The Sun.
London, England, 1870-05-02 00:00:00

THE TRIAL OF INPFARLAND.

'I he trial of M'Farland continues to absorb at-
tention in America, although it is a weary affair,
hearing endless testimony in proof of insanity, and
long sentimental letters, stolen from Mrs. M'Far-
land's papers. The defence mainly rests on the
intercepted letter we give below from Richardson
to Mrs. M'Farland, creating, in the positive proof
it furnishes the insanity in the prisoner,under the in-
fluence of which he is said to have acted. Mr Spencer,
in his defence of M'Farland, sketched his life from
the time of his marriage to the tragedy. In an evil
hour (the summer of 1866), he sent his wife to the
White Mountains, where, unfortunately, she fell
into the society of Fourierites and Free Lovers.
There she met Mrs. Calhoun, the plotter, procurer,
and panderer in this tragedy ; and into the mind of
this man's wife this person poured seeds which
subsequent!y led her to forsake her home. She
returned from the White Mountains dissatisfied,
and that was the end' of act first. Her meeting
with Richardson followed, and the process of aliena-
tion began, till Mr. Spencer reached the intercepted
letter from Richardson to Mrs. M'Farland, and on
that he dwelt as showing positive proof of a crimi •
nal intercourse, which was as follows, and created
much sensation in court. It must, however, be
borne in mind that it was written after M'Farland
and his wife had agreed to separate, and taken
measures for obtaining a divorce, when Richardson
openly sought the lady for his wife, not being
penned, as both M'Farland and his counsel asserted,
at the time they were living together as husband
and wife :

"March 9, 1867-4.50 p.m.
"I received, two hours ago, darling, yours of yester-
day. At noon I mailed you an Atlantic for March to No.
72. This I send in care of Mr. S., hoping that you may
get it to-morrow. Don't be disturbed about your family,
little girl. Families always respect accomplished facts—
my hobby, you know. I once outraged mine a great deal
more than you over can yours, and they were the
straitest sect of Puritans; but time made it all correct.
So you can't go to Mac's till Monday, and couldn't have
my room. Be patient, little girl, and you shall hare to
give, not take, orders about my rooms. Funny about
Lillie and the young lady lam engnged to. It only con-
firms my theory that you and mother are first-class in-
triguers. Will order your scrap book on Monday. Learn
all you can about the material and contents of the new
book within the next four weeks, for we may want
to announce it in my book. Please remember that
it ought to have plenty of humour, and that it must
have some horrors. If you recoil from them, you shall
not do them. Darling, I smiled at my being pining and
hurt. Why, lam like a man who has got rid of his ele-
phant. I weigh 158, and am lighter-hearted than I have
been for years. Indeed, I feel as if a weight had been
lifted from me, even before your sweet love came to
sweeten and bless my life. All the trouble was that she
thought she could not let me go. Long ago, when she and
1 first came together, I said to her :---‘ We will make no
vows to love each other always; of that we cannot tell. 1
will only exact that you will tell me the perfect truth,
whether it keeps us together or separates us.' God help-
ing me, I will.' She tried to, but the leopard could not
change its spots, and she did her best, and was very ten-
der and loving, and I have no:hing in the world to com-
plain of. If vou had not come to me, little girl, it would have
made no difference then; that scene vt as ended long ago.
It will rather startle Mrs. S., won't it darling? I think she
will like it in the end. Rose's letter is very graceful and
kind, and I am very glad you go, for it will do you very
much good. It is a great, breezy, restful place. What a
goosie it is about my coming home. Of course I shall
come whenever my business compels, or will let me.
What judgment shall you fear, doing no wrong ? The
circumstances make it right and unnoticeable, and I will
not stay away for 40,00 u Mrs. Grundys. I will not ne-
glect work to come, but it is quite possible I may have to
come next week. I have not been waiting for you, darling,
all these long years to wear hair cloth and serve seven
years now. 1 want you always. A hundred times a
day my arms seem to stretch out toward you. I never seek
my pillow without wanting to fold you to my heart for a
good night kiss and blessing, and the few months before
you can openly be mine will be long enough at best. No
grass shall grow under my feet, and I never let public opi-
nion bully me a bit, and never mean to see a sunbeam. I
shall come whenever I can and stay as long as business
will permit. I will decide about summer just as soon as
I can, darling; can probably surmise by Monday or Tues-
day. Darling, I should be afraid if you had fascinated
me in a day or a week. The trees which grow in an hour
have no deep root. Ours I believe to be no love of a noon-
day hour, but for all time. Only one love ever grew so
slowly into my heart as yours has, and that was so tender
and blessed that Heaven needed and took it, darling. You
are all I would have you, exactly what I would have you
in mind, body, and estate, and my tired heart finds in you
infinite rest, and riches, and sweetness. Good night, my
love, my own, my wife ! Burn this, will you not?"
This letter was post-marked " Hartford, Ct., March 9,"
and was addressed to Mrs. A. S. M'Farland, care of
Samuel Sinclair, Esq., Tribune offico, Now York City."
The seal bore the initials "A. D. R."

Robbed of his wife's affections, M'Farland en-
deavoured to get his children, but foiled by Richard-
son he became ill and desponding, and his counsel
then believed him at that time to be insane. The first
witness for the defence, Mrs. Oliver, whose father
was brother of M'Farland's father, testified that
ber father twice attempted suicide, andhad been in
an insane asylum; and other witnesses bore testimony
to insanity in the prisoner's family. Much evidence
was tendered to show the insanity of the prisoner
himself at the time of the homicide. During the
proceedings the. Recorder had to remind Mr.Gt aham
that Richardson was not on trial. Mr. Graham
had said that but for Richardson and his money
Mr. M'Farland would have returned, that the pri-
soner all along believed that his wife still loved
him, and the counsel believed she vibrated between
her love for Richardson and her affection for her
children,which the man decided by putting his purse
at her disposal. Letters were then submitted trom
Mrs. Sinclair and Mrs. Calhoun to Mrs. M'Far-
land. Both urged her to leave her husband, and
both expressed the deepest sympathy for her suf-
ferings. Many letters of Mrs. Calhoun's were sub-
mitted, full of sentiment, theatricals, fashi ins,
literature, with but one paragraph bearing upon
Richardson, wherein Mrs. Calhoun alludes to that
gentleman as the panacea for all her friend's woes,
adding, in reference to the engagement he had ob-
tained for her at the Winter Garden, "Nobody is
so kind and so unselfish as he." These letters had
been extracted by the prisonerfrom his wife's trunk.
His nephew, Dr. M'Farland, testified to the happy
life his uncle had led with his wife till 1867, and
he had heard Mrs. M'Farland say, after the sepa-
ration, that he had always been kind, and that
she had never doubted his love. Little Percy, who
strongly resembles his mother, sits near his father,
and manifests much affection for him. M'Farland
has an uncertain, glittt,ring eye, changing and irre-
solute expression, his face still indicating tenacity
of purpose. His skin has that peculiar blanched hue
produced by addiction to strong drink, and his whole
appearance conveys the impression of fierce passions.
He is courteous in his greetings, but he never looks at
the witnesses, speaks little, has a wandering eye and
an uneasy motion, though otherwise his appearance
would convey unconcern. The defence claims that
Mrs, M'Farland is the wife of the prisoner, and
therefore precluded from testifying against her
husband—a question which involves the validity of
the Indiana divorce. the lady has not yet entered
the Court-room, though she was in the Court-house
on the 12th April. Her child Danny and Mr.

Richardson's children are living with her at Wood-
side, New Jersey. Mr. Spencer's opening speech
is said to have injured the defence rather than the
prosecution, carrying the attack on the characters
of women to a most unjustifiable excess ; and so far
as the evidence for the defence goes making state-
ments wholly unjustified by the testimony. The
sympathy runs strongly for M'Farland, more especi-
ally among the Irish and Catholic element, and that
which considers a man justified in taking any one's
life who had interfered with his domestic arrange-
ments. The Tribune, whose attache Richardson
wa., has many enemies, and the death-bed mar-
riage gave a shock to the community, which greatly
injured the character of both Richardson and Mrs.
M'Farland. The correspondent of the Times says
that Vice-President Colfax and several other pro-
minent men are most discreditably mixed up in this
affair, but the sole discredit is the friendship en-
tertained by eminent persons like Colfax for Richard-
son, who, whatever his faults, was as honest and
manly as he was clever, and w hose allies never wavered
in their affection for him, even when to defend
him, or cast a slur on their own reputation. The
proceedings generally are regarded as a farce to sure
to end in acquittal, when the prisoner threatens to
carry his vengeance into another channel.

RATIFICATION OF THE FIFTEENTH
AMENDMENT.

The Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution
of the United States works a great change, and, as
might be expected, meets in practice with much
opposition. In California many county clerks re-
fused to register coloured voters, and most of the
Democratic members of the Legislature approved
this action, proposing, if required, to back moral
by all the physical force God has given them, and
the legality of the rejection of the voters has been
referred to the Attorney-General. In Circleville,
Ohio, 137 coloured citizens were denied the right
to vote, and they memorialized the U. S. Senate
complaining of this action. It may be then that
the dissolution of the Anti-Slavery Society, which
took place on the evening of the 9th inst., was pre-
mature. The meeting 'began in the morning, and
continued all through the day, and among the many
who attended were a few of those who first joined
the cause. Mr. Wendell Phillips called the meeting to
order, and, after prayer, the audience sang, " Our
Nation is e'ree." Letters were read from Mr Col-
fax, Mr. Boutwell, and Senator Sumner. The latter
likened the Society to Wolfe at Quebec. " They
run !" was the voice that fell on the ears of the ex-
piring General. " Who run?" he exclaimed. " The
enemy," was the answer. "Now God be praised !
I will die in peace," said he, and his battle ended ;
but the Senator added, " I do not think the work
finished so long as the word white' is allowed to
play any part in legislation." Mr. Whittier wrote,
" Thirty-seven years ago I assistel in the forma-
tion of this society at Phila lelphia. A mere hand-
ful of us came together from New England, the
Middle States, and Ohio, mostly strangers to each
other,without much personal consideration at home,
and utterly unknown in the strange city where we
met, representing nothing but a few newly-formed
Anti-Slavery Associations, with the entire influ-
ences of Church and State against us, and laid the
foundation of a society which, under God, has
moved the world." The resolutions followed, which
recognized in the ratification of the Amendment
the fulfilment of the Society's pledge to the
coloured people, while admitting that years must
still elapse ere the prejudices of the assassins
at the South, and the poverty and ignorance of
the blacks will enable these rights to be exer-
cised with either ease or safety. Thanking God
for the marvellous and unexpected quickness with
whichthe task has been accomplished, " we do there-
fore,"says the document," no w disband the American
Anti-Slavery Society." Among the speakers was
Frederick Douglas. On the 11th instant a mass
meeting in honour of the ratification of the Fif-
teenth Amendment was held in the Academy of
Music by the coloured citizens and friends of the
negro race in Brooklyn. The principal speaker was
Senator Revels, wbo declared that the patience
Nith which the Southern slaves bore their bondage
had led many most erroneously to believe that they
had no desire to be free. He, who had every op-
portunity of sounding the depths of their hearts
knew how earnestly they yearned for freedom.
Notwithstanding the little information they pos-
sessed, their inability to read, and the frightful
stories circulated of the Yankees, intuitively they
knew their friends, as many a Northern man can
testify when fleeing from a Southern prison. The
instances are numerous of Union soldiers being
saved through their implicit trust in the first dark
visaged stranger they met; and to them there was
a surpassing beauty in the black face, for therein
they beheld rescue, safety, friendship. On the one
hand, there was a reward for betraying the fugi-
tive; on the other, a frightful punishment awaited
the discovery of the aid tendered, therefore it was a
proud record for the negro that there was no single
instance, not one solitary case, wherein the black
man or woman betrayed the trust. Nor was their
faith to their employer a whit less true, for they
gave service, support, and protection to the women.
and children of their absent taskmaster, and if they
were a little more free.of tongue and pert of speech,
that was all their revenge for their manifold wrongs.
Then the Senator contrasted the gloom, almost
despair, of the nation which preceded the procla-
mation of Emancipation, and the brightening
effects which followed ; and Mr. Revels went on to
pay a high tribute of praise to the bravery and
fidelity of the negro soldier. Many other jubilees
are recorded throughout the country ; nevertheless
the social prejudice is none the less strong, and it
was manifested even in the House of Representa-
tives, when a resolution was offered to grant the
Hall of the House to the coloured people of the
&strict of Columbia for a meeting to celebrate the
ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment. Mr.
Hooper objected on a point of order, but the
Speaker showed that it was not against the rules,
as it proposed that the House should participate in
the ceremonies. The resolution was adopted by 113
to 55, when another was also passed directing the
Speaker to appoint a select committee of five to
make arrangements, and Mr. Blaine immediately
gave the names, among them Cox and Eldridge, to
the great amusement of the House. Mr. Cox took
this as a joke, showing, however, that he had not
forgotten that hard hit of Butler's—" Shoo, fly !
don't bodder me,"—for he asked that his friend
from Massachusetts should be allowed to entertain
the meeting with a little minstrelsy. Mr. Eldridge
indignantly declined to serve, and the Speaker put
the question, but the House declined to excuse him.
Nevertheless, the member stated "as this is not a
Congressional duty, and is not required by the
House, I will not serve on that Committee." The
Speaker persisted, saying that it was not in the power
of the Chair to excuse any gentleman from service
on any committee, but General Schenck interposed
with the suggestion that the matter should be post-
poned till the coloured gentlemen could be consulted
whether they objected. We may here state that
the superintendent of the Virginia and Tennessee
railroad reports, that, during January and Feb-
ruary, 5,076 coloured men passed over the road
g4,ind., South, and the tide of negro migration is set-
ting in so strongly from the North towards the
South that Virginia now complains of the heavy
drain on her population, while it monthly becomes
more and more evident that free and unfettered the
races will divide in country, as Nature dictates the
Northern blacks going South, and the Southern
whites going North.

It is rather dangerous to be an " upright and
impartial judge" in Chicago. The residence of Judge
M'Allister of that city, who has been very severe upon the
thieves and other criminals brought before him, and who
has allowed no influences to step between justice and the
culprits, is in a state of siege nightly. His enemies make
such persistent efforts to get into his house that the whole
family have to sleep on their arms, even the Judge's wife
resting with a loaded revolver under her pillow.
At Fall River, Massachusetts, on December 10th,
a man whilst eating his breakfast got a needle in his
throat. It lodged crosswise, but was too far down to be
seen. After three or four days it worked into the left side
and came nearly through the neck, causing a painful ab-
scess. A little above the abscess the needle was so near
the surface that it caused the flesh to protrude like a
but the physicians declined to cut to find it, espe-
cially as they bad some doubt as to the cause. - The ab-
scess was subsequently lanced. The needle in the mean-
time worked back into the side of the throat, and then up
under the tongue, causing great swelling and pain.
Finally, on April 9, it was discovered protruding under
the tongue and was extracted. The needle was an inch
and a quarter long, and had been four months on its travels.