The times., 1901-03-25
AGAINST MRS. MAVERICK
Powerful Influences Said TO Be Re
sisting Her Liberation.

Friends of the Imprisoned American
Woman Continue Their Appeals in
Her BehaIf-AlIegations in II state
ment Concerning the Noted Case.
LONDON, March 10.--The friends of
Mrs. Maybrick are not abating their ap-
feas for her liberation which they re-
ncwed on the Kings accession, although
so far the authorities have made no faY-
orable sign. Sne was visited by her
| mother three days ago, and the latter
has again returned TO Rouen. She is
| not encouraged to hope that the release
will take place before the normal period
Of a womans life sentence is exhausted,
which under the present prison regula-
| tions and with a good conduct certificate,
would be about a year hence. But II
King Edward should be crowned before
then. and the customary acts of elem
! ency that accompany coronation includ-
| ed remissions of sentence it would mean
| immediate freedom in Mrs. Maybrick's
case.
The present Home Secretary, Mr. c. T.
Ritchie. is the only occupant of that Oh
flee in this generation who is not law
yer and not therefore averse by profess
sional training to reopen any chose Juge
as were his predecessors who had TO con
slider the case, Messrs. Matthews, AS
quth, and Ridley, all barristers gen
tleman described as honorary secretary
of the Maybrici1 Committee issues
statement this week in which he says;
Il am constantly receiving letters from
all parts of the country, and even from
abroad urging the committee to fresh
acticn. We are forced to the conclusion
hal nj Influences
work to keep Mrs. Maybrick in prison
This is especially noticeable when any
movement is made to obtain her release
for almost Immediately a counter agita-
tion is started, and currency is given to
all sorts of wicked statements calculated
to prejudice the chances of this unhappy
woman in the public mind
1T is a fact that certain land syndi-
cate on the other side of the water stands
to lose several millions Of dollars the
moment Mrs. Maybrick is released, For
some time prior to her arrest an agent
Of the syndicate tried to purchase an
enormous area of real estate in which
Mrs. Maybrick and her mother possessed
a reversionary interest. Having no occa-
sion to sell their rights they refused, but
when the enormous cost of the defence at
the trial put the ladies in monetary
BY some mysterious coincidence the
agent appeared at the critical moment and
offered to buy a small portion of the land
for e1,000. The deed was actually signed
by Mrs Maybrick without being read
during the time the jury was deliberat-
ing on their verdict. Eventually it was
found that the whole area of land, esti-
mated to be worth IS, 600 900, had been
technically included in the deed Mrs.
Maybricks mother. who is now practical
ly penniless and infirm, took steps to in
woke the American law on behalf of
justice, and the title of the syndicate has
been suspended. Sir Matthew White
Ridley was appealed to to allow Mrs.
Maybrick to make an affidavit in prison
relating TO this deed, but even this simple
privilege was refused.
''The miserable prisoner, who is at
Aylesbury Goal. is constantly in the
prison infrmary; though but forty-one
years of age she is losing her sight and
her teeth-in fact, she declares that it is
only the thought of her two children and
her aged mother that keeps her alive.
She is broken by despair, and fear she
will not live long"
There is not one person in a thousand
I'm this country who VIII believe that any
business document at all is signed by
man or woman on trial for murder in the
interval when the jury is debating the
question of life or death. The invariable
custom is for the prisoner to be alone
with his warders in room adjoining the
public court, and to this room no person
concerned in business irrelevant to the
trial has any possible access. The hon
orary secretary proceeds:
Every item of new evidence in favor
of Mrs. Maybrick is duly forwarded to the
Home ONCE, and we have clearly shown
that not only was Mr. Maybrick an ar
senic eater but that he actually did not
die as the result of arSenical poisoning.
To a manufacturing chemist-the son OF
the late Sir Valentine Blake-Mr May
brick said: i take arsenic when l can
get II. but the doctors wont put any in
my medicine except now and then a trihe
and that only tantaliZeS me-
we have also sent the Home Office an
affidavit by Capt. j. Fleming, of the
steamship Ulundi. who declares he saw
Mr.. Maybrick put some arsenic in his
food at his office and say, i am taking
arsenic enough to kin you. l find il
strengthens me.
You may remember that at the trial
Mrs. Maybrick said she had misplaced the
prescription of the face wash which con-
tained arsenic, and her statement was not
believed. Well that prescription has
ed to Mrs. Maybrick and a Partisan
chemist has sworn an affidavit to the ef-
feet that he once made UP the prescrip-
tion for Mrs Maybrick, or Miss Chandler.
as she then was.
He includes in his statement an ex-
traordinary passage from an American
appeal, declaring:
" The present moment is prOpitiOus for
the release of the unfortunate lady for
high reasons, As an act of international
comfy, between two great peoples united
by q common language and lineage.
Blood is thicker than water, and every
cause of irritation between these two
countries should be speedily effaced and
that complete and fun unificatiOn of our
Cn inr In 4 f~1
and as we believe in England, quickly
consummated. To pardon the accused,
even if guilty, would not detract one iota
from that wealth OF mercifuI kindness
and goodness which has shed a halo upon
the crown of England -
Americans are themselves the best
Judges of the value Of this sort Of thing
which eVohes no comment here beyond
that il does harm TO the cause it is in
tended to help.