February 11-1897.1
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
suspicion, rightly or wrongly, had begun to settle upon her. She felt that it was necessary that some one should be indicated as being con- nected with the death, and she felt that it was desirable in her interest that they should be written and received by the persons who did receive them. That was the reason why they were written. SATURDAY, 30TH
JANUARY-TWENTIETH
DAY'S PROCEEDINGS.
Mr. Wilkinson, continuing his address, said he would now ask the jury to turn to the evidence as affecting the prisoner herself on the charge of having administered poison to her husband. It would be going too far to assume that because a woman wronged her husband she was prepared to murder him; but such liaisons have supplied the root and motive for crime and the whole of the circumstances have in each case to be considered. The accused had been shown to have been systematically traducing her husband, falsely representing him as guilty of acts which would stemp him as a brute and a villian, and appealing for and calling forth the sympathy of another man in the distressing situation in which his violence is supposed to have placed her. Whatever might be said of female human nature, its lightness and its frailty, circumstance required explanation. That ex- that was the form it took in this case and the planation had not been forthcoming. But the position to which the undoubted facts brought them was this: that behind the action of the prisoner lay strong motives not revealed to them, or that she was capable with little or no motive of traducing and blackening the charao- ter of the husband to whom she professed the most ardent affection. It was his duty to bring before them the scrap of envelope on which was
written:
#th Easton,
the Olab and made me feel 15th October,
came
The
found B. up & W hom ordered a course of Vichy We I wonder how long it will last pretations might be put upont jury would consider what that ought to De He also inoident of the abstraction by soner, at the prelimimary examination of the exhibits and said it was a matter taken into consideration as showing the ter of the accused The act was one certain amount of boldness and daring, and it might explain some of her o
other actions regard to the case. Then they had the writing to Sir Ernest Satow on the 6th November learned counsel then entered on an exhaustive analysis of the evidence as to the arsenic, what was done with it, and the prisoner's actions and statements in thereto. They had, he said, the three 1 ounce bottles of Fowler's solution traced to the house; they had the fact that the death of the deceased was due-it might not be wholly-in a very serious measure to arsenic. It was consistent with all the circumstances that had been given in evidence that that arsenic might have been in part and in a part sufficient to cause death in the form of Fowler's solution. They had all these facts, and an explanation was required. Then came the explanation that had been offered, namely, that the deceased had been in the habit of taking ar
the fact of
sed that she purchased sugar lead
sugar of lead is purchased on the By through the instrumentality of Miss and this bottle is unaccounted for. was the portion missing out of the first or out of the second if the first had red—used for ? They were asked by defence to believe that the whole of the first bottle had been used. Then the question was, what on Wednesday was done with the lead, by whom was it used, and for what purpose? If it was used by the prisoner to poison the de- ceased, then the jury's course was clear. If there was any other theory, any reasonable hypothesis for accounting for it, they would accept it, and give to that hypothesis such weight as it deserved. But they
were always brought back to the question of the Fowler's solution. The learned counsel then proceeded to refer to Mary Jacob and said that though it was no part of the duty of the Crown to take advantage of any mistake that might have been made by the defence, and though the bringing of a charge against Miss Jacob might in one sense be considered to narrow the question as to whether she was guilty or Mrs. Carew, he did not ask the jury to treat it in that way on behalf of the Crown; but the character of Mary Jacob as a witness, her conduct and motives, were matters of importance so far as they might be considered to affect her credibility; and they became of greater importance when they were asked by the defence to attribute to herself acts which the prosecution alleged were committed by the accused. They learned counsel then referred at considerable length to the connection of Mary Jacob with the case and urged that her conduct at the inquest, when she declined to make a statement and preferred to be asked questions, and when she might have produced the letters from Mr. Dickinson to Mrs. Carew but did not do so, showed that she was not in- fluenced by any wish to injure the latter. He also urged that there was nothing to con- nect Mary Jacob with the writing of the Annie Luke letters. The first letter in that series was preceded by the visit of a mysterious lady. Now if one thing was more clear in this matter than anything else it was that this mysterious lady was not Maty Jacob. They had it in Mrs. Carew's own evidence that Mary Jacob was in the pursery with the children at the time. It was not suggested that she was the mysterious lady or the Annie. The jury might at once dismiss from their minds as a working: theory that there ever was such a person, or any such Annie, in Yokohama. as the wife of another man. There was also There never was an Annie Luke there: if they the telegram to Mr. Dickinson. That telegram could be positive about a negative, they could also came within the category of indications of be positive about this, and also that there never expectation of the death of the deceased. They was a person who represented herself as Aunie had heard the explanation of what was in it. Luke. The first Annie Luke letter fitted into the If Mr. Dickinson's recollection was correct the time of this mysterious lady's visit. The same statement was untrue. He left it to them to deal mind that conceived the mysterious visitor con- with that as they might. Then as throwing light ceived the writing of that letter. A mysterious on the motive or absence of motive moving the visitor appears and presents a card. Very well, prisoner and also as suggesting the existence if Mary Jacob was supposed to be the authoress of design, they had the episode of the mysterious of the card she could not possibly be the visitor stranger. They remembered the prisoner's eri that presented it. It was not suggested that dence with regard to the visit of that stranger, she engaged another person to put on black and he submitted the only conclusion open to clothes and a heavy veil to pay the visit them was that that evidence was entirely false. and to go through the farce for her. And If they arrived at that conclusion they were then Mary Jacob must have learned a great again led to the conclusion that the prisoner deal regarding the late Mr. Carew's past life had a design in doing what she did or that she if she was able to have written a letter which, if was capable of actions and conduct without he might borrow an expression "fetches him motive at all. She did not mention the visitor as that letter did, which he received two days when she first gave evidence at the inquest and before he took ill. As to the piece of paper she may have thought, and did think, of her found in Mary Jacob's birthday book, he asked afterwards as affording an explanation of the them to believe that it was put there by fraud, death when she found that suspicion was surreptitionsly, between the day the book was directed against her. There would be no other found, the 2nd of January, and the time when object indeed in putting it in than that she it was handed to Mr. Lowder. That particular whatever she was-had committed the murder piece of evidence was manufactured, and for a or been the cause of the death, and not Mrs. purpose. It was necessary to connect Mary Carew. The learned counsel then referred to a Jacob with the tissue of falsehoods and letter from the deceased to the prisoner which so this thing was resorted to Take the in- had been put in and which he suggested had been ernal evidences of the letters, and they sup- put together by Mrs. Carew and pasted to
the supposition that they were written gether, not knowing, as it subsequently came risoner. The Annie Luke lettere out, that the letters taken by Mary Jacob were ten at a time when it was deemed sewn and not pasted. He also referred to the
on behalf of Mrs. Carew entries in the diary-On the 10th Octo garding Mr. Carew's death. | ber, "I sent for Dr. Wheeler about five hat they were written by o'clock, who ordered W. medicine, not that
senic. But if deceased was in the habit of taking Fowler's solution either in small quantities or large quantities it must have been procured from somewhere, and the accused, from circumstances and knowledge and situation generally, would have been able to have accounted, to have shown #dith Dickinson.”
where it came from. It was a fact which, if it That was a matter bearing upon the letters of were true, could be supported by evidence. I Mr. Dickinson. It was one of those instances submit, the learned counsel continued, that where an interpretation might be put upon it, the absence of evidence is under the air because they had heard that Mr. Easton was a cumstances a proof that no evidence is pro- friend of the family, "the Ferret." They had curable, in the sense that the fact does not heard the relations that existed between the exist. You have the statement with regard accused and Mr. Dickinson and they had to the several people who have heard deceased her writing her name in the two ways. They speak of taking arsenic; and that may be had heard the explanation of his learned perfectly consistent. The statements may be friend that this was some stupid game. There perfectly consistent with the fact that latterly had been no explanation given of that. Mr. he was not taking arsenio. You have the totally, Porch was there; he might have given one if I submit, inconsistent statment of accused there were any to be given. There was none. that he was taking it in small quantities. They had the fact that the accused was writingShe does not know how long; and then
#1
her name not as the wife of her husband but a subsequent occasion, when a die
|
planation becomes necessary from facts that have been brought to light, she states that he was taking it in large quantities. The quantity that he is alleged to have taken it in is one that is beyond not only the ordinary power of the ordinary European to take, but it is one which counsel for the defence felt constrained to minimise by sug- gesting that Mrs. Carew, in speaking of it, had only estimated. Now, gentlemen, there are the facts. Where the explanation of the faots could be within the knowledge of the accused the absence of that explanation is a very serious and a very terrible fact for you to consider. I have now, gentlemen, laid before you the arguments that it was my duty to put before you on behalf of the Crown, and I will conclude by saying to you, in words that I will borrow and adopt Pay no regard to anything but to the internal voice of your own-con-- sciences, and to that sense of duty which owe to God and man on this occasion, seek no reward except the comforting ass that when you look back to the of this day you will feel that discharged to the utmost of your to the best of your power the duty was yours to perform. If on a revi this whole case, comparing the ev the one side and on the other, ing it in the even scales of justice come to the conclusion of innoce entertain that fair and reason doubt of w which the accused benefit, in God's name acqui other hand, all the facts lead your minds, wit
only I ask
the question: Mrs. Carew wrote them when ing the 13th October, "Walter dining at at your hands. For the
spirit of remorse was out of it will do him much good, as I am thin pay to the conclusion i
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