The Sun.
London, England, 1833-12-16 00:00:00

believe. The tameness evinced by the go-
vernment of the Duke of Wellington, and the
hitherto-unchecked course of aggression which
she has been permitted to pursue, have, no
doubt, imposed upon her a more lofty idea
of her own importance, and of the compara-
tive weakness of other states, than she had a
right to entertain, and led her to imagine
that, because she had been allowed to
trample upon Poland, she might also deal with
Turkey after a similar fashion. That she will
be grievously deceived we both hope and trust,
for the sake of humanity, and for the sake of
. Europe generally. The system which she has
, been lately pursuing has been one of unmitigated
cruelty and oppression—of unjustifiable plunder
and spoliation. In every quarter she has been
adding to the extent of her already overgrown
dominions—at one time by the force of her
arms—at another by a course of fraud and du-
plicity, to which no parallel is to be found in the
annals of modern times. But, though powerful,
she is the very reverse of being invulnerable.
The very bulkiness of her empire is, to a certain
extent, a source of weakness ; while the
tyranny of which she has been guilty,
wherever her eagle has winged its flight—
the national murders which she has com-
mitted—the individual oppression and spoliation
which have everywhere formed the accompani-
ments of her conquests—would rouse against her,
in the event of a war with any other country, a
host of enemies, thirsting for revenge, and de-
termined on her destruction. Her northern ac-
quisitions are hers only in name—her subjects
there hate her with the most cordial hatred—
Poland only sleeps, she is not dead—and even
in Turkey, sunk as its people are in barbarism
and ignorance, there is a spirit of indignation at
her rapacity, and of resistance to her designs,
which has only to be appealed to in order to
show itself in deeds of which Russia has good
need to be afraid. In this view of the 'natter
we are joined by an able writer in the last num-
ber of the Edinburgh Review, who concludes in
the following manner :

" Russia is now, and has been, ever since the accession
of the Emperor Nicholas, in a critical and precarious state.
She is surrounded by the smouldering vengeance of her
mangled Polish provinces, in the treatment of which she
calls forth the execration of mankind by her barbarities.
She thus adds to the deep hatred with which the liberal
nations of Europe regard her exercise of tyranny at home,
and support of absolutism abroad. Indeed, her late con-
duct must render the more mild and enlightened of the
despotic governments half ashamed of her alliance ; and it
is far from improbable that their whispered remonstrances
may have called forth the late lame apology for her policy
towards Poland. Were she now, therefore, to precipitate
matters in Turkey, she would lose much that she has
already gained, and consign to other hands the prey which
on some future occasion she hopes to make her own. We
do not therefore expect that her usual wariness will so
far desert her as to tempt her iota a war ! but we fear that
by resorting to her wonted expedient of assuming a war-
like attitude, she may be suffered to consolidate her
authority in Turkey, and to obtain the recognition and
the privileges of a treaty she has surreptitiously wrung
from the fears and the gratitude of the Porte."—Morning
Advertisi r.

The Lord Chancellor's Secretary has ad-
dressed a letter to the Trustees of various Public
Charities, in which he states his Lordship's de-
sire to be informed whether they will be dis-
posed to further, so far as lies in their power, a
elan for the consolidation of the funds of all

Public Charities throughout the kingdom,
and the appropriation of them to the pur-
pose of " national education." We have not

space to comment at present upon this extraor-
dinary scheme ; and if we had space we should
scarcely venture to write upon it till we should
have partly subdued the indignation which its
first announcement excites. A little while ago
we should at once have rejected the story as too
ludicrous a hoax, or • too wicked a calumny.
But we have learned by larnentalale experience
that nothing is so prodigiously profligate, or so
portentously absurd, but that it may be recom-
mended by the Reform Ministers, and sanc-
tioned by the Reformed Parliament.—Morning
Post.

thing but what was right of him in my life, or else
I would not have suffered him to come to my
family. (The witness was here so affected, that he
shed tears.)

Henry Mason sworn—l am also executor to the
deceased. I have known the lad at the bar from his
infancy. I never knew anything against him in my
life. He has been respected and beloved generally
by his relatives and acquaintances.
The prisoner's counsel here requested to be per-
mitted to consult with the prisoner and to retire
with him into the gaol. This permission was
granted, and the counsel and Mr. Colquhoun both
retired with him. After a consultation of about
half an hour the counsel returned, and the prisoner
was replaced at the bar, and informed by the
Learned Judge that this was the time to make his
defence.

THE DEFENCE.

The Learned JUDGE called upon the prisoner for
his defence. He said, " I am perfectly innocent,
and my defence is embodied in this paper." The
prisoner here handed in the defence, which was read
by the officer of the court.
" Gentlemen of the Jury, I shall not attempt to
raise any' question as to the mode by which my
revered grandfather met his death. It does not
become me to do so, for if any doubt appears upon
this point, it will be treated of by those who are
more competent to discuss it; it is a fact of which
I am in titter ignorance, and therefore my observa-
tions to you will be grounded upon the supposition
that the deceased died from the effects of poison,
that the poison was arsenic, and that it was admi-
nistered in the coffee taken for breakfast. It will
appear that the causes of suspicion that attach to me
are-Ist, that I filled the kettle with water on the
morning in question; 2d, that I absconded from
home on the following Tuesday, the sth of Novem-
ber; 3d, that a quantity of arsenic was found in my
box; and 4th, that I had previously used expressions
of ill-will towards the deceased, and had evinced
a desire for his death. Now, gentlemen, with re-
spect to my having filled the kettle, you will have
learned that there was nothing whatever unusual or re-
markable in my doing so. I had been for some time
in the habit of going to my grandfather's house at
an early hour in the morning for milk, and as this
was usually before the family were up, was it not
natural at my age, that frequent innocent freedoms and
familiarities took place on those occasions between
me and the witnesses S. Taylor and E. Smith, which
led to my sometimes assisting them in the little do-
mestic duties they had to perform, such as opening
the shutters, letting out the fowls, lighting the fire,
filling the copper, helping to churn, and filling the
kettle for breakfast ? In short, there was always
some joke or other going on which was the chief
inducement for me to go there at that time of the
morning. All these circumstances Sophia Taylor
admitted in her examination before the coroner, but
she did so with evident reluctance, and admitted
that I had at other times before filled the kettle for
breakfast. If it had appeared that I had that morn-
ing betrayed any anxiety to fill the kettle—if it had
been a solitary instance in which I had done
it—and if, in addition to this, it had been
clearly shown that the poison was put into the
kettle, the inference to be drawn from those
facts would be indeed important ; the contrary,
however, is directly proved by the evidence.
If, therefore, there was nothing unusual or re-
markable in my being at my grandfather's at the
time in question, nor in the fact of my having filled
the kettle that morning, let it be next considered
whether the poison was put into the kettle with the
dry coffee, or into the coffee-pot, into which the
water from the kettle was afterwards poured, and
with which coffee, coffee-pot, or the coffee made in
it, it is not pretended I had any concern. This
point will, in the sequel, be found to be of the last
importance, because it will be clearly shown to you
that a person to whom I shall presently have more
particularly to allude must have had access to that
coffee, and must in a marked manlier have directed
his attention to its contents very shortly before the
fatal event took place. I am informed also that to
have put arsenic in the kettle would be a very
doubtful mode of administering it, and that its
weight would cause the greater portion of it to sink
to the bottom of the water. It may be said that
what remained in the coffee jar has been analyzed,
and that no arsenic was discovered. This, how-
ever, proves nothing; the experiment was not made
until fresh coffee had been put into the jar. I
proceed to the second cause of suspicion under
which I have laboured, which is that I absconded
from home on the sth of November, three days
after the morning on which it is supposed the poison
was administered. Gentlemen, when I left home
on the morning of the sth of November, I did so
in pursuance of an engagement of long standing
with my sister in London, to whose house I then
proceeded, being at the time unaware that my poor
grandfather was so near his end. So long before
as the 25 h of October a letter was received by my
mother from a person then staying with my Sister,
the conclusion of which was, Tell John to come
Tuesday week, as it will suit better.' This
letter will be produced before you : it bears
the post-mark of October 25, which unques-
tionably proves it to be genuine. If the con-
sciousness of guilt oppressed or alarmed me,
had I not already remained quietly at home
From the Saturday until the Tuesday, during all
which time I was free to take any course I pleased ?
And when I did go to London, was any secrecy ob-
served as to whither I was going ? On the contrary,
is it not clear that all the family knew I was pro-
ceeding to my sister's ? and was I not, in fact, im-
mediately found at that sister's house, where, in
consequence of what transpired in my absence, it
was thought proper to send an officer to apprehend
me ? Another unfortunate coincidence in this case
is the discovery of arsenic in my box. [The prisoner
then proceeded to state, that some years ago it was
his misfortune to be subjected to an attack of the
itch, which was brought home to the family by his
father, who was then cohabiting with a woman
named Warren. Whilst thus suffering, he acci-
dentally heard that the best way to eradicate it was
by applying poison to the parts most affected. He
had, therefore, from that time been in the habit of
using hellebore and arsenic.] From the disgraceful
nature of the disease, the jury will readily believe
that I did not wish it more known than could be
avoided; but when I was before the Coroner I re-
membered upon several occasions having sent a man
who worked for me when I was living in London to
purchase these poisons for me. I then stated that the
name of that man was Brett, but that he was dead.
I, however, expressed my belief that his wife knew
the fact as well as himself. Gentlemen, that woman
has been now traced out, and she will be called be-
fore you, and will prove the truth of my as-
sertion. Gentlemen, I also informed the co-
roner that I thought Mrs. Perks knew the
same fact. Airs. Perks, without any application
from me, or on my behalf, seeing the account of the
inquests in the newspapers, has voluntarily come for-
will prove that whilst she lived with me
ward, and
at Shoreditch I was in the habit of using alsenie,
and that she has seen me mix it with lard in the way
I have described. Gentlemen, if I had wanted
arsenic for a purpose of this dreadful kind, had I
not at the time of making this second purchase more
than enough to poison a hundred persons? That
last parcel was therefore entirely unnecessary for
my wicked purpose, and the purchase could only
have been rnadesin order to insure my own detec-
tion. Having thus, gentlemen, explained those facts
in this case which I do not attempt, and never have
attempted to deny, I proceed to consider that part
of the evidence which has been offered, for the pur-
pose of showing that I had evinced, by my expres-
sions, a desire to accomplish the death of the de-
ceased. Gentlemen, I solemnly declare that no
expression of the kind ever passed my lips—no
such thought ever entered into my imagination.
This part of the case rests entirely upon the evi-
dence of my unnatural father and of his servant,
Mary Higgins ; and I am constrained to pronounce
it a base fabrication, You will recollect that my

own father is the first person to accuse me of this
dreadful crime. He it is who goes to the magistrate
and puts this charge in motion against me. He it
is who, after an interview with Mary Higgins, at 5
o'clock in the morning, produces her as a witness to
insure my condemnation, by swearing to a conver-
sation that never occurred, and in the relation of
which they both falter and equivocate. Gentlemen,
my father has not, I grieve to say it, set a fit or
worthy example to his family. It has been the lot
of his children to see him imprisoned for malicious
injury, and guilty of fltofligacy of all kinds ; but
still the voice of nature cannot be so absolutely dead
within him as not to have left him the ordinary
regard which even the brute creation exhibit to-
wards their offspring. What then, is the great, the
overwhelming motive that has made him thrust
himself forward uncalled for, unsolicited, to take
away my life through the medium of this prosecution?
To this question, gentlemen, I fear it will be your
painful duty to give a fearful, a dreadful answer. I
would fain have avoided this topic, but a sense
of the duty I owe to that Supreme Being, before
whom I may (however unjustly) be presently called
to appear, as well as the desire of self-preservation,
which is the first and most powerful law of nature,
compel me to enter upon it. What then, I again
ask, could thus operate upon the mind of alather—
what could induce him to become not only the
willing accuser of his child, but the fabricator of
false evidence against him ? Can any adequate
reason be suggested, excepting the desire to avert
from himself the horrible consequences of this hor-
rible offence ? Can you, as fathers, imagine any
less powerful motive that could actuate a father to
sacrifice a son ? Gentlemen, taking this, however
revolting, to be the only true motive, what extra-
ordinary light does it at once cast upon every part
of this apparently mysterious transaction 1 You
will have observed, in every stage of this proceed.
ing, an extraordinary anxiety on the part of my
father to show his own innocence of this crime and
my guilt. Before suspicion attached to anybody,
you find him the first to ask who filled the kettle
that morning—a fact which he already knew, and
which could only have been inquired of in order to
direct the thoughts of others towards me. You find
him proclaiming the fact of his not having been at
my grandfather's house that morning; and you find
him lying in bed much later than usual, as if on
purpose to be ready to show where he then was.
But, Gentlemen, how is it shown rhat he was not
at my grandfather's the day before, when arsenic
might so easily have been put into the coffee-jar,
and the more easily because Sophia Taylor was out
the whole of that day ? This idea never occurred to
any one for a long time, because the coffee-jar was
supposed to be kept in a cupboard always locked,
and the key of whieh was in the possession of the
deceased; but on an inspection by the Coroner's
Jury, it was found that the lock did not catch, and
that the door could readily be opened by any person.
My father hnd completely the run of that house—
he knew every part of it—he had it clearly, there-
fore, in his power to open that cupboard, and to do
anything he pleased with the jar in which the coffee
was kept. What will be said, gentlemen, when I
show you that as early as ten o'clock on that fatal
morning he had a conversation with two persons
named Jacobs, to whom he stated that his father's
family were poisoned; that they were poisoned by
something they had taken for breakfast, but that it
was not the coffee, for the coffee used that morning
was the last that remained in the jar ? All this,
gentlemen, was said marry hours before he had been
to the house—many livers before, as he says, he
knew any one was even ill, arid in direct contradic-
tion of iris own representations, repentediy and de-
liberately made. I have before told you that the
coffee used on that morning was found to be the
last the jar contained. But how could this have
been known to my father at ten o'clock that morn-
ing, unless he had shortly before had access to the
jar, and noticed its contents; and how could he
know at tell o'clock in the morning that the family
were sick and vomiting, when he has sworn that his
first knowledge of their being even ill was obtained
by his visit at six o'clock in the evening ?
Here, I fear, is a striking instance of the
witless anxiety of a guilty mind betrayed into a
premature discussion upon the fatal transaction
which at that moment must have exercised over
it an overwhelming influence. Gentlemen, I
will not longer intrude upon your attention; I
thank you sincerely for the patience with which
you have listened to my afflicting tale ; I be-
seech you to remember that I am addressing
you, as it were, from the very brink of eternity, and
that, if I fail to convince you of my innocence, a
very few hours will remove me from among the
number of the living?'
Wm. Jacobs was then called by -Mr. CLARKSON,
Mr. ADOLPItUS said the avowed- purpose of call-
ing these witnesses was to contradict the evidence
of the father, and he must therefore object to their
being examined.
The COURT said that no witnesses could be
called to contradict him.
Mr. CLARKSON wished his Lordship to take a
note that he offered this witness, and also his wife,
Frances Jacobs, for that purpose. He then called
Elizabeth Brett—l know the prisoner. My
husband bought arsenic for him for his face. I have
seen the prisoner mix arsenic with lard. I came
here voluntarily. He did not know but that I was
dead, but I came forward of my own accord when I
raid of the case in the newspapers.
Sarah Perks sworn—l am a widow, and lived in
the prisoner's house when he lived in Shoreditch.
That was from April to September, 1831. I know
that he was then in the habit of using arsenic. He
never told me what he used it for. He showed me
some in paper, and also in a bottle.
I came forward because I had seen the case in
the newspapers.
Mary Ann Andrews, the
.prisoner's sister, was
here called. She was accommodated with a chair,

and seemed much affected by her situation. She
said, " My brother, the prisoner, was to have come
to see me, and I requested Elizabeth Perks, who
was living with me, to write this letter (produced)
to him on the 24th of October, requesting him not
to come till the sth of November, and he did not
come till that day."
Edward Cleeves—l know the prisoner well. I
know of some injury that had been done by some
rats to the fowls at his father's house. I asked him

Ihe could not poison them. He said that he could
not for fear of killing the fowls. I have known him
for ten years, and he has come to my father's house
nearly every day for the last two years. He has
always borne the best of characters for humanity
awl kindness of disposition.
Mr. Cleeves, the churchwarden of Plumatead,
said—l have known the prisoner nearly ten years.
For tender feelings, for humanity, and good moral
conduct he cannot be excelled.

Mr. Henry Cleeves, farmer, of Plumsread, had
known him for ten years. His character could not

3e better. I have frequently asked aftethis;;;l:
"ather's health, and he has always spoken of him in
he most affectionate term+.

John Nokes, farmer, of Plumstead, bad known
him for 16 years. He had a general good character,
and never showed a disposition to injure anybody.
Mr. Richard Clements, farmer, of Plumstead—l
have known the prisoner all his life. He has been
the best of creatures that ever came into Plumstead.
believe that if he saw a worm lie in his way, he
would turn out of his road sooner than hurt it.
David Rice, landlord of the Feathers at Plum-
stead, had known the prisoner for 16 years. He
had always borne a good character.
William Jacobs, James Russell, a farmer at
Horton Kirby, and John Russell, of Camberwell,
coal-merchant, gave similar testimony as to his
general character for humanity.
The case for the defence having finished,
The Learned JUDGE proceeded to sum up the
case. He said that the chief questions for consi-
deration would be, first, whether the deceased had
been poisoned and secondly, if they were sure
of the hilt wlto ,1 l,
( I I 'at the bar had