—

" Tanta molls erat Romanam condere gentem."
The interest of the campaign, so far as it has
hitherto been conducted, culminated at Spotsyl-
vania Court-house. Again, but not with such
promptitude as after the battle of the Wilderness,
Grant essayed his old flanking policy, and Lee was
heard to exclaim, "Let him circle round where he
likes he will in the end always find me before him.,
Once more the armies faced each other to the south
of the Pamunkey River, and Grant, who had sacri-
ficed thousands upon thousands of his men in reach.
log a position which M'Clellan gained in 1862 with
the loss of a few hundreds, established incontrover-
tibly the sagacity of the latter General's strategy
by selecting the White-house on the Pamunkey
River, as the base of his further operations against
Richmond. It was not until the 3d of June that
the armies came for the third time into important
collision, in the neighbourhood of the old battlefields
of 1862, near Cold Harbour, at a distance of not
more than nine miles from Richmond. But it was
abundantly evident that the fury of the storm had
spent itself at Spotsylvania. The attack, it is true,
was supported with the vigour such battles as
Fredericsburg and Chancelloreville had proved the
Federals to possess, but there was about it little of
the fierce élan which Grant had at first breathed into
his troops, and which they manifested in the battles
at the commencement of May. It was repulsed
with a facility which has led Northern journals to
sneer at the loss acknowedged on that day by the
Confederates, and which, as compared with the
damage inflicted upon and acknowledged by General
Grant, seems hardly credible. It is forgotten that
almost for the first time in three years of war the
Confederates fought at Spotsylvania Court-house
and Cold Harbour behind fieldworks. Nor can it
be doubted that the callous ferocity of the Federal
General's disposition, his reckless and lavish ezpen-
diture of life, his disregard of the unburied dead
and the agonised wonnded, have begun latterly to
tell upon the ardour of his men, and to estrange
confidence and affection from breasts in which three
weeks ago they abounded to overflowing.
It is not necessary to say more about the effort
of General Butler upon the south side of the James
River than that it would probably have been much
more formidable if conducted by a soldier. If, after
the first landing of 40,000 Federals at the mouth of
the Appomattox River, ordinary vigour had been
manifested, it is difficult to see how Petersburg, dis-
tant some ten miles from the James River, could
have been saved. As it was, ample time was given
to General Beauregard to gather up a force from
Charleston and Wilmington, and he bad little diffi•
culty in scattering Butler's forces to the winds in
a well-planned night attack, which lacked little of
compassing the utter annihilation of Butler. The
attack which Grant has led has been the most per-
sistent, energetic, and intrepid onslaught which
Lee has ever been called on to stem ; the attack of
Butler upon Petersburg has exhibited neither
ability nor courage in the General who planned it,
neither spirit nor persistence in the troops which
conducted it.
I must confess myself at a loss when speaking of
Confederate prospects in Northern Georgia. There
is little to reassure those who contemplate the
numerous retreats of General Johnston, without his
striking a blow for the fine wheat district which he
has surrendered, within three weeks of the harvest,
to the enemy, to say nothing of the iron rolling mills
and Government works abandoned at Rome and on
the Etowah river. It is possible that the ability and
energy of General Sherman (who is here considered
a more formidable antagonist than Grant) and the
strength of his army may necessitate great prudence
on the part of General Johnston ; bat I have heard
more than one complaint that the Confederate army
of the West is larger and better appointed than any
army intrusted since the commencement of the war
to either of General Johnston's predecessors. Jadg-
ing from present appearances, Atlanta, if preserved,
will owe its salvation more to the distance which
divides it from General Sherman's base at Chatta-
nooga than to the strenuous blows of its Confederate
defenders. It is not necessary for me to say more
about the trans-Mississippi department than that
the Federal grasp upon Louisiana and Texas is now
resolved into little more than the tenure of New Or-
leans, For the last ten days no aggressive movements
have been undertaken against either Richmond or
Petersburg, and the rumour prevails that, although
a force of not less than 220,000- men has been en•
gaged in the operations conducted by Generals Grant
and Butler, there is an urgent cry already for more
men—to be poured, as seems probable, into that
great abyss of slaughter which has already engulfed
'so many of their predecessors.
Languid as is the interest of Europe in the details
of the American war, it will be strange if, when the
details of the Spring campaign of 1864 in Virginia
become thoroughly known, the name of General
Robert E. Lee is not inscribed upon the brightest
rolls of military fame. It is seldom that full justice
is rendered to military genius --incidently with the
achievement of.the victories wh,ch reveal it. It took
years for England to underetand and appreciate the
sagacity and foresight which checked Massena before
the lines of Torres Vedras, and converted a momen-
tary rale take of Marmont into the rout of Salamanca.
There are French books in existence 'rich saw the
light just after Marengo, and which, spite of the
Italian cemneign of 1796, deny to Napil.eon the pos.
Rs.iork of anything approaching to military genius.
c failure, the
But if, 83 now seems probable, the whole campaign
of General Grant ends in conspicuous
penetrating forethought which has unravelled
Grant's every design,
and
dawrmy as *
which
hh-as "ticiPaled
his
h
every move,
vats-tely inferior
vio
inflict at the
cost of less than 15000 men a loss upon the Fe
„our and prudence which have so
handled a
derels
of five or rim timesthat number, and the moral
iesqualit which have converted in every Southern

breast esteem into love and love into enthusiastic
devotion will conspire to make Robert R. Lee's
memcry a possession which, in this land of hero
worship, his country will cherish, as she cherishes
and rejoices in her new-born and hardly-acquired
freedom.

Royal Agricultural Show at Newcastle,

NEWCASTLE•ON-TYNE, Wednesday.
The number of paying visitors on Monday and
Tuesday was 10,944, or 2,418 more than for the
corresponding time last year ; and the receipts
showed an increase of £274, surpassing the receipts
at :even the Battersea meeting. The number of
halfcrowns taken to-day up to 1 o'clock has been
satisfactory; and to-morrow and Friday are to be
the days for the million, at an admittance fee of
one shilling.
If clusters of " inquiring minds" (generally well
dressed, with the newest graces of form and colour)
gathered round the humming and whirring engines
in the department of " machinery in motion," or
perambulated the interesting stands of the imple-
ment makers, or inspected the show of fleeces and of
butter in its neat little baskets, or glanced at the
" miscellaneous" stalls (with a colony of bees
in full bustle at their stirring trade) still larger
numbers congregated about the prize animals,
and formed eager circles round the spaces where,
from time to time, classes of cattle were marched
in succession, and the horses paced and
pranced to admiration. To the half•-score grand
thoroughbreds, the poor show of hunter stallions,
the good show of hunter brood mares, and the weak
lot of agricultural horses (including, however, a
few prime Suffolks), and of Drays (including Mr
Strickland's grand "Lincolnshire"), we have already
referred. The redeeming feature of the horse classes
is to be found in the hunters competing for prizes
offered by the liberal local committee. Mr Booth's
" Beechwood," a great prize taker in his time, is a
splendid bay with first-rate action, but fairly beaten
on this occasion by Mr Frederick Graham's chest-
nut gelding the "Tyke." Among the 4yr olds,
Mr Clark's " Sprig of Nobility" is especially ad-
mired, but followed close by Mr Norman's chestnut
"Radical." That rarity a first-class roadster has
hardly been brought out at the present show, but
Mr Brown's " President Junior" and Mr Forster's
" Multum in Parvo" are creditable specimens of a
good useful sort.
A pretty show of ponies attracts much attention.
Mr Norman's plucky little " Jack" and Mr Ord's
" Little Stag" being special favourites.
The pig show is much thronged as usual by con-
noisseurs of extreme fatness and marvellous pre-
cocity. The small black breed has come up well,
Mr Sexton and Mr Stearn taking their accustomed
places of honour. A good show of small white
breed finds Messrs. Mangles and Stearn as well up
as ever ; and in the fine class of large breed pigs
*e have some extraordinary specimens exhibited
by Messrs Harrison and Weinman. The Berk-
shires are well represented and of good quality, Mr
Stewart, Mr Tombs, Mr Druce, and Mr Sadler
having some extremely fine animals, taking either
I prizes or commendations.
If the Society could pride itself upon nothing
else, it can certainly take credit for having induced
great mechanical improvements in farm machinery
by reason of the trial teats annually or triennially
provided. Exception may be taken to the value
of hasty dynamometrical experiments upon some
field implements, but undoubtedly the power
measuring. contrivances of the consulting engi-
neer have taught the exhibitors many a lesson.
Astonishing differences used to be found between
one thrashing machine and another, between chaff
engines, mills, crushers, in the amount of motive
power wasted in the friction of the working parts,
and now the same ordeal of exact testing is likely
to give as further improvements in the important
class of steam-tilling machinery. As the present
trial of steam cultivators is likely to be the last
for three years to come, the results of Monday's
private experimenting at Benton are of considerable
moment. In order co determine the amount of
motive power required to drive each set of appa-
ratus the following plan was adopted. Each engine
in turn was set to haul a Fowler three-furrow plough
up to an anchorage placed -about 170 yards off, and
then back again. In order that the friction of
the gear work upon the engine itself, between the
crank-shaft and the rope drums, might be in-
cluded in the trial, the engine connecting rod was
removed from the crank shaft, and the engine fly-
wheel was driven by a belt from an independent.l4 -
horse engine placed for the purpose. This 14-horse
engine was employed to work all the sets of appara-
tus in turn, being driven at one regular speed of
about 130 revolutions per minute, and one of Mr
Amos's rotary dynamometers was interposed between
this engine and the engine under trial, in order to
measure and record the amount of power given out.
Then as the same plough (taking three furrows of
10 inches wide by 7 inches deep) was used for each
set of machinery, the amount of motive power con-
sumed by each apparatus in performing precisely
the same work was thus determined. It should be
observed that all the sets of machinery had the
advantage of the Fowler plough "slack gear," for
tightening, and so partially supporting the tail
or following rope. Of course, the rope, in so
short a length of furrow, was well carried by
repe.porters. The draught and strain due to Messrs
Coleman and Morton's apparatus averaged 19951 b ;
and when the elements of distance travelled during
the observation and the time run are brought into
the calculation, the result comes out as 1l horse-
power engaged. But as their system is to haul two
implements at once, and these never in work toward
the anchored pulley, this does not represent the
true comparative mechanical efficiency of their ap-

paratus.
Messrs. Savory's engine, with two winding drums
upon the boiler, was next under trial, The average
draught and strain was 2,309 lb; and taking into
account the distance and time about 209 horse-power
was engaged.
The average draught or strain for Mr. Fowler's
single 7-horse engine set was 1,993 lb; time and
distance bringing the result to about 139.tiorse

power.
• Messrs. Howard's rope does not pass directly up
and down the field, but round anchored pulleys at
the corners of the plot, which, in this case, was so
small (probably about three acres, with the above
170 yards length of furrow) that the length of rope
did not much vary from that needed by the other or
direct system of hauling, and as the Fowler slack
gear was used as well as Messrs. Howard's own
compensation pulleys for the same purpose, this
trial could not truly represent the usual working
of the Bedford apparatus. The average draught or
strain was 2,4091bs ; and, time and distance being
reckoned, the result is about 15-horse power en-
gaged. Every precaution was taken to insure a per-
fectly fair and open testing of each set of machinery.
Mr Fowler has won both the first and second
prizes for the best application of steam power to the
cultivation of the roil, the first prize for the best
ditto adapted to small occupations, the first prize
for the best plough for steam power, the first
prize for the best cultivator for steam power, the
prize for the best windlass" for a separate engine,
and a high commendation for a rope-porter. Messrs.
Howard have obtained the second prize for the
small occupation apparatus, second prize for a steam
plough, second prize for a steam cultivator, the
prize for the best harrows for steam power, the
second prize for separate windlass, a high commen-
dation for a 2-furrow deep plough, and two commen-
dations for Norwegian steam power harrows, and a
rope-porter. Messrs. Savory take the third prize
for a windlass. Messrs. Aveling and Porter gain
the, prize for the best rope•porter, Messrs. Colman
and Morton take the second prize for a rope-porter,
and a silver medal for the steam power cultivator.
Mr. Steevens has a silver medal for his steam
plough, and Messrs. Garrett are highly commended
for their apparatus on Savory's principle.
The dog show promises to be a success commer-
cially. There is a good display of hounds, a meria
torious collection of pets and toys, and a suffi-
chaeoeoedrd i oddities.
The show,
.
suffi-
ciently attractive addition of foreign dogs and curi-
ous canine
wict ohmtphaenays,saisntda nvci
esitoofrsatgo ood
and, draws a shareof
the
-Dyne city are welcomed 'with all norte of other Rou e..
meats for the evening,

SPORTING INTELLIGENCE.

NOTTINGHAM JULY MEETING.--W'EDNE'SDAY•

The Nottingham Nursery Plate (Handicap) of 100 soya, for
2-yr-olds ; winners extra. Half a mile straight.
Mr Saxon's Bonnie Lass, 7st 9lb (H. Sharp) 1
Mr G. Angell's Attache, 7st 71b (Perry) 2
Mr C. Perry's Le Mexicain, 6st 12Ib (G. Sayers) 3
Mr W. E. Jones's The Leader, ist 81b (Challoner) 4
Mr Walker's Frangipani colt, Tat 21b (Lawrence)
Betting-5 to 4 agst The Leader, 2to 1 agst Bonnie Lass
8 to 1 agst Le Mexicain. 100 to 7 agst the Frangipani colt,

20 to 1 agst Attache.
The Leader, who showed considerable temper in going to
the post, broke away before the start was effected, and ran
three-quarters of a mile before being pulled up. lime-
diately the flag fell Bonnie Lass and The Leader jumped
away together. and ran in close company several lengths in
front of the rest to the distance, where Bonnie Lass quitting
The Leader, the latter was " eased," whereupon Attache,
though possessing no earthly chance of winning, was " kid-
dingly" ridden home and finished six lengths in the rear of
Bonnie Lass; Le Mexicain was beaten a length from the
second, and a similar distance divided the third and fourth;

a bad fifth.
The Forest Plate of 50 soya added to a Handicap of 5 soya
each, for all ages; winners extra. Five furlongs.
Mr H. Bird's Regina, 3 yrs, Cst 71b,, ...... (G. Sayers) 1
Lord Uxbridge's Erythia, 4 yrs, 7st 81b....(T. French) 2
Capt. Handley's Ossian, 4 yrs, bet 91b ..(J. Grinashaw) 3
Mr Kellie's Hesper,6 yrs, 9st 71b 51b ex.) (Ashman) 4
Betting.. Even on Ossian, 7 to 2 agst Erythia, 4 to 1
agst Reaper, 11 to 2 agst Regina.
Erythia made play till approaching the distance, where
the lot closed and half-way Regina took up the running,
and won by half a lengtn ; a neck separated the secondand
third, and half a length the third and fourth.
The Bunney Park Stakes of 5 soya each, with 50 added,
for two-yr-olds ; colts, Bst 101 b; fillies and geldings, .Bst
71b ; winners extra. T.Y.C.
Mr Hodgman's Victorious, 9st llb (in. 51b ex.).. (Perry) 1
Mr J. Dawson's Kathleen Mavoureen, Bst 71b (Custance) 2
Mr Saxon's Bonnie Lass, Bst 7113 (Midgley) 3

Betting-9 to 4on Victorious, who waited on Bonnie
Lass into the straight, where he came away and won by a
neck; a length and a half separating the second and third.
The Chesterfield Handicap of 10 sovs each, 5 ft, with 50
added, for three-year-olds and upwards; winners extra.
One mile and a half.
Lord Uxbridge's The Tyke, 3 yrs, 6st .. (J. Grimshaw) 1
Mr Barber's The Clown, 3 yrs, 7st Sib ........ (Perry) 2
Mr GeCrge Angell's Dunkeld, 4 yrs 6st 101 b (Loates) 3
Mr Savile's Privateer, 3 yre, Est 61b: (Morris) 4
Betting-7 to 4 agst Privateer, sto 2 each agst Dunkeld
and The Clown, 5 to 1 agst The Tyke.
Dunkeld made play to within half a mile from home,
when Privateer took up the running, with The Clowu at
his girths. and the other two close up. At the distance
Privateer was beaten, and The Clown and Tho Tyke
qu tted the other two, and after a severe race The Tyke
won by a short head; five lengths separated the second
and third, and a couple of lengths divided third and
fourth.
A Selling Handicap of 5 sovs each, with £3O for all ages ;

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE.

MIDLAND CIRCUIT.-DERBY, July 20,

CROWN COURT.
(Before Mr Justice Keating.)
Mary M'Morrow, a miserably-dressed, squalid-looking
woman, about 50 years of age, and who appeared to be
labouring under some distortion of the spine, was placed at
the bar charged with the wilful murder of John M.‘Morrow,
her husband, at NorthWingfield, on the 9th inst., by setting
fire to him.
Mr Jessel and Mr Stephen conducted the prosecution ;
and Mr Bristowe, who laboured under the disadventago of
being instructed by the prisoner herself from the dock,
appeared to defend her.
The deceased was a miner, of about 64 years of age, and
had for some time lived on bad terms with his wife, owing
to a suspicion he entertained that she had attempted some
four or five years ago to poison him by giving him a poison-
ous lotion to drink. On Juno 22 he went with her to Ches-
terfield to attend the funeral of an Irishman. They came
home by train, both somewhat intoxicated, and quarrelling
by the way, and got back to Wingfield about 8 o'clock. The
dispute continued after they reached home, and both left
the house, apparently for the purpose of going somewhere
to get more drink. What transpired afterwards will be best
gathered from the statements of the witnesses and the de•
positions of the deceased taken a few days afterwards. The
deposition, after stating the above facts, continued as follows:
I returned home, where I found the prisoner sitting on a
chair drunk. I told her to go to bed. She said she never
would until she had cut her throat. I went out and told a
neighbour, Mary Ganning, what she said. Sne came in and
told the prisoner to go to bed, but I dont know what answer
the prisoner gave. I then too off my coat and hung it up,
and my hat also. I had then two shirts on, a waistcoat, a
pair of trousers, boots, and stockings. I laid myself down
upon the squab whereon there was only a pallet made of
flock. (It appeared from a plan of the house produced in
court that the squab stood on the left side of the fireplace.)
About 1 o'clock I went to sleep, the prisoner being the only
person in the room with me. I never woke until I felt the
fire, which was burning my shirt sleeve and the calico on the
back of my waistcoat. I jumped up and saw the prisoner
running away upstairs. I called for assistance, and I then
heard the prisoner upstairs laughing. The prisoner did not
come downstairs till after the two lodgers, Edward Roff
and another, whose name I do not know, who were in bed,
came down stairs and attempted to put out the fire.
Elizabeth Marriott—l live opposite the prisoner's house.
On the night of June 22, about 12 o'clock, I heard the pri-
soner talking to two persons in the street, and go into the
house. About an hour or an hour and a half afterwards I
heard the deceased crying out " Mary, Mary, come Lack;
come down stairs. You've run away. Come down and
dout me. In the name of the Lord, is there no one in this
hc,use that will come down to dout me ?" I heard a woman
say " I shall be suffocated, ' and there was a great noise, but
I could not distinguish any other words.
Mary Garrick, a lodger in the prisoner's house, after
corroborating the last witness as to the prisoner talking
iu the street with two persons, said—After the prisoner
came in I heard her speaking to her husband, but he gave no
answer. Some time afterwards I perceived a smell of burn-
ing, and the prisoner came upstairs running and laughing.
She pushed me as I lay in bed, and said, " Are you asleep?"
I heard the deceased calling out, " Come back Mary, and
take the thing off my back." She said, " No, you old rogue;
for I've cooked your goose at last for your lies of me the
last four years." He screeched, " Is there ever a man in the
house to save me, for lam in flames of fire ?" She said he
was only pretending—there was nothing the matter. I ran
downstairs, and saw Hoff and another man, both of whom
were lodging in the house, tearing the shirts off the back of
deceased. The deceased then called for a sheet to throw
over his shoulders, and we all went with him to the police-
man's, leaving the prisoner alone in the house. The same
morning, some hours later, I saw the prisoner pull a coat
from under the squab. The right sleeve was burnt, and not
the left. The deceased said, " Mary, the devil'has blinded
you this morning—you've burnt the wrong :sleeve. The
coat has gut the right sleeve burnt, but it is my left arm,
and not the right, that is injured." She sa.d, " Let us look
at it." He refused, saying, " I'll take care of this, for the
gentlemen (magistrates) to'see it. You shall not make away
with this the same as you did the lotion, four or five years
age." She said, " You old murderer." He answered,
" You're the murderer" He afterwards asked for a cup of
water. The prisoner would not go for it, and I sent my lad
to get some. When it came she took it up, drank some of
the water and threw the rest on the floor. She said, " I
wish you went away this morning." I said, " What for,
Mary ?'' She replied, "If you go away I will give you a
good dress as a present." I said, "I want nothing at all
of :you. Perhaps the gentleman would stop me." She
answered, "They durst not."i
Cross-examined—The prisoner was very much in liquor
when she came home from Chesterfield. When she came
running upstairs she kept laughing all the while, and never
gave over. She then smelt very strongly of liquor, but was
not drunk.
Edward Hoff, another of the lodgers—l was asleep in the
house, and was aroused by cries of "Murder I" 'When I
got downstairs I found the deceased lying on the floor and
another lodger• throwing water over him. The left arm of
his shirts and the back of his waistcoat were-much burnt.
I searched his pockets and found in them a tobacco box
about half full of tobacco. I laid it on the table at the foot
of the squab. There was a fire in the grate—not a very large
one. I then went with the rest to the policeman's. After
we came back the prisoner raked the tobacco box from under

the grate.
The lodger who first came down to the assistance of the
deceased was not called, as he had left the house the same
morning, and could not be found.
Dennis Gorman, a police constable—The deceased and
the other witness came to my house about 3 o'clock in the
morning. I went back with them and asked the deceased
how he was burnt. Ho said that he had gone to sleep on
the squab, and when he was awoke by the burning he saw
his wife run upstairs. She said she had been upstairs and
in bed before she heard her husband cry out that he was
on fire, that he was drunk, and that he must have fallen
into the fire in his drunkenness. She was then raking
the ashes from under the grate, In doing so she pulled
out the tobacco box, and said, " See, here is your tobacco
box. When you fell into the fire it must have fallen out."
He said it had net, for 1.-loff had taken it but of his pocket
after he was burnt, and had put it on the table. Hoff
said, "Aye, that it was, ; I took it out myself.'
I examined the tobacco in the box—it was damp. There
were no marks of fire on the squab or on the flock mattress,
which the prisoner had taken upstairs.
Richard Ronayne, inspector of police—l was at the house
about 11 o'clock in the morning after the deceased was
burnt. I asked the prisoner how long she had been in bed
before she heard the cry of fire from her husband. She said
she thought it was about an hour.
The doctor who examined the deceased proved that he
was much burnt on the back and left side. There were two
small burns about the size of a fourpenny piece on the right
hand. There were none on the right arm. The ribs and
shoulder appeared to have been baked, as if the fire had
smouldered there. The burns on the left arm and side were
of a more superficial character. The deceased lingered till
the 9th of this month when he died from the effects of the
burns.

Mr Bristowe, for the defence, contended that the facts of
the case were consistent with the deceased having set him-
self on fire by accident. His deposition could not be relied
on, for it was clear he was not in a state of sobriety when
he returned from Chesterfield, and he should prove by two
witnesses, whom he was going to call at the especial re-
quest of the prisoner, that the deceased was very drunk at
12 o'clock. It was, therefore, very improbable that his
version of the transaction was sufficiently correct to be relied
on, and by his death it was no longer possible to test it by
cross-examination.
The two persons who had been heard talking to the pri-
soner in the street at 11 or 12 o'clock were then called, and
they both swore that they went into the house and saw the
deceased, who was then very drunk, asleep on the squab
with his clothes on.
His lordship, in summing up, told the jury that the first
question for them was whether the prisoner set her husband
on fire, and, if so, whether she did it wilfully or not. If
they came to the conclusion that she did it and did it wil-
fully, the second question would be, did she do it with in-
tent to deprive her husband of life or to do him some griev-
ous bodily harm. If sM did it with either intent, her crime
amounted to murder. If, on the other hand, they thought
she did it with intent to injure or annoy him, or to do any-
thing short of grievous bodily harm, they should find her
guilty of manslaughter.
The jury retired, and after a short absence returned into
court with a verdict of Guilty of manslaughter.
The prisoner was then sentenced to penal servitude for
seven years.