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its principles , so wildly blundering in its practice . Then she turned out to be mad ; but meanwhile it struck censorious people that the man who was suspected of killing his children and falsely accusing his wife , had killed his mother to get at her property . He ^ as— to the disappointment of many—acquitted of the murder of the children ; but society hungered for a victim , and there was still some hope of the meal at Lincoln . It has satisfied the want .
Mrs . Ann Bacon , a woman sixty-three years of age , gets ill after diuner , on Sunday the 13 th of May , 1855 . She rallies , however , on the following morning , continues to improve during the whole of that day , but tei ' njjses on Tuesday , and dies in the evening . The medical man who attended her , M > . Ed-\ y . \ ni ) Bardeb , believed that she died from tiisease of the brain , gave a certificate according , and Mrs . Ann Bacon was quietly
buried . Nearly two years after , the son of iliis Mrs . Bacon is accused of setting his house on fire and murdering his children . Suspicion , always alert , then suddenly recollects the death of the mother , and Dame Just ice gives orders to exhume the body ; and verily the doctors find arsenic . Dr . TATLOttcan state ifc positively as a fact , that ' the analysis produced altogether three-quarters of a grain . ' thereupon , Thomas Fuijceb Bacon is accused of having administered the said poison , and put upon his trial .
It is clear that Mrs . Ann Bacon had been poisoned , but by whom ? Bacon is jsiiown to have purchased arsenic , to have tended his mother , to have used a bottle which was afterwards removed by him , to h . ive indecently entered on the possession of the property ; and the jury , from these facts , arfsume guilt . They refuse to look at the bearing of this evidence on Bacoh ' s wife , v . iio has been actually convicted of murder . Who knows that she began with her children ? " We do not hesitate to say that Bacon did not have a fair trial . Let us look at some
ft her points . The Crown arrays talent of t . ho highest order against the prisoner . All ihu machinery of law and science ( if analy-1 icnl chemistry can be called a science , which id rather doubtful ) is put in movement to et'iidli the accused . In the meantime lie stands unbefriended , public opinion , doctors , barristers , and professors , are all against him . His own ' natural' friends even refuse the means for a successful defence ; he Stands as alone and unpitiod as the hare brought out jjito the field for the purpose of being hunted clown .
To complete the mockery of the law , the judge appoints him a counsel at the eleventh hour , as if ifc were possible , even with the very best and enthusiastic intention , to argue , aTtec but a few hours' preparation , against adversaries prepared for weeks , if nob months , with every item of evidence , and every fact , possible to be used as weapons of destruction
At this trial in Lincoln , Bacon was just in the position of that red-eyed old creature , the witch , whom our wise forefathers used to try by the vox populi . The trial was simple enough : the accused hag was thrown into the water : if she could swim , well , that was sufficient proof of witchcraft , and she was condemned to be burnt ; but if she happened not to swim , she proved her innocence iu sinking .
It is true the public prosecutor very feelingly in his opening speech implored the jury to dismiss nil other considerations , and to judge the prisoner on the adduced eyidenco alone , very fine all that , and quite touohing ; but unhappily quite uncared for . The twelve men in the box , like all other mortal beings , have a . memory — n fixture / which cannot be dismisaed at w » M , but mu ^ t
be kept , bon gre \ mal gre . To tell them , therefore , to dismiss all thoughts from their head , was not only an utter absurdity , but an insult to their understanding , to which all men in a box might not submit . For weeks and months the jury and all the world had read descriptions of the brutish behaviour of the accused . He was an unfeeling monster , who ate tremendous steaks and chops , and was ' not in the least affected at his frightful position . ' Did Mr . Mbiioe really think that twelve men could read this coolly , and then at his bidding dismiss it from their memory ? Alas ! we are afraid that the unfeeling behaviour has done more harm to Bacon than all other things put
together . Meanwhile it has not been proved that Baooit murdered his mother , nor is there sufficient even of circumstantial evidence to justify the fact of the condemnation . For even if Mrs . Ann Bacon was poisoned , , there were other persons who stand under a remarkable accusation through the evidence . The l Doctor in the Witness-box' has of
late become an important functionary in assisting the twelve good men and true in the search after truth . Medical gentlemen , in general , are not very ' cute when poison is administered to patients under their treatment ; but they seem to become suddenly wide awake and super-detective when poison is looked for , after a rumour to the effect has been started , and the men of the wig have taken up the entangled threads of the law . The Standrings at Stockport poisoned their children in 1839 , to get a few miserable bxirial allowances
from a club , and what medical man saw anything before their death ? Several medical men surrounded the bed of sickness of poor Mrs . Wooliee ; for a long time they discerned not the slightest symptom of poisoning ; some of them rejected the suggestion of a young assistant ; but all became wise when ' the grave had closed over the sufferer ; and then they gave astounding evidence before the judge . Their evidence was followed up with no less extraordinary remarks
of tlie learned judge , to the total bewilderment of the twelve good men , that somebody else ought to have been accused rather than Wooxxkr . Again Mrs . Palmeu was quietly poisoned by her loving husband , and the symptoms were quietly looked at by her medical adviser as those of an ordinary disease . And again , Mrs . Ann Bacon was drugged with arsenic , and not a voice told the tale , till her son , accused of other crimes , drew suspicion on himself .
These points are left aside—they are too obscure , too little telling for the eloquence of counsel , or the summary consideration of any but a Chancery Judge . Bacon had been acquitted once ; he seems a disagreeable fellow ; and the shortest way was to condemn him now , and so keep even the ' balance of justice '—acquittal in one scale , condemnation in the other .
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Sill PITZROY KELLY'S OPINION ON THE BEItTOLACCI OA . SE . The Duchy qf Lancaster , from its earliest institution as a separate ' appanage' of the Crown of England , has been governed by a Chancellor and a Council composed of certain special officers , namely the Receiver-Genoval , the Attorney - General , the
Surveyor-Gonoral , and the Auditor . The Chancellor is appointed by the Sovereign , and ho is empowered to nominate , in tlio Sovereign ' s name , the olHoors above mentioned and instituting the Council , as well as ' Stewards and Receivers fcodarics , Auditors , DSaohcutora , Cpronors , BivU lifts / &o . Vine QonptitiJtiiott of tlio Duclny is not downed , by
any particular enactment , but every Charter and Act of Parliament , and document relating to the Duchy from the earliest period of its history , expressly show that its * government and guidance 1 and the control and management of its properly , are confided to the ' Chancellor and Council '" conjointly . ' The Auditor of the Ducliy has invariably taken his seat as a member of the Council ' . ex oft ' icio ;' and this privilege is necessarily implied from the nature and responsibility of his duties , and from the terms of his patent of appointment and of tho usual oath administered to him . On the 15 th May , 3854 , Mr . ITrascis Hobkut Bertolacci was appointed to the oflicc of ' Auditor' by the Chancellor of the Ducliy upon the resignation of Mr . Locicjiakt , but hus been expin ded from the Council .
Under these circumstances your opinion is requested as to—Whether the Chancellor was legally empowered to deprive Mr . Bisrtolacci of his seat in the Council , and to divest his office of a privilege coeval -with the first institution of the Ducliy , and exercised , without any exception , by all his predecessors ?
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The patent of appointment to the Chancellor of the Duchy being , as far as it is before me , silent upon the question whether the Auditor is a member of the Council , and the patent of the Auditor himself being also silent upon this point , it appeal's to me that the right of the Auditor to sit and act as a member of the Council depends altogether ou usage . I do not find that , under any Patent or Charters , or other legal instrument , the members constituting the Council are specified . Under these circumstances , therefore , if the Auditor has always sat and acted as a member of the Council ) it must be presumed that he has done so of right , and lie cannot lawfully be excluded . ( Signed ) Fitzroy Kelly . Temple , July 27 , 1857 .
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The late Mk . C . H . Wild . —We have to record the death of a young engineer of great promise , Charles Heard Wild , who , as is well known to his prof essionaJ brethren , has for some time past been the victim of a painful and lingering brain disease—the result of overwork at an early period of his career . Mr . Wild was a pupil of John Brathwaite , and afterwards studied practically in the factory of Messrs . Brathwaito and Co . At a -very early age he was entrusted with an important mission in France , to superintend the construction of
Ericsson ' s propeller boats . On his return to England , he was placed at the head of Messrs . Fox , Henderson , and Co . ' s drawing-office at Birmingham , wore the designing of many very important works was confided to him ; and he here displayed such a remarkable aptitude for engineering science , that he was , on being introduced to Mr . Robert Stephenson , engaged by him as one of his principal assistants on several works of magnitudeamongst others , the Britannia-bridge , where Mr . Wild largely assisted in devising and carrying out the floating of the tubes . In Mr . Edwin Clark ' s work on the
' Britannia and Conway Tubular Bridges , ' there is n very valuable paper on ' The Deflection and relative Straina in Single and Continuous Beams , ' from the pen of Mr . Wild , which furnishes a very high idea of liis powers . 0 » the recommendation of Mr . Stephenson , Mr . Wild was appointed assistant engineer under Sir William Cubitt , to the building in Hyde Park ; and on the formation of the Crystal Palace Company , Mr . Wild was appointed ongineor to the building at Sydenhwn , which was erected under his engineering superintendence It was at this period that tho painful disease , which has just terminated fatally , first declared itself i and ho was recommended by his medical advisor to resign his post , and to travel abroad for two years , which he did , with ,
however , but little benefit . Since his return his health haa gradually declined , until he was relieved from all suffering on tho 19 th instant . Mr . Wild was the author of several valuuble improvements in railways : his railway switch ia now universally adopted , and it is consldorod by engineers that ho completely solved the problem of a change of rails . ' Warren ' s Girder , ' which ia now bo much employed for railway bridges , owos its success to Mr . Wild's assistance , notably at the Nowarkbridgo and tho Crumlin viaduct . Ilia 4 hexagon turntable , ' and dock-gates , ' are also amongst the valuable improvements Mr . Wild has left behind him , » n some way to compensate for a life of suqh great promise boms tUua early terminated . —The Builder .
Thei Thmpjuis Church . —Tho Queen of tho Netherlands , accompanied by Lord Brougham , Miss Bu , ruo * t Qoutts , and aovoral members of tho suite , attondud Pr vlno aorvioo at the Tomplo Church on Sunday morning , and ant in tho stalls of the benohora of tho Inner 'X ompw-Tho church closes to-morrovr un , M t ^ o flr ^ Sun day id Octobor .
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- « v , THE LEA D E B . [ No . 384 , Atjghtst 1 , 1857 .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 1, 1857, page 736, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2203/page/16/
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