The Sun.
London, England, 1862-11-01 00:00:00

Murder upon murder! The sailor's wife at Glas.
gow, JESSIE M'LACHLAN (found guilty and sen-
tenrzed to death for the brutal murder of her friend),
has only just been respitecl—when the London
sweep, SAMUEL GARDNER (found guilty and sen-
tenced to death for the brutal murder of his wife),
is strongly recommended to mercy. There is surely
something maudlin and morbid in this strange and
startling sympathy for criminals of the most atro-
cious character, now perpetually tending to inter-
rupt the course of justice. In each of these instances
the inquiry has been most calm, searching, and
deliberate. In each instance the guilt has been
brought home quite plainly to the accused—so
plainly that the jury have had no alternative but
distinctly to deliver in a verdict of Guilty, the judge
thereupon pronouncing sentence of death, and doing
so with the most emphatic expression of his coinci-
dence with the opinions of the jurymen, and with the
most positive declaration of his own absolute eonvic-
tion that the sentence of death was deserved. Yet,
in spite of Trial, of Verdict, of Doom—in defiance
of fact and reason—an unwholesome sympathy
has been evinced of late for the wretched creature,
in each instance convicted and condemned. We
hesitate in no way to write thus frankly in re-
gard to the guilt brought home to JESSIE
4 NPLAO,IILAN and SAMUEL GARDNER, because we
I take it for granted now, under the peculiar
circumstances attendant upon each case, that
neither JESSIE AI.‘LAcHLAN nor SAMUEL
1 GARDNER will die the death by the hands
lof the common hangman. Astounding though
the double respite of the former undoubt-
edly appears to us—in the face of the evidence
brought forward against her, of the verdict pro-
nuanced
w inh oni by the jury, and of the sentence deli-
vered such unwonted terms by the judge be-
forethe miserable woman was tried—in-
comprehensible c om
sweep
ennspisn
iblEethough the recommendation of the
to mercy, accompanying the
very
verdict guilt, cannot also
ea declaratory
us
but
p
r e G
can be little doubt now that
and JESSIE APLACII-
a or to
SAMUEL
_t
GAh
LAN will escape
e rite Dof E R
N
both s
from having to pay the
law. Both of these
extreme penalty of the
convicted murderers have protested in the most
positive and explicit
manner—they still, to this
moment, protest in the most positive and explicit
another of the crimes for wine
manner—their innocence. Each otif twotthheey havaecebueseens
themselves respectively found guilty
and sentenced!
the crime of
SAMUEL GARDNER endeavours to fix the
his ownßß
LE.
the murder of his unfortunate wife upon
adulterous paramour, ELIZABETH li u
While JESSIE M‘LAcHLAN distinctly charges an
old man eighty-seven years of age, Mr. JOHN
FLEMING, the father of her former master, with
the cruel and inhuman murder of her intirnatc!
friend, JESSIE MTHERSON. The latter acculi
cation, it will be remembered, was made in a Tery
elaborate and also in a very unusual manner im-
mediately before the close of this cause celebre at
Glasgow. Directly after JESSIE 3PLAcHLAN had
been found guilty by the jury, directly before the
judge pronounced sentence of death upon her in
ofcfoornsetreen;isoneerre
that
aloud, b
verdict,haty permission the
o
counsel
the Court, a
long
and carefully prepared
paper written by the
prisoner--
her durin a paper written by
g the progress of the trial, that is, of course,
upon the occasion of her nightly return to her cell ;
a paper in which, aided by the facts brought to
JESSIE AleLAcethaia told
light during the trial,
1
an entirely new story of the whole transaction.
The argument of the defence throughout the
trial had been, that she, the accused, knew
nothing whatever about the crime which had been
'

"On reviewing the whole case, it certainly does appear
that it would be very hard measure indeed to believe old
Mr. Fleming to be guilty on the strength of the prisoner's
statement. It is full of the most glaring improbabilities.
In the first place, she said nothing about Fleming's guilt
till after her own Conviction ; but, on the contrary, denied
all knowledge whatever of the murder, and accounted for
her possession of the plate by the incredible story about
Fleming's bringing it to her to be pawned. In the next
place, it is clear that, according to her own account, she
was either a principal in the second degree, or at least an
accessory after the fact; for she not only tried to conceal
the crime, but tried to turn it to her own advantage by ap-
propriating the money for which the plate was pawned, and
having her friend's dress dyed for her own wear. Thus,
taken at the best, the story is the uncorroborated evidence
of an accomplice, given under the most suspicious
circumstances conceivable. Besides this, the story
bears every mark of having been concocted
during and after the trial. It accounts for every
fact which was given in evidence, small and great, on
none of which had her previous declaration thrown any
light whatever. If her story had been true, and if, accord-
ing to the case now set up for her, she was not in want of
money at the time, is it conceivable that she would have
run the risk of concealing the murder of her intimate
friend, and have gone to great danger to do so, for the sake
of LT ? That a very wicked person might commit a mur-
der for very trifling booty is what daily experience teaches
us; but it is hardly conceivable that the unwilling witness
of a most brutal murder, committed on her most intimate
friend, should coolly undertake the risk and guilt of con -
cealment for such a consideration. The conduct attributed
to old Mr. Fleming is as extraordinary as that which the
prisoner asserts of herself. If he did commit the murder
in the way described, and if he meant to throw the blame
on robbers, he would in all probability have taken the first
opportunity of discovering the body and sending for the
police. He could have done so without producing any
suspicion. His not doing so for three whole days is just
what might be expected from the sluggishness and torpor
of extreme old age, but is utterly inexplicable if he were
really guilty. Ho must have known that when his son
came home on the Monday, the body would be found, and
that, in the absence of explanation, suspicion would fall on
him—a suspicion which would be greatly removed if he
made the discovery and gave the alarm at once."
Nevertheless, under the influence of some strange,
incomprehensible, morbid sympathy with the
wretched woman convicted of this most atrocious
murder—thousands have been led to attach a value
to these lying accusations. Thousands have peti-
tioned in consequence (and successfully) for a re-
prieve of the condemned, with a view to a reinves-
tigation! And by reason of this marked sym-
pathy and excitement among the sympathisers
to the end that JESSIE APLACHLAN'S life may be
saved—this heinous criminal is tenderly guarded
from the gallows accordingly. The jury yesterday,
who, in pronouncing a verdict of guilty against
SAMUEL GARDNER (for the murder of his wife), took
Occasion (why, no one can in the least imagine)
strongly to recommend the wife-murderer to
m doneerc yth the al
ivkee
either
wasof these wretched bollythio.mf tthhea t sameh Snic ootrcbid
sympathises syin athyr
with JESSIE
Dguri.ltySillthEaTnllVßST
I\FLACIILAN have done by her.
in ore
manifestlycriminals.
But then, it must be confessed, Dr. SMETHURST
still walks freely among hie fellow-men—what,
through formally found guilty of a most execrable
murder, and justly condemned to death in conse-
quence. CELESTINE SOMMERS a •
gain—the wretch
who brutally murdered the poor girl in the coal-
cellar—was she not also spared from paying
the penalty of her most heinous guilt—
by reason of some mysterious interposition
in her behalf? And the "gentleman" who, a few
years ago murdered his wife upon the seashore at
Ireland's Eye—was not he allowed the boon of
escaping from the hangman's hand by having his
sentence commuted. It is an excusable system of
weakness all this—in carrying out the criminal law,
or rather in merely affecting to carry it cut. And
while these opportunities of escape for criminals
are being perpetually held out to murderer
after murderer, without a shadow of valid
reason or justification—one wonders less that
violent passions have their fling, undeterred from
the perpetration of crime, through a terror of wilEtt