The Sun. — 1845-03-31 (London, England)

PUBLIC JOURNALS. FROM TELE EVENING PAPERS OF SATURDAY. GLOBE.—John Tawell, the wretched murderer of the confiding woman whom he had seduced, and who was the mother of two children by him—has suffered the appropriate and well-merited punishment which the law assigns to the crime of deliberate murder. Previously to Tawell's leaving the cell to which he had been confined since his conviction, he delivered to the Rev. Mr. Cox, the chaplain of' the prison, a sealed paper, which contained an admission, full and explicit, of his guilt. He poisoned his victim by the means charged in the indictment; and had previously sought h-r life by administering to her a different poisonous preparation, as suggested on his trial, in September last. The turpitude of this atrocious criminal's offence was greatly heightened by the base hypocrisy of his obtrusive pretensions to piety, by which he sought to procure a reputation for sanctity of morals, while he was secretly indulging his vicious inclinations, and revolving the means of murdering the poor creature he had previously betrayed. So successful were Tawell's personations of goodness, that—in the face of proofs of guilt that were, perhaps, as strong and conclusive as were ever adduced against any criminal on his trial—there were not wanting persons who could not think that such a man could ba the perpetrator of such a crime. These— doubtless amiable, but certainly weak minded, persons, are now relieved from all doubts. However difficult it may be to solve the psychological paradox which the character of Tawell's mind and contradictions of conduct displayed, the fact of his guilt, in the fulness of its depravity, is now placed beyond question. To every one capable of reason, this was placed beyond controversy by the evidence of the different witnesses against him on his trial. The line of argument adopted by his counsel— if that can be dignified by the appellation of argument which was a mere string together of improbable and contradictory hypotheses—removed Ila expectation of his acquittal, for it had [not shaken the direct and conclusive testimony against him. This mode of meeting the case, by such an advocate as Mr. Kelly, showed to what an extremity this justly-eminent lawyer felt himself reduced, when he could oppose nothing but extravagant, far-fetched, and almost puerile suppositions to such a case. The prisoner had admitted that the woman he was accused of having murdered, died in consequence of something she had poured into the porter of which she drank. Yet, notwithstanding this admission, Mr. Kelly actually argued that she did not die of poison, but by suffocation from the water which was attempted to be forced into her mouth by her neighbour, who entered the room when she lay in eafremis, if not actually dead. The Learned Gentleman also suggested, and argued the probability of the hypothesis which rendered nugatory his former reason • ing, and with a gravity which would imply his own belief of what every one else saw was not merely delusive but absurd—that the woman died from the effects of prussic acid, generated in the stomach by the process of digestion, from the pips of an apple found partially digested among the contents of the stomach, which were subjected to medical examination and chemical analysis—no apple-pips, however, being found therein ! The acute mind of the Learned Judge (Parke) who presided od the trial, in a few words swept away this miserable refuge. We have dwelt strongly on this branch of the evidence adduced on the trial, because there is too much reason to believe that the monstrous verdict returned in a case of an individual who was tried at the Central Criminal Court a short time before Tawell made the first attempt on Sarah Hart's life in September last, suggested both the mode of the perpetration, and the hope of escape, if detected, from the difficulty of esta blishing commission to the satisfaction of a jury. The conviction of Tawell will, we trust, tend to correct mistaken notions which are frequently entertained by some persons, both in and out of the jury-box. Any extravagant suggestion, however opposed to reason and science, with such persons is sufficient to destroy the effect of the most direct testimony. If ingenuity succeed in raising a momentary doubt, it is pounced upon, as sufficient to destroy the strongest proofs enforced by reason, derived from the evidence of unquestionable witnesses, supported by th. 2 testimony of science, and therefore claiming from reasonable men the calmest investigation, and the obedience of reason to the conclusions to which they lead.  STEAM BOILER EXPLOSION AT  A SIITO N ND I?, It-