Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-07-03

Charles Reade's Defence of "A Murdcress.
The following letter has been addressed to the
editor of the Pail Mall Gazette by the famous
novelist Charles Reade:
SIR: Now those swift-footed hares, my elo-
quent contemporaries, have gallOped over Dix
blauc's trial, may | ask you, in the name Of hui
manity, to let the tortoise crawl over it with his
microscopic eye? Where female culprits arc to
be judged q patient drudge, who has studied
that sex profoundly in various walks OF life, in
GLIDING DiXblanc's, is sometimes surer expon-
ent of facts than is a learned lawyer. will
keep strictly within the limits of the legal de-
fence. The Crown used DiXblanc as its witness
to the killing, and this, by rule of law which
is memorable and governs alike a suit or an In
dictment let in the prisoners explanations as
evidence. But there are degrees of evidence;
what she said against herself was tirstoclass evil
dence; what she said favorable to herself was
low evidence, to be received when it is contra
dicted neither by a living witness nor a clear
fact, | keep within this circle, traced by the
Judge himself, simply promising that l have
seen many prisoner acquitted on his own eX-
plantations of motives, thus made admissible
through poor evidence, by the prosecutor.
Now did the criminal seek the victim, or the
victim her? Where was the crime committed
In the kitchen. And what is the Kitchen 1t is
II poor mans cottage on, the ground floor of a
gentleman's house, No paper-no carpet
stone aoor-t is made like a servants home out
of contempt but the result of that contempt
is, that the female domestic feels at home in it,
soul and body. 1t is the servants house, and
the cook castle and workshop. To come and
insult her there gals her worse than in the gem
teiOlk's part What lady feels if n cook
walks up into the drawingrOom to afiront her,
that the cook feels if the mistress comes down
into her castle to aitront her. But kitchen is
something else-lt is an arsenal of deadly wca-
pons, with every one of which the cook is fam-
liar. The principal are Il Ratchet to chop wood,
a rolng-pin, steel to sharpen knives,
cleavet, an enormous poker bread
knife, carving knives, &c. Into this cook S
castle and arsenal of lelal weapons comes Dix
blancs mistress on Sunday forenoon when
even cook is entitled TO little bit Of peace
and some little reduction Of her labor if posi-
BILE, and gives an inconSiderate order. The
cook says there's no need for that, dinner Is not
till seven. This otfends the mistress, and she
threatens TO discharge her on the spot The
cook says she will 90 directly if her months
wages are paid her. "No," says the mistress,
81 will keep you your time, but ! will make
you suffer-" Here there is lacuna; but the
climax was that the mistress called this poor
Woodworking woman in her castle and work
shop prostitute, and dwelt upon the epithct
Then the cook, goaded to fury, took not one of
the murderous weapons close at hand but
sprang at her mistress throat, and griped II
with such fury that she broke the poor crea.
lures Jaw and throttled her on the spot, and
probably killed her on the spot, whatever she
may have said TO the contrary. The deed done
the criminal is all amazement, vacilation, and
uncertainty in word and deed. Her deeds: she
carries the body wildly here and there; she puts
a rope around its neck in mad attempt to pass
the act off for suicide; she resolves on flight;
she has not the means; she casts her ewes round
and secs the safe with money in IT. she breaks
it open and takes enough for her purpose; she
does not pillage; she steals the means of flight;
she rObS in Seli-detence. Her words: 81 leave
for Paris this evening" Then horror falls on
her like athunderclap. "No, shall never see
Paris again, not even my parents" Is there
nothing human in this sudden cry of poor
savage awakening 10 her crime2 81 shall try TO
leave for America So, then, she goes out in
tending to sail to America, and goes Just where
she did not mean to gO-to Paris. She gets
there, and instantly pays just debt with the
money she no longer needed TO save her life.
In other words, she is no more real thief than
a real murderer, as the common sense OF man
kind understands the words. With the light
thus reflected by her subsequent conduct all
VacillAtion and inability to carry out design.
return to the homicide and its true interpre-
tation.
Fact goes by precedent as well as law, and,
strange to say, lawyers, those slaves of prece-
dent, often forget this. Now, what does expc-
rlence or precedent teach us with regard TO the
murder of adults by adultS2 Is the open hand
cold-booded robbery has often selected to avoid
murder. But is it the weapon murder has often
selected? Certainly not. But Dixblanc's de-
fence rests on far stronger ground. The front
OF her defence is this: She stood in an arsenal
Of deadly weapons, and yet avoided them and
used the non-lethal weapon-her bare hands
being maddene1 TO fury and burning for re-
venge, but not positively intending murder
either before the attack or at the moment of the
attack. These facts, infinitely examined, tear
the theory of generalization" up by the roots,
but You cannot tear that theory up by the roots
without dispacing the theory of "intention,"
and letting in the defendants evidence that she
did not intend to kill Nine. Rel. And this
brings me naturally to the nature and extent of
the provocatiOn that Stung her to fury.
Mr.. Baron Channel says that no mere words
can by proyocation reduce wiGul killing 10
manslaughter. Granted. But think this an
plies only to killing with ethal weapons. When
two things combine-where A receives a first
provocaton in language from b, and avoiding
the lethal weapons close TO his hands kills B
with the bare hand, | think the jury have
right to call that manSlaughter if they please
A calls Bia liar. b knifes him. Murder
calls a liar fells him with Il blow aud kills
him. Manslaughter. Oh, but throttng is
worse than striking. Ay, worse in man. but
not in woman, because women do not fight
with the fist. They always 90 at each other
with the claws, and no murder done one time in
thousand If we are to judge women we
really must not begin by being pig-headed
idiots, and contounding them entirely, mind
and limbs, with men The truth is, language
contains no word with which Il man can strike
man TO the heart, in his own person, as a
woman can strike woman with word. Ii is
at once stupid and cruel the way in which this
poor creatures provocation has been sluTed
over. The evidence is all in favor of her CONT
nence. When out of place in Paris, she fell in
debt directly; plain proof labor was her only
NHn nffr tfNkfr IInrn 4 L.. -
out that her wages were everything to her. She
wanted to 20, but could not for want of little
money. Why, her very strength, about which
so much twaddle has been uttered was not the
strength of the individual; it was only the
strength that comes to women of her age by an
honorable, labOrious and continent life. And it
is small thing that to such woman, working
in her Kitchen for her home, another woman,
whose life was not labOrious and honorable like
hers, should come and say, You are prostitute.
"Fdcite iudicdt qui pducd cORsiderdt." We must
consider not the insult only, but the quarter
whence it came, and we shall find the utmost
limits of verbal provocation have been reached
in DiXblanc's case. The time-Sunday morn
ing, when the world gets peace, and even looks
hopes for it The place-her own kitchen. The
insult-the most intolerabe the mind can con-
ceive; and lie. The result-honest labor and
confluence used none Of the letbal weapons at
hand, but took luxury and foul mouthed SANDER
by the throat. LuXurys arm was pthless
against labor and confluence, and crime was
consummated, when between two working
women there would only have been a fight.
1t is the misfortune of women that few men
except one or two writer's of fiction, can put
themselves in a woman's place and so qualify
themselves to judge her in these obscure cases
But let me put man, as nearly as | can, in
this woman's place. A man is with his wife.
whom he loves as dearly as Dixblanc loves her
self. Another man comes and calls that woman
a prostitute to her face and his there's a Ratchet
on one side Of the husband, a carving knife on
the other The husband takes. neither, but
seizes the slanderer by the throat and
squeezes the life out OF him. Would that
man be indicted for murder2 doubt it. Would
Baron Channel ask conviction for murder2
doubt it. II he did, no jury in England would
convict. Yet here the provocation is purely
verbal, and the killing identical with DXblancs.
Let me now,iwithout blaming any living per.
son, draw thei attention of public men to the
stereotyped trickery and equivocation by means
Of which the death of Marguerite Dixblanc has
been comprised in theory. For she is not to
die, conclude. Some lawyer in the name of
a humane sovereign draws boodthirsty, ex-
aggerated indictment, and says Dixblanc slew
Nine. Riel wiliully and with malice aforethought.
The evidence contradicts the malice and the
alorethought, which are the very sting of the
indictment, and the jury demur ooh, LET that
plea stick in the wall" says the judge, eve
| don't 20 by Johuson's dictionary here; 'alOre-
| thought that means contemporaneous' in our
vocabulary, and malice means rage, passion,