The Sun.
London, England, 1850-07-17 00:00:00

time in so open a manner that other persons would
almpst certainly know of it; and I should not have
invited him to my rooms at an early hour, when the col-
lege would be fall of students and others, and an hour
when I was most likely to receive calls from others, for
that was the hour, just after the lecture, at which
persons having business with me, or in my rooms,
were always directed to call. I looked into my
rooms on Sunday afternoon, but did nothing.. After
the first visit of the officers, I took the pelvis and
some of the limbs from the upper well, and threw
them into the vaults under the privy. I took the
thorax from the well below, and packed it in the tea-
chest, as found. My own impression has been that
this was not done till after the second visit of the
officers, which was on Tuesday, but Kingsley's testi-
mony shows that it must have been done sooner. The
perforation of the thorax had been made by the knife.
At the time of removing the viscera, on Wednesday,
I put on kindlings and made a fire in the furnace
below, having first poked down the ashes. Some of
the limbs, I cannot remember which or how many,
were consumed at that time. This was the last I
had to do with the remains. The tin box was de-
signed to receive the thorax, though I had not con-
cluded where I should finally put the box. The
fish-hooks, tied up as grapples, were to be used for
drawing up the parts in the vault whenever I should
determine how to dispose of them, and get strains
enough. I had a confused double object in ordering
the hox, and making the grapples. I had before in-
tended to get such things to send to Fayal; the box to
hold the plants and other articles which I wished to
protect from the salt water and the sea air, and the
hooks to be used there in obtaining corralline plants
from the sea. It was this previously intended use of
them that suggested and mixed itself up with the idea
of the other applicatietn. I doubt, even now, to which
use they would have been applied. I had not used
the hooks at the time of the discovery. The tan put
into the tea-chest was taken from a barrel of it that
had been in the laboratory for some time. The bag
of tan brought in on Monday was not used, nor in-
tended to be used. It belonged to a quantity obtained
by me a long time ago, for experiments in tanning,
and was sent in by the family to get it out of the
way. Its being sent in just at that time was acci-
dental. I was not aware that I had put the knife in
the chest. The stick found in the saucer of ink was
`for making course diagrams on cloth. The bunch of
Sled keys had been used long ago by me in Fruit-
street; and thrown carelessly by into a drawer. I never
examined them, and do not know whether they would
fit any of the locks of the college or not. If there
were other keys fitting doors with which I had no-
thing to do, I supposed they must have been all du-
plicates, or keys of former locks left there by the me-
chanics or janitor. I know nothing about them, and
should never be likely to notice them amongst the
multitude of articlee,llarge and small, of all kinds,
collected in my rooms. The janitor had furnished
me with a key to the dissecting-room, for the admis-
sion of medical friends visiting the college, but I had
never used it. The nitric acid on the stairs was not
used to remove spots of blood, but was dropped by
accident. When the officers called for me on Friday,
the 30th, I was in doubt whether I was under arrest,
or whether a more strict search of my rooms was to
be had, the latter hypothesis being hardly less ap-
palling than the former. When I found that we
went over Cragies'-bridge I thought the arrest most
probable. When I found that the carriage was stop-
ping at the gaol, I was sure of my fate. Before
leaving the carriage I took a dose of strychnine from
my pocket and swallowed it. I had prepared it in
the shape of a pill before I left my laboratory on the
23d. I thought I could not bear to survive detection.
I thought it was a large dose. The state of my nervous
system, probably, defeated the action partially. The
effects of the poison were terrible beyond description.
It was in operation at the college, and before I went
there, but most severely afterwards. I wrote but one
of the anonymous letters produced at the trial—the
one mailed at East Cambridge. The little bundle re-
ferred to in the letter detained by the gaoler, con-
tained only a bottle of citric acid, for domestic use.
I had seen it stated in a newspaper that I had pur-
chased a quantity of oxalic acid, which it was pre-
sumed was to be used in removing blood stains. I wish
the parcel to be kept untouched, that it may be
shown, if there should be occasion, what it really was
that I bad purchased. I have drawn up, in separate
papers, an explanation of the use I intended to make
of the blood sent for on Thursday, the 22d, and of the
conversation with Littlefield about the dissecting
vault. .1 think that Pettee in his testimony at the
trial put too strongly my words about having settled
with Dr. P.; whatever I did say of the kind was in
the hope I entertained that I should be able to pacify
Dr. P., and make some arrangement with him, and
was said in order to quiet Pettee, who was becoming
restive under the solicitation of Dr. Parkman.
After Dr. Webster had stated most of the facts
reorded above on the 23d of May, this question,
with all the earnestness, solemnity, and authority of
tone that Dr. Putman was master oc, was addressed
to him—

" Dr. Webster, in all probability your days are
numbered ; you cannot, you dare not, speak falsely to
me now ; you must not die with a he in your mouth,
so prove to yourself that your repentance for the sins
of your past life is sincere—tell me the truth, then—
a confidence to be kept sacred during your lifetime,
and as mueh longer as my regard for the happiness of
your family shall seem to me to require, and the in-
terest of truth and justice to permit. Search to the
bottom of your heart for the history of your motives,
and tell me, before God, did it never occur to you,
before the decease of Dr. Parkman, that his death, if
you could Wing it to pass, would be of great advan-
tage to you, or at least that personal injury to him
might possibly be the result of your expected con-
ference with him ? As a dying man, I charge yon
to answer me truly and exactly, or else be silent—had
you not such a thought ?"
" No, never," said he, with energy and feeling;
"as I live, and as God is my witness, never ! I
was no more capable of such a thought than one of
my innocent children. I never had the remotest idea
of injuring Dr. P. until the moment the blow was
struck. Dr. P. was extremely severe and sharp—the
most provoking of men—and I am irritable and pas.
sionate. A quick handed and brief violence of temper
has been a besetting win of my life. I was an only
child—much indulged—and I have never acquired
the control over my passions that I ought to have ac-
quired early, and the consequence is al! this."
" But you notified Dr. Parkman to meet you at a
certain hour, and you told him that you would pay
hem, when you knew you had notthe money ?"
No," he replied. " I did not tell him I would pay
him, and there is no evidence that I told him so.
Except-my own words spoken after his disappearance,
and after I had determined to take the ground that I
had paid him, those words were of the miserable tissue
of frias•boods to which I was committed from the mo- '
mentl bad began to conceal the homicide. I never
had a' thought of injuring Parkman."
This was accompanied by the statement in which
Pggfesor Webster attempts to explain as to his seeing
sending fur blood, and inquiring about
gases from the vault. After reading the statement,
Dr. Putman proceeded to argue as to its truthfulness,
saying that it was made when the writ of error was
still pending. Also, that Professor Webster's estate
was worth several thousand dollars, and that he was
not in such a strait as to commit such a crime deli-
berately. The previous petition from Professor
Webster, protesting his innocence, and praying for
absolute pardon, he said, N 33 got up by his family,
who were unwavering in their belief in his innocence,
until his confession was communicated to them about
a week since. He concluded in asserting his belief
that the confession was true. _

Members of the council have retained a copy of
the petition previously presented and withdrawn by
the advice of Dr. Putman, which will probably be
published. It asserts his innocence, and it also asserts
that Littlefield, or some other person, placed the re-
mains in his room, to compass his ruin.

"THE MISER'S SECRET; OR, THE DAYS OF JAMES I
TR& FIRST." It may be remarked of Sir Walter Scott, that
in his novels rarely does he bring upon the stage any of the
'intellectual giants of the age of which he writes. Thus, in
'Nigel" we are left in utter ignorance of two men, contempo-
raries-of the story—two of the greatest men that England
ever produced—one, the greatest.of all philosophers, ancient
or modern, Bacon—the other the greatest of English law-
yers, and, we may add, the truest of English patriots, Coke.
But we do not blame Sir Walter Scott for these omissions;
on the contrary, we appreciate the sound judgment which
avoided the double difficulty of giving an interest to a gene-
rally unknown age, and at the same time supporting the
hii character of the known great men who lived in it. By
this judicious course the greatest of novel writers opened a
field for imitators. Of this field the author of the " Miser's
Secret" has availed himself with equal courage and skill. He
boldly brings before our eyes Bacon and Coke, makes them
to act as history tells us they did act, and, if he does not
make them to speak as they did speak, it is because no
lima' genius could adequately supply the words of such
lien. The book is a work of genius, and one which will be
read a second and a third time by all who read it once."—
Standwd.
- - -

-----
SOUTHAMPTON THEATRE ROYAL.—We understand
the celebrated tragedian, Mr. George Owen, of all the pro-
vincial theatres, has completed the engagements for the
opening of the above theatre, on the sth August, for the
season, under special patronage ; on which occasion Mrs.
Nesbitt, Miss Jane Mordaunt, and Mr. Mordaunt will sp-
Fear, being engaged for the first week. The following is a
ist the company already engaged:—Messrs. Poynter,
Burt 11, Delafield, and Barker (from the Theatres Royal itie
York, eds, and Hull), Francis, Vezin, Chichely (from
the Princess's Theatre Royal, and deputy stage manager),
James, R. Morton, &c.; Mrs. Gilbert and Miss M. Oliver
(from the Royal Lyceum Theatre), Mrs. Poynter (York
circuit), Miss Stafford (Newcasge Theatre), Mrs. Alexander
Jay (principal dancer, Drury-Irne Theatre), Mdlle. Proche
Rosina (from the Italian Theatre, London). Mr. and Mrs.
Wood, the well-known local favourites, are engaged, and will
appear during the season; and most of the Loudon stars
have offered their services.

Tna DUKE ore' HAMILTON.—IIia Grate now pro-
gresses most favourably ; and we are happy to say, on autho-
rity, he is not considered to be in any clanger. Her Grace
the Duchess, who was iu London, on hearing of the accident,
immediately left, and was at Hamilton Palacb forty hours
after its occurrence... Glasgow Daily .41fail.