The Sun.
London, England, 1863-04-06 00:00:00

gument of the prosecution virtually amounted to
this : Mrs. Day was poisoned by arsenic. If the
pie had contained arsenic the probable symptoms
would have been identical with those exhibited.
Therefore the pie did contain arsenic. Son:it:l)o63-
must have put it in ; and that soratbidy could be
nobody else but the prisoner. The counsel fur the
prisoner very wisely adopted a purely negative line
of defence. He defied the prosecution to prove
positively that there was any arsenic in the pie at
all, or if there was, that the prisoner put it there.
The exhaustive process on which the prosecution
relied was utterly incomplete, and the jury acquitted
the prisoner almost without hesitation. That they
they did so, however, was due, we suspect, to the
admirable summing up of the Lord Chief Justice.
The evidence on which Constance Wilson was
hanged was hardly more satisfactory than that on
which Sturt was acquitted. Very little doubt can
be entertained of the guilt of that wretched woman,
and there can be small question that she had mur-
dered many persons. But there was absolutely no
evidence that the person whom she was tried for
poisoning had died by poison at all. If we are ever
to have the punishment of death, never was there a
woman who, as far as can be judged, deserved
hanging more justly than Mrs. Wilson ; yet, for all
that, she was sentenced with doubtful justice, and a
very dangerous system of a priori evidence was ad-
mitted amongst the precedents of our English law.
This system happily has received a severe blow at
the Lewes Assizes. It was not enough, as Sir A.
Cockburn remarked with truth, to prove that Sturt's
guilt was the most probable solution of the problem
of Mrs. Day's death ; it was essential to establish
furtt er that no other solution was possible. This,
we believe, is sound law; at any rate, it is common
sense.
LONDON REVIEW.—A ragged church is a pecu-
liar and characteristic institution. To a common
mind it seems a repellant rather than attractive
name. It appears like an attempt to destroy that
beautiful feature so well defined in the words, "the
rich and poor meet together, and the Lord is the
maker of them all." But a thorough consideration
of the facts will modify this fear, and vindicate the
' expediency, at least, of such an experiment. There
is a class of our fellow-creatures so steeped in vice
and dirt, that it is impossible to endure their pro-
miscuous mixing with an ordinary congregation.
This is not niere affectation. It is painfully real.
The case, therefore, resolves itself into this : Either
you must insist on their weekly baptism in hot
water, with plenty of soap, on the Sunday morning,
and furnish them with dean shirts and trousers and
petticoats, which they would to a certainty pawn
or sell for gin on the Monday, or you must localize
them in some part of the parish church or other place
of congregation, within restrictive and impassable
Ibarriers. Now it does seem, to our mind, much less
objectionable and less annoying to their amour
propre, to give them a place of a orship entirely
their own, into which they may statedly come, and
neither take liar give offence. It must never be
forgotten, in any discussion of the merits of this
question, that ragged churchmen are not decent
labourers or mechanics, or what is called the work-
ing classes. They are tramps, beggars, or people of
nameless condition, wrecks of a life of drunkenness
and vice, who, if invited and welcomed, will not
enter a regular place of worship. They form a caste,
as plainly marked as ii they were a distinct race
from that of the English people. An experiment of
this kind has been carried on for 10 years in a place
called Brewer's-court, Wild-street, Drury-lane, the
centre of a district more degraded, more destitute,and
more demoralised than is to be found in any of the
eastern districts of London, Every Sunday morning,
at 11 o'clock, 200 miserable-looking specimens of the
human family assemble in the ragged church there,
famished, ill-clad, and dirty, beyond the power of
description. The psalmody with which the service
begins is very imperfect; the attitude and aspect of
the worshippers, at first sight, are anything but
encouraging. Some grown lads did not under-
stand at first whether they were to kneel or sit or
fall on their faces or stand upon their heads during
prayers. Of the 200, some 40 are able to read, and
one, perhaps the begging-letter-writer, has reached
the accomplishment of writing. From 30 to 40 of
the congregation partake of the Communion once a
quarter. These are the more advanced and better
instructed, who have been recovered from a life of
evil, trained and taught by the minister; and it is
to the credit of his labours that scarcely any great
delinquency has hitherto disgraced them since they
joined. During the winter months, a loaf of bread
is distributed to each worshipper by the minister
after he has pronounced the benediction, for which
he has many
be supposed. Several instances of lasting moral
willing and waiting recipients, as might
impression and elevation have occurred. The ragged
child in the school has led the minister to the ragged
parent, and the ragged parent in the church on
Sunday has guided the minister to the ragged
family on the Monday. A neighbouring cangre-
gation furnishes, by subscription, funds to defray
the cost of this experiment. Its members frequently
respond to appeals made to their benevolence, in
the shape of clothes and medical comforts for the
most destitute or the sick. A very interesting
proof of what may be done at little cost in a case of
this kind, is worth recording as a hint to others.
A kind-hearted gentleman, having one day listened
to the annual sermon in aid of the funds of the
ragged church and school, came into the vestry at
the close of the service, and said that, while at sea
in his
oyfa cfihsth, , hiswh ci
or
he W, h haavdi
nogf tne
on
usecau caught great
for it,
t they
quan-
tities
e y castinto the sea again. If the minister of the
ragged
hamper-full churcho
f wouldgood ufins
hd e r
at amkoen tot
hdei s
destitute
people, he would send, carriage paid, a large hamper
containing soles, flounders, and skate. This he did
on three successive occasions, and the destitute poor
received each a good fish dinner, to their great and
rare satisfaction. A benevolent lady likewise finds
sewing for women who have no children, and situa•
tions for girls who can be trusted. But the great
perplexity is what to do with convicted lads, ex-
pired ticket-of-leave men, and jail-birds. These
have lost their character, and to them stealing or
begging, or both, are sheer necessities. It might
surely be possible to find even for these some sort
of hard work, to which no responsibility or tempta-
tion is attached. It is interesting to notice that on
Tuesday, March the 10th, the 200 miserable men
and women who form the ragged church
aeap with their
300 ragged children, sat down
of roast
theb beef and
ef plum pudding, furnisheidtahlyafew
friends, dinner
minister presiding, and in cups of ale
sufficient they drtnhaenseskclnhufeeeet and happiness to the
andd
sPavrien
Pwritinhcr,
God
Wales, and wound up all
EXAMINER.—The Court of Prussia is said to con-
template an act of subserviency to that of St. Peters
burg abandoned and so base as to be almost incredi-
ble. Yet the imputation rests upon such authority
as to render our wish to think no ill of our neigh-
bour almost hopeless. Count Eulenberg, one of the
reactionary ministers of King William, has had the
effrontery to tell the Chamber of Representatives
that his Majesty would at discretion betray the
disarmed Poles who had sought refuge within the
Prussian frontier into the hands of the Czar !
There are not many ministers or monarchs still
extant, we believe, capable of the cowardice and
cruelty which this wretched being has imputed to
its miserable master ; but for the sake of
humanity we hope we may assume that Count
Eulenberg is the only creature having in common
with true men the faculty of speech that
would thus wantonly declare beforehand its readi-
ness to be an accomplice in so base a crime. To
reason with what is lost to every sense of dignity
or honour, would be idle and degrading ; nor do we
suppose that any threats of moral condemnation can
have the slightest effect in recalling the Court or
Cabinet of Berlin to the attitude or language or self-
respect. But there are other parties to the trans-
action, who cannot elude their share of the respon-
sibility. Those who stand by and see a child or a
woman handed over to en enraged savage for the
purpose of being beaten to death, are guilty of blood.
There is no law, human or divine, that can exone-
rate them from the duty of direct and peremptory
interference. The infamy of acquiescence in a hor-
rible outrage will cling to them to their dying day;
and if they have any conscience or feeling, the
death-cries of the innocent victims whom their
cowardice has given to the slayer will never cease
in their ears. The Prussian people have been warned
of what is about to be done in their name; and in
the public opinion of Europe it is they who must
and will be held accountable if this most guilty deed
be done. Nobody will listen to their metaphysical
explanations of the political pretences that will, of
course, be trumped up to vindicate such conduct.
Political metaphysics may do very well amongst
themselves; and other communities have, perhaps,
no right to scrutinise too narrowly, or judge too
harshly the motives of their unexampled moderation
towards the feeble and infatuated prince who has
done so much to provoke tbem to anger. But a flag-
rant violation of that international usage which con-
stitutes international law is not merely a question
between Prussia and Poland; it is a matter which
concerns the civilisation of Christendom. As such
it will assuredly be viewed, and as such it will un-
doubtedly be condemned. The right of asylum
thus placed in jeopardy, is a reciprocal and univer-
sal right, in whose inviolability every independent
nation is interested. To set a precedent for break-
ing it down at the bidding of a ruthless despot is a
wrong done to us al. ; and we have no choice but to
hold the perpetrator and his accomplices, be they
many or few, accountable to Europe for the act of
infamy. To say that no great Power of Europe has
ever had the baseness to commit such crime, would
be almost beside the mark. A great Power is sel-
dom scorned by the demand for an act of so pro-
found humiliation; and when it is, the degrading