The Sun.
London, England, 1862-09-27 00:00:00

CRIMINAL COURT--THIS DAY.

OLD COURT.
(Before Mr. Justice Byles.)
TIIE TRIAL OF CATHERINE WILSON FOR POISONING.
On the reassembling of the jury this morning the prisoner
was placed at the bar, and appeared to be in a very de-
pressed and nervous state.
Mr. Justice Byles then proceeded to sum up the evidence
in a meat clear, succinct, and perspicuous manner, prefacing
his address by saying that the case was now almost ripe for
the decision of the jury, They had heard, no doubt, with
great attention, the statement of the counsel for the prose-
cution, which was instituted at the instance of the Govern-
ment, and had been conducted temperately, fairly, and in
a perspicuous manner;
and they had also heard the state-
ment of the learned counsel for the prisoner. He (the Judge)
had most anxiously considered the evidence to ascertain
what were the points most favourable to the prisoner, and
he could not find any one of those points had escaped the
notica and observation of the learned counsel for the pri-
soner. He was happy to say that the decision was no part
of his duty; it was that of the jury and the jury alone, and
they must act upon their own judgment without any re-
gard to anything that might fall from him, and that if in
the course of the remarks he should feel it his duty to make,
he should say anything that they might think, an expres-
sion of an opinion, he begged them to dismiss it at once
from their minds, and act upon their own judgment alone,
and a calm and careful consideration of the evidence ; and
they must dismiss all consequences that might result to the
prisoner from a conviction they (the jury) had a duty to
perform to the public. They all well knew what the con-
sequence would be to the prisoner, and there was no reason
to believe that in the case of the decision of the jury being
adverse to tho ;prisoner these: consequences would not
be carried out. It was a duty the jury owed to the publio
and if they failed in the discharge of their duty there would
be no safety for the public. If they believed the case fairly
made out against tha prisoner it was their duty to convict
the prisoner ; but, on the other hand, if they did not think
tho evidence bore out the ease, they ought to give the pri-
soner the benefit of any doubt they might have. The
course he (the learned judge) proposed to take was to go
through and read over those portions of the evidence that
appeared to him material, making such remarks as might
occur to him as he proceeded. If he was to read over the
whole of the evidence, covering over two days, the effect of
it:would be to smother you with details which would in no
way assist you. He would go through the principal por-
tions of the evidence, and make such observations as
would assist them in understanding that evidence ; and
the jury confine themselves to the evidence, dismissing
and the evidence alone, and dismiss from their minds
all idle rumours they might have read or heard about the
case. The learned judge then proceeded to go through the
whole of the evidence, which has already appeared, com-
menting upon that portion which related to the deceased,
Mrs. Somme, on the 17th of October, 1856, going to her
half-brother, a Mr. Barnes, a draper, of Highbury House,
who was executor to the will of the deceased's father, and
to whom a legacy of £lOO had been left, and from whom
she received £9, the same night the deceased was taken
ill. The prisoner, at this time, was residing in the
deceased's house, at 27, Alfred-street, and had partaken of
tea with her ; her continued illness ; the sickness and
vomiting after the prisoner had volunteered her attendance,
and administered medicine to her; her death the following
day ; the entire absence of any money in possession of the
deceased although she had received £9 the
day before ; the prisoner's subsequent conduct,
and suggesting that the deceased had taken poi-
son, and had been in trouble about some per-
son (now believed to be imaginary) to whom she was about
to be married, and the expressions used by the prisoner after
the inquest on the deceased, and the verdict of the jury
that the deceased died from natural causes, and the prisoner
saying how glad she was as she was afraid that that man
(alluding to the matt the prisoner had said Mrs. Soames
was going to be married to) had given her something. The
learned judge then proceeded to read through and com-
ment upon the medical evidence, the effects that might be
produced by the administering colchicum, and more par-
ticularly that of Professor Taylor, of Guy's Hospital, as to
the effect of the symptoms attending the illness of the de-
ceased, and his opinion that no traces of colchicum would
be found a short time after death. Having gone through
and commented on the whole of the evidence, the learned
judge said, having done so. it was his duty to tell the jury
what, in his opinion was the effect of that evidence, it was
not necessary in point of law, to show what was the nature
of the poison of which the deceased died ; if that were so,
a person more advanced in medical skill and knowledge than
the rest of mankind might go on poisoning with impunity.
The prisoner was not to be prejudiced by anything that
might have been said with regard to the coroner's inquest
on the deceased, and as not one-tenth of the evidence was
before the coroner's jury that had been presented to them,
he begged them to dismiss from their minds everything
they might have read or heard on the matter, and the first
point for their consideration was—did the death of the de-
ceased arise from natural causes, or poison. Now, what sort of
person was the deceased ? It appeared from the evidence
that she was vigorous, healthy, robust, a woman in the
prime of life, of a cheerful disposition, of even spirits, and
in the possession of sufficient for the comforts of lifo, being
in the receipt of a legacy; which in her station of life,
was sufficient to place her out of the reach of want, and one
material question for the jury was to consider how ahe was
on the last day of her life, and the two or three days before.
She was described as being in full health until the last
illness, after she had taken the medicine that had been ad-
ministered by the prisoner; and the case came before them
whether death arose from natural causes. They had the
opinion of two celebrated scientific men upon that point,
who said there was no case within their knowledge in which
death from English cholera had taken place in such arapid
manner as the death of the deceased was said to have taken
place, and the question was if the de ceased had died from
poison by whom was that poison administered ? Was it done
by the older daughter of, the deceaased, or the younger
daughter. The jury had seen them and heard the na-
ture of their evidence, as also that of Miss Rowe, and
could they come to a conclusion that either of them had
done so. Then there were two other persons except the
prisoner who could have done so; ono of those
persons was in America beyond the reach of a Govern-
ment subpoena or the Extradition Act, and " the
man," the imaginary man, to whom the deceased
was to be married, for there was no evidence that such a
man was in existence ; on the contrary, there was every
evidence that no such man was in existence. Having re-
ferred to the letter alleged to be fabricated by the prisoner
threw suspicion from her, and to lead others to believe that
the deceased died by her own hand, the learned counsel for
the prisoner instanced a case in which a man was charged
with the murder of a child that had disappeared, and he
was told unless the child was produced he would be charged
with murder. The man at his trial, at the next assizes,
produced a child which he fabricated as the one lost. The
deceit was discovered, and the man condenanedlwhen it after-
wards turned out the real child was living, and had secreted
herself owing to her uncle's ill-usage, and the man was not
a murderer. He alluded to the case to illustrate the cause
of the fabrication of the letters. After some further general
remarks, the learned judge said the duty of the jury lay
between the public and the prisoner, and they were bound
not to swerve from their duty. If upsn the evidence they
believe the prisoner guilty, they were bound to say so,
whatever were the consequences. On the other hand they
were bound to give her the benefit of any reasonable doubt
they might entertain.

The Jury then retired to consider their verdict shortly
after one o'clock, and at a quarter to three returned into
court with a verdict of

GUILTY.

The learned judge then put on the black cap, and passed
the dreadful sentence of death in the usual form , remark-
ing, at the same time, that he fully concurred in the ver-
dict.

ACCLIMATIZATION OF SPONGES.—M. Lamiral,
whose departure for the coast of Syria with a view to obtain
sponges for transplantation we mentioned in April last,
has now returned, and presented a detailed report of his
proceedings to the Societe d'Acclimatation. M. Lamiral
distinguishes three kinds of sponges for which there is a
demand—the fine and soft sponge, called abiand ; the fine
and hard sort, called achmar ; and lastly the common sort,
called cabar by the Arabs. These sponges are found in the
Levant withinthe 36th and 33d degrees of latitude—that is,
between Alexandretta and Saida. It is now universally ac-
knowledged that sponges belong to the animal kingdom, and
are an aggregate of cellules built up by gelatinous polypi
similar to those which construct madreporm, porites, and
other polypifere. When the sponge is first gathered at the
bottom of the sea, it is covered with a black but trans-
parent gelatinous substance, resembling vegetable granu-
lations, among which microscopic white and oviform
bodies may be distinguished. These are the larvw destined
to perpetuate the species. When arrived at maturity, they
are washed out by the sea-water which incessantly flows
through the sponge ; they then swim along, by the aid of the
vibrating cilia or hairs with which they are provided, until
they reach a suitable rock, to which they attach themselves,
and there commence a new life. This emigration of the
larva 3 from the parent sponge occurs about the end of Jun:,
and beginning of July. The fine qualities of sponges are
chiefly found at a depth of 15 fathoms or thereabout;,
common sponge lies at depths varying between 200 and
fathoms. At Tripoli (on the coast of Syria, noscedf
opera-
M. Lamiral engaged some divers, who comm
elered were
tions on the 21st of May. The sponges ra stream of
immediately placed in boxes, through whheicsnima matter
sea-water was constantly made to flow,
the
from injury.
being, of course, left on them, and p
ttelanl7dtshefofHJyuernee
These sponges arrived at Marseilles d on
e
thence they were taken to Toulon and
in each, were sunk
where stone troughs, with five sponges
of the experiment will
in different places. The
until next season.
not, of course, be known
THE ARCHBISHOP OF
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