Morning journal and courier., 1883-02-09
Whitmarsh These are the last words of William WhitHeId Edua147nrf3 r-5

more than week, there was rioting in Houns low streets; scores eff brick-makers, burly ! and brutal, and all sorts of laborers beside in the place, gathered and made life wretched for Whitmarsh, who. indeed, was forced to I hide himself and all his family. They in- suited him with hootings and curses and burning in efigy before his own house; and in that structure-a handsome white house with Corinthian pillRred front standing in it's own garden on the stage road-not pane of glass was left that stone or brick could reach.
 His red lamp was torn from over his gate, his brougham pulled from the coach house and broken to pieces, his green houses smashed, and so were the windows of his
 dispensary on the High street of the village. great force of constables had to be put on
 duty in Hounslow, and mounted police more over, who had no sooner dispersed the crowd
 in one quarter than it gathered in another,
 and the most that could be done was to keep
 the mob from burning the house, and by and
 by to arrest two young follows who were
 seen to throw stones. Nor were the police
 aided in the least by the respectable portion
 of the community, many steady going men
 assembling in the outskirts of the riotous
 crowd and giving them their sympathy,
 while subscription was started at once for
 the benefit of the arrested lads, and the board
 bearing the names of the donors was posted
 on the steps of the Town Hall, where each
 new man added his signature with an air of
 pride and satisfaction.
 This strange fever of popular indignation
 ragged so high that the coroner dared not ex-
 cite it by holding the inquest, and so ad-
 journed from time to time until it had par
 tially subsided. When his court met, it was
 in curious p1ace,-the old loft of the Red
 Lion inn, used as billiard room, and so
 built-for half it's length projecting over the
 stable yard-and so old that the inquiry was
 enlivened by warnings that the great throng
 oe e1a lc4o, Iock I,
 floor give way, and by the noise of carpen
 ters who were snoring it up with timbers.
 It was minute inquiry, so minute that the
 London Neacs felt called on to protest against
 the scope that Coroner Diplock gave it, as-
 serting that all the testimony that was rele-
 want was so much as showed that Dr. Ed
 wardes died of prussia acid, deliberately ad. ministered by his own hand. Instead of confning his quest to this, however, pr. Diplock laid bare the facts from first to last, and gave the world to see and his jury to de- clare as to the truth of the suicides explana- ton of his act, and the justice of his impre- cation on his partner. The result has shown that man who living could have done noth- ing, by dying may right himself and strike deadly blow of vengeance.
 The inquest consumed good many days the widow of the young physician, the as- sistant of the two doctors, several lawyers, the woman who made the charge, neighhor or two, and finally the elder doctor, were ex- amined, and George Lewis. probably the most celebrated criminal lawyer in London, managed the interest of the relations of Dr. Edwardes, and, it might almost be said, con- ducted the proceedings, so strong and perva- sive was the influence of his keen and un- sparing intelligence. It appeared that Dr. Edwardes had attended Mrs. Rose Bignell, cattle dealer's wife, for year she had been his partners patient before; and that she of 0noociono1 examinations. After one of his visits she sent him letter containing an accusation of improper familiarity and vague threats of exposure. He took the letter at once to Dr. Whitmarsh, denying it's charges, and that person with their assistant, MT. Garrett, called upon Mrs. Bignell, who stuck to her charge. Then Edwardes himself accompa- nied Whitmarsh to her house, and obtained from her so called ''retraction," in which she said she withdrew the charges she had made and was sorry that she had made them. The testimony is conflicting as to Edwardes' his own letter and g fuller state ment he left show him boldly asserting that the charge was false; and Whitmhrsh and Mrs. Bignell represented him as evading any direct challenge of the truth of her acousa lion. But, however that may have been, the retraction was presented, and the letter of accusation tern up, and all seemed settled. After that Dr. Edwardes discovered that the woman had been telling her disgusting story among her neighbors, and he determined to prosecute her for libel He found that Dr. Whitmarsh had possessed himself of the etter of accusation, which Mrs. Bignell had kept under tumbler, though it was in frag nents he therefore obtained the letter from Whitmarsh, had @ copy made of it and re- turned the original to him. Then he began On this Dr. Whitmarsh went 0 Mrs. Bignell, warned her of what was fnld hor ha had har oriuipoI 1akfaT md Edwardes had only 8 copy, and advised l Ter to consult lawyer at once; it was testi- | jed by Mrs. Bignell herself, by the lawyer | he consulted, and by one or two neighbors, l hat Dr. Whitmarsh was active in urging the | 8ignells to prosecute Dr. Edwardes on the l original charge. Dr. Edwardes, who was l erribly shocked, as even Whitmarsh's evi- fence showed, at the beginning of the rouble, was now quite broken down. He Iaw that with 8 woman of blemished charac- er Cher first child was born two days after | Ter marriage) bringing such an accusation | lgainst him with great particularly, with l he letter produced against him, with the inn | perfect form of the retraction, with his only ! lefense the contradiction of the story and ! he assertion that it was the delusion of 8 l lysterical woman, and being assured that his | partner would come into court and swear | gainst him that the woman never had hys | eria and that he believed her story, under |
  Fas hopeless.
 Then came in another matter that had | 'een worrying him for months. He had | ought share in the practice for $9, 900, | wo years before, on the representation of | )r. Whitmarsh, who was an old established | raetitioner, that the practice was worth | ;1O,O0O a year. and had been over SS, 800 the | ear before. In this Edwardes had found | imself grossly deceived. He had in Octo- | er written his partner letter, calling atten- l ion to the fact that the total returns of the J revious years business had reached less | han $3, 800, and that when each mans share | 7as reduced to net profits, there was less han $1, 900 income, and out of that the cost f horses, groom and carriage had to be met, nd the true income was represented by the sitter O. The partners had not been on ood terms since this critical letter of Ed 7ardes, and now that the younger man had ot into tight place, Whitmarsh put on the crews. He proposed to his partner to sell ut his share of the practice and leave the lace, and offered to give him $2, 800 for that he had not two years before paid $9,- %; promising in return to stop the prose- ution entered into by the Bignells Whit harsh got the poor fellow to agree to the issolution of partnership at that loss, and mployed to draw up the articles the lawyer the Bignells. Thus the case stood when IT, Edwardes wont to his home with his as istant, Garrett, the Tuesday after Christmas. Ie came into his wife's chamber after mid tight and said he was ruined such charge | Yas ruin, whether true or not, when his own artner appeared against him he would not esitate to face the trial if it were not for CT, but it might make her the wife of con jet Then he went down to his study, wrote he terrible letter that has been quoted, took he poison,-and was not.
 Thus Edwardes escaped, by the act of oward, many may say, and indeed 1t would ave been braver to live for his wife ana hildren, even if he had gone far away but @ was of that sensitive make that the blur his soul, and he was unequal to truggle with the hideous coil which had cen wound around him. The jury on the 1quest after pronouncing the death of Dr. ,dwardes from prussic acid administered v his own hand during temporary insanity" esired "to express their opinion emphatical' 7 that he was driven to his death by the ressure brought to bear by his partner, Dr. William Michael Whitmarsh, using the false harge of Mrs. Rose Bignen as means to rive him to dishonorable dissolution of Edwardes was exonerated, Ut he was dead. His cruel partner is ruined 0 less. He had grown jealous, envious, of
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