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

THE SUN, LONOOSATTJDAY EVENBC,I, NOVENIBEa 1, 1862.

committed. During the night between Friday
the 4th of July and Saturday the sth of July,
the unfortunate victim, JESSIE MTHERSON, a poor
serving-woman, thirty-five years of age, was
murdered with the most brutal violence, having
been chopped to death with blows from a cleaver, on
the kitchen floor of No. 17, Sandyford- place, Gl‘s-
gow. JESSIE M`LACHLAN, immediately know-
ledge of the murder bas been ascertained, is
proved to have pawned certain plate, known
to have been stolen from the house in which
her unhappy friend had been butchered.
Clothes belonging
to the deceased are found
in the possession of the accused JESSIE
INl‘ LACHLAN. Her own clothes, the raiment
which she had worn on the day of the
murder, were found bloodstained and torn up into
shreds in the field some distance from Glasgow
several days afterwards. JESSIE MiLACIILAN,
however, declares, in spite of these facts, that she
has no knowledge whatever of what has occur-
red ; that upon the night of the murder she never
went near the house in which it was perpetrated,
sleeping in her own bed, in her own room, far away
from 17, Sandyford-place. She persists in these
statements until the jury have declared her
guilty, and then, before the Judge can
pronounce sentence upon her, then, but not before
then, she delivers in a formal cut-and-dried state-
ment of a totally different kind—giving the lie to
all her former declarations—declaring that she does
know all about the atrocity of which she has been
accused—giving the most minute account of how it
had been perpetrated by the old man (seat. 87!),
Mr. JOHN FLEMING, recounting his motives even for
doing it, and the manner in which, and
the threats by which the hoary mur-
derer had compelled her to become parti-
ceps crimints, as an accomplice after the fact
pledged to its concea Iment. Nobody can have for-
gotten the emphatic declaration with which the
Judge swept aside the whole of this specious but
too-ingenious statement of the murderess. " I never
knew an instance," said he, "in which the state.
merits made by prisoners after their conviction were
anything else than, in their substance, falsehoods/
A writer in the current number of the Cornhill after
a most careful analysis of all the various particu-
lars brought forward in evidence during the four
days' trial of JESSIE M'LACHLAN, on the 18th, 19th,
20th, and 22d of last September, thus sums up the
case against the accused according to that same
evidence :

"The murder was probably committed by a wont an with
a foot like hers, on Saturday morning, towards four o'clock,
for the sake of stealing the plate and dresses. She was out
of her own home all that night. She was next day
in possession of the plate and dresses. Her clothes
were stained with blood, and she took steps to
conceal them. She gave a false account of the way in
which her time was spent, a barely credible account
of the way in which she got the plate, an improbable ac-
count of the way in which she got the clothes, and some-
thing which amounted to nt accoont at all of her reasons
for disposing as she did of her own clothes. The elaborate
evidence given at the trial all condenses itself into this
short statement, and no one can be surprised that after a
quarter of an hour's consideration she should have been
unanimously convicted by the jury of murder and theft."
On the other hand the writer in the Conahtll
observes, in regard to the infamous charges now
directed against Mr. JOHN FLEMING by the woman
still under sentence of death (but twice respited),
that—

" 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
Pico.., it is cicAr that, ncoorfiinv, 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 incorroborated 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 L; ? 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 ho 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. He must have known that when his son
came home on th• 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 NPLACHLAN'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 (f.)r the murder of his wife), took
occasion (why, no one can in the least imagine)
strongly to recommend the wife-murderer to

mercy, have, out of the same morbid sympathy,
done the like by him that the Scotch sympathisers
with JESSIE M'LACIILAN have done by her.
Dr. SMETHURsT was not more manifestly
guilty than either of these wretched criminals.
But then, it must be confessed, Dr. SMETHURST
still walks freely among his fellow-men—what,
through formally found guilty of a most execrable
murder, and justly condemned to death in conse-
quence. CELESTINE SUMMERS again—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 what

ought to be a firm and eTen• handed, and consistent,
and inexorable award of punishment.

The great game question is still discussed with
vigour in Norfolk. Mr. HOWE, one of the county
members, it will be remembered, was almost hooted
down at the North Walshßm agricultural meeting
for avowing that he suprorted the Night Poaching
Act in the late session. Mr. C. S. READ was as
vehemently cheered for telling the landlords present
some home truths on their treatment of the tenant
farmers, of whom Mr. READ is one, and especially
on this matter of game. Mr. HowE, apparently
taken quite aback at finding a tenant farmer not
afraid to spetik out, though pressed to reply, de-
ferred doing so till " a more convenient season."

The convenient season, for a wonder, actually
came. At another agricultural meeting, held not
far off, Mr. HOWE, who had, of course, been study-
ing his speech all this time, delivered his defence—
it was, however, but a lame story. He had to con-
fess that Norfolk did not need the bill, and thus
apologised for any apparent insult to Norfolk
farmers. But his chief object was to defend game-
laws ; and the chief defence was that game brought
the squires down into the country, and kept them
there ; and what a loss would the country
suffer if they were to become absentees.
The worthy member seemed to forget how much
was assumed in his argument-Ist, The value of
resident proprietors; 2d, their being drawn to their
estates by game only—a rather poor compliment
to their sense and patriotism; 3d, the impossibility
of preserving game except by artificial, cruel, and
unnatural laws. Country squires, are not, how-
ever, much famed far beyond the immediate objects.
Mr. C. S. READ, however, was also fully pre-
pared for a reply. After reading the landlords an
honest and practical lesson on their taking the
highways out of the ratepayers' hands by their
new Highway Act, and thus placing in the hands
of the magistrates the power to tix the unrepre-
sented parishes, he returned to his old charge
on the game laws. He demunced, amidst
loud cheers, hares as ruinous to farmer, and
rabbits as nothing but vermin. Peasants were a
costly luxury, but partridges were more beneficial
than irjurious to the farmer, and excellent sport.
But as to the new law, it was an attempt to make
the police gamekeepers at the pubic expense. Mr.
READ was willing to have a good trespass law—he
did not object to game being made property—but
he insisted that as the game on a farm or an
estate would let at a certain sum per annum, it
ought to he assessed to the rates ;o that amount,
if it employed the police to protectit. He was also
for charging the expense of game prosecutions on
the preservers of game. Evidently we shall have
a little warm discussion on the matter next session.

It is satisfactory to know that st any rate there
will be no interdict of any manifestation of loyalty
that may be thought of as advisable among the
people, upon the occasion of the now fast approach-
ing birthday of his Royal Highness the Prince of
WALES. An inquiry having been recently addressed
to the Lord Chamberlain as to whether the custo-
mary dinner among his H.R.H.'s Tradesmen might
be proceeded with according to annual custom,
that Court functionary, it appears, has replied at
once, " that although the event will not be cele-
berated with any Court ceremonial or festivities
during the present time of mourning, there will be
no objection to any mark of respect or attachment
which individnals or societies may desire to show
in commemoration of the coming of his Royal
Highness." Next year no doubt will tend to com-
pensate, in a great measure, for the one now draw-
ing to its close—a year of gloom in many respects
and for many reasons. Politically and socially
alike, a year deserving of but very slight record or
remembrance. The death of the lamented Prince
Consort, the gloom overshadowing the Court
in consequence of that demise, the mise-
ries resulting (among our own people) from the
American war, miseries especially felt in the north
of in Lancashire—these
and
Eng
otherandcircumstances,
particularlyhav have
tended to darken the
year of grace 1862—a year only partially rendered
satisfactory by reason of its being the year of the
Great International Exhibition. 1863, howe;7er,
will come to us all, let us hope, compensatively.
And already auspiciously conspicuous among the
items even now marked down upon the programme
forthe the nation,
te ishethsaetleomneised early in the springe giving us prospect of
between H.R.H the Prince of WALES and the
Princess ALEXANDRA of DENMARK. With those
nuptials in view, the nation will have less reason
to regret the gloom still overshadowing the date
will attain his ma-
jworhniety, nmonth of November
theen heirthe ntioetthheaCtrhowe
which has this day commenced.

CONCER2' OF NATIONAL MELODIES.

A grand concert of national melodies—English,
Irish, Scotch, and Welsh—.was given on Thursday
evening at the St. James's Hall, 400 members of
the Vocal Association, and other principal metro-
politan choral societies, taking part in the perfor-
mances, accompanied by a band of 20 harps, played
by the most eminent performers in London. Among
the vocalists were Madame Rudersdorff, Miss
Palmer Lisle, Madame Laura Baxter, and Mr.
Thomas Lawler. About the most brilliant suc-
cess of the evening was, without doubt, the glori-
ous war lyric, " Scots wha hae." One after an-
other, however, the various national melodies excited
the audience to a display of enthusiasm. The Queen
of the night was, of course, Madame Rudersdorff.

ILLNESS OF ME DUKE OF NEWCASTLE.-NOT-
TINGILtK, Friday.—We regret to announce that yesterday
his Grace the Duke of Newcastle was seized with an alarm-
ing attack of bronchitis. His Grace arrived at Nottingham
in the morning in order to be present at the distribution of
prizes this day in connection with the middle .class exami-
nations, and as usual he stayed at the George the Fourth
Hotel. During the day the anniversaries of the General
Hospital and the Midland Institution for the Blind were
held, and the Duke's absence was particularly noticed. It
appeared that his Grace, on his arrival at Nottingham, was
attacked with bronchitis, and was obliged to keep his bed
during the day. Medical attendance was obtained, and
towards evening yesterday it was feared that his Grace's
illness was of a somewhat serious character. Dr. Robert-
son left the Duke about nine o'clock last night, and he ex-
pressed his opinion, as the result of his visit, that it was
desirable to telegraph to his Grace's relatives respecting his
condition.

PAISLEY SHAWLS IN THE GREAT EXHIBITION.—
A report has been some time in circulation that Messrs.
Farmer and Rogers, proprietors of the celebrated shawl
shop in Regent-street, have become the purchasers of
numerous cases of prize medal shawls in the Exhibition.
This is partially true, inasmuch as a notice has to-day been
affixed to the case cf Messrs. Kerr, Scott, and Kilner, the
great shawl-makers of Paisley, announcing that this firm
was now selling the contents at manufacturers' prices ; and,
to judge from the extraordinary rush of anxious buyers
very few of the handsome shawls will remain unsold. The
following extract from the Jury Award Book, which ac-
companied a medal to these manufacturers, cannot fail to be
interesting to all persons who are anxious to possess some
article of worth and utility as a souvenir of the Great Inter-
national Exhibition of 1862. To the goods of no other
manufacturer, British or foreign, have such Pattering re-
marks been applied :—"For a remarkably fine collection of
woven shawls in all textures, stamped with the character
of cheapness or superiority, and the highest degree of skill
in manufacture."

THE MARRIAGE OF SIR JAMES DUKE, BART.,
M.P.—On Thursday, in consequence of the marriage of Sir
James Duke, Bart., M.P., which took place at St. Mary's
Church, Islington, the churchwardens of St. Sepulchre and
St. Bride's, in recognition of the hon. gentleman's services
as alderman of the ward, and as one of the members of the
House of Commons for the City, caused the bells of St.
Sepulchre and St. Bride's to ring out merry peals. Sir
James, who was never before married, is in hie 71st year,
having been born in 1792,

LATEST NEWS.

ATHENS, OCT. 31.
The Provisional Government is everywhere re
cognised throughout Greece.

The citizens and University students have orga-
nised a guard for the capital.
The private property of the King and Queen has
been delivered to their Majesties.

PARIS, OCT. 31

La France of this evening says

" We have reason to believe that the Chevalier
de Nigra has expressed to M. Drouyn de Lhuys the
regret felt by the Cabinet of Turin at the circular
of Gen. Durando having been addressed to France.
" The explanation was perfectly well received by
the French Government.

"It is asserted that France will reply to the cir-
cular by a note, to be delivered by M. de Sartiges
at Turin, stating the ideas and intentions of the
Government of the Emperor."

BERLIN, OCT. 31.

The Official Staalsanzieger of to-day announces
the appointment of Count von Bernstorff as Envoy
Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of
Prussia at the Court of St. James.

CASSEL, oar. 31.
In yesterday evening's private sitting of the
Chamber of Deputies the following members were
chosen to form the Permanent Committee : Herren
Nebelthau, Friedrich Oetker Henzele, Zuishlag,
and Hartwig.
A committee of eleven members was also selected
to prepare the Address in answer to the Speech
from the Throne.

THE BRAZILS.

(PER THE MAGDALENA.)
BUENOS AYRES, SEPT. 28.

The Presidential elections have resulted in the re-
turn of General Mitre and D. Marcos Pas for the
Presidency and Vice-Presidency ; the former una-
nimously, and the latter by a large majority.

THE CALCUTTA AND CHINA MAILS.
SOUTHAMPTON, SATURDAY MORNING.

The Peninsular and Oriental Company's screw
steamer Pera, Capt. Jamieson, has arrived, bring-
ing these mails, 56 passengers, 1,045 bales silk,
1,500 bags wheat, 100 boxes oranges, eight boxes
valuables, 42 cases silk handkerchiefs, 50 barrels
dates, and 117 packages sundries.
The Pera left Alexandria on the 19th ult.; Malta,
22d ; Gibraltar, 26th.

On the 24th, at 8 p.m., passed her Majesty's ship
Edgar, bound to Malta ; 30th, at 7 a.m., the steam-
ship London, steering S.W.; and at 11 a.m., on the
30th, passed the steamship Urban, steering S.W.
Her Majesty's ships Foxhound, Wanderer, and
Alacrity were at Malta ; and the Black Prince,
Warrior, Liffey, and Procris at Gibraltar.
The Peninsular and Oriental Company's steamer
Ripon, hence on the 20th, arrived at Gibraltar on
the 26th, at 4 p.m., and left for Malta the same

evening.
Exchange on London, 50:4 ; Paris, sf. 28c.;
Marseilles, sf. 30c.; Genoa, sf. 30c.

AUSTRALIA.

SOUTHAMPTON, SATURDAY MORNING.

A pilot, landed here this morning, reports that
the ship Stratheden, Captain George H. Pile, from
Sydney, passed up Channel yesterday for London.
She was 10 miles off the Bill of Portland at 2 p.m.
yesterday, under all sail, with a light, easterly
wind.

The Stratheden left Sydney July 24, rounded
Cape Horn September 3, and crossed the line
October 4. She has 24 passengers, £30,000 in
golddust, 1,406 bales wool, 12,000 hides, 400 tons
tallow, and sundries.

In lat. 49.20 N., long. 6.5 W., passed a ship
showing pendant No. 8,139, bound West. Saw ice
on three different occasions in lat. 55 S.