The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-04-07 00:00:00

after the experiments. (The witness here produced the pow.,
der which resulted from his examinations, :►long with the
remaining portion in the state in which it was found in the
stomach. These were examined by his lordship and the
jury.) 1 have no doubt it is arsenic that was in the body.
Cross-exatriined.—llouhts hate, been thrown on the ap-
pearances which I have here noticed. Tartar emetic would
produce the sane appearances. ('The witness was directed to
procure an ounce of arsenic from a neighbouring druggist.)
Richard Eccles was then recalled by his Lordship, and
said, that he had never seen any white sugar in the house.
Mary Eccles said the same.

Dr. linows then proceeded to address the jury on be-
half of the prisoner. He said that the jury must be satis-
fied that the child died from the arsenic, and argued that
the motives alleged for the prisoner having administered it
were insufficient to induce her to commit so abominable
an offence. He went on to notice several particulars in
which the evidence, o❑ which he alleged the counsel for the
proecution relied so strongly, did not in any way impli-
cate the prisoner in any guilt, but might all have happened
with the most perfect innocence on her part.
During the delivery of the learned counsel's address, Mr.
Watson returned with a small bottle which contained an
ounce of arsenic, procured at a druggist's shop in Tithebarn-
street, and which was handed to his Lordship and the jury,
and inspected by them.
His Lonnsitie proceeded to sum up the evidence at great
length, commenting on every portion making for or against
the prisoner.

The jury then retired ; and, after an absence of an hour
and a half, returned into court, and pronounced the prisoner

Silence having been proclaimed, his Lordship put on the
black cap and passed the awful sentence of death upon the
prisoner in the following terms :—Betty Eccles, that fearful
crime which you have certainly committed, and which you
probably hoped would be concealed from the eye of man, has
been discovered, and you are now to receive from the of-
fended laws of your country that sentence which is most
justly due to guilt such as yours; for the jury are satisfied,
and I am satisfied too, from the legal evidence iu this case,
that you have been guilty of the detestable crime of depriving
your stepson of life, for the purpose, probably, of receiving
some small amount of money, but under a violation and total
disregard of every feeling of human affection, and of every
feeling of duty. I have spoken of your conduct only as it
appears from the legal evidence in this case ; but, as I know
all that was disclosed before the coroner's jury, I am satis-
fied that I see before me the murderer of three human beings,
probably of five ; because there is not the least doubt that
you destroyed two of your own children, if not two others,
by the same infamous means as you used in the case which
has formed the painful subject of inquiry to-day. The
punishment that you will receive will, I trust, be a warn-
ing to others. lam unwilling to say any more of your guilt,
because it is not my object to harrow up your feelings, but
only to impress you with a sense of your fearful situation,
and to exhort you to spend the few remaining days which the
humanity of the law now allows you, but which you did not
allow to the unfortunate victims you have murdered. in seek-
ing pardon for your sins where alone pardon can be obtained ;
for many hours you cannot expect to have in this world, and
I should be wanting in a sense of duty, if I held out the least
hope or expectation that pardon was to be obtained from
any thing human. It will be for you now, profiting by the
instructions you will receive, to endeavour to excite in your
mind any feeling of repentance you may be capable of ;
for upon that alone your hopes of pardon from God will rest.
But I can say no more, only to advise you to spend the few
remaining days of your existence in the endeavour to obtain
that divine mercy which I cannot hold out to you. But it
becomes now my duty to pass upon you that awful sentence
of the law which your enormous guilt richly deserves. I be-
lieve I may say, from the evidence brought before this jury,
and which might have been brought, that, in the annals of
crime, great and odious as the crimes are that have been com-
mitted by human beings, there is none equal to yours. The
sentence upon you is, that, for the crime which you have
committed, and of which you have been found guilty, you be
taken hence to the place from whence you came, and from
thence to the place of execution ; that you be then hanged by
the neck until you are dead, and that your body be taken
down and buried within the precincts of the gaol in which
you will be confined after being taken from this court ; and
may the Lord have mercy on your guilty soul!
The prisoner heard her sentence with firmness; and, at its
conclusion, she clasped her hands, and exclaimed, I ask for
mercy, my lord. The Judge.—Oh, that cannot be obtained.
Prisoner.-ob, mercy, my lord. If only you will have
mercy upon me this time, my lord. The Judge.—Take her
down. The prisoner was then removed.