Topic's OF THE Week

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XIV, Issue VIII, 23 February 1895, Page 170

Topic's OF THE Week

THE paragraphs in last week’s issue concerning the value and danger of the new defence in mnrder cases, that the deed was committed under hypnotic suggestion, has drawn several letters from interested subscribers. They deal mainly with the attempt to shoot an Auckland solicitor, and cannot therefore be published at present. That people may be hypnotised, and when under the influence of hypnotism commit terrible crimes must be admitted, and council for the defence of prisoners have not been slow to take advantage of the new opening. One of the letters I have received contains a most ingenious defence of the young man who so nearly pistolled Mr Campbell on Wednesday, and one cannot help regretting not being able to publish it. A Wellington gentleman, however, furnishes the most interesting communication. He points out that a hypnotist can not only compel a man or woman to do murder for him, but can by hypnotic suggestion force an innocent man to confess himself guilty of a crime which he—the hypnotist —has committed. Not only could such a thing happen, bnt it actually has happened. In proof of this my correspondent sends an article of the greatest interest, bnt which the exigencies of space have compelled me to cut down.

The story is, it appears, an old legal one, and concerns two men of the name of Bourne, who were arrested and tried for the murder of one Colvin against whom they had a grudge. Colvin bad disappeared and the Bournes were charged with his murder. There was nothing upon which the officers of the law could proceed, because there was absolutely no proof of the corpus delicti — the body of the crime. That is to say, the accused could not be tried until there was sufficient evidence at hand to show that a crime had been committed. As it was there was nothing more than suspicion. After some delay, however, it was announced by the Prosecuting Attorney that he was prepared to go to trial; that he had obtained the confession of one if not both of the prisoners. The story of the confession as it came out was that the brothers had been confined in separate cells ; that they bad become worn out by the importunities of those who urged them to confess, and that finally one of the brothers admitted that he did the deed. When this fact was made known to the other he stoutly insisted that it was he and not his brother who perpetrated the crime.

Stephen Bourne, who was convicted and sentenced to be hanged, confessed, so it was said, that without the knowledge of his brother George he had murdered Colvin and buried bis body beneath a heap of stones in a certain field. It was shown on his trial that the bones were found just as he described them and they were presumably produced in court. On the day appointed for the execution of Stephen Bourne, and just as they were about to adjust the noose to his neck, Richard Colvin appeared on the scene, and the hanging proceeded no further. Colvin explained that he had wandered away from home in a fit of mental aberration, but had recovered in time, and hearing by chance of the arrest and conviction of Bourne, he had hastened home to prevent the consummation of a legal crime.

Those who have had the most experience in dealing with criminal law and that class of officers who devote their lives to the conviction of criminals, not to say to the discovery of crime, know how unsafe it is to rely upon the testimony of such officers as to confessions made by prisoners. These considerations led the higher courts of the land to lay down a rule of criminal evidence, which is now universally recognized, under which no conviction can be had without proof of the corpus delicti beyond a reasonable doubt, entirely independent and irrespective of the confession of the accused. It may be said that in the Bourne case there was proof of

the corpus delicti by the exhibition of the bones which were brought from the stone heap in the field which Stephen Bourne either did or did not describe. But when it is remembered that when Colvin returned and exploded the supposed confession of Stephen Bourne, a further examination of the bones disclosed the fact that they belonged to a diseased mule (this is sober and petrified fact), it will be seen how little the proof of the corpus delicti in that case depended upon anything but the alleged confession.

In the literature of criminal trials and transactions there are many cases hardly less remarkable than the one just mentioned. There are some well-remembered instances where accused persons have been tried, convicted and executed for mnrder where there was no lack of proof of the corpus delicti, but where there.was no evidence to connect the accused with the crime, except alleged confessions—cases where, after execution, the real criminals were subsequently discovered. In other words, where innocent men have been hung for crimes with which they had nothing to do. Is it not practically certain that some of these * confessions ’ were obtained by interested parties by mesmeric influence, the object being, perhaps, to compass the death of the innocent man who confesses.

ONE is getting heartily sick of the woman-eqnals-man discussion, which has taken a new and vigorous, not to say virulent, lease of life in the Synod at Nelson. The whole question was discussed ad nauseam when the Female Franchise Bill was yet nnpassed.and when once the women of the colony had been admitted to political equality most of us heaved a sigh of satisfaction in the mistaken belief that the arguments both pro and con were done with at last. Vainhope. The Church plodding heavily behind has re-opened the discussion, and thelaststateof the readersof newspapers is worse than the first. Membersof Parliament arelongwindedenough and prosy enough in all conscience, and the reports of their sayings are dnll and dismal reading indeed; bnt the synodsmen—so to call the prosing parsons—who have wasted so much valuable time at Nelson are infinitely more dull, infinitely more verbose, and the reports of their proceedings a positive terror to the man who groans to find the best columns in the paper absorbed by them. Few, one imagines, read them for pleasure—madness would lie that way—and there is little indeed to reward those nnhappy beings whose duty obliges them to read or to listen to the speeches. Still there was a pearl here and there. The Graphic, of course, agrees that women should have a vote in vestry and church matters, but I could not help feeling that Mr went out of his way to court a smart retort when he alluded to the benefit public bodies would derive from the presence of women, owing to the pacific tendency and * sweet reasonableness of women.’ What about Mrs Yates at Onehnnga ! Sweet reasonableness ! I Ye gods ! 1 !

COLONIAL youth beware ! Avoid the moonlight picnic, distrust the custom of sitting out. A new terror threatens the engaged young man, therefore fight shy of all that tends that way. Hitherto the dangers of en gagement have been of so old established an order that it would be an impious and sacrilegious hand that should dare to use a pen against them, but when a new terror is added it is time to rebel. The tobacco-pouch of plush broidered with the fingers of devotion we have come to look on with equanimity, even with favour. It is fat and clumsy and gaudy to a degree, but no man would dare to hint that it was not a charming present. The splendidly floral braces are, too, a legitimate offering, and one to be accepted by the patient and well-behaved male with outward joy and inward resignation. Slippers, of course, one regards as inevitable, and about a year ago in this colony knitted neckties were added to the list. They were allowed to pass without remark, and this perhaps accounts for the fact that we are to have the new terror. Straw plaiting is the latest craze, and it is the thing for a young woman in smart society to give her fiance a straw hat—l mean plaited by her own fingers. The Queen herself has given an impetus to the new fad by positively making a hat for * dear Bittenberg.’ When the editor of the Graphic read this announcement he trembled for New Zealand’s jeunesse dorte, for what will not the loyal colonial girl do to imitate royalty. But he still hoped till in a New Zealand paper he read an advertisement announcing that lessonscould be given and materials bought froma certain well-known shop not a thousand miles from Cathedral Square, Christchurch. As someone has truly said in lamenting the innovation, the prospect is formidable indeed ; braces and pouches can be hidden away, but a straw hat is always obvious, and seems

likely now and then to be embarrassingly so. The imagin. ative man will have no difficulty in picturing to himself half a dozen forms of home-made hats which will render suicide not only justifiable bnt inevitable.

A MALE VOLENT and misguided female has, I observe, been advising women to go in for * house to house’ open air photography for a living. As everyone knows, the method of procedure is simple. You take your camera to a suitable place, say a terrace containing twenty or more houses, and secure one or more views of it. Then you send copies to all the householders resident in the said terrace—their names may be procured from the directory—and request that they will send a small sum, say a shilling or eighteen pence, for the photograph yon have taken of their residence, adding that further copies can be had if desired. Probably ten or twenty will not respond at all, but if nine of the rest send their shillings, and the tenth orders half-a-dozen copies, you will not get a bad return for your expenditure in the matter of plates, sensitised paper, and postage stamps. This is obviously only an extension of the idea of the people who photograph the * Hatch, Match, and Dispatch ’ columns in the daily papers, and send copies to all the people who have had events in their families. But it has evidently * canght on,’ for in certain new neighbourhoods the speculative photographer follows close upon the heels of the speculative builder, whose new villas are often taken by the camera long before they are taken by the tenants.

The woman who follows the plan in the foregoing paragraph will probably cause * man, poor man ’ a vast amount of misery. It was possible to swear at the men who tried this game, but of course one will have to smile a polite *No thank you, not to day,’ to women when they begin. The Graphic would, by the way, suggest that the plan may at slight risk be made very much more remunerative. If all the family are enticed into the verandah while the house is being taken, a handy accomplice—beg pardon, assistant —may profitably employ herself clearing out the plate box and any valuables to be found in the back rooms, entrance being made by the back door, which is almost sure to have been left open. No charge is made for this idea, ft is given away with this number.

IT is surprising how year after year the same questions crop up on the same topics. An experienced journalist can almost predict the month when certain familiar yet strange questions will find their way into the query columns. There is, for instance, that time-honoured and really unanswerable demand—what becomes of all the pins? England alone, it appears, turns out some fifty-four millions daily, and Germany and the rest of the world must average about another fifty millions. 100 millions of pins a day ! Surely these are not, cannot be all absolutely made away with daily. As has been said by a contemporary on this important matter, it is rather a difficult thing to lose a pin absolutely. Washerwomen manage to lose a good many in the recesses of one’s linen, but the wearer finds them every time, and usually has some pungent remarks to make on the discovery. The number arranged by thoughtless nurses in the softer parts of babies’ anatomies is doubtless large, but they usually come to light again, the baby, and the equally wakeful father, know the reason why.

People are, indeed, most relnctant to let pins be lost. They remember vaguely that a millionaire, when shey were children, ascribed his fortune to picking up a pin, and they are always cricking their backs and staring their eyes in endeavour to follow his example. A great number of pins find their way to the dust heaps, but the persons who overrake these nnsavoury accumulations doubtless return many of them to civilisation, only, however, to be lost again. The only suggested explanation at all likely to be accurate, says the Globe, is this: ‘That just as’there are absurd people who imagine that by collecting a million used penny stamps they may gain some great privilege, so there are other misguided persons who believe that a million pins have a special market value, and thus absorb the enormous production.’

JUST now when we hear so much of England’s desire and intention to establish ‘ protectorates ’ in various regions disturbed by the Asiatic war, it is amusing to read of the fate that befell the British steamship Yarrowdale, within a few hours’ steaming of the port of Suez, over which England exercises a protectorate in the full significance of the word. The Yarrowdale, a ship of 2,000 net tonnage ran on a reef known as Aboo Nahas, situated at the entrance of the Gulf of Suez, about one hundred and fifty miles south of the chief port of the great canal. As soon as the news of her wreck reached Suez the local agents sent down the Egyptian steamer Hodeida, with pumps and other salvage material, a European diver, and one hundred labourers, to try and get her off; but the Hodeida was not powerful enough to tow the Yarrowdale off the reef and therefore she returned to Suez. In the meanwhile it seems that after jettisoning about 600 tons of cargo, the vessel, when under steam, was got off the reef;

whereupon the Arabs rushed on board and drove the whole crew aft with their naked daggers and knives, and the Yarrowale drifted side on to the shoal and finally settled down headforemost. They then commenced to pillage her and threatened the officers with their daggers unless they gave up all the valuables about them, which the officers were compelled to do, glad to escape with their lives from the armed horde, which numbered about 350. The third mate, Mr Simmonds, according to an eyewitness, was seized by two Arabs, who threatened to disembowel him with their knives if he did not make over at once a silver watch and chain he was wearing, and on his refusing, they tore the coat, watch, and all off his back. After being stripped of everything, the master and the rest of the ship’s company, numbering only twenty-eight hands, succeeded in getting off to Shadwan, whence they were taken on board the steamship Borderer and brought to Suez. This free and-easy piracy within ready reach of a port where English influence and authority are really dominant, has aroused general European comment on the efficacy of British protectorates. *lt seems almost incredible,’ observes one journal, * that such an act could be committed with impunity, within a few hours’ steaming of a crowded port like Suez and in full view of passing vessels, for the spot where the Yarrowdale was wrecked was on the highway between Suez and Aden.’ Nothing has yet been done, either, to punish this extraordinarily audacious piracy, and the British community at Suez threatens to write to the London Times unless steps are taken to repress the water rata that have taken to cavorting about the Red Sea within gunshot of the British Residence.

A DISCUSSION is going on in England as to who is the most blameless Duke in the Empire. General opinion seems to accord the distinctive honour to the Duke of Norfolk. One Conservative commentator styles him • a Duke with a spotless reputation.’ His method of dispensing charity favours expenditure rather than mere almsgiving. Like Louis XV., His Grace has ‘the mania of building;’ nothing delights him so much as to devise a combination of bricks and mortar wherewith to melt money. There is no counting the churches he has built and there is no measuring the magnitude of castles that he has restored. The magnificence and size that Arundel Castle has taken on since the present Duke came to rule the House of Howard reminds one of the story of the Shah’s visit to the late Duke of Sutherland at Dunrobin. Upon his return to London the ruler of the East hastened to the Prince of Wales and after telling him with every show of agitation of the marvellous display of wealth and power that he had himself just seen on Sutherland’s estates, he implored the Prince for the safety of the Royal House to have the Duke of Sutherland immediately arrested and executed !

THE Rev. Dr. Joseph Parker, pastor of the London City Temple, not only cuts a very ridiculous figure but a very contemptible one in his crusade against reporters who * take down ’ his sermons and sell them to newspapers. The holy man has gone so far as to denounces the poor devils who have to sit and listen to his cant and hypocrisy as thieves. For what but cant and hypocrisy are the preachings of one who behaves as Parker has done in this instance ? 1 Is it right,’ this precious expounder of the gospel whines, * is it right to make a living out of another man’s brain without compensating him ? The preacher earns his livelihood by his sermons, etc. ’ No one seems to care to answer these questions tor the annointed dominie—who doubtless fancies he has been Called to preach the Word—but there appears to be little doubt that in claiming copyright for his inspired utterances Parker has utterly disgusted the orthodox as well as the heterodox. Wherever Parker turns his shrewd eyes he sees the finger of scorn pointed at him. It is generally admitted that his usefulness in the pulpit formerely graced by Spurgeon is at an end. He is at this moment the most sincerely despised man in England. If he were capable of self respect, Parker would instantly lay down the high office to which he has evidently appointed himself for gain alone.

THE young women of a certain well-known and justly famous colonial girls’ school have a genuine grievance. It was reported to the head master that one of the members of the college had been detected kissing a sweetheart—presumably her own—good-night. This is against the rules, and the master, summoning the forty students, proceeded to lecture them in terms more virulent even than those with which Mary of first-reader fame was rebuked for bringing a lamb to school. The girls were, naturally enough, indignant. Each and every one of the forty set to work to establish a decisive alibi for herself, and when these alibis were finally corroborated by the confession of a pretty little housemaid employed in the college who admitted that it was she who had committed the osculatory infraction of the regulations, the slandered innocents demanded an apology. For some reason not at all clear to gallantry, the master has declined to retract his unwarranted rebuke, and now the forty young women threaten to leave the college. To add to the worriments of the college officials, the pretty little minx who was the primary cause of all the trouble likewise threatens to * leave her place ’ unless the

college anthorities publicly acknowledge her right to kiss her sweetheart as often and whenever she elects. Altogether, the President of the College is in a most embarrassing position, and it is a safe wager that in future he will hesitate about exaggerating the significance of a little thing like a kiss.

ALL generous men will rejoice to know that none of the private correspondence of the Carlyles that was intrusted to the keeping of the historian Froude will ever reach the public. The lately deceased man-of-letters directed in his last testament that all the unprinted documents relating to the Carlyles which the mighty Thomas had bequeathed to him should be destroyed. Thus the world will be spared a renascence of the ugly gossip that has so often occupied itself with the bickerings and squabbles of the Carlyle household. No good to any man, cause, or philosophy could come of a closer familiarity with the domestic disturbances of the Chelsea sage, and in ordering the destruction of the compromising letters Froude has done much to atone for some previous indiscretions in the treatment of the Carlyle legacy.

CONSUL,’ the West African chimpanzee, whose death has recently saddened Manchester, is said to have been the most remarkable monkey ever brought to Europe. He would sit at dinner with human beings, use the implements of the table correctly, and take his wine with enjoyment. When he was handed a big bunch of keys, he would at once select the right one, unlock his cage with it, and let himself out. He delighted in railway travelling, and had a seat to himself against the carriage window. He died before his education was by any means finished, and it would be idle to guess how far he might have gone. He seems, at any rate, to have gone further than mere instinct—to have acquired, at least to some extent, those qualities of reason and conscience that are popularly supposed to distinguish man from the other animals. Perhaps the missing link may yet be discovered.