The Sun.
London, England, 1848-07-20 00:00:00

(LEFT SPEAKING.)

•
PAISLEY.—We are very happy to have it in our
power to state that the operative relief committee have
brought their benevolent labours to a close; and although
a few tradesmen are still idle, we have no doubt that all
will soon find employment of 891110 kind or other.—
Gla.low Courier.

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE.
MIDLAND CIRCUIT, Northampton, July 13.
CROWN COURT.—( Before Lord Chief Justice
DENStAN.) •
Edmund Franklin and Edward Randall were indicted
for manslaughter, in having feloniously, on the 7th of
last month, in this town, caused the death of William
Cornfield, by administering to and causing to be taken
by him a certain quantity of arsenite of copper. There
were several counts in the indictment, which was very
lengthy, charging the offence in different ways. Their
technical details would be tedious and uninteresting to
the general reader, while the nature of ;and the distinc-
tions between them may be gleaned from the subjoined
statement of facts. The three first counts in effect
charged them with wilfully administering it, well know-
ing that it was a deadly poison, and well knowing that
the deceased was about to take it; and with wilfully
placing it where any of her Majesty's subjects might
take it, &c.; the two last with negligently and carelessly
administering it, well knowing that it was deadly
poison.
They were also indicted on the coroner's inquisition,
which charged that the prisoners, " not having the fear
of God before their eyes, hut being moved and seduced
by the instigation of the devil, wickedly contriving and
intending the said William Cornfield with poison feloni-
ously and wilfully to kill, &c , with force and arms, &e.,
feloniously and wilfully, a large quantity of a certain
deadly poison (to wit) emerald green, otherwise arsenite
of copper, diet was to say one drachm of the said deadly
poison, did put, mix, and mingle into and with a certain
article of food called blancmanger, which the said William
Cornfied was then and there about to eat (and with the
intent that the said William Cornfield should take and
eat) the same, they well knowing the said emerald green
to be a deadly poison; and that the said William Corn-
field (not knowing the said poison to have been
mixed with the said blancmanger) did afterwards take,
eat, and swallow a large quantity, to wit, the quantity of
half a pound of the said blancmanger, &c., by means
whereof the said William Cornfield then and there be-
came, and then and there was, mortally sick and distem-
pered in his body, and of the said poison, so, &c., taken,
&c., from the 7th until the Bth did languish, &c., and
then die ; and the jurors, &c., say that Edmund Frank-
lin and Edward Randall him the said William Cornfield
in manner and by the means aforesaid, feloniously and
willfully did kill, &c."
Mr. Flood and Mr. Bittleston conducted the prosecu-
tion ; Mr. Ilumfry, Q.C., and Mr. Miller appeared as
counsel for Franklin ; and Mr. Macaulay on behalf of
Randall.
This case has excited a very great sensation in this
town and part of the country, whilst it will furnish a
most impressive warning to all consumers, if not to all
purveyors of food. The prisoner Franklin has resided
in this town for very many years, carrying on upon an
extensive scale the business of a confectioner, and been
highly respected. The younger prisoner was a respect-
able youth in his employ. The deceased was a gentle-
man much respected.
It seems that Mr. Cornfield was an accountant in good
business here. He took a strong interest in the affairs
relating to a dissenting chapel of the Independent deno-
mination in King-street. On the 7th of June last the
Rev. G. Nicholson, minister of that chapel, was or-
dained, and the members present at the ordination dined
together in the Temperance-hall in Northampton, the
dinner being provided by Franklin. The dinner com-
prised, amongst other things, soups, jellies, and blanc-
manger. Ono of the dishes of blancmanger was orna-
mented on the top by a cucumber (formed also of blanc-
manger), with foliage round it of a vivid green colour,
the colouring matter being described by some of the
witnesses as extending to the thickness of the finger nail,
and by others to niore than halt an inch. The deceased
gentleman portook of this blancmanger, as did several
other gentlemen present. The effects produced upon all
of them were of a very alarming character, including
vomiting, violent internal inflammation, heat in the
throat, and thirst. These were the symptoms of the re-
ception of arsenical poison into the system in each case.
Several of the gentlemen were obliged to leave the
room, and suffered more or less severely, some of them
not having completely recovered to the present time.
The deceased was violently tick before he left the hall,
and obliged to be removed in a carriage to his own
house, which he had left about half-past ten in as good
health as usual. The dinner was at half-past three
o'clock. He regained his house at about half-past six,
when the vomiting and purging continued; went to bed
at eight, and was a corpse at five in the morning. No
doctor had been sent for, the deceased not complaining
of pain after he got home, and Mrs. Cornfield having
entertained no idea of the presence of poison. The post
mortem examination was made by Mr. Faircloth and Mr.
Bryan. The effects of violent inflammation were evi-
dent throughout the stomach and intestines, which were
of an intense red colour, the redness extending com-
pletely through the coats of the stomach, and being ex-
ternally visible and internally. The post mortem exa-
mination showed the decease to have been other-
wise extensively diseased, a large calculus hav-
ing been found in one of his kidneys, which
had had also been reduced by disease to a mere bag of
matter. There was also disease of the aorta and of the
prostate gland. On so diseased a frame poison would act
with greater violence. The proximate cause of death
appeared to have been the cessation of the action of the
heart produced by the extensive inflammation. The
deceased was also afflicted with hernia, and the part
affected presented a purple colour, which was said to be
usually observed in cases of arsenical poisoning. The
stomach and intestines, with their contents, was given
for analysis to Mr. Greville, the chymist. The remainder
of the blancmanger was impounded with the other
remnants from the dinner and the moulds used in making
the confectionary. There was but little of the blane
manger left, and the only traces of the green-coloured
matter were a few points hardly visible. A small por-
tion, however, was scraped Irons the edge of the dish
with a penknife, which proved to be sufficient for the
purpose of analysis by Mr. Greville, who was satisfied of
the presence of copper. The blancmanger itself contained
a few minute specks of green, hardly visible to the un-
assisted eye. Still, on testing them for copper, the result
was conclusive. Mr. Greville at first thought that the
portion removed from the dish edge might be too small
to enable him to arrive at conclusive results as to the
presence of arsenic, but ho afterwards tested it and
discover( d conclusive proof that arsenic was present.
He obtained from the witness, Mr. Barry, a respectable
chymist in this town, some emerald green of
the same kind as sold to the prisoner Randall. That
was its commercial name, but it was sometimes called
mineral green. From this green he separated a large
portion of white arsenic. The green colouring gave
decided arsenic results when tested by Marsh's apparatus.
Arsenical results were also obtained from the contents of
the viscera, but not copper, as from the small points in
the blancmanger. This would be accounted for by the
fact that the copper would be very quickly discharged
and absorbed; not so with the arsenic. A small portion
of emerald green in powder was discovered in the shop
of Franklin, and being tested for copper decisive results
were given of its presence, but the quantity submitted
was too small to be tested fur arsenic also. A quantity
of emerald green produced from various shops, and one
parcel from Mr. Barry, a druggist in Northampton, who
was proved to have frequently supplied Franklin with
the article in question, were tested for arsenic and cop-
per. Both were produced, the analysis showing 471- per
cent. of arsenic to be contained in the compound, the scien-
tific name of whichis arsenite of copper. Arsenic, which
will tenaciously adhere to the coats of the stomach
and the other viscera, is to be detected after the
copper has been ejected by vomiting or otherwise. The
vomit was not preserved. The compound had been used
by Franklin for some years in his business for colourine,
articles intended to be eaten. Randall was the person who'
mixed the deleterious matter on the present occasion, and
he admitted that on this occasion he had used a some-
what larger portion than usual to give a more beautiful
colour. Franklin was present superintending the dinner.
Mr. Barry, tha chemist, proved that Randall had fre-
quently, for years past, been to him to purchase the ar-
ticle fur Franklin, and that certainly, on the first occa-
sion, and he believed on several others, he told him that
it was poison, and not to use it for anything that was to
be eaten. Other persons had come fur it from time to
time, for Franklin, and he had told them the same.
Had not thought it necessary to communicate that
intelligence to Franklin himself, after having said so 30
many times. It seemed pretty clear that both the pri-
soners had long known that it was poison, for it ap•
peered that after its having been so represented to be,
some three years ago, it had ceased to be mixed with any-
thing intended to be eaten. They seemed to have used
it only ornamentally on this occasion, for which it had
alone been recently used. However, when Randall
was asked about it on this occasion, he at first said, as
they had been accustomed to represent, that it was ex-
tract of spinach, but admitted afterwards that he knew
it to be emerald green. It could not be contended for a
moment that Franklin did not know it by name. If so,
false statements were constantly made as to what it was,
and he must have known that it was poisonous, and so
knowing left it to his apprentice to deal it out without
ascertaining its strength or at all limiting the extent
poison-
ous of
its use. However, one witness said, " Yes, tit
ous if you take a pound of it," and another that " he'd
eat a pen'orth of it for twopence," which would give
half an ounce of white arsenic or thereabouts, and be
enough to kill a score of people, to say nothing of the
copper, which is another strong poison. It appeared
that this substance is sometimes known as mineral
green, which contains no arsenic, but it also ap-
peared that mineral green was always soldin lumps,
the arsenite of copper being an impalpable
powder,
and further, from the evidence of Mr. Greville,
that mineral green itself, which is a mixture of the
hydrate of copper and carbonate of lime, would become
a poison by the operation of the acidity of the stomach.
It is worthy of mention that Mr. Greville said that
Christison, in his work on poisons, was mistaken, for
that the arsenito of copper was always commercially
known in England as emerald green. It was clear that
what was here used was the arsenite of copper (Scheele's
green), that it caused death, and was administered under
the circumstances above detailed. Whilst it was
pretty certain that the prisoners knew that it was poison
ous, it was not so certain that they either of them knew
of what it was composed, or that it was deadly to such
an extent.

In such a case it is not necessary, or perhaps advisable,
to furnish the long scientific evidence in detail.
After Mrs. Cornfield's evidence,
Mr. Faircloth, the surgeon who had attended the de-
ceased fur several years, was called, and proved that on
the post-mortem examination of the body he found all
the usual peculiar appearances of death by arsenic or
other irritant poison, pointing out the well known dis-
tinctions therein from those of death from long standing
disease.
Mr. J. M. Bryan, surgeon of this town, assisted at the
examination, and corroborated the whole account of the
last witness.
Mr. 11. M. Greville, of Northampton, practical che-
mist, proved that he was present at the examination, and
confirmed the testimony of the other two gentlemen.