NOTES ON THE TRIAL OF MADELINE SMITH.

Colonist, Issue 2, 27 October 1857, Page 3

NOTES ON THE TRIAL OF MADELINE SMITH.

{From an article in the Liverpool Albion, by an eye-witness.) A trial of such unexampled interest and length as that of Madeline Smith, which has sent a thrill of horror into every home in Britain, and filled the columns in the same week, of the remotest provincial print at' home, and the most popular Parisian newspapers—-which has almost put a stop to the ordinary current of business in the two chief cities of Scotland—which has seen upwards of £4000 spent in the defence, and has called forth the noblest displays of forensic genius that the present generation of Scotsmen has- listened to—presents iri its nine days' history innumerable points of remark, any one of which might sei-ve as; a world's- wonder for more than the orthodox nine days during which wprders are? supposed to last. One who "has, attentively watched its progress from the first day to the; last, and has found it cast a spell over him, so that he e'an neither think nor dream of aught besides —and that is the position of every immediate eye-\vitries's—finds it next to impossible to fix on its prominent, points in their natural sequence. There is no order in a mystery; arid in the annals of criminal jurisprudence, we shall seek in vain for a stranger, sadder, more humiliating, or more mysterious story, than that which weaves into immortal companionship the names of Pierre Eniile L'Angelier and Madeline Hamilton Smith. At random, then', we' present a few features of the trial not fully developed by the'reports, as well as some points connected with the characters developed in the tragedy which do not appear in the testimonies that issued from the witness-box. Of the central figure, Miss Smith, much has been told, but the greater part of her life-story remains to be written. The eldest member of a family which she has driven from home and happiness, she was nurtured amidst all the refinements of life, like a hothouse plant., Her father resolved that she should be kept apart from the world as much as possible, vainly imagining that a severe system of seclusion from its evils wouM preserve his flower Madeline from contamination. She was permitted to know of evil only as it was spoken of in the catechism. While she was a girl he thought he could mould her into a spotless being by denying her even so much acquaintance with the out-* side world as is revealed in the columns of a newspaper. The Times might be his daily monitor, but. Madeline was too delicate to make acquaintance with its details of life. Ihe result was even worse than might have been expected from a system so false and so thoroughly opposed to the healthy developement of humanity in a Avorld where moral beauty is reached through a knowledge of the bad that has to be resisted and overcome. When she came into society Madeline Smith plunged headlong into the vortex of the existence of which she had been previously unaware. The hothouse plant was not fitted for the rough atmosphere of the world, and it perished. The catechism was exchanged for Lucretia, and novels of that class, which were flavored with unwholesome avidity. The " fast" literature of the day took the place of those " good " books which she had been set to read by good old Dr. Beattie, the venerable pastor of the United Presbyterian Church, of which her parents were members. She became faster in her pace than those of her female acquaintances who had been accustomed to what Isaac Taylor's old lady friend called " a little wholesome neglect." She had before been so well taken care of, that she now took no care of her- j self. And so it came about, in the course of a few short years, that she met in the poor Jersey youth with her "fate." She led two lives: this was the terrible necessity of thepositionin which she had beenprecipltated; and later in the night inwhich she had been down to the minister's house, perhaps to read to the venerable man, whose eyesight was growing dim, she would sit down to the construction of a letter to L'Angelier, at whose contents the most utterly abandoned of your Whitechapel " unfortunates" would blush with shame. A singular anecdote has been related to us on the best authority, which shows how, in this hypocritical woman's career, the strangest conjunction of events occurred. L'Angelier died on Monday, the 23rd March, and on the Wednesday following, the day she ran away from Blythswood-square to R»we, she was closeted with the pastor of the church in which she sat, and conversingl with him with a view to obtain what is called a "token," or in other Words a certificate for the sacramental table. She is said to have been a great favorite of the old clergyman's ever since she was a little girl, and that since he became so old and infirm that he could scarcely read she had been hi the habit of calling upon him every other evening and performing that office for him.

As to religious matters, L'Angelier and Miss Smith seem to have been somewhat alike. During his career of sin and weakness he was a constant attendant upon the ministrations of Mr. C. Popham Miles, the incximbent of St. Jude's Episcopal Chapel, and was highly esteemed, not only by that clergyman, hnt by several of the members of the church with whom he was acquainted^ The contrast between his letters, so far as we have ! got them, and his practice was not so great, however, as in the case of his false sweatheart ; for nowhere in them does he so glory in his shame, i and there is in them all an undercurrent of deep | remorse for their guilty conduct, and a feeling, not the less strong that it is only once expressed, of humiliation for their sins. His remorse may have been fitful, and his repentance something very like a mockery, but he was unquestionably capable of a true remorseful feeling, and it is the complete absence of that from Miss Smith's letters which has sent a cold chill into every home in which they have been read. Mr. Mjles, the minister of the unfortunate deceased, has taken such a deep interest in the trial that we have scarcely seen him absent during a single day of the proceedings. He was still inclined to believe that, however much the deceased may have erred with Miss Smith, there was more good in him than has been admitted by the newspapers and the counsel engaged in the case. The deportment of Miss Smith is a feature of the trial which cannot be passed over in silence, It would be wrong to infer from her coolness that she is either guilty or innocent; but the peculiar characteristics of that peculiar coolness have impressed many yrith. a conviction which is adverse to the verdict of the jury. The only exhibitions of feelings which she lias made have' been an oc-

casional nervous, twitching of the mouth, but this emotion she generally succeeded in suppressing. The eloquence of the-Lord Advocate in denouncing' her heartlessness and; sins scarcely ever blanched her cheek ; while her infamous letters were being read, she looked with a. steady eye and brazenbr,ow at the Cleric of the Court; the steady pathetic appeals of her advocate brought tears to many an eye, but never suffused her's ; and even the weighty denunciations of her shameless licentiousness which were uttered by the Lord Justice Clevk brought ho blush to her cheek. D'ur ihg the last three days of the* trial the fresh --color somewhat departed from her face, and she scarcely entered the dock with the- same jaunty air, or took her seat on the air-tight cushion [ provided for her use with the same elaborate carefulness to be comfortable, and to have her : dress gracefully disposed for the1 day. But she chatted as cheerfully with her agents- and counsel, or rather with such of them as chose to say a kind word to her; sat out each day of the trial without once moving from the' dock,' or even asking for so much as a glass of water; looked up to the galleries with the same- bold freedom; at the most saddening revelations of her shame never hung her head; and at the sad story of her parent's shame, and the* ruin she had brought upon her family, did not shed' a tear, although the Lord Advocate could not touch upon these points without his. voice, sinking into husky indistinctness, nor the "manly tones of the- Dean of Faculty sustain themselves above the strong currents of emotion which filled his eyes with tears, and for some moments (threatened to stay the onward march of his eloquent appeal. The worse than worthless character of the evidence produced for the defence was conspicuously exhibited by the very man whom we should have expected to find clinging with most tenacity to it; for the Dean of Faculty is an advocate distinguished not for the appeals to the feelings, but for plain, homely, common-sense remarks, based on the evidence produced in the trial in which he is engaged. In this gi-eat trial he was forced to depart from that course in which his main strength has hitherto been supposed to- lie. No man is so thoroughly acquainted with the temper of mind which is to be found in a Scottish Jury-box as John lnglis; and he knew that to dwell much on the absurd and impertinent evidence produced by Miss Smith's agents would only weaken the cause which he had to plead. In this respect, therefore, the speech which he made was an experiment, and the first which he has attempted. Feeling, not fact, was the region in which he had to exercise his eloquence. And, to the astonishment of every spectator, he succeeded. He did not simply succeed, for his address to the jury was a masterpiece, aided by the most graceful action of his tall and commanding form, by pathetic facial accompaniments, and by tears and half-choked utterance that were not simulated. The peroration was the noblest effort which has been heard at the Scottish bar by the present generation, and it was with the utmost difficulty that the Court, which has no feeling itself, and does not suppose such a thing to exist in the heart of humanity, could repress the cheers which rose at the conclusion, of the; address. It was supposed by some that Miss Smith, although she looked cool, was in a frame of mind which would precipitate her into a brain fever whenever the trial terminated. This notion has not been verified. When" the jury returned to give their verdict, many were in tears, and every face bore traces of the deepest anxiety, she alone preserved her cold equanimity. When the verdict had been pronounced, and deafening cheers resounded through the hall of judgment, all the feelings she exhibited was a faint, curious smile, which broke over her face, and in a moment departed—a smile which, to our eyes, appeared less prepossessing even than the almost Polar serenity which for a second it supplanted. When she went down the trap-stair to tbe cell beneath —a free woman once more—it was with a slow, steady step. When she arrived at the foot of the stair, we believe she met her brother, the " Jack " of her letters, without evincing any feeling of the sight of one whose prospects she has blighted, and over whose future life she has thrown a dark shadow. She talked freely about the proceedings in court, pronounced the Lovd Justice Clerk "a tedious old man," praised the Lord Advocate's speech against her as a very clever speech, and did not hesitate to criticise the audience and jury. When it was found that the immense crowd in Parliament-square were waiting in the expectation of getting a last look of the accused, and when a young woman was precured who agreed te personate her to the throng, provided she was favored with a sight of Miss Smith, the ex-prisoner not only agreed to be seen, bnt with her own hands attired, the curious girl in a dress of her own, that the people outside might the more surely be imposed on and led away from the spot. A while afterwards, having disguised herself slightly, she walked out on her brother's arm from a door at the other end of the square, accompanied by another young gentleman, and having gone to the front of St. Gile's Church, procured a cab, and was driven in it to one of the rural' stations of the Caledonian line. She left the train at a small side station near Glasgow, caught a train for Greenock on the same line, crossed, the Clyde in one of the passenger steamboats, and the same night was with her mother at Ro we, where the poor old lady has been in a dying condition for the last month. So that, through allthe first evening and nightof her release, at least, she has shown no symptom' of reaction. Her father refuses to see Her, and ere this she has left for a foreign land. With respect to the cheers of the public at the announcement of the verdict, the feeling now isthat they were not justified, although the verdict has given universal satisfaction. It is a noteworthy fact that the most vociferous applause, both in the court and out of it, came from th^ very poor, from those who might have been expected by some students of human nature to re gard Miss Smith's release with jealousy. To some extent the demonstration might be explained as an inevitable result of the extensive and heavy betting which had taken place as to the result. Among the leaders in the cheering we observed a fast young medical student who shouted and danced in an ecstacy of delight; he had won, wo were told, somewhere about thirty sovereigns by the result. The defence has cost somewhere about £4000. A greater sum than that was subscribed for tire purpose by a few of the leading Glasgow merchants. Whether these subscriptions were generously given from a belief in, her innocence, or * from a selfish desire that the " class " to which the subscribers belong should not be disgraced by tjie execution of one of their number, is not known. The Dean of Faculty's fee was ,£250, and a " refresher" of £70 every morning of the trial. Mr. Young, who was associated with the Dean in the defence, received ;£4OO altogether.

Swimming.—A correspondent of the Daily News gives the following recipe how to swim :—The natural effort of inexperienced persons upon accidental immersiou is to endeavour to raise the head as high as possible, thereby bringing the body in a perpendicular position, just the reverse of that required. The candidate for swimming shoiild endeavour to force his chin down upon the water, which brings him into the required horizontal position. He naturally strikes out, and swims, and so gains speedily sufficient force to perform any feat in the art. Making Provision fob. Young Men.—Making a small provision for young men is hardly justifiaable, and is of all things the most prejudicial to themselves. They think what they have much larger than what it realty is, and make no cxciv tion. The young should never hear' any other language but this—You have your own way to make, and it depends upon your own exertions whether you starve or not.-—Lord Melbourne. " I cannot but think it more eligible to be the father of many good works than of many children ; to have a philosophical friend or two rather than a- numerous offspring; and to spend my time nobly in cultivating my mind than entangling my life with cares of those who will often take none for themselves."; — Enquiry after Happiness, by Dr. Lucas?