The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1857-08-11
WESTERN DEMOCRAT.
SQQCHARLOTTE0oe
A REMARKABLE MURDER TRIAL
IN GLASGOW, SCOTLAND.

/ I'm GLASGOW, SCOTLAND.
The Young Lady uUho poisondd her Lore
Her Acquittdt.
Great excitement has been, created in
the British Empire by the trial pf Madeline
Smith, of Edinburgh, for the mhrder of hel
lover at Glasgow, one Pierre Emile Ian
gelier. This extraordinary investigation ex-
tended over nine days, and the British pub
lie on both sides of the Tweed followed the
inquiry with breathless attention from the
commencement to the close. The outline
| of the case, which became known in the
spring of the year, revealed the fact that a
lady of education, of good family and ex-
eellent prospects in life, handsome, accom-
/ plished, and extremely young, was charged
with numbering her lover by means ofpoison
in order to marry another. Her grandfather
was one of the most renowned architects in
the British Empire, and his plans for thu
new House of Parliament were adiudgeG
second to those of the successful competi
| tor, Sir Chas. Barry. The Scotsman. af
ter giving the charge of the Lord Justice
Clerk TO the jury, says:
The jury retired about ten minutes after
one O'Clock, Immediately upon which tie
audience in court fell into keen excitement
and discussion. At thirty 1.-TWO minutes past
one, the jury bell rung, and they entered
the box three minutes afterward. TIE
prisoner still gave no symptoms of emotion.
The Lord Justice Clerk intinated that
it must be understood that there must be nc
expression of feeling by the audience,
whatever at the verdict.
The names of the jury having been called
MIR. Mofat of the high school, was an
nounced as chancellor, and read the yer-
dict as follows:
'.In regard to the first count, the jury,
by a majority, find verdict of not guilty
''ln regard to the second count, the iurv
find, by majority, a verdict of not proven"
The Scotsman says: Instantly on the
announcement of these last words vehe-
ment burst of cheering came from the
audience. especially from the galleries,
which was again and again renewed with
increasing loudness, in spite of the efforts
of the judges and officers of the court
The excitement produced outside the
court when the verdict became known was
immense.
Whilst the chancellor was reading the
verdict the prisoner gazed at the jury
steadily, but with no signs of agitation, and
when the verdict of mot proven on the
third change was pronounced her head
slightly fell, her face broke into bright
but somewhat agitated smile, and her hand
was warmly graspcd by her agent (Mr.
Ranking on one side and the jail matron on
the othe>expressions of sympathy which
seemed to affect her more deeply than any
incident of the nine days trial.
The Lord Justice Clerk in thanking the
jury for their services (and itimating that
they would be relieved from similar duties
for five years. stated that they would have
perceived from what he had said to them
that his own opinions quite coincided with
the conclusion at which they had arrived.
The prisoner was then dismissed from the
bar. The report that she had sailed for
the United States is not correct.
The dead man, L'Angeler, is not one
whose fate there is any need to commisser-
ate. His conduct to one who had been his
victim was base and unmanly in the last
degree, and can only be excused on the
ground stated by the Lord Advocate, that
by the law of Scotland an irregular mar
riage might be held to have taken place,
and that l. L'Angelier had a right to consider
Madeline Smith as his wife and to prohibit
her union with another man. 1t appears
that the prisoner was left at Clapton board |
ing house in 1853, when she was only II
years old, and that within two years of that
time she met with the deceased, said to be
u native Of Jersey, and at that time in the |
employment of a Glasgow warehouseman.
at salary Of es. er los. week, with his
board and lodging. L'Angelier paid his
addresses, which were we'll received by the |
young lady, but forbidden oy the parents,
who, doubtless thought his position and pres
poets not such as would entitle him to ask
their daughters hand. Months passed,
however. and the intimacy of the pair con-
tinued. Madeline slept on the ground floor,
and used to receive the visits of her lover
first at the window and then in the room it
self: In the spring of 1856 we find from
her letters that she had been seduced by
L'Angelier. and from that time to the close
Of the year she writes him almost daily in
the wild style with which the readers of the
trial are familiar. By the beginning of the
present year, however, her passion had
cooled. A Mr.. Minnoch had proposed in
all innocence to her, and in spite of stolen
and boarding school heroics she
thought it better to have solid Glasgow
man of business than French clerk on
ESQ year, who boasted TO everybody of his |
success with women in general, and herself
particularly.
But L'Angelier had no-notion of giving
her up. lie did not, it appears, Insist upon