The Sun. — 1861-07-31 (London, England)

THE DANBURY MURDER.  Our readers will remember that at the late assizes for the county of Essex, a married woman named. Martha Spencer Weaver was convicted of the murder of an illegitimate child, two years and a half old, belonging to another woman residing at the village of Danbury, near Chelmsford, by strangling it with a shawl under very peculiar circumstances. The prisoner, who was separated from her husband, who is a working man living in London, had gone down to Danbury, which is her native place, and she subsisted upon an allowance of seven and sixpence per•week made her by her husband, and any work she was able to obtain, and it appeared that she was very fond of the child in question, and was constantly playing with it, and sending it upon errands, and she always seemed pleased to have it with her. On the day the murder was committed she asked the mother of the child to allow him to go into the village to buy a box of lucifers for her, and she, of course, willingly consented, and the poor child went to the prisoner's cottage, and was never seen again alive. Upon an alarm being given he was discovered quite dead in the prisoner's bedroom, with the end of a shawl tied No tightly round the throat as to cause an abrasion of the skin, and the prisoner herself was lying upon the bed in the same room in a state of almost deadly stupor, and apparently utterly unconscious of what had taken place. The condition of the prisoner was accounted for by the fact of her being in the habit of taking large doses of laudanum for the purpose, as she described it, of "stilling her nerves," and there was no doubt that on the day the fatal occurrence took place she had taken a very large dose of that deadly ingredient ; and when the discovery took place she appeared to be almost stupefied, many hours elapsed before she recovered her consciousness, and she then seemed to be utterly incapable of giving any explanation (Jf the circumstances under which the unhappy child met its death. The defence set up for the wretched woman was that at the time the act was comitted she was not in a condition of mind to enable her to distinguish between right and wrong; but as there was no evidence to show that her mind was really affected, the jury, after a good deal]of deliberation, found her guilty ; and sentence of death of course followed upon that verdict, and, according to the usual custom in the county of Essex, the execution would have taken place tomorrow. It is always the custom in those painful cases, after all the facts have been submitted to the consideration of the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if they should be considered of a character to justify a recommendation of the criminal to the mercy of the crown, for an application to be made to the learned judge to state his opinion atwasof the case, and whether it was one that would justify a commutation of the capital sentence; and it iss to understoodthe effect that hat if Mr. Justice tried the prisoner, as referred to, and his reply w the case was one that did the GoverhhiWenitllicaomnssidwerhedo not call for the infliction of capital punishment, he was of opinion that there were circumstances connectedi with the condition of the prisoner at ' the t into time the act was committed, and also takingconsiderationatwoiildjustify the pleasure utter absence of motive for it, th the mercy of the Crown being extenlsextendedto th e prisoner. A respite during her Majesty morning, and itCwas at was of course the result, and a formal document to that cffect was received at the gaol at e.app, the under-sheriff of Essex, in the presence of Capt. oSnpereincgofimelmduonnica3tleodndtoaythe prisoner by Mr. ri M'Gorrery, the newly-appointed governor of the ined an idea that her life would be spared, and the comprison. She seemed to hate all along entertained munication, therefore, did not seem to have so much effect upon her as it otherwise would have done, and she merely expressed her thanks, and then shed a few tears. As a matter of prudence she was informed of the terms of the respite, and that the sentence was merely postponed during her Ma, jesty's pleasure ; but, of course, there is no chance of the capital punishment being inflicted, but,