The Sun.
London, England, 1847-03-06 00:00:00

he. The neighbours asseMbled and sent for a constable ;
but Mr. May, one of the surgeons, with singular tact and
presence of mind went down stairs and forbid the . con-
stable to interfere till he should know on what charge the
prisoner was to be apprehended, and then returned up stairs
and, in the presence of the prisoner, Mr. Rusher and Mrs.
Martin said to her " It is an unfortunate thing you did this.
What could be your motive for doing it?" To which she
replied, apparently in amazement at such a statement, " I
did it!" and then added, "It was he did it." Thereupon the
prisoner went up to the head of the bed, and.said, "Jenny,,
will Nou swear I did it?" and she said " Yes, I will." Mr.
May then told her to be cautious as to what she was saying
as the charge was a serious one against Mr. Smith, and told
the latter that a constable was waiting to take him into cus-
tody; whereupon he observed, " This is a sad job for me;"
to which Mr. May replied that if he was innocent of the
charge he would have no difficulty in proving himself so
before the magistrates. He was then conveyed to Bridewell.
She remained at his lodgings confined to bed till the next
Monday, whets she left to attend before the borough magis-
trates. These gentlemen having beard her evidence, and
thet of the medical men and of the persons who were in the
house at the time of the occurrence.
and the prisoner's state-
ment, which was to the eff..ct that she had inflicted the
wound herself; dismissed the charge. This decision did not
give universal satisfaction, and a subscription was raised in
the town to conduct the case to a hearing before a jury. A
true bill was found by the grand jury on Tuesday; and the
prisoner, who was at large, and pursuing his employment in
the tax-office since his release by the magistrates, at once
surrendered to take his trial.
The facts in .dispute must be gathered front the following
report of the evidence bearing upon them :
Mr. KEATING, in opening the case for the prosecution,
said, that es the only object Of those who instructed him was
to elicit the truth and to vindicate justice, he would call
every witness whom he was aware of as knowing anything
of the matter, and even put in evidence the statement made
by the prisoner in his own exculpation before the magis-
trates, though it could not be submitted to the jury by him
under any circumstances in the present inquiry.
Jane Morris, after stating the circumstances of her con-
nexion with the prisoner up to her arrival in Reading, said
that after she had found him out here, and met him, they
had remained on good terms till he went to his lodgings on
the evening of Wednesday, the 20th of January last. "At
first," said she, "he did not speak to me. Afterwards he
asked me, had I got a lodging at Cavershare ? I told him I
could not. He then wanted me to take lodgings at an inn
for the night, and wanted me to go early. I complained of
being faint. He ordered up a glass of water. I said he ought,
knowing my weak state, to have ordered a cup of hot coffee.
He said the water was good enough for me. I said, this is the
way you wanted to starve me at Manchester, but a friend
enabled me to find you out. He pressed me to tell him who the
friend was ; I told him it was Mr. Bradbury, who lodesed in the
same house with him at Bury,and who gave me money to come
up to him. Some time after that he said, 'I am determined you
shall go.' I had put my bonnet on the table before then. On his
saying that, I said nothing. He then attempted to put on
my bonnet; I would not let him, but told him I would go
presently. He said nothing, but took my glove and cuff off
the table, and threw them on the fire. The glove was burnt.
I took the cuff off. It was then a quarter past eight o'clock.
He said he had no doubt it was nine. He then put his arm
across the mantelpiece, and laid his head upon his arm. I
was sitting at the time. After a time he turned round and
said twice, Will you go?' I arose from the chair. He
seized hold of me and threw me backwards. I felt some-
thing pass across my throat. He afterwards thrust a hand-
kerchief into my mouth. I felt something pass across my
throat a second tithe. I struggled and moved the handker-
chief from my mouth with my left hand. I felt blood
trickling down my bosom, and cried out. On my crying out
he dragged me from where I was standing, near the fire, and
threw me on the floor, and knelt on my chest. I should say
it was impossible for him to ring the bell. I saw no razor in
the room. I heard the prisoner say I did it myself. Upon
my solemn oath that is not true."
Cross-examined—The prisoner left a dressing-case and
razor at Manchester. I brought the razor to Reading, be-
cause it was his favourite razor, having been his grand-
father's. I brought the strop and other articles also. I
gave him the razor a few days after I first met him. He
gave me 30s. since I had come to Reading. He did not put
any money that evening in my basket. There was a half-
crown, a sixpence in silver, and fourpence in copper in
it. With one hand he seized my right hand at the wrist and
pressed it against my chest, and threw me back against the
table, and then inflicted the wounds. The witness was cross-
examined at great length as to the mode in which the wounds
were inflicted, but no material contradiction was elicited.
She gave very firmly and unhesitatingly point blank contra-
dictions to questions as to whether she told a Mr. Martin that
she kept the razor to protect her, or a Mrs. Cray that she
kept it to cut her corns, or that she once flourished it in the
presence of Mrs. Cray, with a menace that if she found a
Mrs. Smith, or any other woman, at Mr. Martin's, she would
—, meaning she would use it; or that she told Mrs. Mar-
tin that he had tied her hands behind her back before he cut
her throat, or that he cut it while he was putting on her
handkerchief, or that on the Saturday subsequent to the
Wednesday in question, after Mr. May had come to see her,
she told him she had a pain in the head from having been
thrown back on the floor by the prisoner, and in the chest
from his having knelt on her, and that when that gentleman
left she burst out laughing, and told Mrs. Parr, the nurse,
that the fact was she had been out on the landing to over-
hear what they were saying about her, and, hearing some-
body coming, she ran into bed, and in doing so knocked her
head against the boards.
Re-examined—The prisoner in holding her wrist hurt it.
The mark was there when Mr. May came.
William Martin, a tailor, residing at 26, West-street, proved
that on going into the room he saw the prosecutrix lying on
the ground with her eyes closed, and apparently unconscious.
He afterwards heard her say "he did it; He did it." ;He was
not sure he heard the bell ring.
Eliza Martin, the wife of the preceding witness, confirmed
him generally.
Cross-examined—Heard the bell ring. On going into the
room found Jane Morris lying on her back. There was a
holland spread over the carpet. The blood from the wound
was already on the holland. She wished to save her carpet,
and therefore begged of the prisoner to apply a handkerchief
to the wound. He, at her request, pinched up the wound
with his finger. She could not say whether there was blood
on his hands when she went into the room. Jane Morris
afterwards told her that the prisoner had tied her hands
behind her back before he cut her throat, and afterwards,
again, that be did it while he was putting on ter handker-
chief. She saw blood on one of Jane Morris's wrists.
Re •exemined—She could not say when or where she first
mentioned the statements made to bar by the prosecutrix.
James Robert Cottell, an apprentice to William Martin, on
going into the room, saw • blood on the prisoner's hands.
Could not say whether this was before or after the prisoner
had been stanching the wounds.
Mr. May, a surgeon in Reading, after proving what we
have already mentioned above, went on to state, that when
he observed the prosecutrix on the ground there was no
bleed on her hands, nor was there any when they undressed
her. He observed it particularly, as his attention was called
to her ring. Nor was there any blood on either of her
wrists. There was blood on the prisoner's hands. Two days
afterwards he saw a bruise on her wrist. It was a bruise
of about two days' standing. A bruise does net show itself
at first. This was such a bruise as might have resulted
from an injury inflicted two days before. On dressing the
large wound they discovered a second, slighter than the first.
This had not cut much deeper than the skin. The large wound
was on the right side of the throat, and made by a cut from
right to left, and was deepest at the right or upper end. It
was improbable, but not impossible, that the wound was in-
flicted by herself. It was more probable that it was in-
flicted by another. She appeared to be in a weakly state,
independently of the wound—such a state as a person would
be in who had recently miscarried. Had examined her feet.
There was no appearance of her ever having had corns.
Cross-examined—lf the prisoner
it wouldrheldu b
up Jean
his arm while inflictingvery Morrisryin
difficult
for wound
for him to inflict it.

Re examined—But, supposing that he with his left hand
caught her by the right wrist, and, pressing it against her
chest, forced her backwards against a table, and he, while
so facing her, had a razor in his right hand, there would be
no difficulty in inflicting such a wound; and, as there was
no spring or purchase at the back of the razor, he would cut
rather backwards—from right to left—than forwards, from
left to right.
Mr. Rusher, a chemist and druggist in Reading, on going
into the room saw the prosecutrix lying on her back. The
razor was three or four yards from her left-hand side, and
bloody on the blade and on the handle. There was blood on
the floor near it—such a quantity as might be supposed to
fall from a bloody razor thrown there. He took up the razor
and placed it on the pianoforte, and was, he believed, the
first person that touched it after it left the hand that inflicted
the wound. He particularly observed Jane Morris's hands.
There was no blood on them. There was blood on both the
prisoner's hands. The prisoner was holding a handkerchief
to the wound. When the prisoner, in the bed-room, asked
her would she swear he did it, her answer was, " You know
you did it."

The razor was produced, and the prisoner's statement be-
fore the magistrates was put in and read. The substance
of this was, that he repeatedly begged her to go away—that
she herself threw her glove and cuff, and also a handker-
chief, or, the fire; that she wanted to get back the razor ;
that he refused to give it; that she at last promised to go
if he would give it back to her; that he at last, after much
importunity, gave it; that she stood for a while before the
fire, apparently preparing to go; that he suddenly heard
her scream and cry " Murder," and saw her falling; that he
met her, supported her in his arms, rang the bell, laid her on
the ground—that the persons in the house then came in, and
that the wounds were inflicted by herself.
At the close of the case for the prosecution,
Mr. Sergeant TAIXOURD (with whom was Mr. Selfe) put
in her examinations taken before the magistrates, and again
cross-examined her on discrepancies between her statement
then and to-day.
Mr. KEATING having re-examined the witnesses,
Mr. Sergeant TALFOURD then proceeded to address the
jury on behalf of the prisoner. The Learned Sergeant's ad-
dress occupied nearly two hours.
Several witnesses were then called to prove the affirmative
of the questions to which we have already. stated the pro-
secutrix, in her cross-examination, had given point-blank
contradictions. These witnesses were all in humble life.
Not one of them was shaken in cross-examination. One of
them,
Mrs. Parr, proved the affirmative of the last of those ques-
tions, as given above.
Cross-examined—Was appointed by Mr. May to attend as
nurse on the prosecutrix. Never told Mr. May what the
prosecutrix had so stated to her, because she had never since
been able to see him till last Saturday, and then could not
speak to him. She went on the Saturday after the Saturday
on which the prosecutrix had made that statement to her
to his house, and saw his servant, but could not see hum
Was certain she had not seen him since that Saturday, the
2 3
At
tor
.f thehiJaancyluoasrey waso,
ftr till
the
lel last
eN,di Saturday.d e n eef
or
the prisoner,
Mr and swore that he was attending on
the prosecutrix on the Sunday and Monday after the occur-
reuce, hile she was at Martin's house,
there iu attendance as usual and saw Mrs. Parr
one word about thii statement , annttodhtihma.t Mrs. Parr never said
Mr. Sergeant TALI'OURD replied on this evidence.
Mr. KEATING replied on the whole case.
IliS LORDSHIP commenced his summing up by observing,
that though he would not presume to say that the magis-
trates were wrong in dismissing this case, yet thanks were
due to those who enabled the prosecutrix to bring it before
a Jury; for, of all the cases he had ever seen, it was the one
which wag most proper for decision by the verdict of a jury.
His Lordship having read through the evidence in detail, and
commented upon it,
The jury consulted for about five minutes, and then re-
turned a verdict of Guilty on the second count—for cutting
and wounding with intent to disable.

Ilis Loansiur, after observing that the verdict met with
his entire approbation, sentenced the prisoner to ten years'
transportation.

EMIGRATION.—Yesterday the New York packet-
ship Northumberland, H. H. Griswold,lleft the London Dock
with 100 passengers and a very large cargo of British manu-
factured goods. The emigrants consist principally of small
farmers and agricultural labourers from the lime countiea
and few natives of Ireland.