The Sun.
London, England, 1862-01-04 00:00:00

THE TVINDIIAM CASE.

The proceedings in this' case were resumed yes- 1.
terday morning, in the Court of Exchequer, West-
minster, before S. Warren, Esq., the Master in Lu-
nacy, and a special jury.
Mr. M. Chambers, Q.C., Mr. Field, and Mr. H.
Williams appeared for the petitioners; Sir H.
Cairns, Q.C., Mr. Karslake, Q.C., and Mr. Milward
for the alleged lunatic ; Mr. Coleridge, Q.C., for
Mrs. Windham ; and Mr. C. Russell for Lady So-
phia Giubelei, the mother of the alleged lunatic.
The court was again greatly crowded.
Sir H. Cairns resumed his address. He said ho
took the liberty yesterday of reading some letters
which were written by Mr. Windham in 1860 on a
certain matter, but since then he had obtained a
few more by accident from Mr. Windham's mother,
who was now lying on a bed of sickness, and, he was
afraid, of death. The learned counsel then read the
following letters, one of them being to tell his mother
that he had kept faith to the promise he had given
to her, that he would not go on the ice, although
that was the only amusement he could then take :
" Eton, Sunday.
"My dear Mama,—l am very glad to hear you have
Written. I thought you would have done so before now,
though I do not wish to break my promise ; yet it is very
hard to find anything to do, in fact there is nothing now,
and the ice is so thick. Now, Mr. Younge took some Boys
to skate the other day for , and would have taken
me, only the promise prevented him. But still I don't
wish to break my promise ; only, as I say, there is nothing
else to do. My Cold is better, and so is my Eye. Have you
got Don down there with you yet, or not. Will you write
and answer me soon ; there is very nearly a Fair on the
Thames ; there are quantities of people everywhere; you
can skate from Kingston to London on the Thames ; so hard
is the frost that I have my sponge and water frozen this
morning in my room, though I had a fire. Five weeks
more and I shall be at Torquay, I hope well and sound.
Mr. Younge will write to-morrow, or the next day, as I am
writing to you to-night. I have been vacinated, but it did
not take. My cold is better. Good bye, Dear Mama. I
must finish now.
" Believe me, your affectionate Son,
" Eton, Sunday, 18th, " W. F. WINDHAM.
(GI.)"
It was a dream in his (Sir H. Cairns) mind that he
heard his learned friend (Mr. Chambers) say In his
opening address that Mr. Windham while a boy
displayed the instincts of a lower animal ; but he
really thought he had heard such words. Here
was another letter, which, he thought, would be a
suffisient: alzwer to such a gross and wilful mis-
statement, and formed a striking contrast to the
remarks which were made by Mr. M. Chambers in
his opening address, in which he said that Mr.
Windham had not the slightest idea of the value of
money, and to entrust him with the disposal of it
would amount to nothing but a positive act of folly.
"Rimpton, Friday, 23.
'• My dear Mama —I am very sorry for not having
Written before, but I have so much to do that I have
hardly any time for doing anything. May Mr. Hawtry
advance me some money, about £3, of my next allowance,
as I paid several bills myself, and so I have none left; will
you write and let me know soon' please ? I wrote to ask
you because I thought it was best to do so, as I did not
know whether you had told him to give any be: ides my
allowance. I should like a little present of £4, because it
is such a temptation to run into debt if one has no money to
pay, as well as to borrow of the other fellows, and as I want
things now and then ; besides there is my drawing lesson,
which cost 6d. every time, as I must put up at the hotel,
and so it becomes rather expensive I can assure you ; because
it is only a guinea and a half if I go there to the man, as it
is a public class, bnt there is only one other person besides
myself yet, but if he come here he would charge a great
deal more. Dutchman comes very useful for me to ride on
every Wednesday to Sherborne, for my lesson in fact Ido
not know what I should do without him, as it is a good five
miles from here. I have made my money last as long as
ever I could, and spent my last two shillings to get a ticket
for the Lecture, which we all went to the other evening.
Thackeray was the man—the celebrated man—who went to
America ' • one heard a great deal about him in the papers,
so if you will write soon and give me leave to ask Mr.
Hawtry for £4, or half of it. and I will be verymuch obliged.
I should like to have had the little present of money which
you were unable to give me ; I wish you could do it, because
I am sure I do not ask without reason ; that is I like to have
money in my pocket. I keep out of debt.
"Good bye, dear Mama, trusting you are well, and also
that you will let me have what I ask for,
"believe me yr. affect. Son, GLEEKS."
" P.S. When will you come to Rimpton. Gloria deo in
cxeelsis.
" P.S. I think I shall be home about the 30th or 31st of
March.
" try and learn Euclid, so as to be able to do it with me
during my Easter Holydays."
The learned counsel then read the following
letter :

" " Eton, Sunday.
My Dear Mama,—Saturday the 31st is the day, at 4
o'clock, if all goes right. I shall see Odee Tarn. I want
to give two leaving books, if I may, of a guinea each. Will
you give me leave ? Mr. Younge will give me an Order.
Will you write me an answer, please, as soon as possible,
Because I have chosen them ? Mr, Younge is making me
get up my collections. May I ride Don up to the House ?
Wont he jump when I sees the Train come in. I wish you
would let me have one of the retrievers up. I want to make
them accustomed to me, I should like Duchess. I think
the reason Geodford would not give me leave was because
he thought so many others would ask for it also. I dont
think they would, because they would not know any thing
about it.
" Mr. Younge hopes you have received his Letter. Good
bye, Dear Mama. I hope I shall see you better when I come
on Saturday.—Believe me, evr yr affecte Son,
"Eton, Sunday 25th. " W. F. WINDHAM.
" Please answer me immediately about theßooks."

" " Tuesday, Dec. 2.
My dear Uncle Alfred,—Excuse my writing and trou-
bling you again for advice, but I have received a letter from
my Uncle Charles, who wants an answer, and I want your
advice, because he now says he does not want to send Jeffy
away, but to let her live there without any pay, and to give
Mary Turner a place under her, and when I receive your
answer, one from Mama will do I shall write to Uncle
Charles. Now, the Ist question is, will Jeffy stay at Fel-
brigg without wages or not, and if she will, what place can
we give Mary Turner under her who has only been a
Lady's Maid. The only plan I can think of is that Woods
should leave Mama, because she has not lived in the Family
except with Mama, and let Mary Turner come and live with
Mama as her Maid. Give my best love to Grandpapa and
Mama. I enclose the letter of my Uncle Charles to me for
you to look at, and when I get your answer shall write to
him about it.
" Good bye, dear Uncle Alfred. Trusting this will trouble
you much, believe me

" Yr Affect Nephew,
" W. F. Wixraram."
He would have laid those letters yesterday before
the jury, had they been in his possession, in the
proper order of dates ; but as they had since come
to his hands, he thought them of sufficient import-
ance to warrant him in reading them, although not
in proper order. He would now resume his address,
and before he parted with the evidence of the
Ilewellyns, he wished to point out the discrepancies
which were to be found in their evidence, although
no doubt the story to be told had been previously
concocted betweem them as to what they were to
say that should the best tell against Mr. Windham.
One of the discrepancies was, Mrs. Llewellyn said
Fhe swore her affidavit when alone, while Mr.
Llewellyn said they swore them together. There
were other discrepancies on minor points, which,
although unimportant in themselves, went a good
way to test the accuracy of their statements. There
was no doubt that they were anxious to assist the
case of the petitioners, and it was suggested that
they should take the opinion of Dr. Winslow, who
also, in turn, recommended that they should also
consult others who had peculiar notions on the un-
soundness of the mind. But their over anxiety to
support the cause which they espoused was fatal to
the object intended, for a person who really did not
know the difference between truth and falsehood
was just as likely to speak the truth as to say that
which was false, so that, in that case, what became
of their theory that he never on any occasion spoke
the truth. This assertion, he undertook to say,
was nothing but a deliberate falsehood, and there
was not the slightest shadow of truth in it. Then
Mr. Llewellyn said that he was in the habit
of supplying Mr. Windham with a single
bottle of wine at wholesale price, although it
it might be a question between him and the autho-
rities at Somerset House, with which they had
then nothing to do. Then, in his affidavit to the
Lords Justices, Mr. Llewellyn said he was in the
habit of putting Mr. Windham into the bath jest
as if he was a child, whereas, in his evidence, he
made no such statement, but that he merely stood
at the bath door, and gave him towels, and his
clothes when he required them. Then he said Mr.
Windham had been under a delusion that he had
lost something which he had not absolutely lost.
That was the statement of Mr. Llewellyn in his
affidavits to the Lords Justices ; but what was his
evidence in the Court ? Why, not that he was
under any delusion as to his loss, but that he rarely
went out without losing some article of jewellery,
and amongst the articles he lost one which belonged
to Mr. Llewellyn himself. Then what became of
the statements he had made to the Lords Justices,
that he was under a delusion that he had lost
something which he had not absolutely lost. Then
Mr. Llewellyn said that they were obliged to put
Mr. Windham into a back room, so that he should
not by his noise disturb the persons who were in
the other part of the house. Why the fact was,
that there was not a bedroom in the front of the
house, and during the whole time he was there Mr.
Windham changed his room but once, and that was
by a previous arrangement. Mrs. Llewellyn, seeing
the effect of this evidence, endeavoured to explain
it by saying that they put him into the back dining
room. A statement hadlbeen made that Mr. Wind-
ham bad often ordered dinner for a number of per-
sons and that no person came. Mrs. Llewellyn said
that they made a certain charge for these dinners,
and they made use of the provisions in the house,
whereas Mr. Llewellyn said that no charge was
made for it, and there was no trace of any charge
being made for it in the book which had been pro-
duced, which showed the greatest contradiction in
their evidence, which was not to be relied on, and
was utterly unworthy of belief. The brother and
sister of Mrs. Llewellyn would be called, and
if the evidence they should give should prove to
be untrue, neither side was to be held responsible
for it, as they
teered the evidence they would
had not been sought, but volun-
give, and wlwthvr

it was true or not, it formed no part of Mr. Wind-
ham's case. He found that Colonel Broughton had
often dined with Mr. Windham, and had gone in a
cab on a pilgrimage with Mrs. Llewellyn to seek
for evidence of a peculiar nature, btu Colonel
Broughton having been so engaged, it Nws strange
that he did not come into court and tell them a
little more of what he knew. He (Sir H. Cairns)
could not account for it, unless, like General Wind-
ham, he considered "discretion the better part of
valour," and deemed an appearance in the witness-
box a place quite as dangerous as other places which
were more exposed. The learned counsel then re-
ferred to the evidence of Mr. Atkin, the bootmaker,
of the Opera Colonade, in which he said that when
Mr. Windham ordered a pair of boots he ordered
two pairs of trees, and on that account he presumed
that such was to be a continuous order, and that for
every pair of boots he was to make two pairs of
boot-trees, and as he made twenty pairs of boots for
him, that, had he acted according to his order, he
should have made him forty pairs of boot-trees.
Now, he said that the words used by Mr. Windham.
would bear no such interpretation as to lead him to
suppose that for every pair of boots he made him he
was to make him two pairs of trees. When Mr.
Windham ordered his first pair of boots he ordered
two pairs of boot-trees, as he wished to have them
treed properly; but as to sending two pairs of trees
with every pair of boots was a thing which could
only have existed in the mind of Mr. Atkin. In
his affidavit to the Lords Justices, he said that he
considered Mr. Windham to be a dangerous lunatic,
and not fit to be at large ; while in his evidence in
the court he made this observation—" I wish it to
be distinctly understood that when Mr. Wind-
, ham presented the pistol to me I only looked upon
it as a joke." Thus, he gave up all he had said
in his affidavit about Mr. Windham being a dan-
gerous lunatic ; and had he stated in his affidavit
what he had said in giving his evidence before the.t
Court, the Lords Justices would fleeter have con-
sented to the issuing of this commission. In refer-
ence ;to the cutting of the timber on the Felbrigg
estate, Mr. Butcher, who had been called by the
petitioners, had given evidence that £2,800 worth
of oak timber could be cut on the estate with ad-
vantage, He then adverted to the evidence of Mr.
Hansell, as to the visit of himself, Mr. Jackson, and
General Windham to Felbrigg Hall on the day
before Mr. Windham came of age, when a proposi-
tion was made to him that he should give up his in-
terest in Felbrigg Hall, living there at a nominal
rent until October, 1869, and have in lieu of it a
partition of the devised estates, and the rents ac-
cruing, instead of holding property which was then
unproductive. Now, it could be very well expected
that Mr. Windham did not see the advantage of
this proposition ; and they had the opinion of Mr.
Hansell that he firmly believed that Mr. Windham
did not understand the proposition. But Dr. Forbes
Winslow, in speaking to Mr. Windham on the sub-
ject, said he told him General Windham wanted
him to place his property in trust, paying a nomi-
nal rent for Felbrigg Hall until 1869, and then to
come into possession of the whole, but that he had
refused it because he believed that it was to benefit
General Windham and his family. Now, no lawyer
in England could have given a better description of
the proposal. Mr. Hansell said that they could not
make him understand it, and could make nothing
of it. Upon this the acute London lawyer told the
others to quit the room, and " leave him to me," but
after being alone with him for a time in the library,
he came out and said he could make nothing of him.
Then as to the cutting down of the timber on the es-
tate Mr. Windham had clearly an object in his own
mind, which he afterwards carried out ; and the
opinion of Mr. Jackson as to the cutting down of
the timber was the weakest part of the case, as he
did not see that it was for the purposeof increasing
his income, but to benefit Gen. Windham and his
family. Then Gen. Windham said he was prepared
to make any sacrifice to preserve the property—
that being to obtain possession of Felbrigg Hall.
Had the proposition been acceded to and signed,
which conveyed Felbrigg Hall to General Wind-
ham, he would ask the jury, did they suppose for
a moment that they would ever have heard of then
proceedings ; and had they been instituted, would
they then not have had Gen ;Windham, instead of
skulking by the side of his counsel, rushing into
the witness-box, with others flocking after him, to
declare that they had walked and talked with Mr.
Windham, that he was oue of the cleverest young
men, and that there was no foundation whatever for
the imputation that there was any unsoundness of
mind. (Applause in court, which was suppressed
by the Master.) Now, as to the marriage, when
Mr. Windham made the acquaintance with this
woman ; she was then in the keeping of a gentle-
, man, having an income of £2,000 a-year. Mr.
Windham fell over head and ears in love with her,
and wished to marry her, but she appeared tohave
no desire to comply with his request. It was a
matter of negotiation for some time, and the gentle-
man consented to give up any claim he might have
upon her, and she was tempted to fall in with Mr.
Windham's wishes by his offers of a settlement and
the advantages she would have as a married lady
to introduce her sisters into society. She consulted
Mr. May, who gave them both good advice, and re-
, minded Mr. Windham that she was a woman of ex-
pensive habits and not likely to contribute to his
happiness. The lady at first desired a settlement of
£l,OOO a-year, but Mr. Windham declined, because
he could not afford it, and at last agreed, if she
took a smaller settlement at first, to secure to her
a larger annuity when he came into the pos-
session of his other property. The terms were
agreed upon, and the marriage settlement was pre-
pared. No
i doubt such a marriage was to be re-
gretted, as t was distasteful to society ; but would
anybody venture to say that this amounted to an
indication of insanity, or was anything more than
an exhibition of bad taste. It was fixed by Mr.
Llewellyn that on the 28th of July he should tele-
graph to Mr. Windham to come up to town on the
subject of the marriage, and the guardians knew all
about it, and yet neither did General Windham, Mr.
Hook, or Mr. Chappell think it worth their while
to interfere and endeavour to prevent him from tak-
ing that step or to apply to the Court of Chancery,
of which Mr. Windham was then a ward. If they
had had any proper feelings they would not only
have done this, but they would have gone to Miss
Willoughby before she sacrificed the good position
she was then in, and cautioned her against contract-
ing a marriage with Mr. Windham, as he had not
capacity to enter into the marriage state; but they
did nothing of the kind. Why was it that they had
done nothing upon it ? At this time the negotiations
were going on with General Windham in the lib-
rary as to the " little arrangement," but which could
not have been carried out if there had been enter-
tained the least notion of Mr. Windham's insanity.
Was it not evident, then, that such a notion never
entered the mind of General Windham and his
friends until he had been foiled in this " little ar-
rangement," by means of which he sought to get
the in terest in Felbrigg transferred from Mr. Wind-
ham to himself. The learned counsel then referred
to the evidence of Mr. Illingworth, who had seen
Mr, Windham before he went to Scotland, when he
told him he must take great care of himself and be
very quiet. He also told him that if be did not be-
lieve him he had better hear what Mr. Johnson,
another surgeon, had to say about him. lie stated
that Miss Willoughby had called upon him; and
although he (Sir H. Cairns) said to his learned
friend that he was at liberty to ask what passed be-
tween them, yet he had not asked a single question
about it, As to the state of health of Mr. Wind-
ham, he should prove by the evidence of Dr. Whit-
burn, who was present at the marriage, that he
examined him, and there was no impediment to
that marriage taking place. He now came to the
question of the jewellery obtained from Mr.
Emanuel, and in doing so he would divide that
into two parts. Was the first part of it an unusual
amount to be presented to a lady on her marriage
by the heir to a very large property, as there were
no family jewels ? Here they had the ease of a
lady who had no particular desire to give up the
position she occupied, and therefore had to be
courted to consent to the marriage. As to those
given after marriage, they were given for the object
stated by Dr. Winslow and Dr, Mayo; and he
thought that there ought to have been sufficient
charity on the part of the members of his family to
allow that these jewels might have been fairly given
as a compensation for the injury he had committed
undesignedly, without being accused of insanity.
He had done an injury, and he wished to make an
atonement in the way in which he deemed would
be the most acceptable, which showed a good dis-
position to atone for the wrong he had done. Mr.
Dore, the salesman of Mr. Emanuel, said that he
wanted Mr. Windham to give bills for thejewel-
lery!hat at
they
ey shouldsi months,
be
forbutt w
Mr. Windham suggested
el ve
them were altered accordingly,
months,sho agn dconsider-able shrewdness and perception in business, and by
no means agreed with Mr. Chambers's description
of him, as having only the instincts of the lower
animals. When Mr. Windham came of age there
was only £BOO left for him, and, being without
money, there were only three courses open to him to
increase his income. One course was to sell a part
of the estate; the second was to borrow money
.on mortgage; and the third was to sell the timber
on the estate. Now, it was said that the effect of
the contract would be to strip the whole of the
timber from the estate; but the contract on ly se-
cified that Messrs. Fry and Lawrence should only
cut the timber which might be cut, and there was
not the most remote idea of cutting the ornamental
timber, and GenerallWindliam was perfectlylaware
of it. Then as to the price of the timber, he had put
questions to Mr. Butcher and Mr. Sandford as to
, the average price of all the timber on the estate,
1 taking the good with the bad, And they said they