The Sun.
London, England, 1864-11-01 00:00:00

hension of the criminal at length brought forward
some important evidence, and as the love of gain
was probably the motive for the commission of the
deed, so it proved the accessory of its detection.
The circumstances of the trial, including the pursuit
and capture of MT/LLER, and the singular but
most convincing chain of evidence which
led to his conviction, were all of a nature
to keep up the public, excitement to the
highest pitch. When it was feared that the sup•
posed assassin would elude justice the chase was
watched with intense eagerness, but when it was
learned that he was actually in the hands of the
police general relief was felt. All knew that there
was no danger of a hasty and incomplete convic-
tion—that all that skill and experience and judicial
acumen of the highest character could do
would be done to set the full details of the
case before an unprejudiced and conscientious jury.
Those anticipations have been fulfilled to the letter.
The care of his countrymen procured for the pri-
soner the assistance of eminent counsel, and the
whole case has been conducted in a spirit and with
a manner worthy of the impartial majesty of English
law. Never perhaps has justice held the scales more
fairly, never was her sword more carefully and
deliberately poised. No one who listened to the
clear and masterly summing up of the Lord Chief
Baron—a summing up worthy of his high repute.
tion as one of the ornaments of the Bench—could
have failed to be forcibly impressed by the nature
of the evidence against the unhappy man at the bar.
As the learned judge observed, there were three dis-
tinct chains of evidence against him—that relating
to the hat found in his possession, to the hat found
in the carriage, and to the watch and chain. Each
of these was carried out with singular distinctness,
and the threefold line of defence set up entirely
failed to dispose of the evidence. The first plea on
behalf of the prisoner was an assertion that the
charge against him was not satisfactorily proved--
a mere general defence. The second was that he
was physically unequal to the commission of the
act—an assertion which, considering the respective
ages of the parties, and the fact of MrBRIGGs being
taken by surprise and probably asleep, did not
weigh much in his favour. The third plea, an
alibi, entirely broke do wn, the witnesses, entrust•
worthy as they were, being unable to give any
reason whatever for their assertions as to the time.
In fact, as the Solicitor-General justly observed, the
discovery of MULLER having been at Camberwell
about nine on the fatal evening was rather preju-
dicial to him than otherwise. All the other evi-
dence—of the hatters, of the jeweller, of MULLER'S
landlady, of the cabman and hie wife—pointed
strongly against the prisoner, and was remarkably
unanimous. Little details, such as the lining of the
hat, the jeweller's box given to the child, and other
incidents fitted in with surprising clearness, MUL
LER himself must have lost all hope as, one by
one, these condemning facts were elicited. He
has the satisfaction, if satisfaction there can

be to a man in his awful position,
that he has not been condemned undefended
and unheard, and that he has had all the aid that
legal ingenuity and forensic eloquence could have
given to the most innocent man. Bat nevertheless
his doom is sealed, uric' the unanimous voice of tte
public unhesitatingly ratifies the decision of judge
and jury. There only remains the last scene iu
this appalling tragedy--a tragedy that has
brought home to the most
-thoughtless and light-
hearted the uncertainty of human life, and the
Atartling but familiar truth that in the midst of
die we are in death. It is only to be hoped that
the catastrophe will induce greater care and cau-
tion in the management of our railway lines, and
that the single retribution which has in this instance
followed upon the crime may serve to deter others
from so dark a deed. For the murderer himself
there is nothing to ba said, He has committed a
barbarous murder without provocation or induce-
ment beyond the mere sordid love of gain, and has
brought desolation to a happy home only, as the
event proves, to condemn himself to an ignominious
death. After the fitful and fluctuating manner in
which our criminal justice has lately been adminis-
tered, it is some satisfaction to the public that a
case of such vital interest to society should have
been so carried out in accordance with the old tra-
ditionary dignity of English constitutional law ;
and it only remains for the public, while shudder..
ing at the guilt of the criminal, to echo that deep
but audible amen which murmured through the
vast assembly as the learned judge concluded the
delivery of his impressive judgment, by praying
hat the murderer might find that mercy from the
tribunal of Heaven which he has justly forfeited at
the hands of his fellow men.

The public w:11 learn with very great and gene•
ral regret that they have lost one whose gifted
pencil has for so many years delighted and amused
all classes. We have had this year to deplore the loss
of many able and eminent men, and now another
name is added to the list. Mini LEECH is no
more, and the wonderful versatile hand whioh has
so often illustrated the foibles and fancies of our
social life shall no more provoke us to smile, even
at our own absurdities. The caricaturist, like the
satirist in words, too often plays an ungenerous part.
He exposes with merciless hand the weak points
of his victim, and is sometimes tempted to sacrifice
every kindlier feeling to the desire of achiev.
ing an effect. No such charge can be brought
against the memory of JOHN LEECH ; and though
he has relentlessly exhibited in turn the absurdi-
ties of almost every class, he has never done it so
as to offend even their representatives. Perhaps it
was owing to the fact that his satires were general,
and not personal, that they were so entirely devoid
of malice. It was pretension of any kind against
which his wit specially directed its shafts, whether
in the " young England," who would fain be old
England, the faded belle, who would compete with
youthful bloom, the "Jeames," who aped the airs of
his master, or the hapless devotee of field sports,
who only succeeded in exhibiting his deficiencies.
The fun of his yearly almanac illustrations too,
was something inimitable by meaner pencils, while
the general literature of the day has lost one of
its most brilliant and successful illustrators. Mr.
LEECH'S death was as premature as it was unex-
pected. He was only 47 years of age, and had in the
hope and belief of those around him many more
years to come of active and vigorous life. For some
time he had been a great sufferer from irritability of
nerves, and was one of the foremost in the crusade
against organ grinders and street cries. The ex-
cessive sensibility to noise which his friends laughed
at and he so painfully lamented, was, in fact, the
symptoms of more serious evil, and it would have
been well if, instead of roaming from house to house
and complaining now of the street music, now of the
sound of a neighbouring hammer, Mr. LEECH had
paused to ask himself why he felt these things so
keenly. The excessive irritability was a sure sign
that brain and nerves imperatively needed rest---
rest which, if he had granted with a more prompt
and liberal hand to his overtasked powers, might
have spared his friends the bereavement, and the
public the loss, which they now bewail. It would
be well if other men of genius would take warning
and be less indefatigable in the pursuit of their call-
ing, but the present loss is none the less great that it
might have INect averted for a time, It is strange