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

the numerous occasions upon which he spoke of suicide—
naturally suggest that as one mode by which he may have
departed this life. lam not undertaking to prove that
he died by his own hand. If I were doi❑g anything so
rash I should be imitating the rashness of the prosecutor,
but I should not be stepping a hair's-breadth further out
of the beaten track of evidence and proof and demonstra-
tion ; for I think there is more to be said for the suicide
than for the prisoner's guilt. From the very first time
at which we see him, even as a lad, in the year 1843,
he talks in a manner to impress people with the
notion that he has no moral principle to guide him.
He speaks over and over again in Edinburgh, Dundee,
and elsewhere—aye, and the prisoner's letters show that
he had made the same threat to her—that he would put
himself out of existence. And is it half as violent a sup-
position as the supposition of this foul murder that upon
this evening—the 22d of March—in a fit of that kind of
. .

madness which he himself described came over him when
he met with a disappointment—finding, it may be, that
he could not procure access to an interview which he de-
sired—assuming that he came to Glasgow for the pur-
pose—assuming, even, that he mistook the evening of
the meeting, and expecting to see her on the Sunday—

can anything be more probable than that in such a case,
in the excited case in which he then was, that he should
have committed the rash act which put an end to his
existence? I can see no great improbability in that.
But whether he met his death by suicide, or whether he
met his death by accident, or in what way soever he met
his death, the question foryou is, 13 this murder proveci ?
You are asked to affirm that on your oaths an a fact--
that the arsenic which was found in that man's stomach
was presented to him by the hands of the prisoner.
Gentlemen, I have talked of the improbabilities which
belong to this story—to this charge. But surely you
cannot have omitted to observe how very unnatural and
extraordinary a crime it is to impute to a person in the
prisoner's situation. I stated to you before as a piece of
undoubted experience, that no one sinks to such a depth
of depravity all at once ; and now I ask you to remem-
ber at what period we left this correspondence—at a
'period when she desired to break off with L'Angelier, no
doubt— at a period when she desired to obtain possession
of her letters, the return of which was refused. I am most
unwilling to intersperse my address with remarks upon the
character of a man who is now no more. But picture to
yourselves the moral tempera ent, the taste, the feeling,
of a human being who, having received such letters
from a girl as you have heard read in this court, would
ever preserve them. He must have been dead to all
feeliogs of humanity, or he would never have refrained
from burning those letters. But he not only preserves
them, but he retains them as an engine of power and op-
pression in his hands. He keeps them that he may carry
out his cold-blooded original design, not merely of pas.
sassing himself of her person, but of raising himself in
the social scale by a marriage with her. It was his first
object, and that object he pursues constantly, unflinch-
ingly, to the end. But he will expose her to his friends
and to the world, he will drive her to destructien, or to
suicide itself, rather than let her out of his power. It
may be said that I am only describing the great provoca
tion which she received, and therefore enhancing the
probability of her taking this fearful mode of extricating
herself from her embarrassment. I don't fear that, gen
tlemen. I want you to look now at the picture which I
have under her own hand of her own state of mind at this
time—not far the purpose of palliating her conduct—not
for the purpose of vindicating her against this charge
either of unchasteness or impropriety as regards Mr.
Minnoeb, but for the purpose of showing you in what
frame of mind that poor girl stood at the tame—the very
time at which she is said to have conceived and contrived
this foul murder. There are two or three lettere, but I
select one for the purpose of Illus,rating what I now say.
It is written on the 10th of Feb. and it is written after
she has asked for the return of her letters and been re-
fused. The Dean here read in a touching manner the
remarkable letter No. 107, in which, in a strain betoken-
ing much agony of mind, she conjures L'Angelier not to
xpose her shame to the world. Is that, he proceeded
to say, the mind of a murderess, or can any one affect
that frame of mind ? Will you, gentlemen, for one mo-
ment, listen to the suggestion that the letter covers a
piece of dece t. No ! The finest actress that ever lived
could not have written that letter unless she had felt it ;
and is that the condition iu which a woman goes about to
o enpase the death of him she loved ? that her frame
of mind 1 The thing is preposterous, and yet he is be-
cause of her despair, as my learned friend called it,
exhibited in that and similar letters, that he says she
had a motive to commit the murder. A motive—what
motive?--a motive to destroy L'Angelier. What does
that mean? It may mean, in a certain improper sense of
the term, that it would have been an advantage to her
that he should cease to live. That is not a motive in any
proper sense of the term. Teat is not a motive, else how
few of us are there that live who have not a motive to
murder some one or other of our fellow-creatures. But,
gentlemen, even in the most improper and illegitimate
sense of the term, let me ask you what possible motive
there could be—l mean what possil,le advantage cool 1
she expect from L'Angelier ceasing to live, so long as the
letters remained in his possession? Without the return
of the letters she gained nothing. Iler great object—her
greatest desire—that for which she was yearnieg with her
whole soul, was to prevent the exposure of her shame.
But the death of L'Angelier, instead of procuring, that
object, wool t have beeu perfectly certain to lead to the
immediate exposure of everyti ieg that bad parsed be-
tween them. Seall I he told that she did not foresee that?
1 thought my learned friend hoO been giving the pri-
soner too much credit for talent in the course of his ob-
servations upon her conduct; but I should conceive her
to be iefinitely stupid if she did not fere,,eo that Cle
death of L'Angele r, with tnese docuinents is Lie posses-
sion, was the tree and the best means of frustrating the
then great object of her life. S r much fer the motive ;
and see what another startling defer, that is in the case
for the prosecution. ShAl I be told that the motive
!night be revenge ? Lieteo to the letter. Tell me if it is
pes-,ible that in the same breast with these sentiments
there could lurk one feeling of revenge ? No ; the condi-
tion of mind in which that poor girl was throughout the
months of February and March is entirely inconsistent
with any of toe hypotheses that have been made on the
other side—utterly inereeiele in connection with the
perpetration of such a crime as is here laid to her charge;
The learned counsel then referred to the prisoner's flight
to Row, and said—Gentlemen, this was not flying from
justice, but it was flying from that which she could
just as little hear—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
beard of, by which that broken spirit was altogether
changed. The moment she was met by a charge of being
implicated in causing the death of L'Angelier she at once
assumed the courage of a heroine. She was hound down
nod she fled while the charge of her own unchastity and
shame was all that was brought against her ; but she
stood erect and proudly conscious of her innocence when
she was met with this astoundmg, this monstrous charge
of murder. After reading the declaration of the prisoner,
and commenting on various statements made in it, the
Dean said, such openness and candour of statement,
under such circumstances—made to the magistrate inter-
rogating her on the charge, and who had, as was his
duty, informed her that whatever she sail might be used
to her prejudice, but could not possibly be used to her
advantage—l leave to speak for themselves. But I have
now to request your attention to ono particular point in
connection with this declaration,—the different purchases
of arsenic. Tee possession of this arsenic is said to be
unaccounted for, as far as the prisoner herself is con-
cerned. It may be so, and yet that would not make a
case for the prosecution. She says she used it as a cos-
metic. This might be startling at first sight to many of
us here, but after the evidence we have heard it will not
in the least amaze you. At school ber statement, which
has been so far borne out by evidence, shows that she
had read of the Styrian peasants using arsenic for the
strengthening of their wind and improvement of their
complexions. No doubt they used it internally, and not
externally as she did ; but 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 he should have
communicated it to the pfisoner. There is no reason to
suppose that if used externally, as the prisoner says she
did use it, would be productive of any injurious effects;
so that there was'no reason to suspect on that ground
the truth of the statement that the prisoner had made.
No doubt we bays medical gentlemen coming here and
shaking their heads and looking wise, and saying that
such a use of arsenic would be a dangerous precedure.
so should we all say that it is both a dangerous
and foolish procedure. But that is not the question
The question is whether the prisoner could actee,ly so
use it without injurious effect=, and that she could do so
s demenstrated by the experiment of Dr. Laurie and by
the opinion of Dr. Mactagan. G.n lemen, rey learned
friend the Lord Advocate said that great as was the cou-
rage the unhappy prisoner displayed when charted with
the crime, that demeanour was not inconsistent lvith the
theory of her guilt. He said that a woman 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 ou-
rage has been displayed, from first to last, by so young
a girl, confronted with such a charge, where that
girl
was guilty. But, gentlemen, our experience does fur-
nish us with examples of as grave a bearing in so youne
a girl when innocent, Do you know the story of Eliza,
Fen wick ? She was a servant girl in London. She was
tried on the charge of poisoning her master and family
by putting arsenic into dumplings. When the charge
WAS first made she met it with a calm and indignant
denial ; she maintained the same demeanour throughout
a long trial; and she received sentence of death witheut
moving a muscle. According to the statement of a by-
stander, when brought upon the scaffold to die, she
looked al serene as an angel, and she died as she had
borne herself throughout the previous stages of her sad
tragedy. It was an execution that attracted much atten-
tion at the time. Opinion was ranch divided as to the
Propriety of the verdict, and the angry disputants
wrangled even over her grave. But tim brought the
light which was wanting before ; the true perpe-
trator of the murder confessed
h
too late to avoid the enacting mostis death d—
dbelonod-ylietra-
gedy. It happened at a time beyond the recollection
of most of the gentlemen whom I now address ; but it
son record—a flaming beacon to warn us against the
sunken rooks of that presumptaous arrogance and opi-
nionated self-reliance bidden in the cold and proud human
heart ;it teaches ns, by terrible example, to avoid con-
founding suspicion with proof, and to rat- j t itet
ar.d hints when tendered as demonstration, er
ere,s'en:ll
ease; eithe'ra heg
tlemen, that this was not a solitary
e-
collection or reading of any
us may recall similartr
cases where, after execution, the judgment was proved
wrong wrong which had doomed a fellow-creature to aie-
pray God that neither you nor I may in any degree be
guilty of adding another name to that black and bloody
calendar. The Dean of Faculty, in an eloquent perora-