Glasgow Courier. — 1857-07-09 (Glasgow, Strathclyde, Scotland)

TRIAL  MISS SMITH FOR POISONING.  EIGHTS DAT-WEDNESDAY.  The Court resumed this morning.  The DEAN of FACUtty said—My Lords, and Gentlemen of the Jury—The charge against the prisoner is murder, and the punishment of murder is death, and that simple statement is sufficient to suggest to us the great solemnity of the occasion that brings you and me together. But, gentlemen, theta are peculiarities in the present case of so singular a kind—there is suall an air of romance and of mystery investing this case from the beginning—there is something so touching and so exciting in the age and sex and social position of the accused and, I must add, the public attention is so directed to this trial that they watch our proceedings, and hang upon our very accents, with such an anxiety and eager expectation, that I feel almost borne down and over_ whelmed by the magnitude of the task before me. You are incited and encotiraged by the public praeecutor to snap the thread of that young life—to consign to an Ignominious death on the scaffold one who, within a few short months, was known only as a gentle and confiding and affectionate girl—the ornament and pride of a happy circle. And even when my learned friend (the Lord. Advocate) addressed you yesterday, it could not fail to strike you as most remarkable for the moderation of its tone, so as to convince you that be could hardly expect a verdict at your hands ;and in the course of that address he could not help expressing his own deep commiseration for the unhappy prisoner, which was but an in vo• luntary homage which the prosecutor paid to her kind and generous nature. But, gentlemen, I am going to ask for something different from commiseration. I am going to ask what I will not beg, but will loudly demand—that which every prisoner is entitled to, whether the lowest and vilest of her sex, or tile maiden whose purity is as tile unsullied snow. I ask you for justice. If you will allow me your patience, and if heaven will sustain me in the task, I shall tear to pieces that web of sophistry which the prosecutor has woven round this girl and her sad story. What is the history of this girl? Somewhat less than two years ago accident brought her acquainted with the deceased L'Angelier—and yet I can hardly call it an accident, for it was mainly owing to the indiscretion of a young man who introduced him to her on the street, in circumstances which plainly showed that he could not get an introduction to her elsewhere. And what was he that thus first got introduced into the society of this young lady, and clandestinely introduced himself into her father's house ?—an unknown adventurer; for how he procured an introluction into Messrs. 11'1gs:ins's we don't know—for even the persona who knew him there don't know his antecedents. We find he is a native of Jersey, and he is discovered at an early period. In 1843 he was in Scotland. He was known then to One of the witnesses when in Edinburgh, and the impression he made on him was not of a very favourable kind. Ile goes to the continent, and he is there during the French revolution. Ile returns, and is found in Ed• inburgh in 1831. And in what condition is lie? In great poverty and deep distress; living upon the bounty of a tavern keeper, and in the society of and sleeping with the waiter of the establishment. Ho goes to Dundee, and you know what he dtd there; and then we find him in Glasgow in 1853, and then in 18.55 his acquaintance with the prisoner commenced. What is the char. acter and conduct of the individual whose history it is impossible to dissociate from this inquiry. We are bound to form an estimate as best we en of what his life and principles were, and what were the motives likely to influence his conduct. We find, according to the confession of those who knew him, that he was a person possessed of grestsconceit and vanity—full of the idea of his own attractiveness with ladies, and with a great admiration of the sex. That he was to a certain extent successful in conciliating the admiration of the other sex may be true; but at any rate he was calculated to attract their attention, and we find he was likely to push his fortune in that way, and accordingly we find him endeavouring to get married to one lady of family, and we heard a great deal of a lady in the county of Fife, and of the manner in which he bore his disappointment when she married another, and that affords the best light to the character of the man. He was depressed and melancholy beyond description. He threatened—whether he intended or not—to commit suicide. He was not of strong health, and thia may have had an effect in depressing his spirits, which were now uplifted add now deeply depressed. He was disposed to melancholy, and very variable in his spirits, and never lobe depended on. Such was the individual whom the prisoner became acquainted with in the manner I have stated. The progress of the acquaintance is soon told. My learned friend said to you, although the correspondence must have been an improper correspondence from the outset, because it was clandestine, yet at the outset the letters of the young lady breathed nothing but gentleness and propriety. But I must ask you to bear with me while I call attention to one or two incidents in the early period of this acquaintanceship which are important in jadging of the cooductof the prisoner. The correspondence gt the commencement shows that if L'Angeber had it in his mind originally to corrupt and seduce this poor girl, that he entered on the attempt with considerable Ingenuity and skill, for the first letter of the series colludes 3 passage in which she says, I am trying to break myself off all my had habits. It is you I have to thank for this.' He was finding fault with her; he had been suggesting an improvement in her conduct or something else. He was thus insinuating himself into her confidence, and she, yielding more easily to this new acquaint/rice, the letters at this time were of a pleasing kind. Yet it seems to have occurred to her at an early period that it was impossible to continue this correspondence consistent with propriety and .•ir tue. So early as 1855, at the beginning of the acquaintance, she writes him in these terms : [Reads letter from—' I now perform the promise I made to you.' Down to 'I can't for this time] And, accordingly, for a time it would rather appear that the correspondence ceased. Now, geotlemen, I beg to call your attention to the fact that in the autumn of that year the connexion was broken off altogether. This appears from a letter that the prisoner wrote to Miss Perry at the end of September or October, 1855. [Reads letter.]