The Sun.
London, England, 1857-09-24 00:00:00

THE CASE OS DE SALMI.

The course that was arm by the legal advisers
of the-prisoner, upon his being brought up to take
his trial last week at the Central Criminal Court
for the murder of Mr. Robertson in the Queen's
Bench Prison, appears to have been quite unex-
pected on the part of the prosecution, and the case
from this fact, and the other peculiar circumstances
connected with it, appears to excite a great deal of
interest. There can be no difficulty now in stating
that there is no doubt that the motive fur the coin-
mission of the desperate act, which has placed the
prisoner in his present position, was a feeling of re-
venge against the deceased in c.msequence of his
haviria repudiated a debt due to De Salvi, and
which it is said involved the whole of his savings ,
during the period he was in service, and amounting
to between eight and nine hundred pounds. The
prisoner must, however, still have considerable
means, or else have very powerful friends to assist
him in his defence, aathe fees paid to Mr. Edwin
James, the leading counsel, who attended on his
behalf the last two sessions, amounted altoge-
ther to one hundred and sixty guineas, and Ser-
geant Parry was also pa'd special fees to a large
amount, a third counsel, Mr. M`Mahon, being also
retained on his behalf. The public is aware that,
the prisoner baying been acquitted, at the August
session of the Central Criminal Court, upon that
count of the indictment which charged him with
feloniously wounding the deceased with intent to
murder him, and convicted upon the minor charge
of wounding with intent to do grievous bodily
harm, and thereupon sentenced to 15 years' penal
servitude, at the late sessions, upon the prisoner
being arraigned for wilful murder, a plea of autre-
fois acquit Iwas recorded fur the prisoner. This
plea being of a very novel character, it may be as
well to state it in the following terms :
"The said Antonio de Salvi in his own proper per-
son cometh into court here, and having heard the
said indictment read, saith that our lady the Queen
ought not further to prosecute against him so much
of said indictment as charged him with having, of
his malice aforethought, murdered the said Robert
Henderson Robertson, because he saith that here-
tofore, to wit, at the general session of the delivery
of the Queen's gaol of Newpte, holden for the ju-
risdiction of the Central Criminal Bourt, at Justice-
ball, in the Old Bailey, in the suburbs of the City
of London, on Monday August 17, 1857, before Sir
Samuel Martin, Kt., one of the barons of our said
lady the Queen of her Court of Exchequer ; Sir
Richard B. Crowder, Kt., one of the justices of our
said lady the Queen of her Court of Common Pleas,
and others, their fellows, justices of our said lady
the Queen, assigned to deliver the said gaol of New-
gate of the prisoners therein being, he, the said
Antonio de Salvi, was in due form of law indicted,
arraigned, and tried upon a certain indictment
which charged himbythe name of Antonio de Salvi,
fur that he on July 8,1857, in the county of Sur-
rey and within the jurisdiction of the said court,
unlawfully and feloniously did stab, cut, and wound
one Robert Henderson Robertson, with intent
thereby then and there, feloniously, wilfully, and
of his malice aforethought, to kill and murder the
s tid. Robert Hendr rson Robertson, against the form
of the statute in such case made and provided ; and
tnat he, the said Antonio de Salvi, further slith

that upon the trial of the said indictment he was
lawfully acquitted ofthesaidoffencetherein charged
as aforesaid, as by the record in that behalf more
fully and at length appears. And he further saith
that he is the same person as the said Antonio de
Sal vi iu the said last-mentioned indictment named
and not another and different person, and, that the
said Robert H. Robertson in the same indictment
named is the same identical person as is named in the
indictment to which he, the said Antonio de Salvi,
is now here pleading, and not another and different
person, and that the cause of the death, and of the
said supposed killing and murdering of the said
Robert Henderson, was certain stabs, cuts, and
wound, for the inflicting of whiCh, with intent to
murder the said R.H.Robertson,he, the said Antonio
De Salvi was indicted, tried, and acquitted as afore-
said ; and not any other stabs, cuts, and wounds,
or stab, cut, or wound whats)ever, and not any
other came or injury whatsover. And this he,
the, said Antonio De Salvi, is ready to verify.
Wherefore he prays judgment, and that by the
court here he may be dismissed and discharged of
so much of the present indictment as ch3rges him
with having of his malice aforethought murdered
the said Robert Henderson Robertson ; and as to
the murder and felony of which he, the said An-
tonio De Salwi, now stands indicted, be saith that
he is not guilty thereof, and of this he puts himself
upon the country."
It is understood that on the part of the Crown
a demurrer will be entered to this plea, the effect
of which proceeding is that the facts stated in the
plea are admitted ; but it will be contended that
they do not make out that the prisoner was ever
pl .cr d in jeopardy upon the charge of is ilful murder,
and that consequently the plea of autretois acquit
cannot be supported. This will be argued on the
first day of the judges taking their seats at the Cen-
tral Criminal Court next ses-ion ; and if the point
should be decided against the prisoner, he will at
once be tried upon the charge of murder. The
opinion in legal circles is, that the fact of a man
having been tried and acquitted of wounding with
intent to murder, is 110 answer to a charge of mur-
der where the wounded pers,,n afterwards dies, and
it is believed that the only object of the course
taken'on behalf of the prisoner is that the jury may
have formally brought before them the facts that
the prieouer has been already triea and convicted
of an offence arising out of the same transaction,
and sentenced to a very severe punishment, in the
hope that it may operate on their minds, and induce
them to return a verdict that will not affect the life
of the unhappy prisoner.

THE MURDER IN LEIGH WOODS,

CLIFTON.

IDENTIFICATION OF THE BODY.

The efforts of the police with 8.--view to clear up
the mystery in which this murder has been veiled. ,
have at length met with some success. The iden-
tity of the murdered woman has been established
beyond doule.
The murdered woman is proved to have been a
Woman of about 30 years of age, whose histery for
a fey years past has thus been timed. She for-
Merly lived as cook in the family of the Hon. Mrs.
Hutchinson, at Dorset-house, Clifton, and upon
the breaking up of her esteblishmens by that lady
with a view to her removal to lee!and, she went to
live in the service of a lady named Cave, at Down-
end, Gloucestershire. Subssquently she was in the
service of Mrs. Weston,.of River-street, Bath, and
upon the death of that lady and the breaking of
her eat tblishment she went to reside as head cook
in the family of the Bev. Mr. Bythesea, of Fresh-
ford, near Bath, where she lived till within a corn-
paratively few hours of her murder. She bad given
Mr. Bythesea notice of her intention to leave for
the purpose of getting married to a young man who
had kept her company, and she had informed her
fellow-servants that the name of that young man was
Beate. Beale, who was a Bath man, had been also
living iu service, and there is reason for believing
that the deceased remitted him a sum of money to
somewhere in the neighbourhood of Northampton,
for the purpose of paying his expenses down to
Bath. At about 4 o'clock on Wednesday, the 9th
iTISt. (the body was discovered murdered on Friday,
the 11th inst.), Beale arrived at the house of the
Rev. Mr. Bythesea, where he remained for about
three hours, taking tea with the servants, and as-
Aisting the deceased to pack her boxes, which were
fetched away by a porter of the Wilts and Somerset
Railway. There were three • boxes—one covered
with black leather with some nails, and two covered
with paper of different patterns. They were all
packed in some coarse wrappers and corded, and
were, it is believed, all directed. One was noticed
to have a card upon it addressed, "Mr. Beale,
passenger to Bristol." At 7, deceased and Beale
took leave of the domestics of Mr. Bythesea's esta-
blishment and left, stating Viet their ultimate in-
tention was to go to America. At the time when
they Lit, Charlotte Pugsley wore a speckled straw
bonnet with groan ribbons, the curtain, which was
made of the ribbon, being edged with lace. She
wore a large black
mantletckof Orleans, with black
braid, and lined with
but it was known that
she had a silk mantle and some shawls
hershaw
ls in her boxes.
She had money with her,
but fellowzii -servants
think that it was not more than Gi or
this point nothing certain has yeth asce.rt aiineodn
After leaving Mr. Bythes
theyStokNe ve-entattoi
the), did not
proceed to the
Fl esti ford but to the
it station ofto
the railway, whence is believed
Bristol. The dreadful sequence as regards the
happy young woman has been already p„blibed.
That affecting the man has not yet been traced out,
but it is feared that lie may have sailed (or ay any
rate is about to sail) fur America.
A young woman, A fellow-servant of_ deceased
at Mr. Bytbesea's, and who .slept with her every
night, was yesterday brought over by Inspector
Noriis to inspect the deceased's clottes, which have
been left in the charge of Super;ntendentHandcock.
She identified nearly a'l the articles, some of
them in the most indubitable manner. The frill
round the dress she herself fetched home from the
wash, the black unilersleeves she saw the deceased-
make and tack into her dress the day Lefore she left,
she stating that she did it as she thought that her
dress sleeve was too short. Her stockings the young
woman bad mended for her on the Tuesday, and
she recognises some peculiarities in her own work.
I-Lr description of Charlotte Pugsley likewise car- I
responds precisely with the deceased. Inspector
Belt has eucceed.e.d in finding a laundress who worked
f Charlotte Pugsley, and she also recognises the
marks oil the linen