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taping agent of OldBurlington-street , Reposed to receiving tie cheque for 350 ? . signed by Cooke , and transmitted to him by Palmer ( for which he was to send the money ) , the body of which cheque was not in the same handwriting as the signature . This cheque , which was sent on the 20 th of November , was not returned to Palmer , as Mr . ¦ Wetherby had not sufficient funds in his hands to pay if . Mr . Butler and' Mj \ Stevens gave some part iculars with respect to Palmer ' s betting on the Shrewsbury races ; and the case for the prosecution was closed .
THE DEFENCE . Mr . Serjeant Shee then rose to open the case for the defence . He spoke at first in a very low tone of voice , and was only distinctly audible in the immediate vicinity of where he stood . He observed that he rose with an overwhelming sense of the responsibility which rested on him : only once before had he defended a prisoner whose life was at stake ; and the jury might conceive the anxiety of his mind now that he had had to stand for six days under the shade of the scaffold , conscious that the least error of judgment might have the effect of consigning his client to an ignominious death and to public execration . That was a position well calculated to try the clearest judgment ; but his task had been lightened by the great fairness with which the prosecation had been conducted , and he must tell his unhappy
client that everything which could possibly be done to insure an honest trial had been effected- If , unhappily , an injustice should be committed on either side , the whole responsibility would rest on the judges and the j ury . For himself , he must say that he believed truer words were never pronounced than those the prisoner uttered when he said " Not Guilty" to the charge . If he ( Mr . Serjeant Shee ) should fail in establishing his innocence , he should have very great misgivings that his failure was attributable to his own inability to do justice to the case , and not to any weakness in the case itself . He would grapple with the facts alleged by the prosecution , fb *> t by foot , and inch by inch ; and not a point would he leave untouched . In the first instance , he would endeavour to restore to its
proper place in the discussion the fact that strychnine was not found in the body of Cooke . If Cooke died of strychnine , he died in two hours after the administering of a strong dose . He must have died within a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes after the effects of the dose became visible in strong convulsions of the body . The post-mortem examination took place within six days of his death ; and there was no reason to suppose that within that time there was any detection of it in the body . Never , therefore , were circumstances more favourable , or a case in which strychnine was more likely to have been found , if it was there . The fact was established beyond all question that it was not found . Dr . Taylor contended that the poison of strychnine was
of that nature that , when once it had done its fatal work , and became absorbed in the system , it ceased to be the thing which it was when it was taken into the system—became decomposed—its elements separated , and therefore no longer capable of responding to the testa which would detect the poison of undecomposed strychnine . The opinion of Dr . Taylor was not supported by the opinions of any eminent toxicologist but himself . It was due to Dr . Taylor to say that he had propounded this theory in his book , but it was a theory of his own ; and when it was remembered that his knowledge of the subject—humane man that he was —was confined to his having poisoned five rabbits twenty-five years ago , his opinion , unsupported by the
opinion of others , waa not of much weight . He would call before the jury many gentlemen of the highest eminence , in their profession , analytical chemists and others , who would state their utter renunciation of this theory . But he . would now refer to a question even yet more important , with respect to which he felt no distrust ; namely , the . question whether , in the second week of November in last year , the prisoner at the bar had a motive for the commission of the murder , and some strong reason for desiring that Cooke should die ? It seemed to him ( the learned counsel ) that it was not only not the interest of Palmer that Cooke should die , but that hia death was the very worst calamity which could befal him , and that ho must have known that it would be followed by his own ruin . That it was followed by his ruin they all knew . They all knew that , when it was alleged that the prisoner commenced to plot the
death of Cooke , ho was in extreme embarrassment . Cooke and Palmer had been intimate and steady friends ; they were jointly interested in at least one racehorse ; they stayed together at the same hotels ; they went to the same race-courses , and they were known to bo connected in betting transactions upon the same horses , at the same races . This was proved by the witness Mr . Tones , who said that he heard Cooko say in his presence , " Palmw , we have lost a good deal of money on races thin year . " It was shown by abundant evidence that they -Were closely connected ; and in the month of August , 1854 , money was wanted by Cooke , which was raised through the instrumentality of Palmar . Palmer applied to Pratt for it , and offered the security of Cooko , whom he represented to be a gentleman of some fortune . Caoke , with 18 , 0007 . in ready money , might have gone on for a few yeara , and with his stud of horses made a dtooyr of much greater wealth . He wished tho jury to
duce them to let the bill stand over . On the 9 th of November , the 300 ? . were paid ; and on the 13 th , the day that Polestar won the race , Pratt wrote to Palmer , speaking of the Prince " of Wales Insurance Office , and their refusal to pay the insurance on Palmer ' s brother ' s life , and then adding , — " I must positively insist on seeing you on Saturday ; and , for both our sakes , try to make up the amount of the 2000 ? . ; for , without it , I shall be unable to renew the 1500 / . " This letter reached Palmer at Rugeley on the evening of his arrival from the Shrewsbury race-course . The learned Serjeant mentioned other letters of Pratt , asking for payment of 200 ? . ; he then proceeded to describe some of the doings at Rugeley , and next spoke of Cooke writing to . Fisher in those terms : — " It is of very great importance , both
remember that he-was not defending Palmer against the charge of forgery , if he were guilty of that crimeneither was he disposed to defend . the reckless imprudence of obtaining money at enormous rates of interest . The question now was , whether he was guilty of murder ? Let them look at the position of Palmer and Cooke in the second week of November , as proved by Pratt , and by the correspondence put in evidence . In addition to the 12 , 500 ? . worth of bills , there were two acceptances for 2000 ? ., each purporting to be drawn on the prisoner's mother , and due the last week in October . There were in addition two other bills , amounting to 1500 ? ., which were to be held over from month to month , Palmer paying interest at the rate of 60 per cent . These latter bills were pressing upon him ; but it was pretty clear that Pratt or his clients would have taken the interest , and that , so long as there was a vestige of good security , Pratt desired nothing better than to hold them over . In this state of things , on the 22 ud of October , Palmer came up to town , and Pratt pressed Palmer for payment of these bills . With regard to one of them , for 2000 ? ., which had just become due , and had not been paid , Pratt insisted on payment by instalments in addition to the interest , aud it was agreed that Palmer should pay 250 ? . on the 27 th , a like sum on the 31 st , and that , as soon afterwards as possible , a further sum of 300 ? . should also be paid , making in the whole 800 ? . This was to quiet Pratt , or , as Pratt said , to quiet his clients , and
in-JVLr . JraJmer ana niyselr , a sum . oe paid to a Mr . Pratt , of 5 , William-street , May-fair , tomorrow without fail . 300 ? . has been sent up to-night ; and if you -will be kind enough to pay the other 200 / . to-morrow , you will greatly oblige me ; and I will give it to you oa Monday at TattersalTs . " There was a postscript consisting of four words only , but which would form the subject of comment by-and-by . The postscript was— " I am much better . " Surely , the inference from this correspondence was that Cooke was making himself useful to Palmer , by writing to his agent to get paid to Pratt the 20 QI . for which Pratt was pressing Palmer . It was clear cither that Cooke had an interest in Palmer ' s transactions , or that this letter contaiued falsehoods inserted for the purpose of " putting a good face on it . " Whatever way these facts were taken , they proved to
tive for putting Cooke out of the way , was entirely gratuitous aud groundless . The Attorney-General had asserted that Cooke never received the money . This was improbable in the highest degree . Did the jury believe that , after executing the bill of sale for the two horses he so much valued , he remained for three months without reminding Pratt that he had not handed him the money ? It was perfectly incredible . Itefiirring to the entry by Palmer on the title-page of a medical work , " Strychnine kills by causing the mechanical fixing of the respiratory muscles , " ] J Ir . ser . jeant Shee contended that this was merely a note taken by the accused , when a young medical student , for his own information . There were several other entries in
the same book . —Lord Campbell here reminded Mr . Serjeant Shee that the point had not been pressed by the Attorney-General ; but the learned counsel replied that as it had been brought forward , he desired to reply to it . —He then adverted to the death of Walter Palmer in August last ; and remarked that William Palmer ' s only hope of a release from his difficulties , unless his mother should be reconciled to him , was in getting the money from the Prince of Wales Insurance Oince for the insurance on the life of his brother . For some time previous to the month of November , the company , who were annoyed at being called on to pay so large a sum as 13 , 000 ? ., were determined to do all in their power to resist payment ; and , accordingly , they sent down
Inspector Field to liugeley to make inquiries . They talked and whispered insinuations , and raised a cloud of doubt and conjecture ; and this had been going on for some time . So that , just before the death of Cooke , Palmer was aware that he was the object of what he knew to b * e a moat unfounded and unwarnmtable suspicion ; yet he put the policy of insurance into the hands of an attorney to enforce payment , the office meeting the claim by insinuations of a nature to destroy his character , and bring about him the suspicion of another murder . The pressure for the 2000 ? . bills never took place at all till the office disputed the policy ; all went smoothly till the company disputed the policy on Walter Palmer's life ; and then Pratt wrote to Palmer , and told him the
situation was changed , that he could manage the bills while the policy remained undisputed , but that now Palmer must make arrangements to meet the bills . A *» d even . now , that 13 , 000 ? . was sure to be paid , unless the prisoner was convicted of murder : as sure as he was saved , and saved he believed he would be , that 13 , 000 ? . would be paid . As to the cause of Cooke ' s death , the postmortem examinations showed that he was suffering from " a very ugly sore-throat , " with diseased tonsils , one of which was reduced in size , while the other had almost vanished . He also exhibited traces of another disease ; and he ( Mr . Serjeant Shee ) would produce medical witnesses to show that that disease was of a virulent character . At the medical inquiry after death , the spine
was not examined much below the j unction of the head , and its symptoms were not investigated . The assertion of Dr . Taylor at the inquest , when he swore that death resulted from strychnine ( although he could not find any trace of that poison , although he had never seen its influence on the human body , and although he only knew the condition of Cooko from the accounts given by Elizabeth Mills , tho chambermaid , and Mr . Jones , the medical man)—such an assertion was moat reprehensible . Man ' s constitution is a mystery to us all . We suppose that tho soft or medullary substance which is within the cavity of the bead is the seat of thought and sensation ; and while wo know that that soft medullary substance is continued down the
demonstration that Palmer and Cooke were playing into each other ' s hands in respect of the heavy incuinbrauces upon Palmer , and that Palmer could rely on Cooke ' s aiding him iu any difficulty . So that here , on the 10 th of November , when it was said that Palmer was poisoning Cooke , Cooke was behaving towards him in tho most friendly way , was acquainted with his circumstances , and willing to assist in relieving liim from his embarrassments , by devoting to his use a portion of his earnings on the race-course . This and another portion of the evidence completely negativod the theory advanced on the other side . Cooke was , in fact , a most convenient friend to Palmer , and Palmer , instead of its being his interest to get rid of him , could hardly do without him . During tho last illness of Cooke , Puhuer watched tho bedside of bus friend ; he was with him night and day ; he attondod him as a brother ; he called his friends around him ; ho did all that the most affectionate solicitude could suggest for a friend who was ill—unless ho was cognizant of hia death . In Palmer's lettor to Pratt , the day after the death , these passages occur : —" I am aorry to say that , after all , ho died in his bed ; so you had better -write to Saunders ; but mind , I must have Polestar , if it can bo so arranged ; and if any one questions you about Cooko , don ' t answer till you have seen mo . I sat up two whole nights with Cooko . " And did ho not ? Was not this true ? Now , let them , mark tho answer of Pratt to tbia letter . That answer concluded with a reminder that Palmer , by tho death of Cooko , would bo compelled to make arrangements for a 500 ? . bill becoming payable on the 2 nd of December : so that the very first effect of Cooke ' a death was to auddlo Palmer with a loan of COO ? . Tho bill wau for Cooko'a , not Palmer ' u accommodation . Palmer had lout his name to Cooko , and on Cookc ' a death Pulmer became primarily and alone responsible . Tho jury would judge whether it suited PaJinor to stand before the holder of that 500 ? . bill as the cuxly man liublo upon it ; yot this waa a result to Palmer of Cooko ' a doutb . All tho fuels connected with tho advance of tho 500 ? . on tho assignment by Cooko of his two racehorses , Polestar aud Siriuo , showed Unit Cooko had received tho money , not Palmer ; and conuequantly , the hypothesis of tho Attornoy-Gonoral in this cose , including tho suggested forgery of Cooko ' a endorsement to a bill , and tho fuar of detection ucting oa a
moback , in the middle of the back-bone , protected by a bony duct or canal , embedded in two tissues , oue oi ' which ia tho arachnoid , tho other the dura mater , wo know that from the sides of thia bony duct , this medullary substance , an infinite variety of nerves , the conduits of sensation from nil parts of the frame , ami of luuaclea dependent upon them , tho instruments of voluntary motion there rise . This wo know ; and wo know that by that wonderful process all tho ordinary actions of our lives and our will are carried on . Sometimes , however , thoso nerves and muscles dupurt from their normal character ; aud instead of being tho mcro exponents of the will , of the soul , are convulsivo ,
tumultuary , vindicating to themselves a sort of independent vitality , totally regardless of tho attributes to which they are ordinarily submissive ; and when they art ! thrown into this Btate of excitement , they uro known by tho general term convulsions . The ancients , thousands of years ago , know as wo do tho distinction between spasmodic und tetanic effects . Tetanus is divided into idiopathic and traumatic ; und wo have hud much description of these two aorta of tetanus iu this inquiry . Some of tho questions woro uiiHwurud ( satisfactorily ; but , when tho English of tho word " idiopathio" was usked for , tho reply was " constitutional . " This , however , was MOt right . Tho term meant " aub-genoralivo . "
Lord Campboll : Tho answer w « h , " Constitution al , without external injury . " Mr . Sorjoaut Shoo ( Miid ho thought tho word mount " unaecouutublo , " not thut tho convulsions viero " unaccountublo , " not thut it foliowed that they could novcr bo truceuble to u cause , but thut they constantly occurred under ciicumatuncoa in whioh wo only euapect the cuuso , and cull it " idioputhic , " bcuuuao we caunot
Untitled Article
^ gg THE LEADER , [ No . 322 , Saturday ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 24, 1856, page 486, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2142/page/6/
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