The Sun. — 1868-12-12 (London, England)

THE BE-ELECTIONS,  THE story of the poisoners of Marseilles,which has been told in our Paris correspondence, presents some features of exceptional horror. It is not, indeed, comparable, either in the magnitude of the results or the subtlety of the means employed, to some historical cases of wholesale slaughter. It bears no resemblance to the famous Roman conspiracy for the poisoning of husbands which resulted in the execution of some 170 ladies. It becomes insignificant by the side of the history of the aqua tofana, a liquid clear as water, five or six drops of which would cause death, which was employed by a woman without discovery for above half a century, and which is supposed to have caused the death of six hundred persons. Murder by poisoning, both as a rude expedient and as an occult act, as an ordinary instrument of revenge and as a scientific means of causing death by a process so slow as to xesemble disease, has been sufficiently common in all ages to furnish more remarkable examples than these husband murders at Marseilles. But no instance of the kind has occurred of late years. Some recents trials in England—the PALMER, MADELEINE SMITH, and PRITCHARD cases—have been remarkable enough to justify the intense excitement caused by them ; but this is, perhaps, the first instance of death being bought and sold as an ordinary commodity, and of victims being disposed of at so much per head. No such revelations of ignorance, superstition, and rice have been disclosed at a modern trial. The history is one of descent to the last extreme of depravity ; and, unfortunately, it is in some measure a testimony to the uncertainty of justice against this mode of slow and secret murder. It is little likely that these crimes would have been discovered but for an accident. The victims had been killed in safety, and some of them had been buried for some time ; but the imprudence of one of the guilty women gave a clue to a labyrinth of crime which was penetrated at length, not by the police, but by a private individual. Even when three murders had been disclosed, and seven persons arrested, the President of the Court expressed the belief that justice was .still in arrear, and that the crimes revealed were but a few of the whole number committed.  The following is a complete list of offices the acceptance of which will involve the issue of new writs :—First liord of the Treasury, Secretary of State for War, Chancellor of the Exchequer, First Lord- of the Admiralty, President of the Board of Trade, President of the Poor-law Board, Chief Secretary for Ireland, Attorney and SolicitorGeneral for England, Attorney and SolicitorGeneral for Ireland, Solicitor-General for Scotland, Vice-President of the Council for Education, the English, Scotch, and Irish Lords of the Treasury, the Chief Commissioner of Works, the Treasurer, the Con. troller, and the Vice-Chamberlain of the Royal House. hold, the Lords of the Admiralty, the Judge-Advocate. General, and the Groom in Waiting to her Majesty. The whole of these offices have not yet been appro. priated, but, as a consequence of those which have been filled, the following constituencies will be called upon to ratify the appointments :—Green. wich, which returned Mr. Gladstone ; Oxford, City, Mr. Cardwell; Lo-Idon University, 11fi • Lowe; Pontefrac*;, Mr. Childers; Birmingham, M.. Bright; City of London, Mr. Goschen ; Louth County, Mr. Chichester Fortescue; Plymouth, Sir Robert. Collier; Exeter, Mr. Coleridge ; Bradford, Mr. W. E. Forster ; Halifax, Mr. Stansfeld ; Southwark, Mr. Layard. Had the Home Secretary and the Postmaster - General possessed seats in the House of Commons, they must have vacated them on being appointed to office ; but seats for Mr. Bruce and Lord ETartington have yet to be found. Under ordinary circum. stances, the Lord-Advocate of Scotland would also have been obliged to seek re-election on his appointment ; but in the present case there is no necessity for doing so, inasmuch as Mr. Moncreiff was nominated to his post before he had been declared elected for the Universities of Glasgow and Aberdeen. None of the parliamentary under secretaries have to be re-elected. The secretaries to the various departments—Treasury, Admiralty, Board of Trade, and Poor-law Board—enjoy a similar immunity.  The narrative of one murder is really the history of the others. One of the women, named VILLE, 41 years of age, was married to a linendraper in good circumstances. The two lived comfortably : the husband entrusted everything to his wife, who had the absolute command of the household purse. Excess of liberty at length proved a bane. She fell into evil courses, and after a very dissolute life for some years, formed an attachment for a mason named