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much arsenic could have been distributed ; and the difficulty is increased when we remember that he had already professed to entertain suspicions . Here is a great mechanical obstacle to the idea that MadOTe Smith could be guilty . . . - . Another doubt is of a serious kind , and calculated to disturb the conclusions , notwithstanding the general connexion or the evidence . to a late point . I / Angkeliieb
up was poisoned 1 on the 19 th of February , the 22 nd of February , and the 22 nd of March . By 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 poisoned by the same person on the 22 nd of March ? Who was that person ? The difficulties of supposing that it was I / Angelieb 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 . Voluntarily , he might 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 .
1 / Angelieb 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 Avhich 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 ; and 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 , has in some cases turned out to Tbe a simple mistake . The number of these cases is very great . Looking to Europe alono , and not going back for more than two centuries , we could bring forward at least two hundred cases , in a large proportion of which sentence has been executed . We will
notice a very few of these cases . One of the inost interesting is that of Helen Qillet , a young , handsome girl , at Bourg en Bresse , in France , who , in 1 G 25 , was condemned to death for infanticide . But public opinion believed so strongly iu her innocence that even the executioner had not the courage to strike in cold blood , and thus twice missed his aim . Then a frightful scone ensued . The executioner ' s wife , fearing her husband
might lose his employ , first tried to strangle the girl , and not succeeding , tried to out off her head with a pair of scissors ! It is the caso of Eliza Penning with a horrid aggravation . The enraged populace interfered by storming the scaffold , Killing tho oxecutionor and his wife , and liberating Helen Gjllet , / who afterwards recoived a frco pardon from King liOuis XIII ., brothor-iu-law of our Cuaklics I . Urban GhtANDiEit ' s conviction and
oxooution , nino yoam after , iu 1 G 34 , for eriinos he never committed , is too well known to require nny comment . Another cn « o is that of
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 Eng-i land either . Take , for example , the case of Colonel Chabtebis ; he 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
the Mabqttis d'Anglade , 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 Jacqtjes IiEBOtrit , who , in 1689 , was accused
other curious case of Jonathan Bradford , who in 1736 was executed for murder , a case peculiarly instructive . Bbadfobd was so -far guilty that he had the 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 Moorfields , 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 Ramsay , 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 Byn g ' 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 Struenshe , the Danish Minister of State . Of all innocent persons ever convicted , Jean Galas has found the most brilliant advocate in Voltaiee ' s pen , so that Jean Calas ' s name is cited now wherever injustice is mentioned . The case , however , of John Jennings , 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 Lestteqttes , 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 ; in England as well as in Prance . Innocent , most probably , were also the three
Ashohoi-ts and William Holden , executed in 1817 at Manchester . Balzac has proved the innocence of tho public notary , Teytel , 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 acousod iu Damascus , in 1840 , of having eaten alive a reverend priest , the JPadre Thomas , and who were 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 , the convict , although innocent of the crime imputed , had been guilty of very irregular , sometimes of criminal , conduct . But thoro is a wide step between some kinds of flagrant inimorality , and murderous intentions ; nnd it is rather a roznnrkable incident , tlmt in tho whole mass of evidence brought forward nt tho Edinburgh trial , there is ao trace of any homicidal disposition on the part of the prisoner . Thoro " aro many traces of such a fooling on tho part of 1 / Angus-LIEH .
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THE PLOT AT NAPLES . Fbanoe , Austria , Piedmont , and Naples are engaged simultaneousl y 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 H&BSiiriA 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 IJouis 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 Cj 5 a . REN < DON '« 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 uponithat distinction . " The French Government , he proceeds to argue , has cleverly
cast all the odium of its N eapolitan failure of policy upon Lord Palmebston , and only mixed itself up with that affair to act as a drag upon England ; but it encouraged the royal forfame-maTring of Prince Mtjbat , at Aix-les-BainB , the circulator of manifestoes to the Italians , and the coinage of money bearing the visage and superscription of the Bonapabte pretender ! Even in Paris publications were tolerated containing libels against King Febbinand , which the Emperor would have resented had they been levelled against one of the porters
of his palace . M . Bjslmontet , a member of the Legislative Corps , and attached to the Imperial Cabinet , was allowed , in 1856 , to correspond in public with M . Manin . Such is Feedinand ' s impeachment of Lotrcs Napoleon . There is evidence , we are told , which has not yet been produced . Well , next 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 Napoleon
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 .
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'ACCIDENTALLY SHUT OUT . ' Small Reformers are in 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 the result . A member may vote every night during the session , and yet neelect his duty altogether . When a question
of any importance has been rawed , we invariably find in the morning journals that sundry gentlemen were ' accidentally shut out . ' What does that mean ? That they were about to vote , in most cases , without listening to the discussion . Hobaoe Walpole , in 1759 , wrote to Conway , " Though Parliament is sitting , no politics have com ©
to town ; one may describe the House or , Commons like the price of stocks : —Debates , nothing clone . Votes , under par . Patriots , no price . Oratory , hooks shut . Iu our times , members , whoa dining with their cons tituents , appeal . to tho multiplicity of thenvotes to prove tlio constancy ot thfcir attendance . Why , gentlemen , you aro in tho collooroom , with a cabal of gossippow , sputtor-
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Fo . 989 , J- tot laiSffn THE I , E A PER , ^ 87
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 18, 1857, page 687, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2201/page/15/
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