The Sun. — 1856-06-05 (London, England)

WILLIAM PALMER.  STAFFORD, WEDNESDAY. A great deal of excitement has been occasioned here by au announcement which was received, to the effect that her Majesty's Government had ordered a respite of Palmer's sentence, with a view to a further examination of the circumstances connect3d with this remarkable case. Upon inquiry at the gaol it was ascertained that no official counnunicaLion of the sort had been received 11 the governor, and it is believed that there was no foundation for the rumour beyond a paragraph which appeared in one of the London morning papers. It is stated confidently hero that Sir G. Grey, her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Home Department, has laid the question of Palmer's respite before Lord Camphell, and that the answer returned by the Lord Chief Justice is to the effect that be perfectly concurs with the verdict of the jury, and that he sees no reason why the law should not take its course. If this statement be true, no further communication will take place between the High Sheriff of Staffordshire and the Government, and that high functionary will be compelled to carry out the execution according to the instructions be has already received. A circumstance which will perhaps throw some additional light on this painful case may be mentioned here. An elder brother of William Palmer, the convict, the Rev. Thomas Palmer, M.A., a clergyman of the Church of England, residing at Coton Hall, Staffordshire, has visited the prisoner several times during the last few days, and has collected some extraordinary fac' a in rotation to the case, which he intends publishing forthwith in the form of a pamphlet, which he hopes may have some effect in arresting the execution, for the purpose of further inquiry. William Palmer himself is very anxious that he h )uld be put upon his trial for the murder of his wife, whose death it has been freely alleged was caused by the administration of poison by his hands. That request it is not likely the Government will grant, unless some strong, and, at present, unforeseen confirmation of the evidence given for the defence by the medical witnesses should transpire. It seems to be the general opinion in this part of the country that the death of Palmer next Saturday week (if the execution as at present purposed be cirried out) will not tend to unravel the remarkable medical mysteries which the late trial developed. If he should confess that he administered strychnia to Cook, Dr. Taylor's theory that it may be absorbed and ail traces of it lost will be established ; but Palmer has assured his brother, the governor ot the gaol, and the chaplain, that he has nothing to confess in reference to the crime, awl that he is as innocent of the murder of Cook as the child unborn. In the event of his perseverance in this statement the discovery will have yet to be made whether .the evidence of the medical witnesses for the defence is correct, that strychnia may be found in the body after death, no matter how long it may have been administered. Palmer continues to complain bitterly of the partiality of Lord Campbell's summing up, which he declares t.> be more one-sided than even the speech of the Attorney-General, who avowedly drove to obtain a conviction against him.  Within the last day or two an anonymous letter has been received by one of the scientific witnesses called in William Palmer's defence. It purports to be from a female, resident, we believe, in the neighbourhood of Liverpool. It sets forth the intimacy which had existed between the writer and Cook, and alleges that the former, in a fit of jealousy, touched Cook with a ring which contained deadly poison, a few days only prior to his illness.