The Sun.
London, England, 1862-01-23 00:00:00

THE WINDBAM CASE.

(Before Samuel Warren, Esq., Q.C., Master in
Lunacy, and a Special Jury.)
Yesterday morning the Master and jury reassem
bled in the Westminster Sessions House.
Mr. Kerslake continued his speech in summing
up the evidence for the alleged lunatic. He com-
menced by commenting on the evidence of Mrs.
Llewellin, as to the alleged dirty habits of Mr.
Windham when living in Duke-street, and pointed
out the manner in which that evidence had been
contradicted by that of the servants in Mrs.
Llewellin's house. Mrs. Llewellin had positively
stated that Mr. Windham had behaved himself like
a child when in bed, and that statement had been
relied upon by his learned friend on the other side,
to establish the fact that such conduct was a habit
of Mr. Windham, as he had no control over his
actions; but Mrs, Pritchard, who attended to his
room, stated that the linen was not dirty, and Mrs.
Llewellin said that she removed the sheets before
Mrs, Pritchard made the bed. And, on cross-
examination, Mrs. Llewellin admitted that she knew
Mr. Windham was suffering from illness, and that
accounted for the appearance on the linen which she
saw. Reverting to the evidence on that point, the
learned counsel asked the jury to call to mind the
evidence of Mrs. Brown, who was called for the
defence. That witness was called for the defence,
but she was in the service of the Llewellins, and
cculd have been called by the petitioners, but they
knew that she had never seen any indications of
dirty habits on the part of Mr. Windham. How was
it, he asked, that with all the servants in the house,
not one of them was awoke by Mr. Windham, if he
had made those noises, and was so turbulent as
had been alleged ? The fact as as, that Mr.
Windham had not acted differently to other young
men. Let them look at the position of the
parties in the house, especially Mr. Llewellin, the
wine-merchant and ex-valet, who had been
brought before them as the principal witness. That
person was always noisy and passionate about the
house, and created disturbances with his family
and those about him. It was the most unfortunate
thing that ever happened to young Windham that
ho went to live for three or six months at Llewel-
lin's house. With regard to the other servant,
Shafez, he (the learned counsel) would only remind
the jury of the conduct of Llewellin towards that
person, when he refused to agree to the request of
Llewellin to give evidence against Mr. Windham,
when he knew that he would falsify himself by so
doing. Llewellin called Shafez a French thief and
vagabond, and assaulted him, and a summons before
the police magistrate was now pendiug, The
learned counsel then briefly adverted to the evi-
dence of Eliza Dignam and Conway Dignam, the
brother and sister of Mrs. Llewellin, and said that,
from their evidence, there was no doubt of attempts
to suborn both witnesses, and he was supported in
that assertion by the fact that, of all the parties in
the house, General Windham only took the state-
ment of Mrs. Llewellin, and laid that before the
Lords Justices as a truthful statement; but he (the
learned counsel) would leave it for the jury to say
whether that statement had not been entirely con-
tradicted by the evidence which had been produced
in that court. He contended that the evidence of
Mrs. Llewellin as to the familiarities between Eliza
Dignam and Mr. Windham had been entirely re-
futed, and that the character of that young woman
was unimpeachable. Eliza Dignam had been
living with her mother till her death, upon which
she (Eliza Dignam) came into a little money, the
mother only having a life interest in some property,
and for five years Llewellin had kept the poor girl
out of the sum of £3O, and she was obliged to have
resort to the County Court to recover he money.
As to the evidence of Conway Dignam, that young
man was very unfortunate, and Mrs. Llewellin had
taken advantage of his position and attempted to
suborn him to give evidence against Mr. Windham
when he knew nothing of the case; and he (the
learned counsel) thought there was something most
blasphemous in the manner in which Mrs. Llewellin
had wished she might drop dead if she did not speak
the truth when she denied that any conversation had
ever taken place between herself and her brother
about young Mr. Windham. But in addition to the
evidence, they must look at the acts of the Llewel-
lins. Had not Mrs. Llewellin said to Pritchard,
Conway Dignam, and others, that she was not doing
this (asking them to give evidence) for nothing;
and had not Mrs. Llewellin frequently reproached
her husband for drawing all Mr. Windham's money
out of him ? His learned friend charged Mr. Wind-
ham with keeping low company, and to that he (Mr.
Kerslake) pleaded guilty, but not in the sense his
learned friend intended, such as his associating with
railway guards and his farm servants at Felbrigg-
hall, but he (Mr. Kerslake) regretted to say that
Mr. Windham kept the company of Mr. Llewellin.
Mr. Windham had been charged with habitual
falsehood, but he never saw such an example of the
saying, " Give a dog a bad name and hang him,"
for this charge had been made with an object, but
it had entirely failed in every respect. Then as to
the evidence of the policeman he would not occupy
muchtof their time, for he never knew of anything
more monstrous than the threat of Gen. Windham,
that he would set the policeman to watch young
Mr. Windham if he was not at home and in bed
at about 11 o'clock each night. Let them imagine
such a threat being made to a young man just come
to town, and about coming of age and into a large
property; and, no doubt the Genei al had carried
out his threat, for the policeman had been called in
support of the petitioners' case. The learned counsel
then dwelt at great length upon the proposition
made by Mr. Jackson, on behalf of the General, to
Mr. Windham, with regard to the Felbrigg estate,
and asked the jury if there was any indication of
insanity on the part of young Mr. Windham in re-
fusing to accept the snare laid out for him to re-
arrange the estate for the advantage of Gen. Wind-
ham. It had been said that those propositions were
made to Mr. Windham to enable him to pay his debts,
but at that time Mr. Windham did not owe £l,OOO,
and these propositions were made to Mr. Windham
when they said he was not in a fit state to manage
himself and his affairs. With regard to the con-
duct of Mr. Windham in those matters, he thought
that if they were to be deemed acts of insanity the
sooner the lunatic asylums were enlarged the better.
'As to the conduct of the family towards Mr. Wind-