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    S whoin 1687 3fo. 862, Jtot- 18,1667/1 T...

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    THE PLOT A.T NAPLES. Pban-oi!, Austria, ...

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    'ACCIDENTALLY SHUT OUT.' Small Reformers...

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    The Edinburgh Trial—Doubts And Reflectio...

    much arsenic could have been distributed ; and the difficulty is increased when , we rem ember that he had already professed to entertain suspicions . Here is a great mechanical obstacle to the idea that Madeline Smith could be guilty . _ . Another doubt is of a serious kind , and calculated to disturb the conclusions , notwithstanding the general connexion of the evidence up to a late point . I / Angelier was poisoned on the 19 th of Eebruarv-, the

    _ 2 ? nd of February , and the 22 nd of March . B ~ y the verdict of the jury , Madeline Smith was not guilty of poisoning him on the 19 th ; it is not proved that she poisoned him on the 22 nd of February , or the 22 nd of March ; but he was poisoned on the 19 th , and in the same way that he was at the two other . dates . Some one , therefore , had poisoned him on the 19 th , and is it not probable that he was po isoned , by the same person on the 22 nd of March ? " Who was that

    person ? . . , ., The difficulties ' of supposing that it was I / A- ^ gjelier himself are not so great as those already indicated . If he had not been discovered purchasing arsenic , he had previously boasted of having it in his possession ; and it is a substance that will keep for a very long time . He might have had it by him for years . And there would be no restriction on the amount that he might swallow , if it pleased , him . Yoluntarily , he mioht have taken-half an ounce , an ounce , or

    two ounces ; and , in that . case , it would not be necessary that the : arsenic detected should have been mingled with food . I / Angelter had not only tampered with poison , but had expressed his ability to revenge himself in some way on any woman who jilted him . He knew all the circumstances which had preceded his death . He had just that kind of cleverness which would have perceived that , taken together with the

    letters discovered in his keeping , all the circumstances of his dying under the effect of poison would point to Madeline Smith as a murderess ; aud in gratifying the suicidal propensity , so common to his countrymen and ' confessed by himself , he would have the satisfaction of reflecting that he had left to her the legacy of a criminal charge , and a frightful suspicion if not a fatal conviction .

    Evidence which has appeared sufficient to justify conviction , or even positive execution of sentence , lias in some cases turned oufc to be a siuvple mistake . The number of these cases is very great . Xiooking to Europe alone , and not going back for more than two centuries , we could bring forward at least two hundred cases , iu a largo proportion of which sentence has been , executed . Wo will notice a very few of these cases . One of the most interesting is that of Helen Gtllet , a

    young , hnndaomc girl , at Bourg en Brt > sse , in -Franco , who , iu 1 G 25 , was condemned to death for infanticide . Bub public opinion believed so strongly in her innocence that even the executioner had not tho courngo to strike iu cold blood , and thus twice missed his aim . Then a frightful scene ensued . The executionor ' s wit ' o , fearing her husband might lose his einnlov , firab tried to strangle might lose his employ , firab tried to strangle

    tho girl , and not succooding , tried to cut oil her head with a pair ofacisnora ! It is tho case of EnzA . I'isNNi . Na with a horrid aggravation . The onrflged populace interfered by storming the scaffold , killing tho executioner mid his wife , and liberating IIjsj . jsn Gijxbt , who afterwards recoived a free pardon from King Louis XUX , brother-in-law of our Chaiu . kb I . Tina an Gha .-nbik it ' s conviction and « c-

    oution , nino yeara after , in J ( KM , for crimes ho never committed , is too wull known to require any coivnnont . Another caao is that of

    the Ma-bquts b'Astgxadb , who , in 1687 , was accused of theft ,-was , with his wife , a noble , high-spirited woman , thrown into a frightful prison , and , his judges not finding him willing to confess a crime which he never committed , was put on the rack , on which he died under the most . agonizing tortures . A year after , his innocence was established beyond doubt . A story very much like the last is that of _ # ^^ - ^ *•

    Jacques Lebottr , who , in 1689 , was accused of murder , and died under his tortures . A month after his death , his complete innocence was proved . All these cases happened in France , yet there is no lack of them in England either . Take , for example , the case of Colonel Citarteris ; be certainly was a wicked scamp , but that did not give the right to judge and jury to execute him , in 1731 , for a crime which he never committed . Or take the

    other curious case of JokathaJt Bradford , who in 173 ( 3 was executed for murder , a ease peculiarly instructive . Bradford was so far guilty that lie hadthe intention of committing the crime , but he found the work done by another before him . The real murderer confessed on his death-bed , eighteen months after . In 1753 , Elizabeth Canning accused a Mrs . Webb , in IVLoorfields , and some others , of complicity in a rape and

    abduction . The jury declared them guilty , and nine persons were condemned to death , and were ordered for execution . Fortunately , the particulars of the case attracted the attention of Allan Rams at , the poet , who proved to the satisfaction of all the world that the persons convicted were perfectly innocent , and that the girl Canning had got up a story to account for an otherwise unaccountable child to whom she afterwards gave birth . Of Admiral Bijtg ' s execution , four

    ! years after , we will not speak , as it was more 'apolitical than a judicial murder ; and the same objection applies , to the execution of j Struensee , the Danish Minister of State . ; Of all innocent persons ever convicted , Jean Cat , as has found the most brilliant advocate in Voltaire ' s peu , so that Jean Calas ' s ' name is cited now wherever injustice is menitiouedThe howeverof John Jenuuii

    . case , , I L 1 UIJLU . J . I 1 U UilSC ? , uuivcici , vx i' » " •" nings , who was executed in Hull , 1762 , for a highway robbery , of which he was ' altogether guiltless , " is quite as strong an argument against the infallibility of the ' twelve good men and true . ' Yet in England , poor innocent John Jennings is not half so much lamented as Joseph Lesurques , who

    was innocently convicted and executed for highway robbery and murder , in 1796 , and whose story has been made up in novels , ballads , and melodramatic shows over and over again , iu England as vgc . 41 as in France . Innocent , most probably , wero also tho three Ashoroitts and William Holjden , executed in 1817 at Manchester . Balzac has proved the innocence of the public notary , TjcyteI / , executed in 1838 for murder . But no author yet thought it worth while to prove the innocence of a . score of miserable Jews , who were accused in Damascus , in 1840 , of having eaten alive , a reverend priest , tho JPadre Thomas , niul who wero beaten to death and tortured

    until they confessed a murder which they could not have committed . It is interesting to know , that in some of those cases , tho convict , although innocent of tho crime imputed , hod been guilty of very irregular , sometimes of criminal , conduct . But tliero ia a wide step between some kinds of ilagrnnt immorality , and murderous intentions ; and it is rulhor a romarkable incident , that in the whole mass of evidence brought forward at tho Edinburgh trial , there is no truce of any homicidal disposition on tho part of tho prisoner . Thoro are many traces ol such u fooling on the ' part of L'Anqk-LlliR .

    S Whoin 1687 3fo. 862, Jtot- 18,1667/1 T...

    3 fo . 862 , Jtot- 18 , 1667 / 1 THE LEADER , 6 S 7 ^—^ . ^^^ a ^^^ M ^ I ^^^ M ^ M ^ Mi ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ~ ¦ ¦

    The Plot A.T Naples. Pban-Oi!, Austria, ...

    THE PLOT A . T NAPLES . Pban-oi ! , Austria , Piedmont , and Naples are engaged simultaneously in unravelling plots . France has rifled the nest of a conspiracypolice-hatched , or otherwise—to assassinate the Emperor . Austria is inducing a confession from the insurgents of Leghorn . Piedmont is puzzled what to do with the Hjbbsima of the Genoese , and throws oratorical pellets at Mazzini . Naples has two plots under analysis . In one the actors are the chiefs of the goaded people ; in the other the alleged ringleader is Louis Napoleon . There has been a formal presentation of documents , on the part of the Neapolitan Government , in refutation of the English Blue Books . After treating at length of Lord Clarendon ' s correspondence with Sir " William Temple , the official apologist observes : " We will now discuss the part played by [ France , or rather by the French Government , for it would be unjust not to insist upon that distinction . " The Erench Government , he proceeds to argue , has cleverly cast all the odium of its Neapolitan failure

    of policy upon Lord Paxmerston , and only mixed itself up with that affair to act as a drag upon England ; but it encouraged the royal fortune-making of Prince Murai , at Aix-les-Bains , the circulator of manifestoes to the Italians , and the coinage of money bearing the visage and superscription of the Bonaparte pretender . Even in Paris publications were tolerated containing libels against King F £ Rdinajso % which the Emperor would have resented had they been levelled against one of the porters

    of his palace . M . Bex , m : ontet , a member of the Legislative Corps , and attached to the Imperial Cabinet , was allowed , in 1856 , to correspond in public with M . Mantn . Such is Ferdinand ' s impeachment of Lours Natoleon . There is evidence , we are told , which has not yet been produced . Well , iiext month , the Assize Court of the Seine will proceed to the trial of the Italian conspirators . Why not summon the Corsican ' s nephew to meet an indictment at Naples ? It would be an instructive entertainment to

    witness the conviction of Louis Napo : leon among the plotters against law and order in Italy . Nor is the charge at all improbable . A man who has passed his life in conspiracy , and has made himself all he is by sharpening sabres in the dark , may justly be expected to carry on his great imitations of ' my uncle , ' hitherto so successful in all respects , unless it be the attainment of personal glory . — which is wanting .

    'Accidentally Shut Out.' Small Reformers...

    'ACCIDENTALLY SHUT OUT . ' Small Reformers are iu the habit of analyzing the division lists of the House of Commons , and counting the votes of the several members . The public , we hope , care nothing about tho result . A member may vote every night during the session , and yeb neglect his duty altogether . When a question of any importance has been raised , we invariably find in tho morning journals that sundry gentlemen wero ' accidentally shut out . ' What does that moan ? That they

    wero about to vote , in most cases , without listening to tho discussion . Horace WjU > p ole , in 1750 , wrote to Conway , " Though Parliament is sitting , no politics have com © to town ; ono may describe tho Hohso or , Commons like the prico of stocks : — -Pebatoa , nothing done . Votes , under par . latnots , mo price . Oratory , books shut . In our limes , members , w ' hon dining with . their constituents , appeal to tho ¦ multiplicity of their votes to prove tho constancy ol their attendance . W \\ y , gentlemen , you aro in tho coflooroom , with a cabal of goesipporn , sputter-

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), July 18, 1857, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_18071857/page/15/