The Sun.
London, England, 1868-09-25 00:00:00

REMARKS.

A sadden and considerable decrease in barometrical pressure has
occurred since last evening in south-western districts, where readings
are nearly half an inch lower than they were yesterday morning—a
region of low pressure existing off the entrance of the English and
Irish Channels. On our N.B. coast, on the contrary, the pressure has
increased during the last twenty-four hours, and barometrical read-
ings in our islands are greatest at Leith and Shields, and exceed that
at Cape Clear by 0,191 n. Temperature has risen on our S. and E.
coasts :at Portsmouth the rise is 9 deg. Since last evening a fresh
south-easterly wind blew in the S.W. of these islands, but on other
coasts the winds were light and variable. This morning an easterly
gale is reported from Cape Clear and Weymouth : at other stations
in the English Channel the wind is fresh from the S.E. Heavy rain
has fallen in the S.W. of Ireland, where rain is still falling. The
weather is cloudy and unsettled. The sea is rough on the Irish coast.
Warnings issued this morning.

THE OUTRAGE AT NOTTOG-BILL,—Mrs, Russell
is rejidrted to hate uticlergone a change for the worse, and
it is now said there is very little hope of her recovery.
The man who is alleged to have committed the crime has
not yet been apprehended;

Additiri4t The jiiry called
to inquire into the circumstances of the New-
castle accident have returned the following verdict:—
" We are bf opinion that Macy and John Stokoe, and two
otiierii, came by their death by the upsetting and breaking
of a bottle containing two gallons of diamond oil, the same
igniting at the fire. Also, that the patentees, Messrs. R.
Binning and Son, and their agent, Mr. Logan, have been
highly negligent in not giving proper precautions to pur-
chasers of the dangerous nature of the oil ; and we con-
eider the handbill published by the manufacture's
calculated to mislead the public. We consider the oil,
from its highly inflammable character, to be unfit for
domestic use. We beg to call the attention of the
police and the county magistrates to the illegality of
moving such dangerous compounds. We beg to thank
' 1 ../.2LALWAgati2:OIO?"-kintiltidyijui
A ,OV

Mr. Digby Seymour resumed his speech for the
defence. He commented strongly on the fact that
Mrs. Borrodaile resided for a considerable period
in small coffee shops—places totally beneath the
patronage of a colonel's widow. The prosecution
had sought to make out that there. had been no
meeting between Mrs. Borrodaile and " dear
William," whoever he might be ; but the let-
ters at once disposed of that theory. They
spoke times and often of such a fact, and such was
the logical sequence with which they were composed
that it would be ridiculous to suppose that the
author was under the influence of whisky. There
was one letter more than the rest that bore the
stamp of truth upon it, although it was unblush-
ingly said all was written under the dictation of
Rachel. It commenced, " I thank youlfor having
taken care of my comb and my fresette, my own
hair." He thought they (the jury) would be of the
opinion that that was Borrodaile all over; it smacked
of that inordinate personal vanity which was the
one great and absorbing thought of the golden-
haired colonel's widow. Then, again, it was one of
the extraordinary points in this case—who was
Mrs. Lilly? He contended that that personage
was the " granny " referred to in the correspond-
ence, although the counsel for the prosecution
would have them believe it was Rachel—a circum-
stance altogether opposed to the whole of the evi-
dence in the case. Then, again, could they believe
that such a passage in another of the letters
—" I have given you all that a woman holds
dear "—could a person even under the influence of
whisky write such a tremendous admission as that.
How could they interpret that passage, supposing
they had read it in a book? not, he was certain, as
Mrs. Borrodaile attempted to explain it away when
he put the question close to her. She said she
meant her money, not her virtue ; but they would
have to deal with an important fact, and as sensi-
ble minds he felt certain they could not come to the
same conclusion. Mrs. Borrodaile swears that
'William was Lord Ranelagh, but on that great point
he, like the jury, were entirely at the mercy of Borro-
daile, and all he could say was that such could not be
the fact. Then, with respect to the photograph that
Mrs. Borrodaile kept on her mantelpiece, it was
said that it was Lord Ranelagh. But why was it
not produced ? Would any virtuous woman have
done that which Mrs. Borrodaile admitted she bad
done with that picture? He felt certain none
would have so acted, and a more gross and lustful
admission ho had never heard in a court of jus-
tice. That would give them a greater insight into
the character of the prosecutrix, and he felt
certain they would attach all that importance
which such an astounding fact deserved.
He proceeded to comment upon the evidence of
Mrs. Borrodaile with respect to her offering to
sow buttons on L)rd Rauelagh'e shirts, and he
advising his lordship to send his clothes to a job-
bing tailor she had discovered, all of which he
designated as too ridiculous for belief. Was Lord
Ranelagh the bootless, shirtleet, hatless, and tat-
tered individual the prosecutrix wished the jury to
believe? He felt they would not be of that
opinion, but, on the contrary, that they would
say by their verdict that " dear William" was the
man, and not the nobleman whose name had been so
largely mixed up in that extraordinary trial,
concluded his speech with reiterating the opinion
that the prosecution had altogether failed, and that
the jury would do justice to the prisoner and acquit
her of the charge made against her.
Mr. Sergeant Ballantine in his reply said he
should not attempt to imitate his learned friend and
occupy an extraordinary space of time. He could
not go with his learned friend in making appeals to
feelings ; he did not think the case was of
sufficient importance to do such, and he could
not but think that a great deal of valuable
time had been consumed in commenting upon mat-
ters which had nothing in the world to do with the
case. According to his (Sergeant Ballantine's)
view of the case Mrs. Borrodaile had been plun-
dered of money, pension, and everything she pos-
sessed, and he contended the prisoner at the bar
had been proved to be guilty of the charge against
her. He was greatly surprised when he heard his
learned friend say that in the present case the
world's eye was upon it, that trial by jury was
in peril—that posterity would deal with the trial as
a matter of history, but he must be pardoned for
disbelieving all such high-sounding assertions.
There was no doubt that large sums of money had
been got out of Mrs. Borrodaile by means of a very
gross and fraudulent character ; that she had
been robbed and plundered of her last shilling,
comparatively speaking, and had had the reversion
of her pension secured to the prisoner. The ques-
tion was, whether the prisoner in obtaining ;these
large sums from Mrs. Borrodaile had obtained them
by the means imputed. It had been sought to be
shown that the occupation in which the prisoner
was engaged was not so exceptional as had been
suggested, and the daughters of the prisoner had
been eulogised for the part that they took in the mat-
ter. There was no doubt the case was of a very dirty
character throughout ; if the prosecution was dirty,
the defence was equally so, and he thought the
title of procuress would better designate the occu-
pation in which the prisoner was engaged, and that
this infamy of which she was thus guilty was of
greater turpitude than the crime with which she
was charged. The sooner such shops as Madame
Rachel's were rooted out of London the better, and
those ladies who visited them could not come out
again without the paint being upon them, and
there was no knowing where the injury would stop.
They had had an illustration but a short time ago
of the length that a woman might be imposed upon
by a recent trial, where the large sum of £60,000
was in question, and he could not make a better

illustration. That the prisoner at the ba; was a
person of great craft and power of mind there
could be no doubt, and when those sort of
people got a poor simpleton with money into
their clutches the result may very well
be imagined. That Madame Rachel had Mrs. Bor-
rodaile's money seems plain to any person of com-
mon sense, for immediately after she got her firmly
in her hold expensive luxuries were at once re-
quired, and just at this particular time an opera-box
was started by the prisoner, not one of an insignificant

character, but on; iu the most aristocratic portion

of the house, namely, the pit tier, for which 400

guineas would have to'be paid. Now, it must not
be forgotten that just before this, notwithstanding
the flourishing business which Madame carried on,
she was behindhand in her rent, but no sooner is
the silly colonel's widow hooked than the ar-

rears
..117cre. all paid, and the future rent

tained before it was due. The greatest
amount of abuse had been lavished upon
Mrs. Borrodailo as a worthless person, but he
should be able to show that:she was a gentlewoman,
a woman of honour, and a woman of the strictest
virtue, who had been put through a slow process of
plunder by the machinations and arts of the priso-
ner tid she had been left penniless and friendless,
and then was remorselessly thrust into jail because
she could not meet her liabilities, claims which would
easily have been paid had she not been so merci-
lessly plundered. And what had the poor woman
got for her money? A nail quantity p some