The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-18 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TlriEs.—On Monday last we recorded the perpe-
tration of a shocking murder in the Waterloo-road ;
on the next day we reported the examination of tne
murderer at the Southwark Police court; on Wed-
nesday we published the proceedings of the Coro-
ner's inquest on the victim; and yesterday our
readers saw that the prisoner had been brought to
trial, had pleb deal guilty, and had been sentenced to
death. So rapid has bee❑ the course of justice in
this case that the offender has actually been con-
demned to the gallows before the corpse of his un-
happy victim has bee❑ committed to tte grave. Toe
deed itself presents in its immediate circumstances
only the ordinary features of such crimes. Samuel
Wright, described as a bricklayer by trade, had
cohabited, it seems, for some little time with a
woman named Maria Green, and they had occupied
together the second floor of a lodging-house in the
Waterloo-road. On Saturday last a dressmaker who
rented the first floor of the house, and who was
acquainted with Wright and his companion, saw
them "very happy and comfortable" together in their
own room, about S o'clock in the evening. Shortly
afterwards they went out, and were seen standing
for a time at the corner of the York-road, where the
deceased was exchanging angry words with another
woman. They left this woman, however, and re-
paired to a publichouse, where they bad some gin;
but, though the deceased remained " excitea" after
her quarrel, neither she nor her paramour is said to
have been intoxicated. Nothing more was known
of their proceedings up the time of the catastrophe.
At what hour they returned to their lodgings is un-
certain ; but about. 4 o'clock on Sunday morning the
lodger on the floor beneath them was alarmed by a
loud knocking and screaming overhead. As she
opened her door she met Wright coming down the
stairs, and his appearance betrayed the dreadful
work in which he had been eagsgtd. His sleeves
were tucked up, his arm was bloody, and his look
altogether so shocking that the witness nearly
fainted. She contrived, however, to ask what was
the matter, and Wright told her, as she fancied, to(
go upstairs and see. She did so, and found the
woman Green lying on the floor with her throat
cut, and just able to articulate feebly that, Wright.
had committed the deed. A policeman was soon
fetched, and Wright, who had remained in the
house without attempting to escape, and who ac-
knowledged himself the perpetrator of the crime,
was take❑ into custody. That a quarrel originat-
ing in jealousy had led to the deed seems suffi-
ciently probable, and the scene witnessed in the
York-road would appear to indicate that the jealousy
was on the side of the woman. Otherwise, the evi-
dence represented them living together quietly,
and with habits so generally regular as to sug-
gest the impression that they were man and wife.
It required, however, a singular combination of cir-
cumstances to give this extraordinary rapidity to
the course of justice. The time of the murder hap-
pened to coincide with the sitting of the Court, and
the self-surrender of the prisoner prevented any
delay. As he made no effort to escape, no time was
lost in apprehending him; and as he confessed his
guilt, there was no necessity for the collection of
evidence. It was not, indeed, to be denied that his
hand had deprived the woman of life, and he
appears to have advisedly discarded the shelter pos-
sibly derivable from inquiry into his state of mind
at the time. He was at first undefended by
counsel, but Mr. Sleigh appeared on his behalf
before his sentence, though after his first plea of
" guilty," and expressed an opinio❑ that the plea
might be advantageously retracted. The prisoner,
however, deliberately refused to recall his words,
or take such chance of deliverance as the forms of
taw might give him ; and Mr. Justice Blackburn,
after assuring himself of the man's intelligence and
purpose, passed the sentence of death in due course,
The case will long be memorable from the strange
though fortuitous brevity of its history,though this
is not without precedent in criminal annals. The
capture, indeed of a murderer red-handed during the
sittings of a Court would naturally lead to such a
result. It appears to us, however, that a remedi-
able feature of the occurrence is presented in the
contrast between the barbarous violence of the act
And the general demeanour of the criminal. Wright,
who committed this shocking murder, had never, ii
seems, till that time occasioned any disturbance or
disorder in the house which ho and his paramour in-
habited, and no sooner was the deed done than he ap-
pears in possession of his senses, recognising the cha-
racter of the act, foreseeing consequences, and pre-
paring himself to accept them without any kind of
opposition. What were the circumstances which
hurried him into crime? There was a quarrel, Do
doubt, and as the woman had been " excited," and
they did not apparently go to bed that night after
coming in, they proceeded probably from one stage
of blood to another; indeed, the prisoner spoke
of the deceased as having taken up a knife to him.
Still, though quarrels are naturally incidental to
such a life as they led, they do not seem to have beers
given to quarelling ; in fact, this awful catastrophe
represents, as far as we can see, the first and last of
their known disagreements. Perhaps it was in these
circumstances that Mr. Sleigh discerned the chance
of an advantage, had the prisoner chosen to embrace
it, and the ease no doubt acquires additional singu-
larity from his resolute refusal. A plea of " Guitty"
on a capital charge is so rare that it is not eve❑ re
ceived without question. In the present instance
the judge twice asked the prisoner if he knew what
he was about, and explained carefully to him that
by pleading " Guilty" he was confessing not simply
that he inflicted the wounds of which his victim
died, but that he did this deed wilfully and without
excuse. The Clerk of Arraigns, too, had previously
reminded the prisoner that his plea went the length
of an admission that he had killed the woman " pur-
posely and with malice aforethought," and yet he
still persisted in his course. To the public it will
not improbably appear that the malice could not
well have been harboured long, and that the
recorded incidents of the case by no means exclude
the possibility of a sudden transport of rage
under provocation or temptation. Yet it must
be observed, -on the other hand, that the pri-
soner was never seen for a moment either before
or after the murder in any such state of mind as
would betray a suspension of self-control. Before
the act he was not intoxicated, nor was he shown
to have been even excited, and though he was seen
and spoken to within a minute or two afterwards,
and, indeed, while his victim was still living, his
manner indicated no discomposure. If there was
an interval of frenzy, it was when no witness wee
by. The Judge, therefore, could find nothing in
the depositions requiring him to reverse the plea of
self-condemnation, and his sentence did but echo
that passed by the prisoner on himself. These are
the circumstances, rather than any particulars of
the crime itself, which render the story a strange
one, and which will carry it probably into the list
of criminal cases which are marked ano rememb, red.

Posr.—The most singular feature of the Schles-
wig-Holstein movement in Germany is the remark
able revulsion which it has effected in the relations
between the Prussian people and their Sovereign.
When William I. convened the Chambers at
Berlin, in the commencement of November, a con-
test apparent imminent, in which nothing less than
unconditional submission on the part of the advisers
of the Crown could stave off a revolution. 'l he King
had already within a year dissolved two Parliaments
in consequence of their refusal to sanction measures
which he believed to be conducive to the interests
of the State; and h meeting the third he unequi
vocally announced that he should consider himself
the best judge of the manner in which the State
should be administered, and of the means by which
its safety should be secured. Of the result of such
a struggle as that invited by the Prussian Monarch,
the experience of past hiwoory left no room for
doubt, and the well-wishers of the House of
Hohenzollern viewed with alarm the recklessness
which marked the conduct of its present head.
However, whilst the Ministry, with their scanty
supporters, and the popular leaders, with the over-
whelming phalanx wilicla constituted the Opposi-
tion in the Lower Chamber, were preparing for the
approaching contest, an event occurred which coo!:
pietely banished from the rnieds of the le itnre
lailial
thought of the grievances which they came to " r
accord-
to redress. The King of Denmark died,Puassia herself
ing to the terms of a treaty to whidellecl_
to the throne,
was a party, Christian IX,
sueicle;act, the succession
certainand in
Prince of Angus
Holstein--and some portione' of
Although, both in law
i ions—narnel
was thus accomplished. a _al claim to a
dlloym- T th
the late King of Denmark!'
tenburg thought proper tdo,
Duchies of Schleswig
powersan formally
the minor German
hyadrecognised the
Pio sooner
justice of his clatin!•
the , .
these preten-
sions been advancod than Prussian People and the '
Prussian Deputies forthwith postponed the
vindi-
cation of their own rights, Which up to time
had
that time
had been so seriously threatened I
)e the Crown, in
order to support the claims of th
Augus-
tenburg. Whilst Fredericke Prince of
,Viiof Denmark
lived,
the Prussian King in vain -
plies to maintain his a- asked for additional sup
scale of befi; tin rn any on what he conaidered a
that monarch ttgie agnitub
3 but since the death of
Prussian Cnamh,rs have evince°
a readiness to vote
on noaditio_
that vote might be demanded,
in t0,,,_ u tee supplies should be expo/hied
Lawry operations against Frederick's kUteel3- .

sor. It would, however, be incorrect to say that
peace is again established between the Government
and the Chamber. Such is not the case. Count
Bismark has still a powerful Opposition with wntch
to contend, but on this occ,sion his oppoiulats are
arrayed :against him in const-gernce of his pursuing
polity which has met with the epprovt.l of every
non-Getman State in Europe. Count Bismark
has declared it to be the intention of the Prus-
sian Government to respect international obli-
gations, and to observe faithfully a treat to
which, after duo deliberation, and without coercion,
it formally assented. It is singular that it should
he one of the few tic's of the Bismark Ministry
which can be supported by hont-st And impartial
men which now plat a that Government 91,d the
Liberal party in Prussia in apparently uncom-
promising opposition.