The Sun.
London, England, 1850-04-18 00:00:00

MURDER OF THE COUNTESS
GOIZLITZ.
Most of our readers must rememb?r the eirellir
stances connected with the death at Darmstadt of the
Countess of GHlitz, and the suspicion which 105
tached fur some time to the Count her husband, 'xi:
hold the post of Chamberlain to the Grand P3ll
This suspicion was caused principally by the Wigs':
ness with which the Count attempted to Prieir
vent a dissection of the body, but that was
accounted for subsequently by evidence showing than
the Countess had so great a horror of dissection t're
she bad solicited her husband frequently to poll':
that, in the event of her dying before him, her re.
mains should not be exposed to such a pronee"l
and had made this a special injunction in her will• if
any suspicion, howevur, had continued to attach itse
to the Count, it has been fully removed by a trial of Ibe
murderer at Darmstadt, which, after lasting more
than a fortnight, just been terminated. It En3Y
~
he
necessary, even for those who paid attention ° tut
case when it was before the public more than yea
t
ago, to relate the leading facts briefly. The Counte,s:
who was in possession of a handsome fortune iouef
pendently of that of her husband, was a woman he
unbounded charity, but of an eccentric character.
had for some years re,ided in apartments of the boo's,
separated from those of her husband, with whom, b°";
ever, she was /on the best; terms, visiting him from tisi•
to time, and receiving his visits. She had alavas,.s d
considerable sum of money in her secretaire, and us•
also a rich collection of jewels. She had caused est',.d
locks to be placed on her secretaire, her drawers, ant
the doors of her rooms, and opened the outer door,w ri
her apartment to her husband and the confides I
servants. One evening, on the return of the Cola
from the palace of the Grand Duke, where he b
been dining, he went as usual to see the Countesu,"6
.:
fore retiring to rest, but could not obtain admittanrr;
and soon afterwards an alarm was raised that a
.'A
had broken out in the apartment of the Count's& locksmith was sent for; the outer door was broke•so
open; the secretaire in the sitting-room of the Counter
was on fire, and she was found lying dead on thell°°.:
with her body partly consumed. At this time no WI
picion was entertained of her having been enurdefewn
It was at first supposed that the secretaire had takes
fire from the bougie ; but subsequently, as this nie°f
could not account for the carbonization of a pal 6:4
the head and body of the Countess, it was irogigtr,
that she had perished from spontaneous combusti°;
When suspicion fell upon the Count, it arose entire,y
from the anxiety that he displayed to prevent
autopsy from which it was imagined that he ni ,
have administered poison, and then attempted to et
stroy the body to prevent detection. Nothing bill,
the absence of motive for the crime and the weal
known affection which had subsisted between him an
the deceased prevented his being sent to trial. So
.0
time had elapsed, and this horrible affair' was 6,1ft0
involved in mystery, when circumstances occurrenk•
throw suspicion upon the valet of the Count, Pic
Stauff, who occasionally waited upon the Countess' d
was proved that on the evening of the calamity, Sfa,
whilst the Count was at the palace of the Grand Dil*tl
he had on various pretexts induced the other set/o.n
of the household to go out, and had remained alone 1,./
the house fur nearly two hours, with the exception ut
a visit to the palace to ascertain whether the C.011,„11
was there, for the evident purpose of convincing turd;
self that he could commit his intended crime *To
impunity. Another circumstance to excite euePiel;l
was that the keys of the outer doors of the apertl3l-
of the Countess were not to be found, thus prowl
that some person in the house must have used snc,
then concealed them. It was supposed that fiOned•
and jewellery belonging to the Countess had beeio
removed, but of this there was no positive proof
Llie
the early part of the investigation. A considereu'l
quantity of jewellery remained, and the Count pfd
not able to say what was missing. When Stauff 119•
been arrested new circumstances came to light. It r•
ri,"
proved that he had sent articles of jewellel3#o
to his father, Henry Stauff, and that •
had charged his brother James to bury Wit%
jewellery at the foot of a tree. Many of the articie,
found there were proved to have been the Pry
perty of the Countess. Henry and James Stauff 'Her
•
therefore also arrested, and the three were brought dr.
last month for trial before the tribunal of Darmstadt
The evidence on this occasion left no doubt a ti
guilt of John Stauff, and there could be no deu,„
that his father and brother knew that he bad e"
tamed the property by foul means, but there We 11(11,
thing to show that they had been directly or ill
rectly parties to the murder. It was also proydeff
that, after the murder of the Countess, John Stag
had purchased some verdigris, and mixed it st
some sauce which was being prepared in the kite
for; the Count, with the intention of poisoning 11
The medical evidence at this trial was curious tto f
interesting. Some of the most eminent physiciansq
Germany, and Baron Liebig, the celebrated therms'
desired by the Court to give their opinion AS to
the way in which the death of the Countess bil
b2en caused—whether she bad been burned
intentionally or accidentally, and whether Von'
taneous combustion in her case was pr°4
bable. The medical men performed several es;
periments on dead bodies exposed to fire, pineills
burning furniture, and even a fac simile of the seaa.
take, in a closed room, to ascertain whether the erg
tensive carbonization of the body of the Countess
could have been produced by accident, and they re;
ported positively to the contrary. On the question
61 °f
spontaneous combustion, Baron Liebig, and the
other scientific men who joined in the reporkdei
dared not only that it was impossible in the case fe
the Countess, but that spontaneous combustion of tb
human body in any case was impossible. They de:
Glared that the ordinary belief on this subject Wssi:
delusion ; that they had carefully examined the e/
dence in all cases of spontaneous combustion that
had been reported, and found it all so defective
as not to weigh for an instant against their
conviction of the physical impossibility of ell GI
an occurrence. The only point on which the medic
°
men and chemists differed—but that was of no
portance as regarded the charge against John Stann
—was as regarded the degree of danger to 11000
life in the verdigris introduced by him into the esll:t
intended for the Count. One chemist declared,-f°:
instance, that if he had taken the same it would ne
have injured him seriously, as the strength of the yet:
digris had been in a great degree carried off by ebu
Man ; another, on the contrary, declared as the ire
e
cult of several experiments that the strength of the
poison was materially increased by the ebullition'
The whole trial was remarkable for the skill and ill;
partiality evinced by the President, and the anxiety
which was evinced by the Court to elicit the trut.bl,
without having recourse to any of those objeetionsil
means which have sometimes been witnessed in ti),4
courts on the Continent. John Stauff was fOOll
guilty of the murder, and sentenced to imprisoning)
for life. His father and brother were found guilty
A minor degree, and only sentenced to a few proper
imprisonment.

RAILWAY SHARE MARKETS•

BRISTOL, APRIL 17.
A
STOCK EXCHANGE.—Our share market was dull to-Vc
ukji
and prices are lower. The transactions were—Great Western
Quarters, 12 —Ditto, 17/. Shares, 91/a dis.—Midland,
Bristol and Exeter, 36 dis.—North Staffordshire. 10% die'
Ll VERrooL, APRIL 17.
STOCK ExcHArfort.—Business on our Stock Exchange
was dull to-day, but prices had a tendency upwarte.
The transactions were as follow :—Lancashire and Yer-'
shire, Consol., Fifths, 1034 dis.—Ditto, Preference, 11k1
Ditto, Fifths (West Riiding Union), VA dis.—London
North-Western, 101—Ditto, New Quarters, % dis—DTV
Quarters (C), p.—Midland,
,31% —Ditto, Halves, 2„,'
dis. —South-Eastern and Dover, 123/—Ditto .1"
—Ditto (No. 4). "
gistered, 4%—York, Newcastle, and Berwick, 11—Birker
head, Lancashire, and,Cheshire, 221. Shares, 1M54-01160'
nian, Preference, 5/, Is. 3d. c.—East Lancashire, 6Y.
MANCHESTER, APRIL 17.
ea
STOCK EXCHANGE.— We have had a more animated
market to-day, in consequence of the improvement in 0 ,
London Stock Exchange, and prices are a shade higher.
BIRMINGHAM, APRIL 17.
STOCK EXCHANGE.—AII descriptions of railway stock iverti
better to-day. The amicable arrangement between the Lee'
don and North-Western and North Staffordshire Railway
Companies appears to give general ratisfaction. London er?
North-Westerns were quoted, buyers, 100, sellers, 1°L....
Ditto, New Quarters, 2 1-16 dis.

RIRTHS
On the 13th inst., Mrs. Edward Berger, Ilornsey-rise, of 11
daughter.
On the 11th inst., in Albemarle-street, the wife of
W•
Portal, Esq., of a son.
On the 12th inst., in York-street, Portman-square, the lady
of J. C. H. Colquboun, S.C.L., of a daughter.

MARRIED.
On the 16th inst., at St. Peter's, Frome, by the Rev.
Calvert. Mary, the second daughter of Mr. Edward Brtlr11,; f
don, of the same place, to 'William Hallam, Esq., of '—
Upper Forest, near Swansea.
On the 11th inst., at Princes-street Chapel, Norwich, Sf;
Eaden Lilley Esq., of Cambridge, to Rachel Martha, 00
daughter of N. Palmer, Etq. ,of Thorpe, near Norwich.. lc
On the 11th inst., at the Church of the Holy P"
Brampton, Richard J. Shepard, Esq., of Tavistock-square, cf
Cleopatra, eldest daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel Warren,
Thurloe-square, Brompten.
On the 10th' inst., at Northampton, George Worley,
Esq., of Sywell, to Georgiana Sophia Pell, second daughter
of .lames Pell, Esq., of Sywell.lodge.
On-the 1 tth inst., at St. Peter's Church, Sandwich, ill:
Rev. Charles Pitman Longland, of MaN field, Sussex.
"
uatheritte, youngest daughter of Mr. W. Neales, Sandwl ,
Kent.

DIED.
On the 13th inst., at kroworth Rectory, Leicesters/ • A
Lieutenant •General Sir James Bathurst, K.C.8., aged
On the 13th inst , at Dorset-place, Clapham-road, BICI
Oswald, Es.q.. late of Hong Kong, China.
,n •
of
On o— the 13th inst., in Dorset-square, London, William
Phillips, Esq., late Governor of the Presidency of Prince -
Wales' Island, in the East Indies. ife
On the 14th inst., at the British Aluseurn, Elizabeth, W
of E. Hawkins, Esq., aged 70.
On the 14th inst., John Alew, Esq., of Apton-hall, Bach'
ford, Essex, aged 84. cl•
On the 14th inst., aged 77, Thomas Ensor, Esq., NeWhin
cottage, Sherborne, Dorset.

London: Printed and Published by MURDO TOUNOs
No 112, Strand, Printer, at, The Sun Office. Na .115
54trcind, in tho Precinct of the Savoy, ip t!le
Diiitllesvz, Thursday, April 18, 1850.