Middlesbrough & Stockton Gazette and General Advertiser. — 1872-01-18 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

MELAYCHOLIA AND MURDER.  Tim Rev. J. Selby Watson has been found guilty of murdering his wife. The plea of insanity was rejected; but the jury recommended the prisoner to mercy on account of his age and his former good character. it - would be an unwarrantable precedent to make either age or axial position a plea for screening a murderer from the hangman's rope. In the case of the unfortunate prisoner, these circumstances are rather an aggravation than palliation of the crime. •At the same time, the Home Secretary's prerogative has been interposed for prisoners less deserving of Royal clemenci than the Rev. Mr Watson. The jury performed their duty conscientiously, and in the mime of justice, irrespective of sentiment. Impartial and unflinching as the blind Goddess ought to be, it must be admitted that the Law has been so far satisfied, and Justice done by all concerned. The case is a sad and melancholy one, from whatever point it is looked at. The murderer and his victim occupied, if not an independent and lucrative position, at least one of comparative comfort, and a good social standing. That the Rev. J. S. Watson and his wife lived in terms of cordial good-will and general amity together, is testified to by the servant and a former housekeeper at the Grammar !-chool. Few could have better opportunity of forming a judgment on this point than the former ; while the latter revealed the first instance of discord, or of something being wrong, which has come out in course of the trial. On the second Sunday in October Mr and Mrs Watson attended divine service in the morning, and when the servant left the house in the afternoon nothing particular appears to have transpired. About five o'clock the former Grammar School housekeeper rang the door bell, and heard a peculiar noise in the • house, and on ringing a second time heard Mrs Watson as if in an expostulating mood, assuring her husband that there was someone at the door. It was not until she rang a third time that she was admitted, when Mrs Watson remarked to her husband "that it was only Mrs Miley." It seems thus pretty clear that something disagreeable had happened between the time the servant left at four, and Mrs Tulley's arrival at five o'clock. Her evidence thus becomes of great importance. as, according to her statement, she remained three hours and a half, during which time Mr Watson seemed interested in the affairs of a certain publishing firm, from whom he stated he might obtain some literary work. Mr and Mm Watson were only half-an-hour alone when the servant returned, and her master informed her that her mistress had left the house, and would not return till next day. At ten o'clock he took his supper as usual, and then follows the cool, calculating, precautionary proceedings of letting the servant see the red spots at the door —caused, as he said, by his wife spilling port wine before she left the house—and telling her not to go into her mistress's room, as it was locked. The awful deed must have thus been perpetrated between the departure of Mrs Tulley at half-past eight, 'and the return of the servant at nine. He passed the dreadful Sunday evening by writing a circumstantial account of the horrible deed, telling where the body was to be found, and howhis effects were to be disposed of. In all this there is no trace of madness. It is possible, but very far from probable, that within a brief half-hour his reason should desert him, and that after committing the awful crime he should have so soon become conscious of his position, and prepared a plan for hiding the deed. Clear as the medical evidence was as to the operation of melancholia, it could scarcely be credited that when the deed was done he was unconscious of the enormity of the crime he was committing. Indeed, his own ' confession destroys any attempt to clear him from the awful consequences on that score. In one of the letters found in his room, he says, " 4 have killed my wife in a fit of rage. Often and often has she provoked me and I have endeavoured to restrain myself, but rage overcame me, and I struck her." Had it not been for this clear declaration, there is another , passage which might have implicated Mrs Miley in the affair. On a piece of paper found beside the letters, was a Latin quotation about love, after which he refers to his misfortune with the female sex. It is rather sin, guLar that Mrs Tulley should have remained •4,kree and a half hours in the house after having ..ad so much difficulty in obtaining entrance. It would be unfair to throw any aspersions on her character after the trial, in which she gave her evidence with a decisive and unwavering distinctness hardly compatible with any complicity in the crime. Passion is quite a different thing from madness; and had Mr Watson, as alleged by eminent physicians, been unconscious of the deed he was committing, the shock on his regainiry, consciousness would have . acted differently upon him than to tell three successive falsehoods to the servant, and after determining to commit suicide, and committing the whole transaction to writing, go quietly to bed, and next day order a box which at the time was evidently intended to hold the corpse cif his murdered wife. Nor can it be said that throughout the trial he manifested any symptom of insanity. On the contrary, he followed the evidence closely and intelligently, and before sentence was passed upon him, acknowledged the truth of the evidence and the impartial nature of the trial. We cannot help deprecating the too frequent attempts to free culprits from the responsibilities of their passionate actions on the plea that they were in a state of unsound mind • at the time. While we heartily commisserate the position of the unfortunate man, we mast discard the plea of either insanity or provocation. It would be a dangerous precedent to interpose the Royal clemency on his behalf on account either of his age, social position, or any provocation he might have received. If the jury's recommendation be given effect to it must be upon higher and broader principles • otherwise, it will be difficult to determine the age above which a man cannot be hanged, or the social position he has to attain, and the amount of provocation he is to endure, before he can commit niurder and be clear of C•lcraft.