The Sun.
London, England, 1857-07-10 00:00:00

;he numerous occasions upon which. be spoke of suicide— tion, called 'loon the jury not rashly to tear asunder the
veil of nue cry in which Providence bad wrapped this
naturally suggest thetas one mode by which he may have
ease, ;mile:aid, so aaured did he feet of Filet the. vsadict
.dsper ed. tale life. I silt not uodertaking to prove -that
he died by his own hand. If I were doing anytbing go ought to ba and so personel an iutet•est did he feel in the
result, that, ishoe;:l th-ei.e be a miscarriage of justice in
rash I should be imitating the rashness of the prosecutor,
but I should not be stepping a hair's-breadth further out this eves; he atiould be able to attribute it to nothing
h
of the beaten track of evidence and proof and demonetra--
ut his own inability to conduet the defence, and the no-
tion collection of this day and of this prisoner would haunt
tion • for I think there is more to be said for the suicide
him ae a dismal spectre to his grave. May, he said, the
than for the prisoner's guilt. From the very first time
at which we see him, even as a lad, in the year 1843, spirit of all truth guide you to an honest, just, and true
be talks in a manner to impress People with the verdict ! but I pray you to remember that no verdict
notion that he has no m e•al pr:nciple to guide him, will be either honest or just or true unless it at once sa-
He speaks over and over again in E finbergh, Dundee, tisfies the conscientious scruples of the severest.jtsdgrneet,
and elsewhere—aye, and the prisoner's letters shoe that and yet leaves undisturbed and unvexed the tenderest
he had made the same threat to her—that he would put consciences among you.
himself out of existence. And is it half as violent a sup- • A burst of applause followed the conclusion of the
position as the supposition of this foul murder that upon learned counsel's speech.
this evening—the 22d of March—in a fit of that kind of The Lord Justice Clerk then charged the jury. He
madness which be Lanself described caws over him when said that the crime of murder by poisoning was one al-
be met with a disappointment—fioding, it may be, that most always secretly committed, and two cases wily, he
be could not procure aceess to an interview which be de- believed, had been known in this country in which any
sired—assuming that he came to Glasgow for the pur- one had seen the admix ore or the" administration of the
pose—asettiniug, even, that ho mistook the evening of poison. It was a crime which generally must be proved
the meeting, and expecting to see her on the Sunday_ by circumstantial evidence al me, but they rims-, en
can anything be mere probable than that in such a case, the other hand, take care tbat the circumstan-
in the excited case is which he then was, that he should tial evidence was such as excluded the possi-
have conmeittal the rash act which put an end to his bility either of innocence on the one band, or of
existence? I can see no great improbability in that, unexplained mystery on the other, and they must net al-
But whether he met his death by suicide, or whether he low any defect in the evidence to be supplied by suspi-
met his death by accident, or in what way soever he met cion, still less by presumptions arising from probabili
his. death, the question foryou is, Is this murder proved ? ties in the case. They must be satisfied that the parties
You are asked to affirm that on your oaths as a tact—
were together when the poison was said to be adaanis-
that the arsenic which was found en that man's stomach tered. They must be satisfied that there was a purpose
was presented to him by the hands of the prisoner, to administer poison, and that the accused bad the p ~icon
Gentlemen, I have talked of the improbabilities which in her possession ; and, further, that it was administered
belong to this attry—to this charge. But surely you on the particular occasion and in the circumstances set
forth in the indictment. It was unnecessary for the pri-
cannot have omitted to observe how very unnatural and
Boner s counsel so solemnly to abjure them not to quench extraordinary a crime it is to impute to a psrsoo in the
a doubt in order to arrive at a verdict of guilty, fer he
prisoner's situation. I stated to you before a: a piece of
undoubted experience, that no one sinks to such a depth was sure that if the result of their deliberations should
of depravity all at once ; and now I ask you to remebe to pronounce a verdict of guilty, it would only be
rn-
w
her at what period we left this correspondence—at a wrung from them by the.most powerful and conclusive
period when she desired to break off with L'Angelier, no evidence. Though they might not be satisfied with any
doubt—at a pet iod when she desired to obtain po-session of the theories propounded in bebalf of the prisoner,
though they might not be inclined to adopt any of those
of her letters, the return of which was refuse-a lam most
notions as to the deceased taking leudanum twice in the
tin wiling to inter-puree my address with remarks upon the
character of a man who is now no more. But pie ure to
course of the journey, as to his being in the habit of tak-
yourselves the moral tempera ent, the taste, the feelin ins arsenic, or as to her using it as a cosmetic, though
of a human being who, having receives such letters
all these matters may fail in her defence, yet the case for
from a girl as you have heard read in this court, would the prosecution might still be radically defective on the
ever preserve them. He must have been dead to all evidence. His Lordship then went into the evidence,
feelings of humanity, or he would Lever have refrained commenting on is as he proceeded. He referred to the
from burning those letters. But he not only preserves fact that the deceased had his first illness some days ,at
them, but he retains them as an engine of power and op- least before the prisoner was proved to possess any ar-
pression in his hands. He keeps them that he may carry senic, and said it would nut do to infer from her having
out his cold-blooded original design, not merely of pos. purchased arsenic afterwards that she had it before.
sassing himself of her person, but cf raising banself in That would bea serious and violent presumption against
the social scale by a marriage with her. It was his first the prisoner indeed. In reference to Mrs. Jenkin's eyis
object, and that object he pursues constantly, unflincia dance, he referred to L'Angelier's remark to the latter
ingly, to the end. But he will expose her to his friends that "It was the letter you sent me that brought me
and to the world, he will drive her to destruction, or to home," by which the supposition as to his having come
suicide itself, rather than let her out of his power. It to see Mr. Mitchell was excluded. In regard to the de-
may be said that lam only describing the great provoca ceased' second illness of the 22d of February, he said that
tion which she received, and therefore enhancing the if there was no proof (and they would see what light the
probability of her taking this fearful mode of t xtricatine correspondence threw on that subject by and by) that the
herself from her embarrassment. I don't fear that, gen prisoner tad the opportunityof administering arsenic, there
tlemen. I want you to look now at the picture which I was much force in the remark that the foundations of
have under her own band of her own state of mind at this this case were shaken. His Lordship then remarked on
time—not for the purpose of palliating her conduct—not L'Angelier's repeating, even in his last illness, that it
was bile, was of importance as showing whether or not
for the purpose of vindicating her against this charge
either of unchasteness or impropriety
,as regards
he had any suspicion of having received anything to
Mr.
Minnocb, but for the purpose of snowing you in what injure him. His lordship next adverted to the letter
frame of mind that poor girl stood at the time—the very . the deceased received at the Bridge of Allan, which said
time at which she is said to have conceived and contrived "Come, beloved, and clasp me to your heart," plainly
this foul murder. There are two or three letters, but I implying that the former and missing letter made ar-
select one for the purpose of Illustrating what I now say, rangements for an interview within the house. As to
It is written on the 10th of Feb., and it is written after whether the deceased had gone to seek the' prisoner on
she has asked for the return of her letters and been re-
the Sunday night, they would perhaps think the probe-
fused. The Dean here read in a touching manner the
bility was that he did so. Whetherhe succeeded in find-
remarkable letter No. 107, in which, in a strain betoken-
ins her was another question. Suppose that letter
ing much agony of mind, she conjures L'Angelier not to
brought himto Glasgow, were they in a condition to say
expose her shame to the world. Is that, he proceeded that they were satiated in their consciences, as an ins-
to say, the mind of a murderess, or can any one affect vitable and just result from the evidence in the case that
that frame of mind ? Will you, gentlemen, for one me- they really met that night ? That was the real point in
went, listen to the suggestion that the letter covers a the case. That they might have a strong moral sus pi-
piece of dece t. No ! The finest actress that ever lived cion in the matter—that they might believe he wee well
could not have written that letter unless she had felt it ; able, after all their clandestine correspondence, to obtain
and is that the condition in which a woman goes about to the means of an interview—that as she had complained
compass the death of him she loved ? Is that her frame of his not coming on the Thursday, she " waited and
of mind / The thing is preposterous, and yet he is be waited" for him not only on the Saturday but On the
cause of her despair, as my learned friend called it, Sunday evening—that might be all very true. Pro-
exhibited in that and similar letters, that he says she bebly they all thought so ; but they were trying a case
had a motive to commit the murder. A motive—what of which the evidence must be satisfactory, complete,
motive ?—a motive to destroy L'Angelier. What does and distinct. A jury might often safely infer certain
that mean? It may mean, in a certain improper sense of facts from correspondence, they might safely infer that
the term, that it would have been an advantage to her meetings appointed to take place since did take place,
that he should cease to live. That is not a motive in any but it was for therm to say here whether it not having
proper sense of the term. Teat is not a motive, else hose been proved that he was in the house that night by any
few of us are there that live who have not a motive to one, they could hold that that link in the chain was Sup-
murder some one or other of our fellow-creatures. But, plied by just and satisfactory inference. If they merely felt
gentlemen, even in the most improper and illegitimate in their own minds a strong suspicion, or that the whole
sense of the term, let me ask you what possible motive probabilities of the case were in favour of it, it was not
there could be—l mean what possible advantage could enough, for if that was all they could derive from infe-
she expect from L'Angelier ceasing to live, so long as the rence in the matter, then a link remained still wanting ;
letters remained in his possession I Without the return the catastrophe and its alleged cause were not found to-
of the letters she gained nothing. Her great object—her gether. His lordship proceeded to read further portions
greatest detire—that for which she was yearning with her of the evidence, remarking that whether or not the pro•
whole soul, was to prevent the exposure of her shame. secretor's case hal been made out, the theories urged in
But the death of L'Angelier, instead of procuring that defence were of the .most unsatisfactory kind; but they
object, wotili have been perfectly certain to lead to the could not from that supply any detect, if detect there
immediate exposure of everything that bad passed be- existed, in the prosecutor'S proof,
tween them. Snail Ibe told that she did not foresee that? His lordship had gone nearly half ,through the parole
I thought my learned friend bad been giving the pri- evidence when the court adjourned till the next morning
ironer too much credit for talent in the course of his ob- at nine o'clock. -
servations open her conduct; but I should conceive her
to be infinitely stupid if she did not foresee that the
death of L'Angelier, with these documents in his posses-
sion, was the true and the best means of frustrating the
then great object of her life. Se much for the motive;
and see what another star cling defect that is in the case
for the prosecution. Shall I be told that the motive
might be revenge ? Lister, to the letter. Tell me if it is
possible that in the same breast with these sentiments
there could lurk one feeling of revenge? No; the condi-
tion of mind in which that pour girl was throughout the
months of February and March is entirely inconsistent
with any of the hypotheses teat have been made on the other side—utterly increeliele in connection with the perpetration of such a crime as is here laid to her charge,
The learned curaael then referred to the prisoner's flight
to Row, and said—Gentlemen, this was not flying from
justice, but it eas flying from that which she could
just as little bear—the wrath of her father and the
averted countenance of her mother. But she came back
again without the slightest hesitation, and upon the
Monday morning there occurred a scene as remarkable in
the history of criminal jurisprudence as anything I ever
heard of, by which that broken spirit was altogether
changed. The moment she was met by a charge of being
implicated rn causing the death of L'Aegslier she at nece
assumed the con rage of a heroine. See was bound down
and she fled while the charge of her own unchastity and
shame was alt that 'Was brought against her ; but she
stood erect and proudly conscious of her innocence when
the was met with. this astounding, this monstrous charge
of murder. After reading the declaration of the priamer,
and couttnsntina on various stafernsnts made in it, the
Dean said, such openness and ceneour of statement,
under such circumstances—wade to the magistrate in-er-
rugating her on the charga an I who bad, as was bra
duty, informed her that whatever she 831 t `night be used
to her piaju :ice, but could not possibly be used to her
ad vaetage—l leave to speak for themselves. But I have
now te r.quest your attention to one pertieular point ire
connection with this decLration—the different purchases
of arsenic:. Tee pestessa:n of this arsenic is said to he
unaccounted for, as far as theeprieoeer herself is c un-
earned. It may be so, acid yet that would not make a
• case for the pra-ecuaion. See eays she us al it as a cra-
tnetie. Tess might be start!ing at first bight to many of
us here, but after ti.e evidence we have heard it will not
in the least amass you. At school her statetrhit, which
has been so far borne out by evidence, shows that see
hal read of the Styrian psasants using arsenic for the
stretigtherting of their wind aed improvement of their
complexions. No doubt they used it internally, and not
externally as she did ; jut in the imperfect state of her
knowledge that fact was of no significance. L'Angelier
stated to more than one witness—and if he stated falsely
it is only one of a multitude of lies proved against him—
that he used it himself, and it is not surprising that if he
(L'Angelier) knew of this custom that be should have
conatnueicated it to the prisoner. There is no reason to
suppose that if used extenialiy, as the prisoner says she
did use it, would be productive of any injurious effects;
so that there was no few on to suspech on that ground
the truth of the statement that the prisoner had mode.
No doubt we have medical gentlemen coining here and
shaking their heads and looking wise, and saying that
such a use of arsenic would be a dangerous precedure.
Wsli, so sboula we all say that it is both a dangerous
and foothill procedur that is not the question
The question is whettelkie tr.
prison= r could actuhly tro
use it without injurious effects, and that she c add d so
ii dem.mstrated by tee o xperiment of Dr. Laurie are bi
the opinion of Dr. Maca)gate G n lerlthn, friend the Lord my learned
great as was
Advocate said that the cou-
rage the unhappy prisoner displayed when charged with
the crime, that demeanour was not inconsistent with the
theory of her geilt. He said that a wonian who had
nerve to commit the murder would have nerve calmly to
meet the accusation. I doubt that hypothesis. Gentle-
men, I know of no cause in which such undaunted cou•
rage has been displayed, from first to last, b
a girl, confronted wilts such a charge, wherye 76aytolligl
was guilty. But, gentlemen, our experience does fußr-
eish us with examples of as grave a bearing in soy,ti ,
a girl when innocent. Do yen know the story of E' linh-a.
Fen wick? Sbe Was a servant girl in London. She was
tried on the charge of poisoning her master and faini‘i
by putting ar•erec into dumplings. Wnen the charge
was first made she met it with a calm and indignant
denial ; she maintained the earns demeanour throughout
a long trial; and she received sentence of death without
a muscle. According to the statement of a t y moving
slander, when brought uttein the sceff ed to die,)-
-
and sh e died as she she
looked as serene as an ang.
tug,- ea of t had
d
borne herself throughout the
tragedy. It was an execution previousthat attracted mduch7ttsen.
Lion at the time. Opinion was slush divide as to the
propriety of the verdict, and the angry disputants
wrangled even over her grave. But time Orou,ht 013
light which was wanting before ; toe true perpe-
trator of the murder confessed on his death-tied—
too late to avoid the enacting of a most bloody tra-
gedy. It happened at a time beyond the recollection
of most of the gentlemen whom I now address ; lout it
son record—a flaming beacon to warn us egainst the
sunken rocks of that presumptuous arrogance an I opi-
nionated self-reliance hidden in the cold and proud human
heart ; it teaches no, by terrible example, to avoid curl-
feunding suspicion with proof, and te reject tures
and hints when tendered as demonstration, Trij ee,
~
tlemen, that this was not a solitary case; eitheratrheg erre'
collection or reading of any of us may recall similar
ilea-
,r
cases where, after execution, the judgment
Was
wrong which had doomed a fellow•creataunrey tdaoseg proved
wrong
be
pray God that neither you nor I may in
jauilty of adding an=-they name to that black and bloody
a
calendar, The Leas Faculty, in au eloquent p

t,

VERDICT OF THE JURY.
NINTH DAY.---THURSDAT, July 9.
The Court me, tb's morning at 0 o'clock, when
The Lord Justice-Clerk proceeded with his charge to
the jury. Remarkine on the recovery of the 13tters
found in the reposit ries of L'Angelier, he said that al-
;hough the method of procedure which was adopted had
been loose, irregular, and slovenly, it did not appear
that the panel bad suffered any prejud.ce from the
want of any of them. As to each letter being in its
proper envelope, in the first part of the correspond-
ence it did nut much signify whether such were the
case, because there was no doubt that those passionate
letters written by the prisoner declaring such strong love
for L'Angelier, and some of them expressed in very
licentious terms, had been written by her at some time
or other. Complaints had been made as to the difficulty
of getting access to the correspondence on the part of the
prisoner. Oo the whole it appeared to him that the facili-
ties afforded to her for conducting her defence were such
as no other panel had ever had. Commenting on the
evidecce of the female servants, he observed that a
material part of this evidence was, that it showed th .t
on one occasion an interview took place between prisoner
and deceased in tee house, and that there were ample
facilities for the prisoner aitni'aing L'Angelier to the
house, if she wished it, without any one in the house
knowing of it ; so that it there was evidence otherwise
sufficient to satisfy the jury that he went to the house
on the night of Sunday the 22d of March, there was
nothing in the fact that he was not heard. On this
point there was ;as° the fact that. the prisoner got out of
the house on the Thursday morning without this being
known by any one. As to the story about using the
areeeic as a cosmetic, he cenfessed that he looked uu it
as a false pretence altogether, and an excuse for the pas-
Heeiln of the arsenic; this story, therefore, was not of
the slightest importance at all. There was no doubt that
en the night of the 22d, after his return froiu Bridge of
Allan, he went out in the direction of the panel's
house. With reference to the illegibility of several
of tee postiisrks on the letters, he observed that the
ationtion of the Pest-office authorities bad been called to
the beceesity of their being mare more distinct by Lord
Cempleiel in a similar case, and by hanself ; and consi•
dering tee importance of this point to the ends of civil
and criminai justice, he trusted this w •uld be the last
occasion on which these marks would be so carelessly
impre-sed. Revering again to the probability of an
interview between the prisoner and deceased on Sunday,
his lordship remarked that as she had waited for him
one night according to appointment, and another night
aft--r teat, and then wrote another letter, imploring him
in terms professing strong passion fur him, to come and
c:aap her to his heart, it would not be wonderful if she
expected that be would come on the Sunday night,
though the appointment was for Saturday night. Coin.
ing next to Miss Terry's evidence, he remarked on the
fact that L'Angelier had said to her that on two occa-
sions before be took ill he had got coffee or cocoa and
chocolate from the panel. They bad no proof that the
panel had arsenic in her possession on the 19th Feb.,
and there was no evidence of any meeting on the 19th,
except what was drawn from the letter, the date of which
Vie Lord Advocate fixed fur the Wednesday. But here
was a statement by the dead man, good and competent
evidence ; and the jury must ju ge of the weight of it.
He meetiolied at Portobeil .1 that he was ill after getti.,g
coffee and cocoa, and that he thought be had been pot-
soGad, and again to Mi-s Perry he said, "I can't think
why I was so unwell after getting that coffee and choco-
late from her." This most unquestionably referred to
two different illnesses, each following the getting of
coffee and cocoa or chocolate from the prisoner. The
jury must judge whether this conversation with Miss
Perry was of importance. She did not interrogate
hire on the subject, and. 'shot seemed very properly
to wise to banish the thought from his mind. Sti

this was Fad in earnest, and Miss Perry stated on
oath that she thought he entertained some suspicion of
the panel, though not a serious suspicion. It was
true that Miss Perry knew the intimacy between the

two parties was clandestine ; that was strange conduct
in a person of her respectability and of her age ; but
sometimes they would find that ladies at her time of
life had a good deal of absurd sentimentality about
them, and this 1 idy seemed to have had considerable
plea.ure in being the confidant of the attachment be-
tween these two young persons. It might be explained
in this way ; but he did not think it c.iuld be doubted
that she was a truthful witness. The jury must, how-
ever, consider whether all this amounted to more than to
itiiini gdhliti nnoott wg:trrpaonitsotnii.e 1
They
give rise in their minds to very great suspicion, which
nineycalomusitng remember to a
though that
he was di on these occasions, and seemed to ascribe it
to c,coa, there was no proof that theatta attack really
seyls,
Atomsafl 6 y tctrosrerneiscpoorn,
corresponded
with
toi ftthhoessee
otfw irritant ita occasions.wpoaiso n,T no
doubt, but then they might also be the
of bilious attack ; and the jury must consider
they were warranted in confiding on his statements, how-
ever wrongly made, to Miss Perry, that these attacks
arose from some poisonous substance, it did not signify
fwhat. Prisoner bought arsenic on the 2lat of F&,ruar Y,
before the second illness, and there the fact of her pos-
sessing it on that occasion of course gave much greater
strength and point to his remark, that he did receive
something which had made him iil, on the 27th of Fe-
.l3 to the evidence for the defence, that he had
obnruoanrye.
occasion threatened to throw himself from a
window in the Rainbow Tavern, his Lordship observed
that as the witness was in bed at the time, the de-

ceased had ample opportunity to have thrown himself
over, if he had been su inclined, before the witness could