The Sun.
London, England, 1859-08-19 00:00:00

i tant poison was being administered was very strange,
but it was more remarkable still that Dr.- Todd, one of the
most celebrated members of the medicalprofessioli, without
the slightest knowledge of the suspicions of Drs. Julius and
Bird, when he first saw the unfortunate lady, immediately
came to the sPme conclusion. Then, again, it was idle to
say that vomiting, purging, and irritation were not the
wont indications of poison. 'The prisoner was a man of
some skill, and if the death of the unhappy lady was his
aim he knew full well the nature and operation of the drugs
administered, and if poisoning was his aim, he knew a post
mortem examination would at once reveal the fact, suppos-
ing it was done quickly; but, taking advantage of his me-
dical knowledge, he peirfeetly well knew that the only
means of attaining his object was by administering poison
in small but fatal dozes. Then, again, was it consistent
with innocence that everybody, even including the sister
of the unfortunate deceased, should be excluded from the
sick room until Miss Bankes was in such a state of exhaus-
tion that rendered her powerless ? Another suspicious cir
cumstance was the absence of a nurse, and he felt perfectly
confident that any person dealing fairly with any woman
would not, without there was some ulterior motive,
deprive her, in the miserable position she then
was, of such a necessary aid. What was the reason
the prisoner objected to the employment of a nurse?
The prisoner said it was the expense, but he implored the
jury not to forget that at the very time he was making the
objection on the ground of his not being able to afford it,
that but a few days before he received £7O ss. belonging to
the dying woman ; he had upwards of £lOO in the London
and Westminster Bank, besides other valuable property in
his possession, amounting to some hundreds of pounds.
Was such an act consistent with love and affection ? He
felt that they would be of opinion that it was not. Look
again at his conduct with respect to the tapioca.
Here was the poor creature nearly at the point of
death, asking her sister to make her some tapioca, and the
prisoner, who, it was said was animated by love and affec-
tion, coolly telling the sister she could not do it, because
" the milk had not come." Was that the conduct of a man
with the slightest affection. Then, again, what was the
necessity for taking the soup outside the room to cool—why
could it not be done in the room, if nothing was to be done
to it ? But it was taken outside the room, it was cooled,
and when the prisoner brought it into the apartment and
gave it to the unfortunate woman, vomiting was the result.
Then, again, what valid objection could an innocent
man have to the sister of the deceased sitting
up with her a night or two previous to her death ? but the
prisoner would not allow this; and to prevent such a pro-
ceeding the sister was sent away en a fruitless and useless
errand. Passing from that part of the case he would come
to the medical evidence, and at the outset he contended
that the effect of the mistake of Dr. Taylor must not be
to set aside all the other evidence. It was clear he
had discovered both traces of arsenic and antimony,
and the tests he had used had been spoken to by Professor
Brand, one of the most celebrated authorities, as the best
and most to be relied upon. A great number of medical
witnesses had been called on the other side, but the evidence
they had given did not shake, in the slightest degree, the
evidence for the prosecution, and the theory
of the medical men for the defence that
the poison in the body of the deceased was attributable
to the bismuth administered, but it was clearly in evidence
that Dr. Taylor had actually analysed the bismuth found

in Dr. Julius's shop, and the result of the analysis was the
total absence of arsenic. The learned sergeant then alluded

to the evidence that had been given by the medical gentle-
men connected with the Grosvenor School of Medicine, and

said theoretical opinions must be looked upon with the
greatest caution. The learned gentleman concluded by
imploring the jury to give the case their most serious con-
sideration, and said if they entertained any doubt, the pri-
soner was entitled to it, but if they entertained no such
doubt, then they had a duty, painful it might be,
to perform to their country; and he prayed that, under the
direction of God, they would come to a right conclusion.
The prisoner, at the conclusion of the learned sergeant's
reply, said in a tremulous voice, addressing the judge,,al-
- me to say that the window of the passage at the out-
side of the door was where I stirred up the soup. Every-
thing was kept out there since orders had been given to
keep them all cool, soda water, soup, and everything else.

The Lord Chief Baron then commenced s amming up,
but he said, as it would be impossible for him to conclude
and go though the mass of evidence that had been. given
within any reasonable time, he should only mak4 some
general observations upon the case, and should go through
the evidence on the following morning. The case was
undoubtedly one of the greatest importance not only
to the prisoner at the bar, but also to the publio, and
the prisoner was entitled to the benefit not only of the fact
that no poison was found in the body of the deceased, but
to any other doubt such as would operate in the minds of
reasonable and conscientious men; and unless the jury
were satisfied of his guilt in such a manner as they
would be satisfied in reference to any important event in
their own lives, that a certain state of things existed, the
prisoner undoubtedly ought to be acquitted. The ease was
one of the most remarkable in all its circumstances that
he ever remembered in his now long experience, and the
evidence that had been brought forward in support of the
charge of murder against the prisoner undoubtedly de-
served their most serious and grave consideration. The first
material question they would have to consider was whether
it was made out to their satisfaction that the deceased
Lady came by her death by poison ; and then came the
more important question, so far as the prisoner was con-
cerned,—was it proved by reasonable evidence that it
was by his hand that poison was administered ? He
then entered into a narrative of the facts, and said
the jury would remember that the prisoner was first
taken into custody qn the 2d of May, the lady at that
time being alive. He was then only charged with adminis-
tering poison, and at that time, of course, every one con-
cerned was ignorant of the facts that he had a wife living
and that the deceased was not his legal wife. His own
counsel felt it due to himself to state that no justification
could be offered for the prisoner so far as this matter was
concerned, and it was clear that he had not only violated
his moral duty, but that by going through the ceremony of
marriage with the deceased he had committed a breach of
the law and a felony. The circumstances under which that
marriage took place, and under which the prisoner deserted
his lawful wife, would probably for ever remain a secret ;
but, however bad the conduct of the prisoner might have
been so far as these matters were concerned, he was not to be
punished at this time for those acts, and the jury ought not
to allow the circumstances to which he had alluded to have
any weight, excepting so far as they operated with the
other facts in the case upon the question whether the pri-
soner was guilty or innocent of the more serious crime
laid to his charge. It appeared to him that it was a most
important subject for their consideration, the position
of the deceased at the time the fatal event occurred, and
also what she believed to be her own position with regard
to the prisoner. In the letter she wrote to her sister she
stated that she was happy, and she also told her sister
when she first saw her during her illness, that when she
got well it would be all right. What did she mean by
that expression, end what would have become of the
prisoner if she had got well, he having a wife living?
In the will that had been made by the deceased she
appeared to have been studiously called " spinster," and
she signed it in her maiden name of Isabella Bankes,
and how she could have done this knewing that she had
gone through the ceremony of marriage with the prisoner,
and might, therefore, naturally have supposed herself en-
titled to the name of Smethurst, was certainly a very
mysterious and extraordinary circumstance. He could not
help also observing upon the circumstances un ler which
that will was made. The prisoner certainly told a falsehood
to Mr. Senior, the attorney, and he did not appear to scruple
to state what must have tended to degrade most seriously
this unhappy lady for the purpose of having the will pre-
pared in the form he required. If he had told the attorney
the truth, and said that he had gone through the ceremony
of marriage with the lady, he would never have drawn up
the will in the form in which it appeared. Another portion
of the prisoner's conduct at this time was certainly matter
for very serious consideration. At the very period
whey this unhappy woman was lying in agony and
misery on her death-bed, and when, according to the
prisoner's own statement, she was in such a condition as
not to be able to bear the excitement of seeing her own
sister, he took into her bedroom, on a Sunday, an entire
stranger, an attorney, and there a will prepared by himself
was read over to the unhappy woman, who executed it
under the circumstances of degradation to which he had
alluded. He could not contemplate this scene of suffering
and privation, when this poor dying creature had all her rela-
tives excluded from her, and an attorney was thrust into her
presence, and she was allowed to pass into the other world
without one word of religious consolation, as if she had been
a beggar and an unbeliever in a heathen land. (The learned
Judge appeared to be a good deal affected while making
these last observations.) He then proceeded to say that the
learned counsel for the prisoner had endeavoured to show
that he had no pecuniary motive for the death of the
deceased, inasmuch as he would be entitled to receive the
interest on the £5,000—L150 a year—during her lifetime ;
but, on the other hand, it should not be forgotten that if the
will of the deceased were acted upon he would at once come
into possession of £1,700 or £l,BOO, which would have
amounted to 12 years' purchase of the dividend. It had
been said that Dr. Julius ought to have interfered sooner
than he did, but it appeared to him that he had acted very
properly. The prisoner and the deceased were supposed to
be persons of respectability, and it was a very serious thing
to make a charge of poisoning under such circumstances
when there was no positive evidence to support it at that
time. The learned Judge then referred to scone other por-
tions of the case, and at 20 minutes to six o'clock the Court
adjourned.

THE BALLOON ACCIDENT AT NEWCASTLE-ON-
TYNE.—The accident to Captain Hall, in falling from his
balloon Florence Nightingale as he was descending on
Monday night, near Boldon, is more serious than was at
first thought. His spine is seriously injured, and there are
but remote hopes of his recovery. From the nature of the
injuries, he appears to have fallen head foremost to the
ground from the balloon, his head and left shouldercoming
first in contact with the earth, the body and lower
extre-
mities being bent over so as to break the back.
The bal-
loon is reported to be picked up off Whitby,7 but there is no
certain information,