THE PIMLICO TRAGEDY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7656, 5 June 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE PIMLICO TRAGEDY.

Wk have already heard by cable that a verdict of acquittal had been pronounced in the case of Mrs. Bartlett, who wag accused Of causing the death of her husband. The case has excited great interest in England. We give some part 3 of the summing-up of Judge Wills :— A SHAMEFUL BOOK. Ho would not conceal from them that from an early period of his study of that case he was struck with one fact, and ho thought that before the end of this case come important light would be thrown upon it by the fact which was scarcely mentioned in these depositions. But for the memorandum accompanying tho depositions which were read before the coroner, he should have known nothing of the fact that after this man's death a certain article was found in his pocket. It was an unpleasant subject, and the case was full of unplcasani subjects. There was another unpleasant subject which could not bo dismissed either, and that was that there was a very unpleasant book which formed ona of tho articles of his domestic furniture. Whatever shame there might bo about the possession and reading of such book?, it should not fall too heavily upon the wife. One could scarcely think that in auv deccnt household such books should bo found. If they were offered to her for her daily food, it was no wonder that she should take them. Apparently there were people who could read thoso books. and who could see no shame in them. Ann Walker, who seemed a very reepectablo Woman, said there was not a word that was immoral or improper from beginning to end. It had been his unpleasant duty to look at that book, and ho entertained an entirely different opinion. \et the author of the book said ib was written with an honest desire to promote purity. He could not; sitting there as an English judge, allow such garbage to pass under his notice without expressing hi 3 disgust. Tho book scattered its poison and did its mischief. Women of the present day were used to stranga things, things which would startle men in his boyhood, and they canio to this court day after day to listen to matters which men of mature age liko himself and the jury could not hear without shame, if they cared to verify what he said, he would give them tho references. This book brought an element of pity into this case for the wretched woman who was the wife of a man who would throw it in her way, and encourago her to read it. But there were sterner matters to consider in the case. It was true that a particular passage recommended abstinence, but, when he looked over tho book, lie saw beyond doubt what its real character was. He had learnt that morning what was the natural consequence of indulgence in literature of that kind. THE SHADOW OX THKIK PATH. Mr. and Mrs. Bartlett. however, seemed to live in unbroken happiness. They had the misfortune to make tho acquaintance of the Rev, George Dyson. His Lordship said he used the word " unfortunate" advisedly, because but for that acquaintance they would probably have been living happily together now. He most earnestly impressed upon tho jury tho conviction that Mr. Dyson was guiltless of any complicity in murder or designs of murder. Whatever else they might think, however, it was not a pleasant spectacle, that of a Christian minister becoming an intimate friend of this family, discussing and entering into these unwholesome conversations about two drives—one for companionship and another for service — gradually becoming an intimate friend of both husband and wife, addressing to that wife the words of an unhallowed and un-Christian affcction, kissing, according to his own showing, in tho presence of the husband ; and, under the guise of giving lessons —as to which tho evidence was very slight—passing hour after hour with her : letting her sit at his knee, with her head leclining on his lap, and justifying all this by the miserable pretext of listening to the morbid nonsense of the husband ; and finally accepting the husband's invitation to succeed him when he should be no more. If such talk did take place in the presence of the Rev. George Dyson, the Rev. George Dyson should have put his foot down upon it and stamped it out. Gentlemen, continued the learned judge, when a young wife and a young man get discussing, Whether in the presence or in the absence of the husband, the probability of his decease within & measurable time, according to all ordinary experience of human life, that husband's life is not one that an insurance cfilcc would like to take. THE CHLOROFORM. ' Supposing that the circumstance of Criminal administration was not under consideration, and supposing that the poaai liility of non-criminal administration was present to their minds, he confessed that there was a non criminal possibility, and, assuming that to be so, the prisoner could not know how the deceased had died. Her conduct before and her conduct afterwards might lead them to think that for other reasons it was criminal, but, assuming that it was uncrirninal, she could throw no light upon it. Therefore they were in the region of speculation. He knew from experience, what none of the gentlemen of the jury knew, tho craving that people who wero suffering from sleeplessness undergo, and the difficulty of resisting that impulse. It took a very strong-minded man not to take narcotic?, because the miseries of sleepless- ■ ness were stronger than anyone could possibly imagine. He assumed, for the purpose-of the argument, that the bottle of chloroform got innocently within his reach, and it did strike him, after an injection of morphia and the chloral hydrate had failed to procure sleep, that it was scarcely improbable that this man, eager and anxious to get sleep, with tho cravings of a man to procure —that he might have got hold of the bottle, and poured some chloroform into a glass and drunk it. It did seem to him, assuming the possibility consistent with the other circumstances of tho case of noncriminal administration, that it was a more rational theory than that of suicide, which had been suggested by the defence. He pointed that out because he wished to show that the suggestion of suicide seemed almost absurd under the circumstances. They were now dealing with that which was pure speculation, and to which his opinion was no better or no worse than anybody else's. To his mind, by far the most important part of the inquiry wa3 what was that history of the bottle of chloroform. Assuming for the moment that it was a noncriminal administration of the chloroform, the bottle would surely have been on the mantelpiece. He saw no great difficulty in understanding that the deceased might have ao lifted himself to reach the bottle for the purpose of relieving pain without disturbing his sleeping wife; but, if so, what then became of the bottle ? There was no doubt about the evidence that by four o'clock in the morning that bottle had disappeared and had never been seen since. If all was right, it was difficult beyond measure to account for the disappearance of that bottle. It vraa a momentous question which the jury would have to decide presently, What had become of that bottle? and he could not help them. THE SCENE WHEN* THE VERDICT WAS DE- '' LIVE It EI). ; The tenseness of tho terrible scene was prolonged by the delay in calling over the names of the jury, and even the most hardened in criminal cases felt his pulse beat a little quicker, while many were visibly half-choked with the emotions of the critical moment. "Do you find Adelaide Bartlett guilty or not guilty?" asked the . clerk, in measured tones. "Although," i and the sound of a great tumult of shoutV ing and cheering came into the court from : the crowd outside. Was the verdict communicated by some sudden signal, for the cheers were loud and vigorous before the verdict was given ? " Although," and then, after the brief pause necessitated by the shouts which had drowned the foreman's voice, "although we think there is the gravest suspicion attaching to the prisoner, we do not think there is sufficient evidence to show how or by whom the chloroform was administered." "Do you say the prisoner is not guilty?" asked the clerk. "Yes," replied the foreman." "Hurrah, hurrah!" Handkerchiefs waved, women cried, and the breath came again. Then tho crowd within took up the plaudits of tho crowd without, and such a scene as has seldom been witnessed in a court of justice followed. Then the prisoner gave another gasp, the women lifted up the motionless figure in black, and in a few brief seconds the door closed behind her, for the last time, and she was once more free. It was a sa|| picture to think of this creature, and her future in the world which was once more open to her, the woman who had lived without friends except the man of whose

murder she hud just been acquitted. However, some good Samaritan, a pretty girl, who had eat through the coroner's investigations at her side, made her way dauntless through the pound-like dock, and followed her. ' The judge thanked the jury, and there was a rush for the doors. In tho gloomy yard which lies between the frowning walls of Newgate and the courts of justice carriages were waiting to take up some of those semi-asphyxiated ladies who came down the steps leading fro m tho court to the yard, with their limbs evidently still quivering from their pleasurable excitement. "It is all over now. When shall we drink such another draught.' For a few minutes the crowd lingered within tho gates, the men smoking, the women laughing and chatting, in hopes of catching another glimpse of the quarry as it was carried away, like a deer after tho chase.