A F1KL REPORT 
 5 THAMES POLICE COURT, 
 
 BEFORE 
 
 ON THE 1CTH O. 
 
 I ALLEGED POi: 
 
 AND 
 
 J] I 
 
 A- 
 
 I THIAL OF J. ( 
 
 II I 
 
 |r 
 
 "I Ml 
 
 ALNWICK : 
 
 AND PUBLISHED EY G. PIKE. 
 
 Price Sixteenpe. 
 1844.
 
 .
 
 A FULL REPORT OF 
 
 ran OTKIDHSOT sp&i&ra 
 
 AT THR THAMES POLICE COURT, AND 
 
 Mm 00BittBQIS^B MOTliln 
 
 . 
 
 BEFORE MR. BAKER, AND A RESPECTABLE JURY, 
 
 AT STEPNEY, ON THE 10TH OF JUNE, 1844; 
 
 ON THE ALLEGED POISONING CASE, 
 
 ALSO, THE 
 
 TRIAL OF J. C. BELANY, 
 
 FOR THE 
 
 MURDER OF HIS WIFE, 
 
 AT THE CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT, 
 
 On August the 21st if 22nd, 1844 > 
 
 ALNVVICK : 
 
 PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY o. PIKE. 
 
 1844,
 
 MYSTERIOUS CASE -- CHARGE OF MURDER. 
 
 OK NORTH SUNDEERLAND. 
 
 The circumstance of a lady of great respectability, and of extreme 
 beauty, the wife of a surgeon in Northumberland, and the only daughter 
 of the late John Skelly, North Sunderland, Northumberland, who was 
 possessed of property to some amount; having died suddenly on the 
 morning of Saturday last, from the effects of prussic acid, and the 
 apprehension of her husband on the serious charge of being accessory 
 to her death, has caused the greatest consternation and excitement in 
 the neighbourhood of Tracfy-street. Stepney, in which the lamentable 
 and tragic affair occured. Mr. Baker, the coroner, was engaged 
 on Monday and Tuesday in the investigation as to the cause of the 
 lady's death, and at seven o'clock on the evening of the latter day, the 
 coroner again adjourned the inquest. Belany has a brother a clergy, 
 man at Arlington in Essex. 
 
 The name of the deceased lady is Rachel Belany, about 21 years of 
 age. Her fine figure, extreme beauty, and personal charms, were the 
 theme of every tongue, and procured for her the appellation of the 
 "Rose of the North;" and it appeared that she had innumerable suitors 
 to her hand, but about sixteen month? ago bestowed it upon her present 
 husband, Mr. Belany. It appeared also that the unfortunate lady 
 Nvas enciente, and near upon the period of her confinement. 
 
 Mr and Mrs Belany arrived in town from Northumberland on 
 Tuesday week, and took lodgings for a short period at the house of 
 Mrs Hippingstall, situate near the Fountain public-house, in Tracey 
 street, Stepney. They were both strangers to London. Mr Belany 
 was proceeding on a tour to the Rhine, for the purpose of obtaining 
 "botanical knowledge ;" his wife, feeling too much indisposed, from 
 her delicate and interesting state, to proceed to the Rhine, was about 
 
 2000482
 
 (or pay a visit to her husband's brother, the clergyman, in Essex, where 
 she proposed to remain until the return of her husband from his excur- 
 sion up the Rhine. The lady possessed some property in her own 
 right, but not, we believe, to any great extent. Her husband is at 
 present out of practice as a surgeon, but possesses some property in 
 some lime-kilns in a remote part of Northumberland. The reason 
 which Mr Belany assigned for taking lodgings in so obscure a part of 
 the metropolis as Tracey -street. Stepney, was, that he was acquainted 
 Tvith a Captain and Mrs Clarke, who resided in the neighbourhood, 
 whom he thought would be agreeable acquaintances for his lady during 
 their short sojourn in London. The case will be best understood by 
 the details, as given in evidence by the several whnesses. commencing 
 with the 
 
 CORONER'S INQUEST, 
 
 which took place on Monday, June lOih, at the Fountain tavern, Traeey- 
 street, Commercial-road, before Mr Baker, and a respectable jury. ' 
 Mrs. E. Hippingstall, of No. 46, Tracey-street, said that on Tuesday 
 last the deceased and Mr Belany, who was a retired Burgeon, came 
 from the country and engaged lodgings at her house. Deceased then, 
 appeared in the enjoyment of excellent health, and in the evening went 
 to the Pavillion theatre. The next morning Mr Belany sent for a 
 black draught, and deceased was sick all day long, and kept her belt 
 She was better on Thursday last, but on Saturday her husband told 
 witness she was again ill. Witness went into her room and saw her 
 in bed, gasping (or breath, and quite insensible. In a quarter of an 
 hour she died. Her husband said that a short time before her death 
 he gave her a dose of salts. 
 
 Porter, the constable, said, that since the death of the deceased, her 
 husband had removed the phials which had contained the medicine he 
 gave her, and instead of giving the clothes she died in, according to 
 the usual custom, to the woman by whom she was attended in her 
 illness, carried them out of the house. 
 
 The coroner said that the case was not without some suspicion, and 
 that it would be necessary to have the cause of death determined by a 
 post mortem examination. The inquest was then adjourned, and Mr 
 Garrat, surgeon, received instructions to open and examine the body. 
 
 On Tuesday, the inquest was resumed, \vlien Mr Blizard Curling, 
 surgeon, and Mr Garratt, concurred in opinion that deceased's death 
 was caused by prussic acid, which had been detected in the stomach. 
 Mr Charnock, who attended for Mr Belany, requested that the inque,-t 
 might be adjourned, for the purpose of proving that Mr Beta in was in 
 the habit of treating his wife with great kindness, and was most ar- 
 dently attached to her, and that the poison must have been taken by 
 mistake. The inquest was accordingly adjourned. 
 
 On Thursday afternoon, Mr Baker held an adjourned inquest at the 
 Fountain, Stracey-street, Stepney, on the body of Mrs Rachel Belany, 
 aged 21, wife of Mr James Cockbtirn Belany, a surgeon, now in 
 custody on a charge of having poisoned her with prus-ic acid, under the 
 most singular circumstances. 
 
 Particulars of this case appeared intheS/. Jameses Chronicle of Thar - 
 day in its Thames Police Court report. Those [(articular? were
 
 identical with the evidence adduced before the coroner at the previou 
 investigations. 
 
 Mr Charnock, the barrister, was present to watch the proceedings 
 on the part of Mr Belany. 
 
 A book enlitled "A Treatise on Falconry" was handed to the Cor- 
 oner, of which Mr Belany is the author. The frontispiece is an 
 equestrian portrait of himself holding a hooded falcon on his wrist. 
 The volume, a large octavo, was printed at Berwick-on-Tweed, for 
 the author. 
 
 Mr Charnock (to the Coroner). I suppose, sir, you are aware that 
 Mr Bdany is in custody, and it would be desirable he were present 
 here. In fact, if I thought he would have been taken into custody, I 
 would have tried on Tuesday evening to prevent you adjourning tin 
 inquiry, as Mr Belany wished to make a statement to'the jury,l5etbre 
 they came to a verdict. ,, / 
 
 .The Coroner. I am perfectly aware that tSe "party is in'ustody, 
 and I do not see the necessity that he should b here. I could not 
 examine him, and if he have a voluntary statement to make, he will 
 have an opportunity of doing so when he is brought again before the 
 magistrate who remanded him, so long as you, his counsel, are here, I 
 see no necessity for his presence. I should like to see deceased's 
 landlady again, as I have a question or two to put .to her. 
 
 Mrs Hippingstall, the landlady in question,, was then brought in and 
 examined. She said, After Mr Belany called*"me to his wife on 
 Saturday morning last, he administered to her nothing whatever in the 
 shape of antidote. When he called me he asked for nothing at the 
 time, nor did he ask if any doctor resided near. He v applied nothing 
 but warm water to her feet and hands, which he rubbed as well as her 
 face. There were two tumblers, one nearly half-full of a colourless 
 liquid, on the dressing-table near the bed. They were within reach of 
 of deceased. They emitted no particular smell. Nothing whatever 
 was said by her husband about her having taken poison. When I 
 went into deceased's bed-room she was in bed, but I cannot say whether 
 she had been up or not previously. No broken phial was found, but 
 the head of a glass stopper was. " 
 
 The Coroner. Did he say what caused her to be tn the state she 
 was ? 
 
 Witness. He said she was in a fit ; that she had had fits before 
 but nothing like the present one. There have been no pieces of broken 
 glass found, nor have I seen the broken stopper since I first, saw it on 
 Sundav last. 
 
 Henry Letheby M.D., of the London Hospital, examined. On 
 Tuesday morning last I received from Mr Curling, who had opened the 
 the body of deceased, a tumbler containing the contents of the stomach, 
 and I also received the stomach, itself. 
 
 I analyzed them immediately in Mr Curling's presence. The liquid (in 
 the tumbler) was turbid, as might be expected, and had a very strong 
 smell of prussic acid. It was put into Dr. Christison's retort, with a 
 very small quantity of diluted sulphuric acid. A portion was then 
 distilled, and tested in the following manner. In (he first placp it had 
 the smell of prussic acid. 
 
 Mr. Charnock What was that smell. 
 
 .<
 
 6 
 
 Witness. The smell of bitter almonds. A portion of it was 
 saturated with lime water, to which I then added a little tincture of 
 iron, and a few^drops of muriatic acid. I obtained a bluish green sediment, 
 called Prussian blue a character indicative of prussic acid. Since- 
 then I examined the contents of the stomach itself with the same tests, 
 and obtained the game results as from the liquid in the tumbler. More- 
 over, I performed another test with a portion of the distilled liquid. I 
 added a solution of nitrate of silver, when I obtained a white precipi- 
 tate, nearly the whole of which was soluble in boiling nitric acid, 
 which was precipitated as it cooled a test also proving the 
 presence of prussic acid. I al*o detected sulphate of magnesia, or 
 Epsom salts, in the following manner : The Stomach was washed 
 with distilled water, and this was filtered. To a portion of this a 
 solution of phosphate of soda was added, without any result, until the 
 application of a drop of ammonia, which produced a white precipitate, 
 indiciative of magnesia. To another portion of the filtered liquor a 
 solution of chloride of barium was put, from which a white precipitate 
 resulted, insoluble in nitric acid, and indicative of sulpheric acid. Now 
 sulphuric and magnesia make sulphate of magnesia, or Epsom salt?. 
 I applied another test. To portion of the filtered water I added 
 ferrocyenide of potassium, and there was no precipitate. To another 
 portion I added a solution of hydro sulphate of ammonia, without any 
 effect, which proved the absence of mettallic poison. The acids I 
 used were pure, and could not have of themselves produced prussic acid 
 they only eliminated it. I cannot say how much prussic acid there 
 was in the contents of the stomach. If she had taken the acid in a pure 
 state, she would have dropped instantly. I have seen animals killed in 
 Jess then a second with one-eighth of a drop. Of the pharmacopean 
 solution it would take two drachm?, or 120 drop?, to destroy life, for 
 in that quantity of solution there are only two drops and a half of the 
 pure acid. A drop of the pure acid applied to the eye of a Newfound- 
 land dog would kill it. Two drachms of the pharmacopean solution 
 would produce symptoms of death, but the party by great exertions 
 might be rallied. 
 
 The Coroner. Supposing you had known a person to have taken 
 prussic acid, what would you have done ? 
 
 Witness I should have adopted antidotes immediately. Whilst 
 waiting for them I should have dashed cold water on the face first, 
 and then on other parts of the patient's body. If the patient could be 
 made to swallow, I would give ammonia and brandy and water, and 
 other stimuli. If that did not rouse the patient, I would have recourse 
 to artificial respiration, which is formed by pressure on the chest and 
 abdomen, and I would continue it an hour. I have known many 
 instances of animals having recovered after artificial respiration had 
 been maintained for an hour. In addition to this, I should send for 
 the stomach-pump immediately, and evacuate the contents of the stomach, 
 and by the same instrument introduce stimulants into it. I should 
 also place a sponge moistened with chloride of lime on the chest and 
 and near the mouth, so that during the performance of artificial 
 respiration, the vapour of chloride might be inhaled. All these remedies 
 should be known to professional men. I lay the greatest stress on 
 artificial respiration as the best remedy, for prussic acid does not enter
 
 the system, and if respiration could be got, the lungs would cause the 
 rejection of the poison. 
 
 By a Juror As secondary remedies [ would apply warm water, 
 or hot bricks to the feet raid other parts of the body. If all the 
 remedies I have mentioned should fail. I would have recourse to gal- 
 vanism. If death were not instantaneous if the party lived ten 
 minutes after having taken the poison, he might be recovered in 90 
 cases out of 100, by strong exertions on the part of the practitioner, 
 and presuming all the necessary applications were at hand. The 
 poison is colourless, and in its diluted shape it may be taken by mistake, 
 without being detected by its smell. 
 
 By Mr Charnock. All my experiments with this acid have been 
 confined to animals. If the diluted acid were placed in a tumbler it 
 would look like water. Friction with the hand or with a brush would 
 be proper. 
 
 By a Juror. If a person took prussic acid I would not attempt to 
 bleed him ; it would be wasting time. 
 
 Mr Garratt, surgeon, examined On Saturday evening last the 
 husband of deceased told me, when he got into the street, after her 
 death, that he threw away the bottle that had contained the poison. 
 
 William Denew Clark, master mariner, of 17; King-street, Mile 
 end Old-town, examined Mr Belany is a surgeon, and I have 
 known him for about five years. I had not seen him until Tuesday 
 week last for four years. He called on that clay at my house, and 
 said he had arrived from York the day before. He introduced me to 
 the deceased as his wife. He appeared kind and affectionate to her, 
 and on Tuesday evening they went to the theatre together. Mr 
 Belany told me he had been practising at North Sunderland as a 
 surgeon, and had left to proceed up the Rhine for something about his 
 work on hawking, and that his wife was to remain in England until 
 her confinement, and he wished my daughter should be her compan- 
 ion. They came to my house on Friday afternoon, and she remained, 
 but he went to the House of Lords, and returned in the evening to 
 tea at eight o'clock. At nine they went home. On Saturday morning 
 last, at eight o'clock, my servant told me Mr Belany wished to see me 
 at his house. I went thither, my daughter having preceded me. who 
 fetched Mr Garratt, our medical attendant. I saw deceased gasp twice; 
 her eyes were closed, and she died almost instantly. Mr Belany was 
 very much excited; he shed tears, and kept exclaiming, "I am_the 
 cause of my poor wife's death by my gross neglect ; which I construed 
 to his having brought her so long a journey in the state she was. He 
 said nothing at that time about prussic acid. He appeared to have lost 
 all consciousness. I led him into the parlour in which Mr Garratt, the 
 surgeon was, who asked him whether she had taken anything ? Mr 
 Belany replied, that she had taken some salts. Mr Garratt stated that 
 it would be necessary to have an inquest held, and Mr Belany said. 
 "Certainly." We then went out to walk, and on our return he again 
 stated that he had been the cause of her death "by his neglect of her 
 during her delicate state of health." On Sunday, he repeated the same 
 expression, adding that he could never forgive himself. On Monday 
 evening, after the post mortem examination, I went out with him, and 
 called, whilst he remained outside, at Dr. Garratt's, who assisted at the
 
 frost mortem examination, to know the cause of her death. When I 
 came out he proposed that we should pass through a more retired 
 street. He then repeated his former regrets, and I said, "Belany, I 
 don't understand you. "He replied, "through my neglect in her getting 
 wrong medicine." I asked, "What was it she had ? His reply was, 
 ''Poison.' 1 I was much shocked, and asked him. "what poison ?" He 
 said, "Prussic acid." I asked, "Is it possible, doctor, you have given 
 her prussic acid ?" He said, "No thank God, I have not that to charge 
 myself with." I then said it would be better to go to Mr Hobson 
 (a mutual friend), and communicate with him, and icsked why he had 
 not stated this at the moment after her death. He said, "I have 
 been anxious to mention it to you from the first, but was afraid of the 
 disgrace I should bring on my family, through my gross neglect not that 
 I care for myself." We then went to Mrs Hobson's, and told him of it. 
 Mr Belany was there taken in a fit, and Mr Hobson and I were obliged 
 to support him. I then proposed that he should go with me to 
 the coroner's, and to Mr Garratt's, and tell them what he had told 
 me. He assented, and we went to Mr Garratt's only [The evidence 
 here is a repetition of the statement made by Mr Garratt at the Thames 
 Police Court, on Wednesday, and published in our report on Thursday, 
 with the following addition : "I took the tumbler out of her hand, 
 and emptied what remained, about a-wine-glass-full, into the chamber 
 utensil. I think she must have got up for something to drink, and 
 taken the tumbler that contained the acid, supposing it contained water. 
 He stated whv he did not administer antidotes was, that being aware of 
 the nature of the case he thought it would be of no avail. 1," continued 
 the witness, "feel convinced it was quite accidental, and from the kind- 
 ness of his disposition it was not his character to have done such an act 
 intentionally." 
 
 It having been stated that Mr Donaghon,a chemist, of whom Mr 
 Belany had purchased the poison, could give important evidence, at 
 the request of the jury the inquiry was adjourned to Monday, in order 
 that that gentleman might be summoned. 
 
 At about half-past two o'clock yesterday, on the 17th of June, 1844, 
 the inquiry touching the death of Mrs. Rachel Belany was resumed at 
 the Fountain public-house, Stracey-street, Stepney, before Mr Baker. 
 In addition to MrCharnock, Mr Clarkson, barrister, attended to watch 
 (he proceedings on the part of Mr Belany, who is in custody on suspi- 
 cion of having administered the prussic acid. 
 
 Mary Ursula M'Eachern, 17, King-street, Mile-end-old-town, wife 
 of a master-mariner, and residing in the same house as her father (Cap- 
 tain Clark), saw the deceased and her husband several times, and they 
 always appeared to be very kind and affectionate. There was not the 
 slightest appearance of jealousy on the side of either. On the day of 
 her arrival ( the 4th inst. ) the deceased appeared fatigued, and on 
 Wednesday she was ill with headache and sickness, for which she took 
 a black draught. Heard the prisoner say that deceased was troubled 
 with organic disease of the lungs. That was after the death. When 
 she called on the Saturday morning on which deceased died, witness 
 saw Mrs. Belany lying in her bed with her head resting on Mrs. 
 HeppingstalPs arm. Her cap was off. as if she had been out of bed to
 
 9 
 
 comb her hair, but no part of her day dress was on. She appeared 
 very ill, her eyes were closed, and she was apparently insensible. Mr 
 Belany seemed in great agony of mind, and was weeping. Mrs 
 Hepping^tall said it would be better to have a doctor, and witness went 
 lor Mr Garratt, Mr Belany requesting her to do so immediately, as 
 soon as it was suggested. Mr Belany used no expression as to the 
 cause of the state in which his wife was, but when witness returned he 
 was crying very much. The deceased, on the evening before her death, 
 told witness she intended to take some salts. 
 
 To Mr Clarkson. Deceased and his wife appeared to be exceedingly 
 fund of each other. Some new clothes and a bonnet were purchased 
 for the decea-ed by Mr Belany. which were not delivered till after her 
 death. On the Wednesday after their arrival Mr Belany said she had 
 had a miscarriage, and hoped it would not be the case again. 
 
 Sergeant M'Cardill, 4 K, took the prisoner (Mr Belany) into custody 
 on Thursday evening last, in consequence of what occurred at the inquest. 
 He found him at the house of Captain Clarke, to which he had removed 
 in two hours after the death or his wife. The prisoner's solicitor was 
 there at the time. When the prisoner was locked up witness examined 
 his trunk, which was at Captain Clark's, and found there a bottle mark- 
 ed acetate of morphia. There was also a bottle of crystalized vinegar. 
 At the house 46, on a table near the corpse, there was a paper contain- 
 ing senna, another containing salts, some carbonate of soda, and some 
 tartaric acid. When arrested and told of the charge the prisoner ex- 
 claimed, " Ok my God r" 1 Ongoing down to the parlour he took leave 
 of his brother, and the scene was very affecting. The prisoner said, 
 " Oh Archie, Archie, (Archibald), don't take on so; "'tis an inquiry 
 which must be instituted." Whilst a cap was being sent for he put his 
 hand to his head, and said, " Oh my angel, my angel ! I caused this. 
 I am a murdered man." 1 On searching him at the station, witness found 
 1251. in Bank of England notes (all 51. notes) and some gold and 
 silver. The money, at the prisoners request, was handed to Captain 
 Clarke. Witness found a letter relating to some mines. After cau- 
 tioning the prisoner as to his answer, the latter told him he had practis- 
 ed in Edinburgh, but had not obtained a diploma a fact of which his 
 friends, however, were ignorant. 
 
 Police-sergeant, W. H. Shaw, 2 K, was on duty at the Stepney 
 station when the prisoner was taken there, Before taking the charge 
 witness cautioned him. He made no observation, and was removed 
 to the cell, where he was locked up with a constable, at the request 
 of Captain Clark, and alio by the prisoner's own desire, who did not 
 wish to be alone. He was furnished with pen, ink, and paper to write 
 to his friends, on condition that his letters should first be subjected to 
 the witnesses inspection. The letter handed in was then written by 
 the prisoner, and witness having read it, felt it his duty to detain it.* 
 
 The letter, which, though sufficiently legible, was evidently written 
 by a very agitated hand, bore the direction "Robert Embleton, Esq., 
 Embleton by Ainwick, Northumberland." 
 
 Sergeant Shaw added, that when the prisoner was committed to the 
 cell he exclaimed, ''Oh, that I should be accused of such a thing, but 
 I deserve it all through my neglect in not communicating." 
 
 *See letter on the Trial, dated ''Wednesday, 14fA, 1844." 
 B
 
 Mr Baker, coroner, stated, that after some communication which 
 he had received upon the subject, he should fed it necessary again to 
 adjourn the inquiry until next Monday. 
 
 It was here intimated lhat several personal friends of the prisoner, 
 and amongst others his brother, who is a clergyman, were i:i attend- 
 ance, from a great distance, to speak as to his character, habit?, and 
 manner of life. 
 
 Mr Baker said, this was not the proper tribuual before which to 
 produce such evidence. So far as the testimony went, no motive was 
 shown Calculated to induce the prisoner to commit the crime of which 
 he was suspected. It was impossible, however, to say whether it might 
 not ultimately turn out otherwise. 
 
 A Juror. We have had none of the friends or relations of the 
 deceased before us. 
 
 Mr Clarkson. Both myself, as well as my learned friend Mr 
 Charnock, and Mr Belany are willing to have the fullest inquiry. 
 We will not object to have this inquest sit on so long as any of the 
 jury think it requisite to have more information. At present no mo- 
 tive has been adduced to show why a respectable man of considerable, 
 acquirements should be prompted to destroy a young and beautiful 
 woman to whom he appeared so strongly attached, and who was in 
 such an interesting situation. 
 
 After a short discussion as to the time of reassembling, the inquest 
 was adjourned until Monday next. 
 
 On Monday, 24th June, the inquest was resumed, touching the 
 death of Mrs Rachel Belanv, whose husband, Mr James Cockburn 
 Belany, is at present in custody, charged on suspicion of having caused 
 her death, by administering to her a quantity of prussic acid, on 
 Saturday, the 8th inst., before Mr Baker, at the Fountain Tavern, 
 Stracey-street, Stepney. 
 
 With the facts of the case so recently and fully before the Public, 
 it is only necessary to say, that Mr Belany and his wife arrived in 
 town on Tuesday, the -1th inst., and took lodgings at Green street, 
 Stepney. Their only acquaintance being a Captain Clark, a retired 
 master mariner, his daughter, (Mrs M'Eachern,) and Mr Hobson, a 
 bookseller in the Commercial-road. According to the evidence of the 
 parties as well as of a Mrs Heppingstall, in whose house they lodged. 
 The prisoner and his wife, who it appears was a very handsome woman, 
 lived on the fondest terms. On Saturday, the 8th inst., the prisoner 
 called Mrs Heppingslall to his wife's assistance, and in about 10 min- 
 utes afterwards she died in lhat per.-on.s arms, the prisoner at the same 
 time observing that her mother died of a somewhat similar attack nine 
 months previously. A post mortem examination was subsequently 
 held upon the body, and alter that the prisoner admitted to Captain 
 Clark, Mr Hobson, and afterwards to a surgeon named Garratt, that 
 he was in the habit of taking prussic acid to correct his stomach, and 
 owing to an accident he left some expo-ed in a tumbler in his wife's bed- 
 room, into which he presumed she poured some water and drank it off 
 in a mis-take, having previously taken some salts. The prisoner ex- 
 plained his not making this statement before, by saying that he was 
 ashamed to admit such neglect respecting &o deadly a poison on the 
 part of a medical man.
 
 11 
 
 The (ir-t witness exainined yesterday was Mr Thomas Donoghue, 
 (he surgeon from whom the prisoner had purchased the prussic acid, as 
 well as some acetate of morphine, a most deadly poison, together with 
 salts, senna, and carbonate of soda. In his evidence before the mag- 
 istrate at the Thames Police court on Thursday, the witness stated, 
 that on (lie Monday after the death of the deceased lady, Mr Belany, 
 and Captain Clark, called on him about half-past 8 in the morning, 
 when the prisoner said he had a misfortune with the acid, as the neck 
 of the bottle had come off, and he wished witness to attend the inquest. 
 Being more closely examined upon this point yesterday, the witness 
 entered more fully into detail, and stated that Uelany, in the presence 
 of Captain Clark, told him that the phial being tightly stopped, in 
 trying to open it, he broke off the neck, and being desirous of saving 
 the acid, he put the contents into a tumbler in Mrs Belany's bed-room. 
 Having left the roo n for a while he heard a scream, and coining back 
 he found thai his wife, who had taken some medicine, had, as he pre- 
 sumed by mistake, poured water into the glass which contained the 
 prtissic acid and drunk off the contents. He, at the same time, 
 requeued witness to a! tend the inquest which was to be held that day. 
 
 This evidence excited considerable surprise in the inquest room. 
 It will be recollected that Captain Clark deposed that the prisoner 
 never mentioned anything to him about the prussic acid until the 
 evening of Monday, and yet Mr Donoghue was quite as positive 
 that the whole facts were detailed by Mr Belany in Captain Clark's 
 hearing as early as half -past 8 o'clock on the Monday morning. 
 
 The Coroner, who seemed to think that there must be some great 
 mist ake as to dat es, questioned Mr Donoghue closely as to whether 
 that conversation did not take place on the Tuesday morning subsequently 
 to the death, but the witness persisted in saying that it was on the Mon- 
 day, and he was confirmed in his memory of the date by the fact of his 
 having been summoned to f.ttend on that day at the Central Criminal 
 Court in a stabbing case. 
 
 Mr Donoghue's servant-boy was then sent for. He remembered 
 Captain Clark and another person calling at his master's house ; but 
 could not possibly tell on what day of the week it happened. 
 
 Captain Clark was then again called, and asserted most positively 
 that it was on the Tuesday morning that Mr Belany made the state- 
 ment to Mr Donoghue. 
 
 Mr Baker said that was a fact which it would be very important to 
 have ascertained correctly. 
 
 Mr Donoghue said, that on hearing the statement he thought it odd 
 Mr Belany had not called on him on Sunday. 
 
 Captain Clark said he thought Doctor Garratt, could* throw a light 
 on the doubt, and that gentleman being called, said he understood the 
 interview had taken place upon the Tuesday. 
 
 Mrs Mary Stobbs, a widow lady, and aunt of Mrs Belany, was 
 then called. She trembled a good deal and appeared greatly affected 
 when first sworn. She said she resided at North Sunderland,in North- 
 umberland, and rented a farm from her late sister, Mrs Rachel Shelly^ 
 mother of the deceased, at ,lOO a-year. She went twice to see her 
 sister before her death. Her sister was then living at the prisoner's 
 house; but she did not see him there on those occasions. On the
 
 12 
 
 Saturday she saw Mr Bdany, who told her Mrs Skelly was asleep 
 having had a little laudanum, and expressed a hope that she would be 
 better when she awoke. Witness understood Mrs Skelly died that 
 day ; but her niece did not ask her in. Mrs Skelly generally enjoyed 
 good health, and was not subject to fits. 
 
 Mr Clarkson here interposed, and asked whether it was intended to 
 try a double inquest. He had no objection to the production of every 
 possible evidence ; but, if the case went to another place, good reason 
 would be shown why the witness should not have been with her sister. 
 
 The Coroner said lie had no bias whatever in the case, his only object 
 being to do justice and elicit the truth. 
 
 Mrs Stobbs then proceeded to state, that she understood the property 
 which she rented from her sister passed on that lady's death to Mrs 
 Belany, and from her to her husband. Witness received notice to quit 
 from Mr Befany, whose wife, on Mrs Skelly's death, she looked upon 
 as her landlady. Witness told Mr Belany, she did not expect a 
 notice to quit ; but he replied it was Mrs Skeltys express wish. 
 Witness, however, had reason to think otherwise. She did not know 
 on what terms the prisoner and his wife lived, as she had not seen them 
 above twice together. Mrs Skelly had five houses, and had no child but 
 Rachel. Witness, before Rachel's marriage, placed some money to her 
 account in the Newcastle Bank. The prisoner, besides the work on 
 Falconry, wrote a little poem called the Steeple Chase. 
 
 Mr Clarkson here again interfered, and requested, if this evidence 
 was considered material, that it should be taken down : if riot, he could 
 not conceive why it should bn gone into. 
 
 Mr Baker said, that he perhaps had a clearer view on the case than 
 the learned gentleman, having been furnished with more materials than 
 the learned gentlemen, who, it might be, had not seen this book. 
 
 Mr Clarkson. O yes, I have. I have neglected nothing necessary 
 to my client's case. 
 
 The Steeple Chase, a small pamphlet in rhyme, was then handed 
 about among the jurors. Our reporter had no opportunity of seeing 
 it ; but he understood it to be a local pasquinade, abounding in per- 
 sonal invective. It was published in 1838, and Mr Baker said he 
 was glad to see a better spirit exhibited in the clever work on Falconry, 
 published in 1841. 
 
 Mrs Stobbs, being cross-examined by Mr Clarkson, said she was not 
 sent for as a witness, but came up of her own accord to see after her 
 niece. A person of the name of Johnson asked her if she had any 
 wish to come up to town ? She borrowed the money for the journey ; 
 but she intended to pay it back to the parties who lent it, and whose 
 names were down in a list. She could not say whether it had beert 
 raised by subscription. 
 
 In answer to a juror, the witness said her niece was always kind iof 
 her, when Mr Belany was not present. 
 
 Mr George Hobson, of No. 8, Crombey row, Commercial-road, \ 
 bookseller, knew the prisoner six years ago, and had received f 
 from him half a dozen copies of the Steeple Chase. The prisoner", 
 then resided at Cannon-street-road. The witness then proceeded to state j 
 the renewal of his acquaintance with Mr Belany and his introduction^ 
 to that gentleman's wife after their arrival in town on Tuesday. ^4te
 
 13 
 
 4th inst , and his evidence was similar to that given by Captain 
 Clark. 
 
 Mr Baker said, that as other witnesses were expected tip from the 
 country lie would postpone the inquiry until Thursday next. 
 
 Sergeant M'Cardell said there were two ladies in attendance who 
 had lived in the neighbourhood of Mr and Mrs Belany down in the 
 north, and who could speak to the prisoner's ill-treatment of his wife 
 up to December last. 
 
 The witnesses, however were not called, and the inquest was 
 adjourned until 2 o'clock on Thursday. 
 
 On Thursday, June 27th. an adjourned inquest on the body of Rachel 
 Belany, the lady to whom her husband, James Coekburn Belany, was 
 suspected of having administered prussic acid on the eighth inst., was 
 resumed at the Fountain Tavern, Stracey-street. before Mr Baker. 
 
 Mr Clarkson and two gentlemen from the Office of Messrs. Coode 
 and Brown, solicitors, attended to watch the proceedings on the part of 
 the prisoner, The inquest-room was crowded to suffocation, and the 
 deepest interest prevailed. 
 
 The additional evidence was the same a* that taken before the magis- 
 trate at the police-court on the previous day, and which appeared at 
 length in The Times of yesterday, from which journal the letters adduc- 
 ed were read by the coroner, one of the jury testing their correctness 
 by the originals. 
 
 Mr T. Donoghue, surgeon, 37, While Horse-street, Stepney, who 
 swore so positively that Mr Belany detailed the circumstances of his 
 wife's death by prussic acid on the Monday after that lady's decease, in 
 the presence of Captain Clarke, at half-past 8 o'clock in the morning, 
 begged to correct his evidence. He had since made inquiries at the 
 Old Bailey and elsewhere, which altered his conviction, and satisfied 
 him that the conversation took place on the Tuesday, 
 
 With reference to the letter No. 2, dated June the Sth, written by 
 Belany to the witness Bell, and stating that his wife was attended by 
 two doctors at the very time when she must have been lying dead, Cap- 
 tain Clark, Mrs Hejjpingstall, Mrs M'Eachern, and the girl who at- 
 tended at the lodgings, were all recalled, and deposed that the deceased 
 had not been attended by a medical man from her arrival in Green, 
 street up to the calling in of Mr Garratt, after she had breathed her 
 last. 
 
 Inspector Haynes said, he understood the property to which by a 
 deed executed in the manorial court of Bamburgh in October, 1843, 
 the prisoner would be entitled on the death of his wife, was of the value 
 of 3,OOOZ. 
 
 Mr Baker having then read the whole of the voluminous depositions, 
 proceeded to charge the jury, first drawing the distinction laid down by 
 the soundest lawyers between murder, manslaughter, and mischance. 
 The charge of murder required proof of previous intention to destroy, 
 but the distinctions drawn by law as regarded manslaughter were of a 
 nice and subtile nature. They, however, in substance were to the effect 
 that any one who should occasion the death of another, even by careless- 
 ness, and when all proper and reasonable precautions had not been taken, 
 rendered himself amenable to the charge. In the present instance the
 
 14 
 
 party accused was, or represented himself to be, a surgeon. He more 
 than any other man should have taken care not to leave so deadly a poi- 
 son in so exposed a situation. Should the jury be so divided as not to 
 bring in a verdict either of wilful murder, manslaughter, or misad- 
 venture, there was a fourth way by which they could escape from any 
 difficulty in which they might find themselves involved, viz., by bring- 
 ing in what was called an open verdict, and saying that the deceased 
 died by taking poison, but how or by whom administered there \vas no 
 evidence to show. He hoped, however, after the long and painful in- 
 vestigation of the case, and the close attention which, he was hiippy to 
 say, thejury had given to the evidence, (hey would brintr their minds 
 to grapple with the whole of the ca?e, and come to some conducive 
 verdict. One thing was clear from the evidence of Dr. Letheby, 
 that there were various restoratives known to every medical man which 
 might have been resorted to by the prisoner when his wife had taken 
 the poison, and yet he had recourse only to that which was least bene- 
 ficial namely, bathing her feet in warm water. It also appeared that 
 the prisoner made no statement respecting the prussic acid until alter 
 he had endeavoured to fish out of Mr Garratt what the post mortem 
 examination had suggested as the immediate cause of death. Still, 
 notwithstanding this and no proof had been given to the contrary 
 the parties appeared to live on the most amicable terms, and with the 
 exception o[ the evidence of the wills executed previously to their 
 setting out for London, no motive had been shown. Two books had 
 been produced in the course of the inquiry, and he must say that if 
 the ribald trash in the shape of a poem called * The Steeple Chase" 
 had been published at a later period than his work on falconry, which 
 showed a greatly improved spirit, and a much more refined taste, 
 he (the Coroner") would rather incline to think the prisoner was in- 
 fluenced by some monomanical spirit. " The Steeple Chase, 1 was 
 evidently written in a reckless spirit of gross personal scandal, ex- 
 hibiting the wild emotions of a disturbed and rambling brain, and 
 was well calculated to cost a mfdical man whatever reputation he 
 might happen to possess in the locality where he practised. How- 
 ever, as a better spirit had been exhibited in the later work, the 
 disturbance of mind which might have been argued from the previous 
 work could not be set up, nor had it been attempted. It was not 
 likely that the prisoner's advisers would allow him to change the 
 ground which he had already taken. Still the absence of motive 
 presented a difficulty. The property lay with the prisoner and his 
 wife. 
 
 There were no other children to put in a claim. The deed executed 
 at Bamburgh gave the property to the survivor; and the wills, which 
 were illegal, as not made in the presence of the witnesses, were wholly 
 unnecessary. Mr Baker then proceeded to descant at considerable 
 length, and with minute scrutiny of comparison as to time, date, and 
 motive, on the letters which the activity of Inspector Haynes had so 
 promptly brought to light. There was a curious consecutiveness in 
 these letters, which led to the worst surmises. The first, addressed 
 from the Euston Hotel, when the parties were living in Green-street, 
 Stepney, seemed as if purposely designed, on the part of the prisoner, 
 to pave the way for the fatal result. The next letter, written on
 
 15 
 
 the Saturday, was one which it behoved the jury to take into the 
 deepest consideration, as whether it was posted on the Sunday or on 
 the Monday was a matter of very serious importance. He was sorry 
 to say that it was the worst feature in the whole case as regarded the 
 unhappy prisoner, for unhappy he must be whether death was the result 
 of accident or design. The letter contained a gross falsehood when it 
 stated that the prisoner's wife was attended by two physicians. It was 
 interesting to observe how Providence indicated its presence, and how 
 well it was known even in the heathen world ; one of the finest trans- 
 lators amongst Roman writers finely paraphrased a line of Euripides 
 when he said 
 
 'Quein Deus vult perdere prius dementat." 
 
 It was a very extraordinary fact, that on the very day of the woman's 
 death, the prisoner should have written such a letter as that dated June 
 8. It appeared to him (Mr Baker) in no other light than as an 
 attempt to prepare the minds of the friends of the deceased for an act al- 
 ready fully deliberated. He was sorry to be obliged to make these 
 observations, but the remaining part of the correspondence produced 
 compelled him to do so, as determined falsehood characterised the whole. 
 If he put a wrong construction upon these letters, he much regretted 
 it ; but it did seem to him as if the hand of Providence were here, and 
 as if these letters had been written by the prisoner for his own 
 condemnation. He was glad to find that the pled of monomania 
 had not been set up. as it was one which would involve the case in 
 great difficulty. He remembered Lord Abinger reciting a case in 
 which this plea was set up, and which was of a very peculiar nature. 
 It was that of a magistrate in the Midland Circuit, who was much 
 respected by a large circle of most desirable acquaintance, and who was 
 devotedly attached to his two children. One day having returned 
 from hunting, he took up two pistols, and deliberately shot both chil- 
 dren, one after the other, and the strangest part of the case was that 
 no person could possibly convince him that he had been guilty of a 
 crime. This person was subsequently tried and acquitted. There 
 were many similar ca-^es on record, where the parties appeared 
 to have been hurried on by an irresistible impulse, over which they 
 had no control, like a man on a fiery steed without any power of curbing 
 it, carried on and on without any act of volition ; but even in such a 
 case as that, he (Mr Baker) w^oufd feel it his duty to direct the jury to 
 bring in a verdict of wilful murder. Indeed, where death had oc- 
 curred, he should feel bound to constrain them to do so, though the act 
 were done by a raving madman, who made his way from some lunatic 
 asylum. Though adverting to this view of the case, he did not see 
 that he was well warranted in raising the question, as it had not been 
 set up in defence. Still in a case of so extraordinary a character, when 
 in such a pressing necessity no medical men had been called in, until 
 Mr Garratt arrivf-d just as the deceased had expired, it was well to 
 view the case in every point in which it presented itself. There was 
 an extraordinary laches on the part of the pri?oner, himself a medical 
 man, who according to the evidence of Dr. Letheby, ought to have 
 known the means which would be resorted to to counteract the effects 
 of the poison. Even according to the statement of the prisoner, his 
 wife must have seen the accident which occurred to the bottle contain- 
 ing the prussic acid, and the wonder was, that the defence set up,
 
 16 
 
 (which would be much more credible than the prisoner's statement) 
 was not, that she herself had knowingly taken it. It was a myster- 
 ious tragedy, the first act of which begun with a black draught and 
 salts, the next with the letter of the 5th of June, the letter of the 8th 
 made a new phase, and then came the denouement. The case was 
 shrouded in mystery : there was no jealousy, no hostile interests; and 
 the jury must investigate as closely as they could the motives pro and 
 con which led to the melancholy result. 
 
 The jury retired at 7 o'clock, and at half-past 10 returned a verdict of 
 "Wilful murder against James Cockburn Belany." 
 
 INVESTIGATION AT THE THAMES POLICE OFFICE. 
 
 On Wednesday, June 12th, Mr James Cockburn Belany, a writer 
 of a work upon Falconry, and who represented himself as a surgeon, was 
 brought up before Mr Broderip, in custody of Police-sergeant M'Car- 
 dell, No. 4 K,on a charge of wilful murder, in causing the death of his 
 wife, Rachel Belany, by administering to her a quantity of prussic acid. 
 
 The prisoner, who leant on the front of the dock in a very dejected 
 manner during the inquiry, appeared to be about 45 years of age Pre- 
 viously to the inquiry being enteied into the prisoner requested a post- 
 ponement of the case, as he had sent for counsel to conduct the defence. 
 
 Mr Broderip, said, that any evidence which might be taken could be 
 read over on the arrival of the barrister, who would then have an oppor- 
 tunity of putting any questions to the witnesses which he thought 
 necessary. 
 
 Prisoner. In my position. Sir, under the present circumstances, the 
 complexion of the case is very dark. 
 
 Mr Broderip. I must view it as a complete blank, which is 
 only to be filled up by evidence brought before me. 
 
 Mr Charnock, the barrister, and Mr Hicks, the solicitor, attended 
 for the accused. 
 
 The first witness called was Mrs Elizabeth Heppingstall, of 46, 
 Tracey-street, Stepney, who slated that she was the wife of a master 
 mariner, now at sea. On Tuesday week, the prisoner and his wife 
 hired apartments in her house, for one week only. On Saturday 
 morning last, about twenty minutes before eight o'clock, she heard 
 the prisoner at the top of the stairs call, "Mistress, mistress,'' in a 
 very hurried manner, and that his wife was very ill. He begged 
 of her to come up immediately. Witness and her servant both went 
 upstairs together, and saw Mrs Belany lying on the bed, apparently 
 in a very strong fit. She went to the head of the bed, and, with 
 the assistance of her servant, raised her head up. Witness was 
 much alarmed at the condition Mrs Belany was in, and exclaimed, 
 "Oh, she is very bad indeed ; pray try something to revive her; put 
 her feet in hot water." Her servant immediately procured a pail of 
 hot water, and Mrs Belany's feet were put into it. Mr Belany, who 
 commenced, rubbing her feet appeared greatly alarmed, and directed 
 that a Captain Clark and Mr Macerchin, two friends of his, should
 
 17 
 
 be gent for instantly. Witness said, "Pray send for a doctoi, sir; 
 send for a doctor, she is dying ;"' and the prisoner said he was a med- 
 ical man himself, and would take blood, if he could, but it was useless 
 attempting to do so, as she had no pulse. Mr Broderip : In what 
 state was Mrs Belany when he used those words ? Witness : The 
 upper part of her body was dreadfully convulsed. The prisoner said 
 he thought it was a disease of the heart, and that her mother had 
 died some months ago in the same way. My servant soon returned 
 with Mrs Macerchin, and I begged of her to fetch a doctor. Mrs 
 Macerchin said, "I'll fetch my own doctor, Mr Garratt," and she 
 left the house for that purpose, while my servant went for Captain 
 Clark. I then went below to make a mustard poultice, and, when I 
 returned with it, Mrs Belany 's feet were taken out of the water, and 
 the prisoner put her hands in and rubbed them, Captain Clark, who 
 came in, also rendered every assistance in his power. I don't know 
 who applied the mustard poultice, whether it was the prisoner or 
 Captain Clark, but it had no effect whatever. After the pail of hot 
 water was brought into the room, the prisoner rubbed his wife's hands 
 well with it, and also rubbed her arms and the side of her face. 
 
 I don't think Mrs Belany breathed more than twice after Captain 
 Clark entered the room, and she expired with her head reclining on my 
 shoulder. In answer to questions by Mr Symons, the chief clerk, the 
 witness said that Mrs Belany died about fifteen or twenty minutes after 
 she was first brought in. The prisoner was in the room when his wife 
 died, but she did not think any one knew when she died, as there were 
 long intervals between the convulsions. The prisoner felt his wife's 
 pulse several time? before lie said there was no pulsation. There were 
 two tumblers on the table in the room, and one of them contained some 
 liquid. She washed the glasses in the slop basin, in the ordinary man- 
 ner, and whatever the tumbler contained went down the sink. To the 
 best of her knowledge the liquid in the tumbler was thick. She could 
 not charge her memory as to what the prisoner said after the death of 
 his wife ; but witness said repeatedly what a shocking thing it was. 
 While Mrs Belany was in convulsions, tlie prisoner exclaimed several 
 times, ''She will not come to, she will not come to. She had no con- 
 versation with the prisoner about his wife's death, except on Sunday 
 morning, when the prisoner said he was- sorry to see her so ill after the 
 fright of the day preceding. 
 
 Sarah Williams, servant to Mrs Hippingstall, deposed : I was in the 
 habit of attending on the prisoner and his wife. They appeared to 
 live very happily together. On Wednesday. Mrs Belany was slightly 
 indisposed, and the prisoner ordered me to fetch a black draught, and 
 I did so. Soon afterwards the prisoner called me upstairs to empty the 
 washing bason, and brought it to me. I was not sent for any medicine 
 after that. On Saturday morning, about five minutes before seven, he 
 called for a jug of hot water and a glass and a spoon, which I brought 
 to him. About half an hour after that I was dusting the parlour, and 
 he said I might discontinue doing so, as he was going to write. I 
 asked him if I should bring the breakfast up stairs, and he said, "No, I 
 will ring the bell when I want it." About a quarter to eight o'clock 
 he called out from the bedroom "Mistress, mistress, my wife is verv 
 ill." She (witness) then described, in much the same terms, as her
 
 18 
 
 mistress, the state the deceased was in, and said she foamed at the 
 mouth ; and the prisoner said "It is a jit, and 1 am afraid she will 
 not come out of it." Witness saw no phial in the room, but the 
 bottle which had contained the black draught was there. The prisoner 
 made no observations after his wife's death, and did not state what was 
 the cause of it. 
 
 Both witnesses were cross-examined at great length by Mr Charnock. 
 and they said the prisoner'* conduct towards his wife was most kind 
 and affectionate. The tumblers were on a small table at the head 
 of the bed, and the one containing the liquid was nearest the bed. 
 Both appeared to have been used. There were some Epsom salts on 
 the table, in a paper. The prisoner and his wife were visited by some 
 friends one evening, On Thursday evening they were at the Pavilion 
 theatre, and on Friday they visited the Thames Tunnel. Mrs Belany 
 was far advanced in pregnancy. Mrs Hippingstall described Mrs 
 Belany to be about twenty years of age, and said she was a very sweet 
 pretty woman, with a pleasing countenance. The prisoner and his 
 wife appeared like father and daughter, and he was very attentive to 
 her. 
 
 Sarah Williams was re-examined by Mr Broderip, and said she found 
 the glass stopper of a bottle in the parlour, under the pianoforte, on 
 Saturday afternoon, after the lady's death. 
 
 Mr Thomas Blizard Curling, of New Broad-street, surgeon, said 
 he had made a post mortem examination of the body of Mrs Belany 
 on Monday last, in the presence of Mr Garratt. He first examined 
 the viscera of the chest, but could find no disease in the heart or lungs 
 sufficient to account for death. There was no atrophy at all. On re- 
 moving the contents of the stomach there was a strong smell of prussic 
 acid. The contents were placed in a tumbler and sealed up for further 
 examination. There was a slight congestion of the brain, but he found 
 no particular disease, or any thing to account for death. The contents 
 of the stomach were analysed on Sunday, at the London Hospital, in 
 his presence, by several experienced chemists, and the presence of a 
 quantity of prussic acid was detected. The actual amount was not 
 ascertained, but there was sufficient to destroy life. It was his decided 
 opinion that prussic acid taken into the stomach was the cause of death. 
 In cross examination Mr Curling said prussic acid was sometimes 
 prescribed as a medicine for indigestion. Four or five drops of the 
 diluted ^Sheele's strength) was not an unusual dose. A person in the 
 habit of taking prussic acid might be enabled to take a larger dose 
 than one who was not accustomed to it. He was not aware that 
 medical men were in the habit of taking prussic acid as a medicine. He 
 saw the unhappy man at the bar on Monday evening after the post. 
 mortem examination, and was with him for five minutes, but he did 
 not make known to him the cause of death, whidi was, in fact, 
 not then ascertained, Mr Broderip : Did you discover any traces of 
 Epsom salts ? Mr Curling replied that he did not search with that 
 view. He was satisfied as to the cause of death. 
 
 Mr Mark Brown Garratt, surgeon, of No. 3, New-road, St. 
 George in the East, said he had heard Mr Curling's evidence, and 
 coincided generally with him. He then gave tlie following important 
 evidence: [ WAS sent for on Saturday morning by Mrs Macherchin,
 
 19 
 
 and arrived at the house about 25 minutes before nine o'clock. I pro- 
 ceeded to the deceased's bedroom immediately, and saw the prisoner, 
 who was seated on a chair feeing the door. He rose as I entered, 
 and shook hands with me, although we were perfect strangers. Mrs 
 Belany had been dead some time. There was a paper on the table 
 containing salts and senna, which had been opened. I proposed that an 
 inquest should be called to Captain Clark, who was in the adjoining 
 room, and the prisoner was called in. I told him it would be necessary 
 to have an inquiry before the coroner in a case of sudden death like 
 this. He readily acceded to it, and begged that I would take the 
 the regular proceedings. He acquiesced in all I said. I had no con- 
 versation with the prisoner as to the cause of death. I left the house 
 with Mr Curling, on Monday, after the post mortem examination had 
 taken place, without informing the prisoner that prussic acid had 
 been discovered in the deceased's stomach. On the same evening he 
 called upon me several times, and asked me the cause of death, but 
 I evaded his questions. Two of fei* friends, Captain Clark and Mr 
 Hobson, also called upon me for the same purpose, but I refused to 
 satisfy them. On the third occasion Captain Clark came into my 
 surgery, followed immediately after by Mr Hobson. They wished to 
 speak to me for a short time, and the prisoner, who was waiting out- 
 side, made the following statement relating to this unfortunate occur- 
 rence : "I have been in the habit of taking three drops of prussic 
 acid. On Saturday morning I was about to take that quantity, and in 
 endeavouring to remove the glass stopper from the bottle I experienced 
 some difficulty in doing so, and with the handle of a tooth brush I 
 used soaie little force, and the neck of this bottle containing the prussic 
 acid broke off. Some of it was spilled, and being anxious to be care- 
 ful with the remainder, and not having another bottle. I put it into a 
 tumbler, and placed it on the drawers on the other side of the room, 
 and shortly after proceeded into the front room, to proceed with the 
 writing of a letter ,to my friends in the country / heard a scream 
 soon afterwards proceed from the bed-room. 
 
 I immediately went in to the bed room, and found my 
 wife in convulsions. My wife said, Ii 0h, dear me, I have 
 taken some of the strong drink out of the tumbler give me 
 some cold water.'''' I then called the landlady immediately, Mr 
 Charnock ; Was this a voluntary statement ? Mr Garrelt : Q,uite so; 
 and 1 had continued the same silence as to the cause of death until 
 then. I had not made Clark, Hobson, or any one acquainted with 
 the fact that there was prussic acid in the deceased's stomach. The 
 prisoner appeared very anxious to press the statement on me. Before 
 he began it, he said, li l was amazingly vexed and wounded in my 
 feelings that I did not communicate to you the particulars before." Mr 
 Broderip : Was the deceased pregnant ? Mr Garratt : I ascertained 
 she was gfven months advanced in pregnancy. Mr Broderip said, at 
 that late hour he could not proceed furlher^with the investigation that 
 day- Indeed, the case was one of too serious a nature to be hurried. 
 He a-ked the prisoner if he wished to say anything ; at the same time 
 it wa- his duty to inform him that what he had to say would Le written 
 down, and might be used in evidence against him hereafter. 
 
 Mr Charnock advised the prisoner to be silent. There was quite
 
 20 
 
 enough to show what he would say if he spoke at all. He knew the 
 case must be remanded, ?.nd it would be futile to offer any opposition 
 to it. He wished (he officer, M'Cardell, to bring the primmer before 
 the coroner on Thursday, when the inquest would be resumed. 
 M'Cardell said that rested with the magistrate. Mr Charnock said 
 there were several other witnesses to be examined before the coroner, 
 and as the proceedings before that functionary were so much nearer a 
 close than the case before the magistrate, he wished the prisoner to be 
 brought before the coroner's court to hear the evidence. Mr Broderip 
 said he had nothing to do with the coroner's court. It was not possible 
 to send this very serious case before a jury during the present sessions 
 of the Central Criminal Court, and he should remand the prisoner for 
 a week. If Mr Charnock wished the prisoner to appear before the 
 coroner, he niust make application to the proper authorities. Mr 
 Chamock said he should adopt that course, and the prisoner was then 
 formally remanded to Clerkenwel! prison for a week. 
 
 In the early part of the day police sergeant Shaw, No. 2 K, a very 
 intelligent officer, intercepted a letter of the prisoners, which he in- 
 tended for a friend in the country. The account given in it of the 
 death of Mrs Belany, differs materially from the statement made to Mr 
 Garratt. 
 
 The case of Mr James Cockburn Belany. charged with having 
 caused the death of his late wife Rachel by administering to her a dose 
 of prussie acid ?.t their lodgings, 48, Green-street, Stepney, on the 
 morning of Saturday, the 8th instant., having been remanded for a re- 
 hearing yesterday before Mr BRODERIP, the court was densely crowd- 
 ed, and so great was the interest excited that several well-dressed 
 women submitted to the heat and pressure of the body of the court 
 for the purpose of seeing the prisoner, and hearing the proceedings. 
 Several of them had to be removed almost fainting during the inquiry. 
 
 Some cf the prisoner's personal friends, persons of great respecta- 
 bility in the counties of Durham and Northumberland, and amongst 
 others a county magistrate, a near neighbour of Mr Belany's. and with 
 whom he was in close intimacy, occupied the reserved seats in the 
 court, and his brother, a clergyman of the established church, who, 
 it is understood, has a living at Arlington, in Essex, and to whom, it 
 appears, from one of :he letters put in evidence, the prisoner was 
 about to proceed on a visit with his wife, sat on one of the benches 
 appropriated to the solicitors. One gentleman interested for the pris- 
 oner observing, previously to the inquiry being proceeded with, on the 
 strange reverses of fortune which frequently take place in life, said, 
 it would scarcely be supposed that a person who was about to join the 
 Duke of Leeds in a visit to the Prince of the Netherlands, should have 
 his journey intercepted and himself incarcerated on a charge of murder, 
 at the very moment he was about to avail himself of the invitation. 
 
 At about half-past 2 o'clock, the prisoner was placed at the bar. He 
 appeared considerably altered, his dress beine totally changed ; as, in- 
 stead of the clerical costume, he wore a Taglioni coat and a black 
 neckerchief, He heard the evidence with great firmness, and gravely, 
 though slightly, bowed to some of his friend*. 
 
 Mr Clarkson, the barrister, and two gentlemen from the office of
 
 21 
 
 Messrs Code and Browne, solicitor?, attended for the defence. 
 
 The first witness called was Inspector Huynes, of the detective 
 force, who only returned last night from the north, where he had 
 been collecting evidence, He said, that in accordance with instruc- 
 tions which he had received from the Commissioners of the Police, he 
 left town on Wednesday, and arrived on Friday last at North Swn- 
 derland. He went, accompanied by Mr Ord, a magistrate, to the 
 house of a person named Bell, from whom he received several letters, 
 numbered from one to six inclusive. He then went, accompanied by 
 Mr Bell and the Rev. Mr Simpson, to the prisoner's house in North 
 Sunderla'id, and on searching a cupboard, found two papers, pur- 
 porting to be copies of wills, in a portfolio. He afterwards went to 
 Mr Scott the registrar, and procured a copy of the registry of 
 the death of Mrs Shelly, mother to the prisoner's wife ; and, after 
 that, he went to Mr Thorp, steward of the borough of Bamborough, 
 who resides at Alnwick, and procured a copy of a surrender and 
 admittance of certain copyhold property, dated 24th October, 1843- 
 
 These documents having been handed in, to Mr. Symons, Chief Clerk, 
 who read them. [See letters, No 1 to 8, produced on the Trial.] 
 
 It is worthy of remark that the letter of the 5th of June, is addressed 
 from the Euston Hotel, the prisoner had removed to Green-street, 
 Stepney, on the previous day. 
 
 The next letter was dated June the 8th. 
 
 Mr Broderip. The 8th ! Was not that the day of the woman's 
 death ? 
 Mr Symons. Yes, Sir. 
 
 This answer excited the greatest possible interest. 
 
 Mr George Grey Bell agent to Robson and Skelly's lime works, 
 North Sunderland, identified the letters signed J. S. Belanv, as being 
 in the handwriting of the prisoner, who recently became a partner of 
 the firm. Witness believed the late Mrs Skelly, the prisoner's mother 
 in law had befn a partner. Since witness became agent, which was in 
 September last, the prisoner took an active part in the business, To the 
 best of his belief the letters signed J. C. Belany were in the pris- 
 oners handwriting. Witness received the letters numbered 2 and 3 
 on the Wednesday after the date, 
 
 W. D. Clark (known throughout the inquiry as Captain Clark), 
 was called, and admitted that the letter produced, bearing his signa- 
 ture was written by him at the request of the prisoner. 
 
 The two wills, found by inspector Haynes in the cupboard at the 
 prisoner's house, where then read. The first ran as follows : 
 
 ^ I, James Cockburn Belany, do hereby will and bequeath all my 
 property, personal and other estates and hereditaments, with their 
 right and titles, to Rachel Belany,. my lawful wife, to be enjoyed 
 and disposed of by her, as she best thinks fit. 
 
 * JAMES COCKBURN BELANY. 
 
 Witnessed by Wilson ' 
 
 9 {Ralph More. 
 
 " P.S. John Dinning, jun. Esq. of Elford, is to have my 
 Greenland falcon, as promised. 
 
 "North Sunderland, MayMth, 1844." J. C. B.
 
 22 
 
 The second was an exact copy of the former, but without the post- 
 script. Judging from the signature, the whole of the document except 
 the names of the attesting witnesses was written by Mrs Belany, who, 
 it would seem, had copied it from the olher with a too faithful accuracy, 
 as an erasure was made for the purpose of altering the female into the 
 male prisoner. 
 
 Alexander Wilson, a labourer in the prisoner's employment at the 
 lime ttorks in North Sunderiand, remembered the prisoner and his 
 wife leaving that place on the first of June. Witness saw the prisoner 
 and -hi? wife at their own house on "the evening previous to their leav- 
 ing. The prisoner asked witness to sign a will, which he said was 
 drawn up between himself and Mrs Belany. Witness then signed two 
 papers. Those produced are the same. 
 
 Mr Symons. Did the prisoner say any thing when he asked you to 
 sign them ? 
 
 Witness. The prisoner said they consisted of this : If anything 
 happened to Mr? Belany, the effects belonging to them would be left in 
 her will to do with them as he choe ; and Mrs Belany spoke to the 
 same effect that if anything happened to him the effects would go to 
 her to do as she chose. 
 
 Ralph More, a shoemaker of North Sunderiand, signet! two papers 
 at Mr Belany 's house, on Friday, the 31st of May. Alter taking the 
 pen and going over the signatures in witness's presence, the prisoner said 
 it was much better to do so, lest anything should occur whilst they were 
 from home, and added, that it was the custom of gentlemen, or people 
 (witness did not remember which), always to do so when they went 
 from home. Mrs Belany only signed the document, and witness appen- 
 ded bis signature. The document was here handed to witness, who 
 identified it. 
 
 Mr Clarkson declined questioning any of the witnesses. 
 
 The next document read was the register of llv. death of MrsSkelly, 
 mother of Mrs Belany; it was filled up on the information of the pris- 
 oner, who stated that MrsSkelly died on the first of July, 1843. of 
 bilious fever. The registry was dated July 3, 1 843. 
 
 Margaret Ronalds was then called. She said she had been servant to 
 Mr and Mrs Belany for nine months. At times Mrs Belany's friends 
 came to see her. They sometimes were not asked in. and at other times 
 they were. On one occasion whilst witness lived there she was toldbif 
 the prisoner that Mrs Bdany had miscarried in the night. He told 
 her so between 6 and 1 o'clock in the morning on a Friday ; but she did 
 not know the month. 
 
 Mr Clarkson. I sec the clerk in his examination seems to get his 
 information from some paper to which he refers. I should like to know 
 whether this witness has been examined before in the presence of a 
 magistrate. (To the witness.) Were you examined before? Yes; 
 in North Sunderiand. 
 
 Mr Clarkson. Was he a magistrate who examined you ? I can- 
 not say: I do not know. 
 
 Mr Clarkson. I have material objections to this mode of pro- 
 ceeding ; but I will not urge them here. 
 
 The witness proceeded to state that she was not called to render 
 any assistance lo Mrs Belany on the occasion, when the prisoner
 
 23 
 
 told her that that lady had had a miscarriage. 
 
 Mr Clarkson. If anything applicable to the present inquiry is 
 to be elicited by this mode of inquiry, let it be shown ; or, if 
 there be any other charge, let it be stated. 
 
 Mr Broderip. / am sure the prisoner has no cause to complain 
 of the manner in which this inquiry has been conducted. The fullest 
 latitude has been offered for the defence. 
 
 The witness, on being pressed as to the time when Mr Belany spoke 
 of the miscarriage, said, to the best of her recollection, it was in 
 September last. Witness knew a Mrs Robson, No medical man 
 was called in when the prisoner told witness that Mrs Belany had 
 a miscarriage. 
 
 In answer to a question from Mr Clarkson, witness said, she only 
 arrived in town from North Sunderland on Tuesday. 
 
 Sergeant Shaw was then called, and proved (hat he received a 
 a letter from the prisoner on the Wednesday after the death of the 
 deceased, which was intended for the post : but which witness thought 
 it his duty to detain, 
 
 [This letter, was addressed to t; Robert Emblefon, Esq., Embleton, by 
 Alawick, Northumberland.] 
 
 Mr Broderip (to (he prisoner) If you have anything to. say, you 
 can say it now; but your statement will be voluntary, and written 
 down for or against you. 
 
 Mr Clarkson intimated that the defence would be reserved. 
 
 Mr BRODERIP. Prisoner at the bar, you stand remanded until 
 Saturday next ; but, at the same time, I feel it necessary to state 
 that, if no additional evidence be given, it will then be my duty to 
 commit you to take your trial for the wilful murder of Rachel 
 Belany. 
 
 The announcement, which excited a deep sensation in the Court, 
 did not seem in any degree to shake the prisoner, who walked steadily 
 buck to his cell. 
 
 On Saturday the 29th of June, Mr James Cockburn Belany was 
 brought up on remand before Mr BRODERIP, at the, Thames Police, 
 office, charged on suspicion with having caused the death of his wife, 
 Rachel Belany, by administering to her a dose of prussic acid, on Satur- 
 day the 8th inst., at their lodging, 48, Green-street, Stepney . The in- 
 terest excited was intense, and a great number of Mr Belany's friends 
 were present in the court. 
 
 Mr Clarkson, the barrister, and Messrs Code and Brown, solicitors, 
 appeared for the defence. 
 
 Mr Hayward, from the office of Mr Maule, solicitor to the Treasury, 
 addressed the magistrate and said that it was only on the previous day 
 he had been instructed to prosecute in this case. He therefore had time 
 merely to glance over the lengthened depositions, and as the sessions 
 would commence on Monday, it would be utterly impossible for him to 
 get the case properly up within that short a period. He therefore re- 
 quested that the prisoner might be remanded for a few days so that the 
 trial might not take place until the session commencing in August. 
 
 Mr Broderip. addressing Mr Clarkson, asked whether he had any 
 objection to that course ?
 
 24 
 
 Mr Clarkson, so far from having any objection, most heartly c.vi Burr- 
 ed in the proposal. Indeed, had it not been made, he should himself 
 have preferred a similar request on the part of the unfortunate gentle- 
 man at the bar. He \va* gratified, on the part of his highly respecta- 
 ble, though unfortunate client, that the case iiad been taken up by the 
 Solicitor to the Treasury ; for he was satisfied that the prosecution 
 would be carried on in a lair and candid spirit. The time which would 
 elapse between this and the August session would allow a fair opportu- 
 nity for getting the case properly up, both as regarded the prosecution 
 and the defence. Every fact which could possibly be brought against 
 the prisoner, could be elicited, whilst at the same time his friends and 
 advisers would have an opportunity of meeting the char-re, and of 
 proving his entire innocence of the crime imputed to him. Com- 
 mon justice, as well to the prisoner as to the public, required that 
 the case of the gentleman at the bar, who had by his own irrational 
 and irresolute conduct surrounded himself by so many adverse cir- 
 cumstances, should be tried before an unprejudiced and dispassionate 
 tribunal where both sides of the question would be fully and fairly 
 beard. He ( Mr Clarkson ) did not complain of anything which had 
 taken place, either in that court or another quarter. It could not be 
 supposed, after the magistrate had stated his intention of committ- 
 ing the prisoner on the charge of wilful murder that the coroners 
 jury could come to any other conclusion than that which they had 
 adopted. He, however, would reserve to himseif the right of com- 
 menting in another place on the mode in which the prosecution has 
 been conducted. For his own part he had no doubt of the inno- 
 cence of the unfortunate gentleman, who, by his own weakness and 
 irresolution, was placed in so unhappy a position ; and this convic- 
 tion was shared by the many highly respectable friends who. he was 
 happy to see, still mustered strongly around him, affording him the 
 consolation of their sympathy and assistance in this hour of severe 
 and trying calamity. They all believed him perfectly innocent of 
 the crime laid to his charge, and of which he ( Mr Clarkson ) would 
 undertake to say no jury in the world would find him guilty. 
 Mr Broderip said, that was a question which only a jury could 
 decide. As to the application for delay he thought it well founded 
 and was happy to Jind that no opposition had been offered. Jn 
 so serious a case, involving as it did other inquiries, justice could 
 not satisfactorily be done if the proceedings were hurried on to 
 the sessions commencing on Monday next, as no proper time would 
 be allowed for a due prejtaration of the briefs. 
 
 Inspector Haynes was then bound over to prosecute, and the wit- 
 nesses entered into recognizances to appear at the August session. 
 
 Mr Broderip, addressing Mr Hayward, said, that as the Cor- 
 oner had bound over the witnesses examined on the inquest to ap- 
 pear at the Central Criminal Court, it would be well if that court 
 were moved to respite their recognizances. 
 
 Mr Hayward thanked his worship for this suggestion, which, 
 he said, would be promptly acted upon. 
 
 The prisoner was then removed to the gaolers-room, where he 
 was allowed to have an interview with his friends, and was 
 shortly after removed in the van. He seemed in better spirits 
 than on either of the previous examinations.
 
 25 
 
 CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT, WEDNESDAY, AUG. 21. 
 FIRST DAY. 
 
 At the silting of the Court this morning, at 9 o'clock, among the 
 prisoners arraigned before Mr Commissioner BULLOCK and Mr ALDER- 
 MAN W. HUNTER was James Cockburn, Belany, surgeon, charged 
 with the wilful murder of Rachel Belany, his wife. 
 
 The prisoner, who appeared perfectly calm and collected, pleaded 
 ** Not Guilty" both to the indictment and the coroner's inquisition. 
 
 On the arrival of the judges, Mr Baron GURNEV and Mr Justice 
 WIGHTMAN, at 10 o'clock, the prisoner was again placed at the bar 
 and given in charge to the jury both ou the indictment and the coron- 
 er's inquisition. 
 
 The Solicitor-General. Mr Bodkin, and Mr M. Chambers appeared 
 (o conduct the prosecution on the part of the Crown, and Mr Erie, 
 Queen's Counsel, with Mr Clarkson, defended the prisoner. 
 
 The SOLICITOR-GENERAL said, that in rising to discharge his duty 
 as counsel for the Crown on this solemn and important occasion an 
 occasion upon which the prisoner at the bar was charged with the death 
 of his wife, he could not but feel deeply impressed with the responsi- 
 bility of the task imposed upon him. On the one hand, he should 
 take care, in opening the case, to state, on the part of the Crown, 
 every fact fully and fairly, in order to enable the jury to form a 
 correct and deliberate judgment upon the whole Case ; and on the other 
 hand, he should be cautious that no facts or circumstances from which 
 inferences might be rashly or lightly drawn should be pressed into this 
 inquiry, but that the trial should be conducted in that fair and impar- 
 tial manner, which, to the credit of Great Britain, characterized the 
 proceedings in its tribunals of justice. 
 
 The case he had to lay before the jury was strictly one of circumstantial 
 evidence. There existed no doubt as to the death of the wife ; there 
 existed no doubt that her death had been occasioned by taking a quan- 
 tity of prussic acid ; and ihe question the jury would have to decide 
 would be whether the prussic acid had been taken by the wife by 
 mistake, in consequence of the prisoner's having left it incautiously 
 within her power, or whether he had been guilty of the capital offence 
 of administering to her the fatal poison, The jury, in coming to a 
 conclusion upon the facts to be submitted to them, must apply their 
 minds and exercise their reasoning powers precisely on this important 
 occasion, in the same way as they would in the ordinary concerns of 
 life they would draw those conclusions from the facts which the facts 
 ordinarily brought to their minds, and if upon the consideration of those 
 facts they entertained any doubt, they would give the benefit of it to 
 the prisoner. They were not, however, to be ingenious in suggesting 
 doubts which would not occur to them in judging of the ordinary con- 
 cerns of life, With these preliminary remarks, he would now proceed 
 to state the circumstances of the case shortly to the jury. 
 
 The prisoner at the bar was for some three or four years before the 
 year 1843 in practise as a surgeon in North Sunderland. He was not 
 D
 
 26 
 
 practising under any diploma, and he was not able lo state whether he 
 had an extensive practice. The deceased was the daughter of a Mr? 
 Skelly, a widow lady, residing in North Sunderland. She was pos- 
 sessed of copyhold property, and had also a leasehold interest in 
 some lime works. On the first of February, 1843, the prisoner 
 married the deceased, and he then gave up the practice of a surgeon, 
 and went to reside with his mother-in-law, carrying on, and managing 
 for her, the business of the limeworks. Mrs Skelly did not long 
 survive the marriage of her daughter ; she died in the July following. 
 Upon the death of the mother the prisoner's wife came into possession of 
 the copyhold property, and also of the mines and limeworks, and the pris- 
 oner entered into partnership with a person named Hobson in the 
 limeworks. On the occasion of her death the registrar referred to the 
 prisoner to ascertain the cause, and was told by him to enter it as a 
 bilious fever ; it was so entered in the books, which would be produced, 
 and the entry was signed by the prisoner. In October, 1843, the 
 deceased (Mrs Belany) attended the court of the lord of the manor of 
 Bamborough, and having been admitted in the court roll as devisee in 
 fee under her father's will, she immediately surrendered it to her hus- 
 band and herself as (enants in fee. They continued to reside in North 
 Snnderland till May in the present year. In the course of that month 
 Mr Belanv signified his intention of bringing his wife up to London, 
 leaving her there, and proceeding himself on an excursion up the 
 Rhine. 
 
 On the 3lst of May two wills mutual wills were drawn up ; 
 one by the wife, leaving her property to her husband, in case she 
 should die first, and the other by the husband, the prisoner, leaving 
 his property to her in case he should die before her. The execution of 
 these wills was witnessed by a farm steward and a shoemaker. The 
 prisoner and his wife came up to London on the 3d of June, and on 
 the following day they went, in company with a person nan-.ed Hobson 
 to the house of a Mrs Heppingstall, in Green-street, Mile end, and 
 hired for three weeks two rooms, a front and back parlour, one of 
 which was made into a bed-room. At about half-past 4 o'clock on that 
 flay Mrs Belany appeared to be in perfect health. She and the pris- 
 oner dined together, two friends dining with them. They went out in 
 the evening, stating they were going to the Pavilion Theatre, and 
 they did not return till 12 or 1 o'clock on the following morning. On 
 Wednesday, the next day, Mr Belany ordered his wife a black 
 draught ; the persons in the house shortly afterwards heard Mrs Belany 
 sick, and she remained in the house ill the whole day. On Thursday 
 she seemed to be perfectly recovered ; she went out wilh her husband 
 at 10 o'clock in the morning, and did not return till 5 o'clock ; they 
 remained up till 12 o'clock; she appeared extremely cheerful, and 
 amused herself by playing the piano. On Friday she was also appar- 
 ently in excellent health. It might be ri^ht here that he should stop 
 (he thread of his narrative for the purpose of stating that on Thursday 
 the prisoner at the bar went to a surgeon of the name of Donoghue, at 
 Stepney, whom he had known for thren or four years. He told him 
 that he was in the habit of taking prussic acid medicinally, and he 
 requested him lo get him some, as he himself could not get it genuine ; 
 besides that he ordered some acetate of morphine and some other drugs.
 
 27 
 
 An ounce bottle of prussic acid, together with the other things he 
 had ordered, was sent to him accordingly. 
 
 He (the Solicitor-General) now came to the fatal day, Saturday, the 
 8th of June. Between 6 and 7 o'clock in the morning of that day 
 Mrs Heppingetall, the landlady of the house, heard the prisoner and his 
 wife conversing cheerfully together. About 7 o'clock the prisoner rang 
 the beli, and ordered a tumbler of hot water and a spoon to be brought 
 to his room. About half-past 7 o'clock he was in the parlour; the 
 servant was then du.sting the room. He desired her to leave off, as 
 he wanted to write some letters, and stated that he would ring when he 
 wanted breakfast. In about a quarter of an hour afterwards the 
 prisoner called for assistance. Mrs Heppingstall ran upstairs, and she 
 there found Mrs Belany on the bed lying on her back, insensible, with 
 her eyes closed, and something like foam coining from her mouth. Mrs 
 Heppingstail said to the prisoner, " For God's sake, do something!" 
 She desired the servant to go for hot water ; and the feet of Mrs 
 Belany were put into a pan of it. Mrs Heppingstall said she had seen 
 her own girls in fits, but she had never seen one like that, to which 
 the prisoner replied, "It is no fit it is a disease of the heart, of which 
 her moiher died 12 months ago." He had a lancet in his hand, and 
 observed that he would have bled her, but there was no movement of 
 blood in the heart. Mrs Heppingstall then said, "Won't you send for, 
 a doctor ?" to which the prisoner replied that he was one himself. Ulti- 
 mately, however, a medical man of the name of Garratt was sent for, 
 but upon his arrival Mrs Belany was no more. When Mr Garratt 
 came the prisoner asked him the cause of death, to which he replied, 
 that it might be a disease of the heart. The prisoner said, "Very 
 likely, as that was the disease of which her mother died nine months 
 before." Mr Garratt then said that there must be a coroner's inquest, 
 and the prisoner at once assented to it. That inquest was held on the 
 10th of June, but it was adjourned in order that a post mortem exam- 
 ination might take place. That examination was made by Mr Garratt 
 and a gentleman named Curling, and from that examination it was 
 ascertained that in the stomach there was a sufficient quantity of prussic 
 acid to occasion death . The heart, however, was found to be in a 
 perfectly healthy state. About 9 on the evening of the posl mortem 
 examination, the prisoner, in company with some other persons, called 
 upon Mr Garratt, to ask the cause of death. That gentleman gave 
 him an evasive answer ; the parties went away, and the prisoner called 
 again. He then said that he had been in the habit of taking prussic 
 acid medicinally ; that he had a bottle out of which he could not get 
 the stopper, that in endeavouring to do so he broke the neck off; that 
 upon doing so he poured the prussic acid into some water in a glass that 
 was in the bed-room, and that while he went into the other room to 
 get a bottle to put the acid in. he heard a shriek, and that upon hur- 
 rying into the bed-room Mrs Belany said to him, "Oh, dear, I have 
 taken some of that hot drink, give me some water." The prisoner, 
 upon being asked what he had done with the bottle, said that he had 
 got rid of it on some vacant ground. 
 
 Such was this sad transaction, and such the account given of it. 
 Now, if he was correctly informed, the jury would hear from the 
 medical men that the effect of prussic acid was to cause a shriek, and
 
 28 
 
 that with (hat shriek volition ceased altogether ; and that iftiiat was the 
 cose it would have been impossible for Mrs Belany to have said what 
 the prisoner had staled she did after she had taken the prussic acid. 
 Added to this, he was informed it was the opinion of medical men 
 that if proper remedies had been employed the life of Mrs Belany 
 might have been saved. The case, however, was not to be leit here 
 there were other particulars into which it was necessary he should 
 go, in order to enable the jury to form a just conclusion in this impor- ; 
 tant case. After the apprehension of the prisoner it was ascertained 
 that he had written to his friends in North Sunderland, and some of 
 those letters he would now read. The first was dated on the 5th of 
 June, and was as follows : 
 
 No. 1. Euston Hotel, London, June 5, 1844. 
 
 ''Dear Sir, We arrived here yesterday evening safe and sound, al- 
 though to-day I am sorry to say, Mrs Belany is rather unwell. The 
 fatigue of travelling such a distance, no doubt, to a constitution 
 delicate like hers, was.sure to tell a little upon her ; and I think her 
 spirit to bear up and carry all before her has been greater than her 
 strength was equal to. However, I trust that in a day or two, after 
 a good rest, she will be all right again, and will be able to proceed 
 to Arlington, to my brothers. She does not think very much of 
 what, as^yet, she has seen of London. That is easy to be accounted 
 for, she not being over well on the one hand, to enjoy anything ; and 
 on the other, having seen almost nothing of interest but crowded 
 streets. As, to-day, I leave this hotel, and as I will be moving 
 about from place to place, you had better direct my letters to a book- 
 seller's, who I have arranged with to receive, and forward them to me 
 wherever I may be. His address is 'Mr Hobson, bookseller, Com- 
 mercial-road, East, London.' This, with my name, will find me* 
 and 1 shall either call every day at the shop for my letters, or he 
 will send them to me. If there be anything of importance requiring 
 my consideration, you may mention it, and I shall make as little de- 
 lay over it as possible. 
 
 "In haste, yours truly, 
 
 "/. C. BELANY." 
 
 The next letter was on the 8th, and that stated that the prisoner's 
 wife was unwell, and attended by two medical men, who apprehended 
 that the same thing would occur that had occurred before, namely, a 
 miscarriage. There were then two letters addressed to Mr Bell they 
 were dated the 8th and 9th of June which he would read to the 
 jury, first making the observation that the letter of the 8th must have 
 been posted either after 5 o'clock on Saturday evening, or on Monday 
 morning. Mrs Belany, it being recollected, dying on the Saturday 
 morning before 8 o'clock. The letter was as follows : 
 
 [2.] London, June 8. 
 
 " Dear Mr Bell, / have little elue to write to the north about at 
 present than to give you (who, I know, are all interested in it) a very 
 unhappy account of Rachel's state. I have had her removed from the 
 hotel to private lodgings, where, with two medical attendants, she re- 
 mains dangerously ill. Symptoms of premature labour came on a few 
 days ago; but, what is still worse, one of the medical men pronounces the. 
 heart to be diseased. Of this I have had some dread myself . This
 
 29 
 
 will alter my plans greatly ; but, if she be spared, that will be every- 
 thing. Hoping you are well, I must, in haste, conclude. 
 
 ''Yours sincerely, 
 
 '-No letters have yet arrived. J C. BEL ANY." 
 
 "Mr G. G. Bell," North Sunderland, 
 
 Bellbrd, Northumberland." 
 
 Now, this letter had been written after the death of Mrs Beiany, and 
 was untrue in every respect ; and it would be for (he jury, by and by, 
 to say what the motives were that could induce the prisoner to write 
 that letter. On the 9ih of June another letter was sent by the pris- 
 oner, which was posted before 5 o'clock in the afternoon of that day, 
 and before the prisoner was aware of the result of the post mortem 
 examintion : 
 
 [3 ] London, June 9. 
 
 " Dear Mr Bell, The worst that could be dreaded has come to 
 pass. Rachel is no more. You shall know all. Put the men off 
 work at the new house. As such could not be done at the quarry 
 and lime-works without great inconvenience to the partner ship, I shall 
 not desire the same there. I am hardly able to sit up ; but hope to 
 be able to write to-morrow more particulars. As her death has 
 occurred chiefly amongst strangers, and so suddenly, an inquest 
 and post mortem examination will beheld. This has been mentioned 
 to me. Of course I do not object to it. Yours sincerely, 
 
 "J. C. Beiany" 
 
 After the statement had been made by the prisoner to Mr Garratt, he 
 wrote a variety of letters to his friends in Sunderland, giving the same 
 account of the circumstances under which his x wife had died. He 
 (the Solicitor-General) would not at present trouble the jury with 
 reading them, as they would be read in evidence. There was, how- 
 ever, one to Mr Hall which he must read, because in it he referred to 
 the letter written to Mr Bell. It was in these terms : 
 
 [4]. "London, June, 1844 
 
 " Dear Hall. Oh ! I am distracted, 1 cannot write nor do any- 
 thing. I have lost my dear Rachel; and, what makes the loss so 
 much the worse, it was caused by my own neglect, from leaving some 
 medicine, which I myself had been taking a portion of for my 
 stomach, in a tumbler on the top of the drawers at the opposite 
 end of the room where she was. She had gone for the tumbler, and 
 poured some water into it without observing anything in it, the 
 medicine being only a small portion of liquid in the bottom of the 
 glass, and clear as the glass or water ; then she had drank it. Oh! 
 my God, I know not what to do. My dear Rachel is gone, gone for 
 ever from me. You, and all of you, know how happy we were to- 
 gether. I had just gone, leaving her in bed, out of the room for a 
 minute or so, into the other room, in search cf another bottle to put 
 the medicine in, for 1 had broken the one it was in, and got a tumbler 
 in the meantime to secute the contents in ; and &he had got out of bed 
 
 to use the and take some salts, which were on the table by her 
 
 bedside, and wishing to take some water after the salts, and supposing 
 the glass an empty and clean one, she had gone to the other end of 
 the room, unknowingly poured water into it, and oh God! have mercy 
 upon us all, she drank a portion of it. 1 heard her cry for me in
 
 30 
 .** 
 
 the other room. I flew to her ; but, oh, God\ it was all over in a ftu 
 minutes, and I am now in a state of mind bordering on niter milt ry 
 and madness. In the sudden shock 1 knew not what to do or say. I 
 called for immediate assistance. It was brought, but it was of no 
 life. The awful occurrence having taken place in a situation where 
 I am entirely unknown, all are strangers around, and the people 
 being much inclined to doubt my statement that she was my wife, and 
 everything else I said, I am in a terrible situation. The law has a 
 right to suspect me, and as yet I have not a creature found to prove 
 my marriage, or what I am, or who I am. I have nothing to prove 
 anything as yet. The solicitor whom I have employed will either 
 have to come down to establish my character, and prove how we 
 lived, and that we were married, or else he will require a few of imi 
 friends who have known me and her also, to come up and testify what 
 they know of me. I know you will all do what is required for me. 
 What I now regret the most next to the accident, in my confusion 
 and half-stunned state is, I did not say what had caused her death. 
 I knew not what I was doing or saying, and, of course, horror 
 struck and shocked at my infatuity in having left such medicine 
 there, though it was only for a minute, and the poor dear Rachel wag 
 in bed, and knowing welt that the world would blame me perhaps too 
 severly for my carelessness in leaving such a dangerous medicine 
 where it was in danger of doing such evil, I did not, untit after I 
 became a little more collected, say what had happened." 
 
 This, though very natural at such an awful juncture, is considered as 
 against me. Oh God! I know not what to do or say. It came upon 
 me like a thunderbolt. If I were able I would write to you all ; I mean 
 most "of my friends; but at present I cannot. Go to Mr Bell and 
 William Wilson, and Alexander Wilson, and who you think Jit, and 
 state the melancholy contents of this to them, because I cannot acquaint 
 them all. As poor Mrs Stobbs is now the only memorial of dear 
 Rachel I know, go to her and give my respects, and tell her that I have 
 lost my beloved Rachel ; and, although there was not much friendship 
 existing between them for some time past, I hope belter will nou- ex- 
 ist between us, and that I shall always regard her for dear Rachel's 
 sake. Imust now stop ; for I am bewildered, as if in an unconscious 
 dream. " Yours, ei-tr. "J. C. BEL A3 Y. 
 
 i ' I wish William ffilson could give you Mr Tewart's address in 
 London. He is one who knows me, and would say something for me. 
 Go to Mrs Stobbs immediately ; for, as a relative, it is my duty to ac- 
 quaint her. Tell Mrs Patrick and all others you think well of. Oh. I am 
 gone. I hope the Lord will support me under such trouble. If lean 
 writelo Mr Simpson, who is the minister of the parish, I nil I ; lut 
 at present I cannot.'" 1 
 
 fle (the Solicitor General) believed that he had now stated in detail 
 all the circumstances of this painful case, He would forbear 
 making any comments on the facts winch would be detailed in evidence 
 because it would be for the jury to form a calm, deliberate, and im- 
 partial judgment upon them. If the jury, from those facts, were 
 satisfied nothing was made out against the prisoner, they would of 
 course, acquit him of this grave charge ; but if the facts proved irre- 
 sislably led them to a different conclusion, the public justice of the
 
 country demanded from them, however painful it might be, that they 
 should find the prisoner guilty. With these observations he committed 
 with confidence this important* case to thejury, conscious they would 
 firmly and impartially discharge the solemn duty imposed upon them. 
 
 Mrs Maltilda Heppingstall, examined by Mr Bodkin. I live in 
 Green-street, Stepney. On the 4th of June last, at about half-past 
 12, the prisoner and his wife came to my house and agreed to take 
 the front and back parlour for one week certain. They came about 
 a quarter-past 4 o'clock the same afternoon. They took tea with 
 Captain Clark and Mr Hobson, and they then went out to go, as I 
 understood, to the theatre. The prisoner and his wife returned home 
 a little after 12 o'clock. Mrs Belany appeared to be very well. The 
 next morning, a little after 7 o t clock, the prisoner ordered a black 
 draught to be fetched. This was done, and soon afterwards I heard 
 Mrs Belany sick. She was so several times during the day. I saw her 
 about 10 o'clock in the evening lying on the sofa apparently unwell. 
 Captain Clark and Mrs M'Geachy, his daughter, called and were with 
 them. On Thursday I did not see the deceased ; for they went out 
 early and did not return until 5 o'clock. I did not see her that 
 evening, but at their tea they took half a pound of ham, and after- 
 wards the prisoner and Captain Clark went out and bought some pick- 
 led salmon, upon which they all supped. There is a pianoforte in that 
 room, but I myself did not hear it played that evening. On Friday 
 the prisoner and his wife breakfasted and wetot out about 10 o r clock. 
 On Wednesday night the deceased had told me she was much better, 
 and had only been ill from the fatigue of travelling. On Friday they 
 went out and returned at half-past 9 o'clock. The deceased then ap- 
 peared to be in good health. They took no supper and retired to rest 
 soon after. On the Saturday morning, about 7 o'clock, I heard the 
 prisoner and deceased conversing together. After that I was called 
 to the room by the prisoner, who said, "Mistress, come up here my 
 wife is very ill." I went up with my servant and we entered at once 
 together. I saw Mrs Belany lying on the bed, of which the clothes 
 were thrown up against the wall. She had no cap on, and I said, 
 "Sir, she is bad indeed." She was lying quite motionless, insensible, 
 her eyes shut, her teeth appeared closed, and she was foaming a good 
 deal at the mouth, and with it some chewed biscuit. I went to the 
 head of the bed and raised her up, and placed her head on my shoulder. 
 The prisoner was standing close to the fire-place, and I said to him, "I 
 have seen my dear girls in fits, but I have never seen fits like this." He 
 answered, "She had been subject to fits, but not like this, which she 
 would not come out of it." I said, "What do you mean will she 
 not come out of it? Do something, pray do something, send for a doctor." 
 He said, "I am a doctor and should have bled her, but she has no 
 pulse." He had at that time a lancet. I said, "Two heads are 
 better than one, send for a doctor and your friends." Accordingly 
 Captain Clark and Mrs M'Geachy were sent for by my servant, with 
 the prisoner's consent. 
 
 The prisoner said, "She would not come to it was a disease of the 
 heart, and that her mother had died just like it nine months ago." 
 I felt her heart, but could feel no pulsation her stomach was much 
 swollen, and she was then gasping very hard, Whilst the girl was gone
 
 32 
 
 I still urged the prisoner to get assistance, and he told me the deceased 
 was pregnant. Her feet were put in hot water by my servant or the 
 prisoner, and by my direction her temples were bathed with vinegar. 
 When Captain Clark and his daughter came, the former called for a 
 clothes-brush, and told the girl to rub the deceased's legs with it. This 
 was done, and a mustard poultice was also, by Captain Clark's direc- 
 tions, applied to her chest. The deceased died about 20 minutes after 
 I was called into the room. Mr Gnrratt, tho surgeon, had been sent 
 for by me, but did not arrive until some time after death. I asked the 
 prisoner what the deceased had taken that morning, and he told me noth- 
 ing but some salts. There was a tumbler on the table containing some li- 
 quid whiter than water, and beside it a paper of salts and a teaspoon. On 
 the drawers there was neither a phial nor a tumbler. There was no 
 appearance of broken glass about the room, and I observed no smell of 
 any kind in the room. The prisoner after the death gave Mrs. 
 M'Geachy a bottle of lavender water, with which she sprinkled the 
 room, I afterwards went into the front room, and found a letter folded 
 ready for the post, and another partly written. There was no bottle 
 or phial in the room, frr the bottle which had contained the black 
 draught sent for on Wednesday had been brought down to the kitchen 
 that day. 
 
 Cross-examined by Mr Erie. Mr Hobson, who lives five minutes' 
 walk from my house, had introduced the prisoner and his wife as his 
 friends. On the night of Wednesday, when the black draught was 
 taken, I think the prisoner must have carried her from the bed to the 
 sofa. The prisoner called to have the bed made at about 10 o'clock 
 that evening. He treated his wife quite like a child, and appeared to 
 be very attentive to her. I saw very little of them till I was called in 
 on Saturday morning. I was much alarmed when on that morning I 
 saw the state the deceased was in, and continued so during the whole 
 time. I was not called upon to give an account of what had passed 
 until the Monday, when I attended the inquest. I had, however, on 
 the Saturday after the death asked Mr Garratt, the surgeon, whether 
 the affair could pass unnoticed. 
 
 Sarah Williams, examined by Mr M. Chambers. I was servant to 
 the last witness when the prisoner and his wife came to lodge at her 
 house. I waited upon them. On the Thursday evening they had 
 salmon for supper. Captain Clark, and Mrs M'Geachy supped with 
 them. Mrs Belany played upon the pianoforte, and appeared to be very 
 cheerful and in excellent health. On the Friday they went to the Tun- 
 nel, and retired to rest about 10 o'clock, without taking any supper. 
 On the Saturday morning at half-past 7 o'clock I -was dusting the par- 
 lour, and the prisoner desired me to leave off as he was going to write. 
 I saw him get the writing materials. He said he lyould not have the 
 breakfast up until he rang the bell. Soon after this the prisoner called 
 out to my mistress " Come up, my wife is very ill. " The witness then 
 detailed the circumstances stated by the first witness, and in the main 
 particulars fully corroborated her evidence. The witness added that 
 after the deceased was laid out, she swept the floor of the bed-room, 
 and found no appearances of broken glass. She found, however, 
 the broken top of a phial in the front room, and afterwards some 
 pieces of broken glass on the steps at the frontdoor. About 1 2 o" 1 clock
 
 the prisoner left the house and did not return to the house until Sun- 
 day* when he called two or three times. He never slept in the house 
 after his wife's death. 
 
 Cross-examined by Mr Clarkson. The prisoner appeared all the 
 time to be very kind and attentive to his wife. After her death 
 the prisoner cried very much, and sat down with his handkerchief 
 over his eyes. He as well as my mistress desired me to go for 
 Captain Clark. 
 
 Mr Mark Brown Garratt, examined by the SOLICITOR-GENERAL. 
 I am a surgeon, residing in the New-road, St. George's. On Satur- 
 day, the 8th of June, I was called to attend the deceased by Mrs 
 M'Geachy. My house is about a mile from the residence of the prisoner, 
 and when I arrived the deceased was dead. In conversation with the 
 prisoner I stated the death was very sudden, and I could only ac- 
 count for i(. by supposing it was occasioned by disease of the heart 
 He said he thought so, for her mother had died of the same disease, 
 some months before. 
 
 I asked him if his wife had taken any "medicine that morning, 
 and the. prisoner replied that she had only taken some salts. I told the 
 prisoner it would be necessary to have a coroner's inquest, and the 
 prisoner directed me to take the steps necessary for that purpose. I 
 did so, and the inquest was held on the following Monday forenoon. I 
 attended the inquest, and it was adjourned for the purpose of a post 
 mortem examination. I attended at that examination at 4 o'clock the 
 same afternoon. Mr Curling was the surgeon who made the examination 
 with me. The result of it was. that we found the whole of the organs 
 generally healthy. In the stomach we found a pint of fluid strongly 
 impregnated with the odour of prussic acid. The fluid was placed by 
 us in a bottle, and taken to the London Hospital. In the course of the 
 same evening the prisoner called at my house between 8 and 9 o'clock, 
 accompanied by Captain Clark and Mr Hobson. Captain Clark in- 
 quired if we had ascertained the cause of Mis Belany's death. I told 
 him that Mr Curling and myself had not finished our consultation. 
 They all came again at about 10 o'clock, when the prisoner stated 
 to me, that "on the previous Saturday morning he was about to take 
 some prussic acid, which he was in the habit of taking for an affec- 
 tion of the stomach, and was endeavouring to remove the stopper from 
 the bottle, and as he had some difficulty he used some degreeof violence 
 to it with the handle of a tooth brush, and the consequence was the 
 the breaking of the neck of the bottle some of the acid was spilt ; 
 the remainder he put into a tumbler, and placed on the drawers at the 
 end of the bed-room." The prisoner then said, "I went into the front 
 room for the purpose of getting a bottle wherein to place the acid ; in- 
 stead of doing ?o, I began to write some letters to my friends in the 
 country. I had been there but a few minutes when I heard a scream 
 from the bed-room. I immediately went in. My wife exclaimed, 
 "Oh dear! I have taken some of that hot drink give me some water, 
 some cold water. She immediately became convulsed." I then asked 
 the prisoner what he had done with the bottle, and he said he had 
 destroyed it in some Vacant place in the neighbourhood. I asked him 
 why he had not mentioned this before, and he said he was so annoyed 
 and" ashamed, and he was very sorry he had not communicated it before. 
 

 
 34 
 
 The death of the deceased was occasioned by prussic acid. If any 
 prussic acid'had been spilt in the room there would have been a smell 
 of bitter almonds. There was no smell of that kind when I went 
 to the house, I am acquainted with (he effect of prussic acid as a med- 
 ical agent, but not as a poison. The proper remedies to apply are any 
 stimulants, brandy, whisky, gin, wine, administered internally, ammonia 
 to the nostrils, artificial respiration, and dashing cold water on the 
 person. Putting the feet in hot water would be of very little use, 
 but that would not be improper. Bleeding might be neces-sary in 
 some instances. 
 
 Cross-examined by Mr Erie. Any stimulant internally or exter- 
 nally are proper remedies. On the post mortem examination I found 
 no remains of Epsom salts. I did not analyze the contents of the 
 stomach, but discovered the prussic acid by the smell. 
 
 By Mr Baron Gurney. I should think 50 drops of prussic acid 
 usually kept by surgeons would be fatal. From one to two drops is the 
 usual dose. 
 
 Mr Thomas Vizard Curling, examined by Mr Bodkin. I am house 
 surgeon at the London Hospital, and assisted the last witness at the 
 post mortem examination of the deceased. The organs exhibited 
 general health, and the heart was in a sound and heallhy state. The 
 deceased was six or seven months advanced in pregnancy. On smelling 
 the contents of the stomach I smelt a strong odour of prussic acid. Cap- 
 tain Clark was present. I handed the contents of the stomach to Mr 
 Garratt, desiring him to smell it. He did so, and in a low tone of 
 voice, said to me, "Yes hydrocyanic." I question whether Captain 
 Clark heard that expression. The contents of the stomach were taken 
 to the London Hospital, delivered to Mr Leithby, and analyzed by 
 him. It contained prussic acid. 20 drops would have been fatal. 
 The remedies are ammonia, cold effusions, artificial respiration, and 
 hartshorn. Immersing the feet and hands in hot water would be of 
 no avail. Mustard poultice to the chest would not be a pioper remedy. 
 I never met with a case of poisoning by prussic acid. The prisoner 
 was in an adjoining room, and asked me if we had ascertained the 
 cause of death. I told him we had not concluded our investigation, 
 but that when we had-I should be happy to give him information. 
 
 Cross examined by Mr Clarkson. I have myself prescribed prussic 
 acid. By artificial respiration I allude to the means resorted to in 
 cases of deaths by drowning, and that would not be an improper 
 remedy to resort to in the case of a woman six months gone with 
 child. 
 
 By Mr Baron Gurney, So long as the deceased breathed I should 
 not have despaired of recovering her. 
 
 Dr Leithby, examined by Mr M. Chambers. I am a Bachelor 
 of Medicine, and I have been six years lecturer at the London Hos- 
 pital on chemistry and materia medica, and I have made chemistry a 
 particular branch of my studies. I have made numerous experiments 
 with prussic acid upon the lower animals. The first effect which the 
 administration of prussic acid produces upon the lower animals is the 
 appearance of a peculiar giddiness, of a disposition to run round, as 
 if the head was affected, then the respiration becomes irregular sub- 
 sequently there is a scream perhaps beiore that scream is uttered
 
 35 
 
 ihe animal drops, at the same moment, after two or three violent 
 respiratory efforts, which produce a cry, a shriek, or a scream ; con- 
 vulsions follow, with foaming at the mouth, and in a longer or shorter 
 time, according to the quantity of the acid administered, death ensues. 
 I have not had an opportunity of seeing its effect on the human subject. 
 After the shriek or scream all sensibility and volition ceases. In my 
 Judgment, a person after giving that shriek would not be able to walk 
 or converse. The proper remedies to be applied to a person who has 
 taken pruss ic acid arejirst dashing cold water on the head and face, 
 the application of ammonia or hartshorn to the nostrils, and the 
 administration of brandy or stimulants of any kind. In my opinion, 
 the immersion of the feet and hands in hot water would not be in 
 the least degree useful, for it would not act as an active stimulant, 
 The effects of an application of a mustard poultice to the chest 
 would not take place untill all the mischief was done that is to 
 say, it would be too long acting to be effective. 
 
 Every medical man knows, or ought to know, the proper 
 remedies to apply in such a case, for they are taught in the 
 schools, and are to be found described in the books. I have been in 
 court to-day, and from the accounts I have heard of the state in 
 which the deceased lady was discovered, I think that by the applica- 
 tion of proper remedies she might have been recovered. I should have 
 continued the application of those remedies from half to three-quarters 
 of an hour, and much longer if any change took place. I was called 
 upon to analyze the contents of the stomach of the deceased, and I did 
 so on Tuesday, the llth of June. On that occasion I discovered the 
 presence of prussic acid. On receiving a summons to attend before (he 
 coroner, I made a second analysis on Thursday, the 12th of June, when 
 I further discovered the presence of Epsom salts. I could not state 
 what quantity of prussic acid had been taken, because that found in the 
 stomach was only that which remained over and above the portion which 
 distributed itself through the system of the deceased. I did not analyze 
 with a view to ascertain the quantity, but only to ascertain the presence. 
 
 By Mr Baron Gurney. You have heard the effects exhibited 
 at the time of death, are such eflects likely to be produced by prussic 
 acid? 
 
 Witness, They are. 
 
 Examination resumed. I was furnished with some prussic acid by 
 Mr Donaghue (the surgeon who had supplied the prisoner), and on 
 trying it I found in it not more than two per cent of pure prussic acid. 
 It wasdiluted, but if spilt in a room would produce a smell. I spilt a 
 spoonful of it in a tolerably large room, and the smell remained for 
 more than an hour. I have since made experiments with the prussic 
 acid I got from Mr Donoghue upon animals, and restored them by the 
 application of ammonia and the effusion of cold water. By those 
 means I restored a cat in 10 minutes. I had given that cat between 
 10 and 20 drops. I also tried an experiment upon a horse, to which I 
 administered prussic acid twelve times the strength of the two per cent 
 acid, and by the same means restored the horse, though it was lying 
 upon the ground in convulsions and in the incipient stage of death. I 
 continued the remedies for about 20 minutes and the horse was restored. 
 Ammonia exists in every house in the shape of smelling salts. On
 
 36 
 
 former occasions I have restored animals by having recourse to artificial 
 respiration. 
 
 Cross-examined by Mr Erie. There was a perceptible smell of 
 prussic acid in the contents of the stomach, and isolated pru^sic acid to 
 the extent of 1| drachms. Prussic acid is one of the easiest poisons 
 to detect after death. Acetate of morphine is also a poison, but would 
 present no smell after death. In the experiments 1 have made upon 
 animals, I have found that after they give the shriek or scream they 
 lose all sensation or volition. Indeed, the scream is an indication of all 
 sense and volition having gone. It is the last effort of vitality. I 
 have frequently tasted prussic acid to the extent of producing giddiness, 
 which occurs in about 20 minute?, the space of time depending upon 
 the quantity taken. It would depend upon (he quantity taken whether 
 a person would have time to call out And say anything. If prus.-ic acid 
 were taken immediately after some other fluid, that would have the effect 
 of diluting it and making its action slower. I am not acquainted with 
 the effect of prussic acid on the human subject. 
 
 Re-examined by the Solicitor General, There is no acid taste in 
 Scheele's prussic acid. There is a bitter taste. There is no hot taste. 
 
 At the conclusion of the examination of this witness, (he court ad- 
 journed for a few minutes for refreshment. 
 
 On the re-assembling of the Court, 
 
 Dr Anthony Todd Thompson was examined ty the Solicitor-General. 
 I am the Professor of Medical Jurisprudence at the London Univer- 
 sity. I have been present to-day and heard the statements of the wi nesses 
 with regard to the condition of Mrs Belany. The symptoms stated would 
 be produced by prussic acid, but they would also be prod need by any other 
 strong sedative poison. The smell of prussic acid is very peculiar. If any 
 be spilled in a room the odour remains a considerable time, unless there 
 is much movement in the air of the room. If it were in a tumbler the 
 odour would be strong if it were lifted to the top the odour would be 
 perceived. The effects of taking it are those which have been so clearly 
 explained by the last witness giddiness.faintness, convulsions resembling 
 those of tetanus, or lock-jaw, and screaming. When the symptoms 
 have advanced to a scream, the powers of volition are gone. After 
 the scream it would be impossible for a party to talk so as to describe 
 what had happened. The remedies are well known in the medical 
 world ; they are stimulants of all kinds, ammonia, effusion of cold 
 water, and artificial respiration, and chlorine applied in the form of 
 vapour. I have tried experiments on the effects of those remedies on 
 animals. I have tried ammonia, cold effusion, and artificial respiration. 
 I have known no cases in which artificial res-piration alone has succeded. 
 Warm water to the feet and hands is of no use Mustard poultice 
 would be too slow in its effect. If a person lived 20 minutes after 
 taking prussic acid the probability would be in favour of recovery, if 
 remedies were applied. Bleeding has been used in cases of strong 
 plethoric people, but with no good effect. 
 
 Cross-examined by Mr Erie. I have seen cases in the human 
 subject, in which large doses have been taken so as to produce fainting. 
 It might have been a quarter of an hour after fainting had occurcd that 
 I was called in. The person recovered in consequence of the remedies. 
 I have taken it myself in sufficient quantities to produce uneasiness.
 
 37 
 
 A person would scream from any extraordinary or strong sensation. 
 A person might immediately on taking the acid feel an uncomfortable 
 sensation in the mouth and might scream. The evaporation of (he acid 
 is very quick when it is spilled, but the smell remains fora considera- 
 ble time. 
 
 By Mr Baron Gurney. Ammonia is a powerful remedy. Chlorine 
 is more powerful, but it is not so easy to be obtained. The first thing 
 1 should call for would be a smelling-bottle, hartshorn, and brandy, 
 and I should also use the cold effusion. 
 
 Thomas Donaghue, examined by Mr Bodkin. I am a surgeon, 
 living in White Horse-s-treet, Stepney. Knew the prisoner first about 
 4 years ago, On the 6th of June last he came to my shop, about 
 7 o'clock in the evening. He wanted some prussic acid, acetate of 
 morphine, tartaric acid, and carbonate of soda and salts. He said he 
 wanted some prussic acid, which he had been in the habit of taking for 
 years back. I told him I would get it for him. I procured an ounce 
 bottle of Scheele's prussic acid, He called for it, and I gave it to him 
 in a stopper bottle. I also gave him the acetate of morphine in a 
 corked bottle. After that (Friday) morning, I did not see him until 
 the following Tuesday morning, when he called again. Captain Clark 
 was with him. The prisoner told me he had a sad misfortune with 
 the prussic acid ; that, the neck of the bottle had broken, that he had 
 poured it into a tumbler, and that his wife had drunk it, after having 
 taken some salts. He asked me to come to the inquest, but I could not 
 do so, having to attend as a witness in a case of stabbing in this 
 court. 
 
 Cross examined by Mr Clarkson. I knew four years ago that he'used 
 to take prussic acid. Acetate of morphine is also given for indigestion. 
 
 George Gale, examined by Mr Chambers. I was errand boy to 
 the last witness, and went to Messrs Evans, Bartholomew-close, for a 
 bottle of prussic acid, which I gave to my master. 
 
 Richard Willis Powell proved that he was shopman to Messrs Evans, 
 and on the 6th of June served the boy Gale with a bottle of prussic 
 acid, called ^Scheele's Preparation." 
 
 Thomas Long, examined by the Solicitor-General. I atn the gar- 
 dener at the London and Tower Hamlets Cemetry. On the 8th of 
 June the prisoner came there with two gentlemen and told me he wanted 
 to purchase a piece of ground to bury in. He said he wanted the 
 funeral to take place on the following Tuesday. He said he would 
 have a seven-foot grave till a brick grave could be got ready. He then 
 went to another grave, put his handkerchief to his eyes, and appeared 
 to weep. 
 
 George Haynes. examined by Mr Bodkin. [ am an inspector of the 
 metropolitan police, and went down to North Sunderland on the 2lst 
 of June last, and procured the sixletters produced from a Mr Bell, and 
 these two papers from a cupboard in the house of the prisoner. 
 
 ' George Grey Bell, examined by Mr M. Chambers. I am agent 
 to some limeworks at North Sunderland, in which the prisoner is a 
 partner with Messrs Hobson and Skelly. The prisoner lived near the 
 works until the 1st of June last, when lie departed to London. After 
 that I received the letters I gave to the last witness. The letters and 
 the two documents (the wills) produced are in the prisoner's hand-
 
 38 
 
 writing. I know the copyhold property which belonged to Mrs Skelly, 
 the mother of the prisoner's wife. It was let for 100/., but now is Jet 
 at more. It would sell for about 3, 1001. The limeworks are valuable, 
 and, I should say, Mrs Beiany's share would be worth 2,400/. 
 Cross-examined by Mr Erie. I had heard the prisoner speak of an 
 excursion he intended to make to the south as long ago a? September, 
 last year, and frequently since. It was an object of interest to Mrs 
 Belany to see London, and the prisoner also wished to see some ex- 
 hibitions of falconry on the Rhine. I never saw anything unkind 
 between the prisoner and his wife. She also appeared happy in her 
 marriage. There was a house in progress of building on the copyhold 
 property at the time they left North Sunderland. Mrs Belany was 
 about. 22 years of age, and was a very comely looking woman. 
 
 Alexander Wilson, examined by the Solicitor General. I am farm 
 steward to Messrs Robson and Skelly, and remember the marriage of 
 the prisoner and Miss Skelly, on the 23d of February, 1843. The 
 prisoner had piactised as a medical man, but gave up after his mar- 
 riage, and took the management of the limeworks. Mrs Skelly 
 died in July, 1 843. On the evening of Friday, the 3lst of May 
 last, I heard the prisoner say he was going to London and other 
 parts. He then asked me to put my signature to two wills which had 
 been drawn, and said it was usual for people to make their wills when 
 they left home. He read one of the wills over, and said the other 
 was to the same effect. The wills had been already signed, but the 
 prisoner and his wife went over their signatures with a dry pen. I 
 put my name to the wills as a witness. These are the wills. 
 
 In his cross-examination the witness stated the character of the 
 prisoner was that of a humane and charitable man. 
 
 Ralph More, examined by the Solicitor-General. I am a shoemaker 
 at North Sunderland, and witnessed the execution of the two wills 
 produced. 
 
 John Dinning, examined by the Solicitor-General. I am a farmer 
 residing about a mile and a half from North Sunderland. and on 
 the \0th of last June I received Jrom the prisoner a letter which I 
 destroyed. To the best of my belief it was dated on the 6th of 
 June, from the Eu&ton Hotel. I remember the letter ^stated his wife 
 was taken unwell, and that she had two medical men attending her, 
 and that he had or was going to remove her to private lodgings, and 
 that he must for the present postpone his visit to the Rhine. 
 
 Cross-examined by Mr Erie, The prisoner and his wife always 
 appeared to me to live together on happy terms. The prisoner ap- 
 peared to be a man of humanity and kindness. 
 
 Thomas Robert Younghusband, examined by Mr Bodkin. I am a 
 
 farmer residing at Elwick, and am acquainted with the last witness, 
 
 \\lio showed me on the 1 1th of June last a letter he had received from 
 
 the prisoner. The witness detailed his recollection of the contents of 
 
 'the letter, which corroborated the evidence of the witness Dinning. 
 
 Mr Richard Straker, examined by Mr Chambers I am the po^t- 
 d North Sunderlnnd. On Monday, the 10th of June, a letter 
 posted in London on Saturday would feach North Sunderland at 
 1 1 o'clock in the morning. 
 
 Cross-examined by Mr Erie The prisoner and his wife lived happily 
 together.
 
 39 
 
 William Blott, examined by Mr Bodkin. I am employed in the 
 General Post-office, London. The letter (to Mr Bell) must have 
 been posted after half-past 5 o'clock in the evening of the 8th, and 
 before 8 o'clock in the morning of the 10th of June last. 
 
 George Scott, examined by the Solicitor-General. I am the registrar 
 of births and deaths at North Sunderland. I remember the death of 
 Mrs Skelly, and I made inquiries of the prisoner in order to make the 
 the necessary register. The prisoner "stammered" a little, and said 
 the cause of her death was bilious fever. I made the entry accordingly, 
 and it was signed by the prisoner as the informant. 
 
 Robert Dawaon Ferguson, clerk to the steward of the manor of 
 Bamborough, produced a copy of the transfer of the copyhold property 
 by the deceased to the prisoner. 
 
 Sarah Williams was recalled at the desire of Mr Erie, and proved 
 that a new bonnet was brought for the deceased about half-past 9 
 o'clock on the morning she died. 
 
 The wills and the letters were then read by Mr Straight, the Deputy 
 
 Clerk of Arraigns. In addition to those read by the Solicitor-General 
 
 in his opening speech, the two subjoined letters were also put in and 
 
 read. They were both addressed to Mr Bell, and were as follows : 
 
 [4] London, June, 1844. 
 
 "Dear Mr Bell, / intended writing to you an account of what 
 had happened to my dear Rachel, through my infatuity or inadver- 
 tency, and to myself ; but at present am unable to do so. I have 
 written Hall a short account of it, which I wish you to go immediately 
 to peruse, and consult with him what to do. Oh ! what is this come 
 upon me like a thunderbolt? I did not mention the cause of her death 
 to you before, through a desire to bury the shame and avoid the public 
 reproach for my fatal neglect. Yet, 1 know well you can account for 
 it under such circumstances ; but, oh God! I can never forgive myself, 
 1 would like you to call on Mr Simpson, and give him the particulars 
 of what 1 have given of the awful occurrence. Lose not a moment 
 in getting from Mr Darnel the testimony of my marriage from Bam- 
 borough, and post it to Mr Clarke, 17, King-street, Stepney, London." 
 
 The next letter was in these terms : [6] 
 
 " My dear Mr Bell, By the time this reaches you, you will have 
 learned from Hall's letter and my communication yesterday, the awful 
 cause of my loss; and you, well I know, can and will feel for me. 
 God! what a visitation came upon me, like a thunderbolt shot down 
 upon me in the midst of my happiness ! Alas ! where are all my sum- 
 mer arrangements gone with my dear Rachel ? But I cannot write. 
 You shall hear from me immediately. To meet the next payments, go 
 to Thew for the price of the wheat. I will arrange for your supplies. 
 Let no one interrupt you in your usual course. I have legal advice to 
 direct and go through the case for me. I wrote afew lines for Captain 
 Clarke to direct him to write to you, giving instruction for you to go <,, 
 with the business as usual, and where to apply to for money to meet th 
 pay. I did not think of writing to you at that time ; but now have 
 done so. Besides several other friends who are coming up, and u 
 have known me for some time, I should liks to see Mr Hunt, of Brl- 
 ford, Do go and tell him what has happened, and that I should like 
 him to come up immediately to say what he knows of me. Mr Han- 
 cock cind several others have arrived. Tell him, for God's sake, to
 
 40 
 
 come off immediately. I will pay all expenses. I must have a few 
 respectable friends to come forward to establish my character and say 
 what they know of me. Oh. God! I know not what I am doing or 
 saying. Tell him I shall pay every expense. When he comes he must 
 call at Hobsoii's bookseller. Commercial-road-East, London, or at 17, 
 King-street, Stepney, London, at Mr Clarke's, 
 
 '-Yours, ever, in haste. 
 
 "J. C. BEL ANY." 
 
 " Pray put the men upon the partnership on their work again when 
 required, if they are not already on " 
 
 [7] 41 17, King-street, Stepney, London, June 15, 1844. 
 
 " To Mr Bell." 
 
 Sir, Mr J. C. Belany desires that you will go on as usual, and 
 let him know when you want a check for the pay. His solicitor ad- 
 vises that you do not allow any one to see his private correspondence, 
 nor even yours ; nor allow any one to interrupt anything in his affairs, 
 or to see any of his private papers, no matter of whatever nature they 
 may be. You are also desired by him not to address me through the 
 Stepney address, lest they should be intercepted and published, which 
 would be very unpleasant. You will, therefore, enclose your letter to 
 Mr Belany, under cover to me, 17, King-street, Stepney. 
 
 " / am, Sir, your obedient servant, 
 
 " W. D. CLARK." 
 
 With this proceeding the case for the prosecution was closed at half- 
 past 4 o'clock. 
 
 Mr Erie then rose and said, as it was impossible that the case could 
 be brought to a conclusion to-night, he begged it might now be ad- 
 journed until to-morrow morning. 
 
 Mr Baron Gurney said the present was too early an hour to adjourn, 
 and he thought it desirable some further progress should be made in the 
 case this evening. 
 
 The Solicitor-General said it would be impossible for him to attend 
 to-inorrow. 
 
 Mr Clarkson pressed for an adjournment now. The Court would 
 see from the depositions that many facts had not yet been laid before 
 the jury, and his learned friend and himself were anxious to have an 
 opportunity of considering what portions of the facts omitted it would be 
 necessary to prove. 
 
 Mr Baron Gurney said the learned counsel might take time now to 
 consult, but he was decidedly of opinion some further progress ought 
 to me made. 
 
 Mr Erie then proceeded to address the court, and jury on behalf of 
 the prisoner. The learned gentleman commenced by expressing his 
 anxiety under the load of awful responsibility which devolved upon him 
 and by calling upon the jury to discard from their minds any rumours 
 which might have reached them prior to their entering into the jury box, 
 and to deal with the question which their verdict must decide upon the 
 evidence laid before them, and upon that evidence alone. The learned 
 gentleman then proceeded to call Ihe attention ol the jury to the facts 
 in the case and the conduct of the prisoner as detailed by the witnesses 
 who had been called before them. In alluding to the preparation of the 
 two wills, which had been proved to have been executed, the jury
 
 would be told by the learned jud^e who presided nay, it could not be 
 denied by the learned Solicitor-General, that in point or' law it was an 
 entirely useless proceeding, because without the will executed by the 
 deceased wife, the prisoner, who was already in possession of the personal 
 property which had fallen to his wife on the death of her mother, would 
 be entitled to the copyhold property in the event of his surviving her. 
 He was already in the enjoyment of the proceeds of that property. As 
 to his own will, it was in his power to convey his property to his wife, 
 and his preparation of that instrument was only such an act as would be 
 pei f(H - uifd by any man who loved his wile and family, and who desired 
 to make provision for their maintenance afler his death. But all 
 through the case it must bs apparent to the jury that the prisoner was 
 a most unmethodical and inaccurate man in the whole course of his 
 transactions. It had been urged in support of the guilt of the prisoner 
 that he had falsely directed his letters from the Euslon hotel after, in 
 fact, he and the deceased had removed to a more humble habitation. 
 Tins conldbe explained by the fact that Mrs Belany was delighted with 
 that noble hotel ; had a pride in having it specified as her place of 
 residence during her sojourn in London. The next point to which 
 the learned counsel addressed himself was the circumstance that the 
 prisoner, who had resided in London, would scarcely have selected the 
 metropolis as the spot in whirh to effect a long planned and deliberate 
 murder, as was sup[>osed in the case set up on the part of the prosecution. 
 He (Mr Erie) should prove in evidence a circumstance which would give 
 a negative to the supposition of such a horrible intention of murder as had 
 been alledged. The circumstance to which he alluded was an arrange- 
 ment which had been entered into to the effect that, as Mrs Belany was 
 far advanced in pregnancy and could not undergo the fatigues of travel- 
 ling, she should remain at the house of Captain Clark and his daughter 
 during the prisoner's visit to the Rhine. In reference to the statement 
 contained in the letters written by the prisoner to his friends in the north 
 as to his wife's illness, and that two medical men were in attendance, 
 the explanation he (Mr Erie) was instructed to give was, that had that 
 illness continued it was his intention to have called in that extent of medi- 
 cal aid. With regard to the prisoner possessing himself of prussic acid 
 and the acetate of morphine, it would be proved that the prisoner, some 
 years ago, suffered what he supposed to be a disease of the heart, but 
 what his medical attendant had declared to be dyspepsia, and for that 
 disease had directed the use of strong acids, such as hydrocyanic or 
 prussic acid and the acetate of morphine. By their use the prisoner 
 had recovered. In proof of the innocence of the prisoner he (Mr Erie) 
 relied upon the affection which had already been and would further be 
 proved to have existed between the prisoner and his wife. Indeed, it had 
 been proved already in the evidence adduced on the part of the Crown, in 
 the affectionate manner in which he had ministered to his wife's plea- 
 sures and wants, and in the fact proved by the first witness of the 
 friendly conversation which she had heard between them almost at the 
 moment of the fatal occurrence. The learned counsel then at great 
 length went through the remaining facts of the case. He treated the 
 point urged against the prisoner as to writing the letters after the 
 deaih of hi> wife, and speaking of hei as if she really was in existence 
 as nothing more than the result of a desire to screen himself by falsehood 
 F
 
 42 
 
 from the imputation that would be cast upon him for his want of caution 
 in dealing with so dangerous a fluid a* prussic acid. 
 
 He further urged, as a proof of innocence, the entire absence of all mo- 
 tive or inducement to commit so horrible a crime. He relied further 
 upon the proof which had been given of the prisoner's affectionate conduct 
 towards his wife down to the very moment of the lamentable catastrophe 
 of the 8th of June; he relied also upon (he prisoner's character, station, 
 and behaviour in the world. In short, he maintained that, if the jury 
 would take a calm, deliberate, and dispassionate review of the whole of 
 the case, they must come to the conclusion that the facts proved raised 
 the strongest presumptions in favour of the innocence of the prisoner. 
 If ao the jury would have the satisfaction of being relieved from the pain- 
 ful verdict to which his learned friend the Solicitor-General had adverted. 
 
 He prayed the jury to weigh well the evidence of the conduct of the 
 wife towards the prisoner he prayed them well to bear in mind the 
 human impossibility but that if the prisoner had contemplated the 
 dreadful crime of murdering the very being whom, by every tie, hu- 
 man and divine, he was bound to protect and cherish, he must have 
 exhibited some look of ferocity which would have excited her suspicion. 
 On the contrary, the closest intimacy of connubial life continued up to 
 the last hour. She had been associated with him for J 8 long months, 
 and nothing had occurred to disturb her love and affection for him. 
 The learned gentleman concluded a lengthy address by calling upon 
 the jury for a verdict of acquittal 
 
 The further proceedings in the case were then at 7 o'clock, ad- 
 journed till to to-morrow. 
 
 The Jury were then conveyed to the London Coffee-house, in charge 
 of the Officers of the Sheriff. 
 
 The court was densely crowded throughout the day , 
 
 SECOND DAY. 
 
 The further proceedings in this important and deeply interesting 
 trial were resumed this morning. Shortly before 10 o'clock the 
 jury, who had passed the night under the charge of Mr Hemp, 
 the summoning officer, and of Mr Harker and Mr Miller, the 
 ushers of the court, were ushered into the jury-box. The learned 
 judges, Mr Baron Gurney and Mr Justice Wightman, took their 
 seats upon the bench. 
 
 The prisoner was then placed at the bar. where (as on the 
 previous day) he was accommodated with a chair. He appeared 
 cnlm and collected, retaining one position almost throughout the 
 whole of the day. 
 
 Mr Bodkin and Mr M. Chambers again appeared on behalf of the 
 Crown ; the Solicitor-General was not present, having been obliged to 
 leave town. Mr Erie, with Mr Clarkon. also attended on behalf of 
 the prisoner, and proceeded to call the following witnesses in support 
 of the defence : 
 
 Mr R. Embleton, examined by Mr Erie, I am a surgeon residing 
 at Emblelon, in the county of Northumberland, and am acquainted 
 with the prisoner, who has consulted me many times on the subject of a 
 complaint under which he was labouring. When he first consulted me 
 he complained of a palpitation of the heart, and of a slight difficulty in
 
 43 
 
 breathing occasionally. This was at the latter end of the )ear 1838, 
 or the beginning of 1839. The prisoner himself thought he v\as la- 
 bouring under an organic disease of the heart and lungs. I examined 
 his chest with the stethescope and found that he had no organic disease 
 whatever, but that he was labouring under dyspepsia. I told him thi*, 
 and that the palpitation and occasional difficulty in breathing were but 
 secondary symptoms. I advised him to take a bitter infusion with two or 
 three drops of prussic acid twice a-day, and a little eolocynth and blue pill 
 at night. I also advised him to take a preparation of opium or morphine 
 when the pain was violent. He consulted me from time to time after- 
 wards, and he told me he had followed my advice, that he was much 
 better, and had gradually amended. After his marriage I had a frequent 
 opportunity of seeing him and the deceased together. His conduct to- 
 wards her had invariably been that of kindness and affection, and her 
 feelings towards him seemed to be reciprocal ; in short, there appeared 
 between them mutual kindness and affection. The prisoner has always 
 borne -a good character for kindness, benevolence, and humanity. I was 
 applied to to give evidence for the prosecution. 
 
 Cross-examined by Mr Bodkin. When I first knew the prisoner he 
 was practising as a surgeon in North Sunderland. When he consulted 
 me about himself I did not write any prescription for him, but advised 
 him what to take as one medical man would advise another. In three 
 or four months I heard he had got belter, but afterwards there was a 
 recurrence of the disease at different times. The last time, however, he 
 consulted me was in 1841 , before his marriage. I had known his late wife 
 long before the marriage. The prisoner's attentions to her were men- 
 tioned and talked about several months before the marriage took place. 
 
 Re-examined by Mr Erie. Six months ago his horse fell with him, 
 and the prisoner's clavicle was fractured, and I attended him for it. 
 The prisoner had a medical library. 
 
 Mr Robert Swan, examined by Mr Erie, I am a druggist, residing 
 at Alnwick. and I am acquainted with the prisoner. I sold him some 
 prussic acid in May, 1841. I was acquainted with him and his wife, 
 but never saw them together after their marriage. The prisoner's gene- 
 ral character for kindness and humanity was good. 
 
 Cross-examined by Mr Bodkin. At the time he bought the prussic 
 acid from me he was practising as a surgeon. 
 
 Mrs Robson, examined by Mr Clarkson. I am the wife of Mr John 
 Robson, who until he retired from trade carried on business at North 
 Sunderland. I was well acquainted with the late Mrs Skelly, and also 
 with her daughter, the late Mrs Belany, for 15 years. Mrs Belany 
 was a handsome and fascinating young woman, and was married quite 
 with the consent of her mother. In North Sunderland there would 
 have been no difficulty in ascertaining that the prisoner had been mar- 
 ried to her. I was much in the habit of visiting them ; they always 
 appeared agreeable, and to me a happy and affectionate couple. I was 
 at the house of the late Mrs Skelly during her last illness. Mr Hunt 
 was the doctor who attended her the day before she died, and was sent 
 for by the prisoner in consequence of Mr Wilson, her regular medical 
 man, being absent in attendance upon Earl Grey. I saw Mrs Belany 
 after her miscarriage in the afternoon of the same day it happened. I 
 assisted to change her linen. On that occasion the prisoner was anxious
 
 44 
 
 to protect her from the cold, and exhibited all the tenderness and affec- 
 tion which a husband could shuvv (o his wife. The deceased always 
 spoke of him in the most affectionate terms. In February last the 
 prisoner had occasion to go to Scotland, and during his absence the de- 
 ceased manifested the utmost anxiety for his safe return. I saw the 
 deceased ten days previous to her setting out for London. She had 
 spoken to me of the intended journey, and appeared mosi anxious to go. 
 I said to her, "Are you not afraid to go in the state you are in ?" She 
 was then seven months gone in the family way. She replied, that top- 
 ping away so long from the prisoner as she should if he went alone, 
 would do her more harm than the journey. 
 
 Cross-examined by Mr Bodkin. The miscarriage took place about 
 August, last year. I do not know how far her pregnancy had advanced 
 at that time. 
 
 Mrs Wilson, examined by Mr Clarkton. I saw Mrs Belany three 
 or four days after her miscarriage, when she came to my house and told 
 5ne how it had happened. She said either that it arose from jumping oil' 
 or stepping on to a chair. They lived together on the most affectionate 
 terms. 
 
 Andrew Gibson, examined by Mr Clarkson. I am a mason and 
 farmer, and keep an inn near North Sunderland. I have known the 
 prisoner nine years, and have been with him on the Cheviot hills to get 
 hawks. On one occasion he refused to go until he had got the permis- 
 sion of his wife. I saw Mrs Belany the morning she set out for 
 London, and was the last to shake hands with her. She appeared to 
 be in excellent spirits, chatted, joked, and said she was very glad she 
 was going. They always appeared a most affectionate couple. 
 
 Mr Baron Gurney. It is in evidence on both sides that the journey 
 to London was well known to all their friends, and that she was desirous 
 of making the journey. I think we may assume that to have been 
 the fact. 
 
 The Rev. Robert Belany, examined by Mr Erie. I am a brother 
 of the prisoner at the bar, and visited him since his marriage about June 
 or July last year. I saw the terms upon which my brother and his 
 wife were living, and never in my life witnessed anything more indica;ive 
 of the strong affection that existed between them. I am now vicar of 
 Arlington, but at that time I was curate at Sydenham. My brother 
 proposed taking a house near me, and bringing his wife up, in order that 
 she might study French and music. The visit first proposed was put off 
 in consequence of the miscarriage. The next time fixed for their coming 
 up to town was February last, but that was postponed in consequence 
 (as we understood the witness), of some accident. After I went to 
 Arlington I invited them there several times, and was expecting them 
 up in June last. During the time I was with my brother at Northum- 
 berland I had a conversation with him on the subject of his making his 
 will. It arose in this way. I happened to know some of the clergy 
 in the neighbourhood and my brother drove me round in his gig to call 
 upon them. On two occasions he drove so carelessly that he allowed 
 the rein to get under the tail of the horse, and I was obliged to jump 
 out. Hearing also from his wife of some other similar circumstances, 
 T said to him. a person running such risks as he did in being suspended 
 over the sea-shore in search of falcons, and who indulged in such dange-
 
 45 
 
 rous amusements, ought not to be without his will. I added, not 
 knowing anything about the law, that if he had any property, though [ 
 should not be likely to trouble myself, yet I might get into debt, and my 
 creditors might take any property he might leave, if he uiade no will. 
 
 Mr Robert Hall, examined by Mr Erie. 1 live at Sea-house, 
 North Sunderland, and knew the prisoner and his wife exceedingly 
 well. They were much attached to each other. I was present with 
 them the evening before they left for London. The prisoner thought 
 to give up the journey as he said his wife was in such a state that it 
 was not right to undertake the journey. She immediately said he should 
 not get off that way, for that she would go if she could get her brother 
 Robert, to accompany her. I knew of the prisoner carrying poison 
 about with him, and I once asked him the reason why. He took the 
 bottle out of his pocket and said he was obliged to keep it by him to 
 take occasionally for a pain in his side. 
 
 Ellen Kerns, examined by Mr Clarkson. Deposed that she had gone 
 into the service of the prisoner and his wife 15 days before they set 
 out to come to London. During the whole of that time their conduct 
 towards each other was "quite loving." 
 
 Mr John Hancock, examined by Mr Clarkson. I am an iron- 
 monger residing at Nevvcastle-upon-Tyne, and have known the prisoner 
 between six and eight years. The prisoner is fond of falconry, to which 
 I have paid attention in common with him, as well as to botany and 
 ornithology. I visited him in January last, and remained a fortnight ; 
 during that time I never saw two people more attached to each other 
 than were the prisoner and his wife. He called on me on the 1st of 
 June la<-t, when on their way to London, and he took me to the inn 
 to see his wife. We found her lying on the sofa. The prisoner said 
 to her, "You should not lie there, you will catch cold, there may be 
 a draught from the window. Remember you are not in your own 
 house". His conduct on that occasion was just as kind to her as when 
 I visited them. The prisoner deposited some plate with a Mr Lister, 
 a silversmith, for safe custody, and gave an order for some more to be 
 ready when he and his wife came back. 
 
 Mr George Hobson, examined by Mr Clarkson. I am a bookseller, 
 residing at No. 8, CroomeVrow, Commercial road. I was examined 
 as a witness on the part of the Crown, before the Coroner, and bound 
 over to appear here. I have known the prisoner between five and 
 six years. He has published a book on falconry. I introduced him to 
 the lodgings at Mrs HeppingstalTs, and saw his wife for the first time. 
 I helped him to bring their luggage from the Euston Hotel to the 
 lodgings. Mrs Belany appeared to be pregnant, and in a delicate 
 state. They came to the lodgings on the Tuesday, and that evening 
 went to the theatre, according to the wish of both of them. I saw 
 the prisoner on the Wednesday, and then I did not see either of them 
 again until Saturday when Captain Clark called on me, and desired 
 me to follow him lo Mrs Heppingstall's lodgings. J got thereat about 
 half-past 10 o'clock. 
 
 I found that Mrs Belany was dead, and the prisoner in tears, and 
 very much distressed. I afterwards accompanied Mr Belany and 
 Captain Clark to the burial-ground ; Mr Belany was all the time very 
 much distressed. There was everything exhibited by him which 1 should
 
 46 
 
 expect to see from an affectionate husband who had recently lost his 
 wife. We were together from 1 o' 'clock until half -past 9 o'clock on 
 Sunday evening, and the prisoner and Captain Clark called upon me 
 on the morning of the inquest (Monday), and again at 10 o'clock the 
 same night. The prisoner was still in great distress, and I asked 
 Captain Clark the matter, and then for the first time I learned from 
 Captain Clark, in the prisoner's hearing, the account he had given 
 about the prussic acid. 
 
 Mr William D. Clark, examined by Mr Erie. I am a master man- 
 ner, and have known the prisoner since July, 1839. He was at 
 (hat lime living in the same neigbourhood as myself in Cannon-street- 
 road. He has attended me and my daughter as a surgeon. On Tues- 
 day, the 4th of June last, he called upon me after he had taken the 
 lodgings at Mrs Heppingstall's. He came with Mr Hobson, the last 
 witness, who is an acquaintance of mine ihrongh Mr Belany. After 
 this Mrs Belany called with him, and that was my first introduc- 
 tion to her. During that week, between the Tuesday and Saturday, 
 I saw them very frequently together. On the first day they called 
 Mrs Belany dined with me and my daughter, whiie the prisoner and 
 Mr Hobson went to fetch the luggage from the Euston Hotel. When 
 they came, we went to the lodging?, took tea, and the prisoner and 
 his wife set off to the theatre. On the following day (Wednesday) 
 Mrs Belany was very poorly. My daughter was there with her when 
 I called. She was in bed still, though better. She complained of her 
 head being light, but she was very cheerful. I saw them again on 
 Thursday, in the afternoon They had been out to the west end, and 
 the prisoner had bought her, among other things, a large pattern of a 
 hawk, to be worked in Berlin wool. [The pattern was produced and 
 identified by the witness.] The prisoner said it would amuse his wife 
 to work while he went to Holland to see the exhibition of hawking, 
 and in a joking way, said "he should be a long time absent if she had 
 finished it when he came back." I had heard of the intended trip to 
 Holland more than two years before. I supped with them off some 
 pickled salmon that evening, and every thing was very cheerful. On 
 Friday, at about half-past 2 o'clock, they called at my house and said 
 they had been sight-seeing ; and, among other places, they had been 
 to the Thames Tunnel. Mrs Belany was much fatigued, and looked 
 pale; and she was unable to go out again. The prisoner went up to 
 the Euslon Hotel, and returned about half-past 8 o'clock. He stated 
 lie had found a letter lying for him which enclosed two orders from 
 Earl Clanwilliam one for the deceased, and one for himself to visit 
 the House of Lords, and that he had been there. From the time they 
 called on the previous Tuesday, to the time they parted from us on the 
 Friday evening, they were on the same kind and affectionate terms 
 with each other much more than I generally see. On a previous 
 occasion a conversation had passed between the prisoner and myself 
 alwut lodgings for his wife during the lime he was gone abroad. He 
 intimated that he should very much like his wife to stop with me and 
 my daughter during his absence, which he said would be for 10 or 12 
 days. My daughter was not present, but I afterwards spoke to her 
 about it. Something was said about her not going to the prisoner's 
 brother's at Arlington. The prisoner said it was counlry-place, and
 
 47 
 
 she would he too far frum any medical man. I afterwards assented to 
 the proposal, and on the Friday I told him I had spoken to my daughter, 
 that she had given her consent, and on hearing this both the prisoner 
 and his wife seemed very happy. Early on Saturday, about 8 o'clock, 
 just as I was getting out of bed, my servant knocked at my room door, 
 and stated I was wanted immediately at Mr lielany's. I put on my 
 clothes as quickly as possible and went there. 
 
 I found the prisoner very much horrified and in great distress of 
 mind. He had a lancet in his hand. Mrs Belany was lying on the 
 bed, quite insensible, with her eyelids closed. I saw her breathe strong 
 twice, and then I thought she was coming to. Presently, however, 
 she gave a slight sigh, and I believe that was all. The first observa- 
 tion that I heard the prisoner make after 1 got there was that she 
 would not recover, and in five or six minutes he exclaimed, " My God! 
 this is entirely through my gross neglect ; I am the cause of all this," 
 I did not put any question to him. I had understood on the Friday 
 that they had been down the Tunnel, and when I heard it I told the 
 prisoner he had done very wrong to take a lady in the state his wife 
 was in down the Tunnel, and that if I had known he had any such in- 
 tention I should have endeavoured to disuade him from it. 
 
 In consequence of that conversation, which had occurred the day 
 before, I understood the exclamation as to his neglect to apply to the 
 visit to the Tunnel ; that was the construction I put on it. I used all 
 the endeavours in my power in assisting to bring the deceased about. 
 I asked for brushes and rough towels, and rubbed her legs. I had seen 
 that done before in cases of fits. A mustard poultice was prepared by 
 the landlady, and I applied it to the deceased's chest, the prisoner as- 
 sisting me by opening the linen. During this time, the prisoner was 
 much distressed, and said it was all of no use, that she would not come 
 to. After the death Mr Garratt, Mrs Heppingstall, and I thought it 
 would be right to have an inquest. This was mentioned to the pris- 
 oner, and he assented. Mrs Heppingstall provided a woman to lay out 
 the deceased. The woman wanted as her remuneration to have the 
 deceased's clothes. The prisoner was very indignant at the demand, 
 and said he should pay the woman in money, for he would rather have 
 his dear wife's clothes than anything she possessed. 
 
 Mr Baron Gurney. I never heard of a more strange and impudent 
 demand to be made on such an occasion. 
 
 Examination resumed. It was in consequence of this that the pris- 
 oner desired everything belonging to him to be removed from the house. 
 Soon after this I spoke to the prisoner about the interment. He said 
 he must leave ail that to me and Mr Hobson to arrange. I then 
 went to the undertaker's, and on my return called upon Mr Hobson, 
 told him what had occurred, and desired him to follow me to the 
 lodgings. 
 
 He did so, and after we had talked with the undertaker some time, 
 I proposed to go to the cemetary. Theprisoner said he would be glad 
 to take the air. Mrs Heppingstall had before this expressed a hope 
 that the funeral would take place as early as possible, as the event was 
 a painful thing to have happened in her house. She said she thought 
 it might take place on Tuesday after the inquest. After this Mr 
 Hobson, the prisoner, and I proceeded to the cemetary. The prisoner
 
 48 
 
 desired to buy the ground, in order to have a brick grave. I spoke 
 to the gardener* but in consequence of his stating it required four days'* 
 notice to prepare one, at last a seven foot ordinary grave was order- 
 ed. We then went and saw another brother of the prisoner's, who 
 was at Christy's, in the Commercial-road. Both going and coming 
 back he frequently expressed his deep sorrow that he had been the cause 
 of the death of his wife by his gross neglect. 
 
 This was on the Saturday afternoon. On the Monday I walked with 
 him to the Globe, and on that day he again repeated that "Dear 
 Rachel's death had been caused by his gross neglect." He seemed to 
 wish to get out of the hearing of everybody, and would walk on the 
 the middle of the road. On the Monday afternoon I at- 
 tended, and was present at the post mortem examination, but I did 
 not hear either of the surgeons address one to the oilier, alter (hey had 
 examined the contents of the stomach, or use any word which I took to 
 be Latin. I applied to the surgeons to state to me the cause of death, 
 but they gave an evasive answer. I had not the least reason to sup- 
 pose or infer that the death had been caused by prussic acid. In 
 the course of Monday I was walking out with the prisoner, and during 
 the time he repeated that the catastrophe had been caused by his gross 
 neglect. We again called upon Mr Garratt, but he was not in. We 
 walked up the Commercial road ; he seemed to be anxious to get into 
 some more retired place, and at length we came to Jubilee-place. 
 
 There he stopped, shed tears very abundantly, and said, " My God! 
 I am the sole cause of my dear Rachel's death. " He said this in so 
 forcible a manner that I began to think it very strange, and said, 
 " What do you mean?" ''Mean!" said he, " why, that my wife 
 has taken poison." I instantly exclaimed, " Poison! what poison "? 
 He replied, " Prussic acid. " I then said, ii You do not mean to say 
 that you have given your wife prussic acid ? " He replied, " No, 
 thank God ! I have not that to charge myself with." He then began 
 to narrate to me how the matter occurred. He said, that he had been 
 in the habit of taking prussic acid that in taking some he had bro- 
 ken the stopper of the bottle, and spilled some of the acid on the floor ; 
 that he put the acid in a tumbler, and placed it on the drawers in the 
 bed-room that he left it there, and that his wife had got out of bed 
 and drank it in his absence from the room. He was in a dreadful 
 state at the time he made this narrative. I then took him to Mr 
 Hobson's. 
 
 Cross-examined by Mr BODKIN. When the prisoner said that his 
 wife would not recover, he also said that her poor mother had died of 
 the same disease 12 months ago. I was present at the post mortem 
 examination. The prisoner was in the next room. I noticed that 
 the contents of the stomach were sealed up and taken away. I believe 
 that I stated to the prisoner what had taken place at the examination. 
 When the prisoner related how the matter had occurred, he said that 
 he seized the tumbler from the hands of his wife, and emptied the con- 
 tents into the chamber vessel. 
 
 Mrs M'Geachy, examined by Mr Erie. I am the daughter of the 
 last witness. I was introduced to the prisoner and his wife on the 4th 
 of June, and saw them until Saturday, the 8th, from time to time. I 
 learned from Mr Belany that &he had miscarried last year; and on the
 
 49 
 
 Wednesday, when she was sick, he told me that symptoms had occurred 
 again. They appeared to be on the most affectionate terms. J have 
 seen her alone, and she seemed perfectly happy in her marriage. His 
 conduct was always that of an aflx-ctionate husband, I was sent for on 
 Saturday morning. He was crying, and she was lying insensible on the 
 bed. I thought she had been getting up, for her night clothes were on, 
 and her hair was down, as if she had taken off her cap to get up. The 
 prisoner was much distressed. I fetched Mr Garratt by desire of the 
 prisoner. Mrs Belany had told me on Friday that she intended taking 
 salts. I saw two tumblers ; one of them was empty, the other had 
 some fluid in it. I saw Mr Belany empty it after Mr Garratt had left. 
 Mr Belany had in her presence spoken to me about her staying with us 
 while he went abroad. I was examined before the coroner, and bound 
 over to appear as a witness for the prosecution. 
 
 Mr Erie. And we have consequently forborne to examine you or 
 your father- If they are not accomplices it is the strangest conduct on 
 he part of the prosecution I ever knew. 
 
 Cross-examined by Mr Bodkin. It was on Wednesday night when 
 she had been sick that the prisoner spoke of the miscarriage. Mrs 
 Belany said, "Oh, I am better now, I hope I shall soon be well." 
 When I got there on the Saturday morning the deceased was lying on 
 her back in the bed, her head leaning upon Mrs Heppingstall. 
 
 William Hackett Shaw, Police-sergeant, K 2, examined by Mr 
 Clarkson. I \vas examined before the magistrate and coroner, and 
 was bound over to appear ; but I was not examined before the grand 
 jury, or by the attorney for the prosecution. I was the serjeant at 
 the Stepney station when Mr Belany was brought in. I gave him a 
 caution as to what he said. I visited him during the night. He asked 
 for pen, ink, and paper, which were furnished him by his friends. He 
 asked if he might put a letter in the post. I said I must first inspect it. 
 He said. *' Very well," and at 6 o'clock in the morning he gave me this 
 letter, addressed to Mr Embleton. I did not put it in the post, but I 
 showed it to the magistrate's clerk, and afterwards to the coroner. I 
 think it was produced to the clerk during the examination, but I will 
 not be sure. 
 
 [8] Wednesday, 14th, 1844. 
 
 41 Dear Embleton. Oh God! what has happened to my beloved 
 Rachel ? She is gone for ever from me. She took out of a tumbler 
 which I had left on the table at the opposite end of the room, imag- 
 ining it to be empty, no doubt, as there did not appear to be any- 
 thing in it to one of her situation, whilst there was a portion of 
 prussic acid, which I had been taking a small portion of for my 
 stomach. The reason 1 had it in that situation was because in my 
 taking a little of it for my stomach, which 1 dare say you are aware 
 I am in the habit of doing when my side or stomach is bad I think 
 you recommended it to me amongst others the stopper having broke 
 in the phial, I had been obliged to knock off thejieck of it : and having 
 done so above a tumbler, to catch tkz contents, A portion of which was 
 saved and left in the glass. I went into another room in search of 
 another phial to put it in, knowing i-^i! /ton.' dfyi&ejrous it was to 
 have it exposed, I was not a minute absent, w'heii Rachel , having 
 got up to take some salts out of a glass upon the table at the 
 G
 
 50 
 
 bedside, in order to take some water after the- salts, and from the 
 clearness of the acid, not perceiving it in the glass, poured some 
 water into it, and drank a portion of it. Oh God? What a 
 calamity to me. 1 heard her in the other room, and flew to her, 
 and called for assistance ; but in a minute or two it was all over. 
 Ashamed of my awful neglect in having left the acid for a mo- 
 ment in such a situation, and in the awful confusion and shock, 
 I did not at the moment communicate the subject until after a 
 while, which, in consequence of my being entirely amongst stran- 
 gers, is likely to place me in an awful position with the law. Do 
 my dear Sir, for Heaven's sake, lose not a moment and come up. 
 I will pay all : and get a few of my friends who know me and 
 my dear Backers habits of life and mine. As for my want of 
 proper proceeding, nothing else than bringing friends who really 
 know us forward with all despatch will relieve me from difficulties, 
 if not infamy. 0,for Heaven s sake, move Heaven and earth to my 
 cause. Go to Mr Terlin, and Denny, and all you can think of, 
 Richard Hall, Sfc., Mr Simpson, and get them to do what you can re- 
 quisite to establish amongst the strangers here my character. It 
 would be well, I think, for all to come up. 1 shall pay all expenses. 
 Dr Robertson and Hunt will do all they can, I know. Go to 
 Mrs Stobbs and let her know what has happened. There has been 
 a difference existing between Rachel's family and hers" 1 ; but as she 
 is now the only memorial left of my dear wife, it shall be overlooked by 
 Give her my love, and tell her this. I think I should like to 
 
 see her here. Now. Embleton, lose not a moment ; go to my friends, 
 
 off by railway. God blet 
 What a state I am in. I hope to see you in a day or two. 
 
 and immediately come off by railway. God bless you and all. 
 
 Ever yours. 
 
 " BELANY." 
 
 Call at Mr Clarke's 17, King-street, Stepney, show or explain this 
 to my friends, because I cannot write no more at present. I know 
 not what lam doing. Get Mr S. to give you Mr Tewarfs address in 
 London, if possible. He can say something for me, and I know will 
 do all he can. Get and send immediately to my friends, because 1 
 cannot write to more at present. I know not what I am doing." 
 
 Peter M'Ardill, police-sergeant K 4, examined by Mr Clarkson. 
 I took the prisoner into custody, and attended before the coroner to 
 produce the things which I had taken. I was present before the ma- 
 gistrate, but was not bound over. I produced the bundle there. I was 
 questioned by the magistrate. J was not questioned in a private room 
 by the clerk. I took the prisoner on Tuesday, the llth of June. I 
 was bound over before the coroner. I was in waiting to go before the 
 grand jury and sworn, but was not examined. I produce the morphine 
 which I took from the prisoner. It has been opened, and tested by a 
 surgeon. I also found a box of tooth powder and a bottle of crystal- 
 lized vinegar in his trunk at Captain Clarke's, In his rooms, at Mrs 
 HeppingstalTs, I found some carbonate of soda, some tartaric acid, and 
 a paper of Epsom salts in his bed-room. The prisoner was rather in an 
 excited state when I took him. I told him what I charged him with in 
 the presence of Mr Hicks. He saici, "Oh, my God !" When he saw 
 his brother, who was crying, he said, ;t Oh, Archy, Archy. why do you
 
 51 
 
 take on so.' this is an inquiry which must be instituted." He after- 
 wards said in a low tone, 4i Oil, my angel, I have caused this ; I am a 
 murdered man." 
 
 Mary Gotto, examined by Mr Erie. I live with my brother, who 
 keeps a Berlin warehouse at 202, Regent-street. I remember a lady 
 and gentleman calling at the shop and purchasing the pattern produced, 
 which was one of the most expensive. Thej appeared to be kind and 
 on good terms \vith each other. 
 
 Ann Uebeca King, examined by Mr Ciarkson. I am assistant to 
 Mrs Roberts, a bonnet-maker, 155, Mile-eud-road. On Friday the 
 lOlh of J une a gentleman and lady called and purchased a bonnet. They 
 left a pair of stays to be sent home with it. They appeared to be so 
 remarkably affectionate, that I observed upon it after they were gone. 
 The bonnet was sent to Mrs HeppingstalPs. 
 
 Mr Frederick Salvin. examined by Mr Erie. I reside at Lenten 
 Spnng, Yorkshire, I have known the prisoner two years, and have 
 joined with him in hi? taste for hawking. I have visited him several 
 times ; once since his marriage. His wife and he seemed to live 
 very happy together. He has always borne a high character for hu- 
 manity and kindness in every relation of life. I knew him when he \vas 
 in practice. He was of very careless habits, and his medicines were al- 
 ways thrown about very carelessly. I have frequently remonstrated 
 with him on the subject. 
 
 The following witnesses were called to character : 
 Mr George Dunn, of Ellingham, near Sunderland. I have known 
 the prisoner three years. His character for humanity and kindness of 
 disposition has always been excellent. I always con&idered him a 
 most kind man. 
 
 Mrs Smith, of Commercial-road, with whom the prisoner lodged for 
 some time in 1839, deposed that she considered him a respectable, well 
 conducted, kind-hearted man. 
 
 This concluded the case for the defence, and the Court adjourned for 
 a few minutes for refreshment. When the court re-assembled. 
 
 Mr Bodkin then rose to reply for the prosecution. It was his 
 duty to address some observations to the jury on the case against the 
 prisoner. He could have wished that this painful duty had fallen 
 upon the Solicitor General ; but placed as he wr.s next in seniority 
 to the Solicitor-General, it was impossible for him to shrink from 
 that duty, fearful as it was. In this case, no friend of the deceased 
 lady had instituted a prosecution. Formerly that duty lay with the 
 officers of the parish, but now it lay with the Crown ; and it would 
 have been a disgrace to the government of the country if this prosecu- 
 tion had not been taken up by them. This he trusted, however, had 
 been done in a spirit of fair and impartial justice. He was led to 
 these observations by some remarks which had fallen from the other 
 side respecting the examination and non-examination of some of the 
 witnesses ; but no man had a right to complain of the course which 
 had been taken, for it was for the counsel for the crown to make the 
 selection of what witnesses they should call, and what they should 
 not. The learned counsel then proceeded to call attention to the 
 case itself, and expressed an earnest desire that no prejudice would 
 be committed to their minds in the discharge of the awful duty they
 
 52 
 
 had to perform. They were placed in that box, separated for (lie 
 occasion from the rest of the community to do their duty between the 
 law and the prisoner, and he was sure that whatever their verdict 
 should be, it would be one of strict, fair, and impartial justice, whether 
 it should be in favour of or adverse to the unfortunate prisoner at the 
 bar. 
 
 The case for the prosecution was not intended to suggest that the 
 journey to London was planned by the prisoner for the purpose of car- 
 rying out his intention to commit murder, but he must, at the same 
 time, urge upon the jury, that the very first and every subsequent letter 
 written by the prisoner from that place, was to prepare his wife's 
 fiiends in the north for the intelligence of the death of his wife. 
 
 His learned friend dwelt upon the inadequacy of the motive. He 
 knew and God forbid that he should attempt to lessen the force of 
 such an appeal. He wished not to take away from the effect of the 
 character which the prisoner had borne down to this uuhappy trans- 
 action, or the terms of affection upon which it was represented they 
 had lived. 
 
 With regard to the two wills, he said it was quite clear that what- 
 ever might be the legal value of these instruments, the prisoner intended 
 the document signed by his wife should be available for his interest in 
 the event of her death, "and also that he contemplated a sudden 
 death. As to the absence of motive, he thought that the 
 jury ought not to give too much weight to that point, for unhap- 
 pily their knowledge of human nature and the annals of crime left no 
 doubt that many most dreadful crimes had been clearly made out 
 against parties, not only without any adequate, but even without any 
 assignable motive ; and it would be a very dangerous doctrine indeed 
 to establish that the mere atrocity and absence of motive for the com- 
 mission of a crime should be taken as an argument against the proba- 
 bility of the person accused having committed it. 
 
 His friend's observations wiih respect to the absence of motive con- 
 cerning the copyhold were perfectly correct ; but with regard to the 
 freehold, those observations did not hold good. They had evidence to 
 show that the value of the property in question was about 6.000/.; 
 and what they had to turn their attention to was this not what was 
 his legal right to the property, or what an astute lawyer would have 
 defined it to be, but what he himself at the time considered to be 
 the situation of that property. Why, however he should think that 
 her death was likely to happen suddenly, was a point to which it was 
 his duty to call their attention, leaving the fact to have such weight 
 upon their minds as it might be worth. 
 
 He then called the attention of the jury to the prisoner's own ac- 
 count of the transaction, and asked them whether it was probable that 
 the prisoner should have left a deadly poison on the drawers, in his 
 wife's bed-room, and have then gone coolly into the next roomand begun 
 to write. The prisoner also represented that the unhappy lady had gone 
 to the table to take the salts, and had then walked to the draicfrs, 
 where she obtained the poison, and that then he heard the shriek. The 
 medical testimony that had been adduced, and of which there had been 
 no attempt at contradiction, clearly contradicted this statement, as it 
 was proved that when the poison had operated, so far as to cause the 
 person taking it to give a shriek, it was almost the last act of life,
 
 and from that moment there was no puwer of volition or speech ; 
 and the story told by the prisoner, of his wife having informed him 
 that she had taken some of the hot drink, could not. therefore, be true. 
 
 He requested the jury to recollect, what had taken place on the 
 morning of the death of (lie deceased, and see whether they could re- 
 concile the conduct of the prisoner with innocence, and he put it to them 
 whether, if the story told by him was the truth, he would not immedi- 
 ately have exclaimed that his wife had taken poison, and would have 
 applied the remedies which he must have known would have been 
 efficacious. It had been proved that those remedies were of the 
 most simple and yet of a very certain character. Cold water, brandy, 
 and a smelling-bottle were all that were required, and he asked them 
 if they could account for the prisoner not making use of any of these 
 remedies, with which, as a medical man, he must have been acquainted 
 but on the contrary, employing hot water and a mustard poultice, 
 which he must have been well aware could not have produced any 
 good effect. 
 
 Wliat motive could have operated upon the prisoner to act in this 
 manner? Either he would not make use of the remedies, because he 
 did not wish to restore the person who had taken the poison, or else 
 he wished it to be kept secret that she had taken poison, and the nature 
 of that poison. There was also another very important matter for 
 the consideration of the jury. The prisoner not only refrained from 
 making use of these remedies, but when the medical man came to see 
 the deceased he coined a falsehood, and faid that the deceased had 
 died of a disease of the heart, adding that her mother had died of 
 the same malady nine months before. 
 
 Mr Bodkin next proceeded to allude more particularly to the letters 
 written by the prisoner, and repeated that it would be difficult to come 
 to any other conclusion than that they were evidently intended to 
 prepare his wife's friends to hear of her death. In the very first letter 
 he ?poke of her being, very ill, and in the second, written the next 
 day- 
 Mr Erie. That has been explained in every particular, except that 
 two medical men were not in attendance upon the deceased. 
 
 Mr Bodkin. Except that two medical men were not in attendance 
 upon her! That was most important. The prisoner said in that letter 
 that the deceased was very ill ; that he was about to remove her to a 
 private lodging, and that two medical men were in attendance upon her. 
 
 At this time there was no medical man in attendance upon her 
 and the jury would remember that on the very day this letter detail- 
 ing the alarming state of his wife^s health was sent into the country, 
 the prisoner purchased the poison of the witness Dono'iue. It also 
 appeared that on Saturday, the 8th of June, the prisoner wrote 
 another letter, in which he stated that his wife was still very ill ; 
 that she was attended by two medical men, and that one of them said 
 he feared she was afflicted with a disease of the heart, when at that 
 very time the unhappy lady had been dead for many hour's?, and the 
 prisoner had actually been to the cemetery to make inquiries respecting 
 a grave. 
 
 The learned counsel then dwelt with some force upon the fact, that 
 from the first arrival of the prisoner in London he had begun to write'
 
 letters to induce his friends in the north to expect her death. She 
 was represented to be suffering from disease of the heart, and in one 
 of the letters it was stated that she was attended by two medical men, 
 one of whom had given it as his opinion that she was suffering from 
 that disease. 
 
 The account was that she had taken the poison in mistake for water 
 after taking the salts, and had then eaten some pieces of biscuit to take 
 the taste out of her mouth. On the morning in question the prisoner 
 was up and dressed. He rang the bell, and asked for a glass and a 
 spoon, and salts were afterwards found. Now let the jury ask them- 
 selves whether it was probable that he a medical man, should not 
 have mixed the salts for his wife, and, if mixed, why not have admin- 
 istered them ? Was it likely, moreover, that he should leave off in the 
 middle of this and prepare prussic acid for himself ? or, if he did, would 
 he have left a poison of this deadly kind in so dangerous a position ? 
 But according to his own account, after breaking the bottle, he went 
 into the other room, for the purpose of getting another bottle ; when 
 he got there he found the servant dusting the room ; and if he had 
 wanted a bottle why did he not ask for one ? But instead of doing so 
 he deliberately sits down to write letters; and, as he says, in a few 
 minutes is alarmed by a shriek ; but whether that shriek ever took 
 place, or how lonjf his wife was left after it did take place, it was 
 impossible to say ; what they were called upon to believe was this, 
 that instead of taking the salts from the hand of her husband a medical 
 man, she had got up from her bed, taken the salts, walked to the other 
 end of the room, where the drawers were on which they stood, and 
 upon which the poison was placed, drank that, poison, returned to her 
 bed, and then gave the shriek which called her husband into the room, 
 where he found her in a state of insensibility. 
 
 After the medical evidence, could they believe this ? He then 
 pointed the attention of the jury to the conduct of the prisoner in not 
 applying the proper remedies he a medical man, who had been proved 
 to have had medical remedies, and must have known what those reme- 
 dies were. What was the inducement which could have operated at 
 such a time, to have prevented him from adopting those remedies, it 
 was for the jury to say. 
 
 But not only did he not use those remedies, but he added falsehood 
 to his conduct. He stated that she was suffering from disease of <he 
 heart, and used only such remedies as were worse than a mockery. 
 They had been hoard conversing together ; the bed had no curtains, 
 and ifJiehad had the accident with the bottle which he had represented 
 his wife must have seen it ; and was it likely that she would, after this, 
 go and put water upon the poison and take it ? It had been represented, 
 also, that there was a peculiar odour from prus^ic acid when spilt, but 
 no such odour was perceived in the room, no pieces of broken glass had 
 been found in the bed-room, although it was true that some portions of 
 broken white glass had been found outside the front door. It was for 
 the jury to consider whether they could believe this story. He had, it 
 must be recollected, told the servant to leave the room ; and whether 
 he took the opportunity which her absence unhappily gave him, of re- 
 turning to the room, administering the salts, and then the poison, it was 
 for the jury to determine. The learned counsel then proceeded to read
 
 and comment upon the several letters which had been written by the 
 prisoner to his friends in the north. 
 
 In the first letter, which he had dated from the Euston Hotel, he 
 had alluded to the badness of the quality of the ink supplied at the 
 Hotel. Now this showed that the dating of the letter from the Hotel 
 was not an accident, or, as his learned friend had represented it, a 
 mere piece of vanity in preferring that to dating from a lodging at 
 the east end of London : but, in his opinion, it was a part of a plan. 
 It had been shown that he had been in the habit of using prussic acid 
 as a medicine. It was difficult to judge of the human heart, but we 
 must form our opinions of the state of a man's mind by his actions. 
 Now, on the Saturday, subsequently to the death of the unfortunate 
 lady, the prisoner posted a letter, in which he stated that he had that 
 day had her removed from the Euston Hotel ; that she was attended 
 by two medical men, and that he feared that she would be the victim of 
 disease of the heart. Now, this letter was posted after death, and 
 actually after he had been to the cemetery to inquire about a grave. 
 
 He had now alluded to all the most important circumstances of the 
 case, and the time will soon arrive when they would have to pronounce a 
 verdict upon which the life of the prisoner would undoubtedly depend; 
 a nd in conclusion, he called upon them in considering (hat verdict to 
 give this unhappy man unhappy whether innocent or guilty the utmost 
 extent of indulgence which was consistent with justice ; but if, on the 
 other hand, they could not refer his act. to innocence, then it would be 
 for them fearlessly to pronounce a verdict against the prisoner, as they 
 were bound by the solemnity of the oath which they had taken to do. 
 
 Mr Baron Gurney then proceeded to sum up the case to the jury. 
 The learned judge said it now became his duty to give them the best 
 assistance in his power to enable them to form an accurate judgement 
 upon this most serious, awful, and anxious case. 
 
 The crime which was charged upon the prisoner was one of the most 
 atrocious and revolting it was a charge of murder, by means the 
 most odious and detestible. The person alleged to have been murder- 
 ed was that person whom the prisoner was bound to protect and cher- 
 ish. He might say that she was young, beautiful, and fascinating 
 in manners and accomplishments that she had been his wife less than 
 two years she had lived with him on terms of apparent affection as 
 far as had been observed by every witness, and was at that time in a 
 situation the most interesting, being about to give birth to a child. 
 A case of this kind undoubtedly called for the most anxious attention 
 the jury coidd bestow upon it. The case differed almost from every 
 case he (Mr Gurney ) had ever known, in this circumstance that 
 generally speaking there was a difficulty in ascertaining whether the 
 death had been occasioned by poison, and secondly, whether the poison 
 came from the hands of the person charged with the crime. In this 
 case there could be no doubt this unfortunate lady had come to her 
 death by poison that poison was prussic acid that prussic acid was 
 a poison most certain, fatal, and speedy in its effects. It was equally 
 certain that it came from the hands of the prisoner it had been prov- 
 ed beyond doubt that he had bought the poison, and it had been stated 
 by himself that he had placed and left it unprotected in the chamber 
 of his wife, and the question for the determination of the jury would
 
 56 
 
 be, whether she having died from poison it had been administered to 
 her by his hand, or whether he had purposely placed it in her way in 
 order that she might herself take it ? The secrets of all hearts were 
 known to God alone, and human tribunals could only judge of those 
 secrets from the conduct of the individual at the time. In this case 
 the jury had the conduct of the prisoner, his words, his wnting, and 
 his demeanour proved before them, and it was for them to decide on 
 the whole of the case whether they believed he either administered the 
 poison, or whether he placed it within her reach in order that she might 
 take it. If he did either of those things, then he would be guilty of 
 murder ; if they thought he had acted incautiously and negligently 
 6.V leaving it in the manner he had himself described, he would be 
 guilty of no murder at all. 
 
 It appeared that these parties had lived together for about a year 
 and a half, and every witness had spoken to their affectionate 
 conduct towards each other during that period ; to their belief that the 
 marriage was a happy one, and had been contracted with the full consent 
 of the lady's mother, with whom the prisoner and his wife had lived dur- 
 ing the remainder of her life. Since her death they had lived together, 
 and their being in London at the time of this melancholy event was a 
 circumstance well known to their friends the visit had been much 
 talked of, had been long known, was made no secret, and it had been 
 promulgated among their acquaintances. It seemed it was intended that 
 the deceased lady was to remain in London, while the prisoner was to 
 go forward to the Rhine, to indulge in his favorite pursuit of hawking. 
 There was nothing unnatural in a young lady being desirous of seeing 
 London ; it was in evidence that she had looked forward to her visit 
 with great interest, and that when a trifling indisposition had been sug- 
 gested as a reason for giving up the intention, the unfortunate lady had 
 said in a playful, good-humoured tone to her husband, " Oh, you shall 
 not get off so." It was further to be observed, that the place to which 
 she was taken to abide furnished no inference against the prisoner. It 
 appeared to be in the neighbourhood in which he had before lodged, it 
 was near to the residences of the only two persons with whom he was 
 acquainted in London, and therefore it was not unnatural that he should 
 go to that part of London, indeed, the change from Sunderland to 
 Stepney would not. be for the worse. The next point to which he felt 
 it necessary to direct the. attention of the jury was one which had been 
 much dwelt upon by the learned counsel on both sides. When any per- 
 son committed a great and heinous crime it was usual and natural to 
 look to see whether there existed any adequate motive to influence that 
 person to the commission and perpetration of it. Now, in this case, it 
 appeared that the lady whose death was the cause of the present inquiry 
 derived, under the will of her father, a copy-hold estate of the value of 
 about 4,000/.; that on the death of her mother she was admitted into 
 manorial court rolls ; and that she immediately surrendered to the joint 
 use of herself and her husband ; and therefore, whichever of them should 
 be the surviver, he or she would gain an absolute property in that estate. 
 There WAS personal property also, a leasehold, in which she had had an 
 interest, but of which the prisoner had had the entire control w ith her 
 approbation, and in which he would gain the entire interest if he sur- 
 vived her ; he being about 45, and she 22 years of age, it would be a
 
 57 
 
 good deal to say that this should be brought forward as a great motive 
 of interest to excite the commission of such a crime as that attributed to 
 the prisoner at the bar. The jury had, therefore, fully before them the 
 enormity of the crime. They had information of the person upon whom 
 it had been committed; they had proof, ample proof, of the manner in 
 which these two parties had lived together ; all of which tended to show 
 the great improbability of the prisoner's committing such an offence. 
 Nevertheless it was sometimes found, as they could not dive into the 
 heart and ascertain motives, that a crime, a great crime, might be com- 
 mitted, although no motive for it could be found. The jury had been 
 cautioned by the learned counsel on both sides against suffering any 
 prejudice created by anything they might have previously heard or read 
 touching the matter in question to operate upon their minds in coming 
 to a decision. 
 
 In the present state of the press of this country, it was scarcely 
 possible that there was any gentleman upon any jury who had not by 
 some accident or other read some account of matters of interest, par- 
 ticularly a case of murder. If such should have been the fact with 
 the gentlemen he now addressed with reference to this case, he im- 
 plored them to dismiss all they had read from their minds, and to 
 decide upon the evidence, and the evidence alone. Inasmuch as the 
 great question the jury had now to consider was the intentions of 
 the prisoner, it should be remembered that every man was entitled to 
 a candid construction being put upon his words and actions, par- 
 ticularly if placed in circumstances of great and unexpected diffi- 
 culty. Justice was to be administered with mercy, and thus, while 
 they in considering this case would take care to give what fair allow- 
 ance they could in putting a construction upon the prisoner's words 
 and actions they would give due effect to the evidence given, and 
 also be cautious that justice should not be impeded or impaired by any 
 sickly affectation of humanity, which, by disregarding all evidence, 
 would give impunity to crime. 
 
 With these preliminary remarks he would state that he did not think 
 it necessary to go over that part of the evidence which showed the 
 general conduct of the prisoner towards his wife, or her's towards 
 him ; and he would here state generally, that the prisoner had received 
 an excellent character. The learned judge here proceeded to read 
 the evidence of all the witnesses to the transactions of the fatal 8th day 
 of June. This included the evidence of Mrs Heppingstall and Sarah 
 Williams, called by the Crown, and of Mrs M'Geachy and Captain 
 Clark, who had been called on behalf of the prisoner. He then pro- 
 ceeded to read at length the evidence of all the medical witnesses. His 
 Lordship then said it now only remained for him to read the letters of 
 the prisoner, which were of importance. With regard to the letter 
 to Mr Bell, written on the 5th of June, which spoke of the deceased 
 being fatigued, but the rest would restore her, there was this observa- 
 tion to be made, that it did not appear there had been anything like 
 rest when they got to London, but at the same time allowance must be 
 made for the actions of a lively young woman who reaches London for 
 the first time, and desires to see evervthing. 
 
 As to the letter to Mr Dinning, which had been lost, but of which 
 that gentleman had stated the contents, it had bem posted in London on
 
 58 
 
 the Thursday, and spoke of the deceased being on that day unwell, and 
 attended by two medical gentlemen. Now, the Jury would observe 
 that this had been written on the very day on which the prisoner had 
 arranged that his wife should reside at Captain Clark's during his 
 absence abroad. He (Mr Baron Gurney) could not conceive the 
 motive which should have induced the prisoner on the very day when 
 his wife was well and cheerful, to write so complete a fabrication from 
 beginning to end. These were the only two letters which had unques- 
 tionably been written before the event. The next letter, however, was 
 dated the Sth, and was proved to have been posted on the evening of that 
 day. When it was written it did not appear ; if it was written before 
 the death, it told against the prisoner. It concurred with the letter 
 written on Thursday, and practised the same deception as to the two 
 medical men upon those to whom it was addressed. The defence was, 
 that the prisoner had been guilty of a lamentable indiscretion a sud- 
 den event, fatal to his wife, had happened that he was overpowered 
 and overwhelmed by the result of his own act of carelessness, and, 
 therefore, he did not divulge the truth. The only awkward part, 
 however, was, that he, in his last letters, had pursued exactly the same 
 system as he had adopted in the letters written two days before. How- 
 ever, this was matter entirely for the consideration of the jury, and to 
 it they would give all the observations that occurred to their 
 own minds. 
 
 They would recollect with reference to the letter of the Sth, that 
 on that day, according to the evidence of Captain Clarke, the pri- 
 soner had more than once that very morning exclaimed, " This event 
 is all my fault." Those outbreaks were of some importance for the 
 consideration of the juiy in giving (as compared with the letters) an 
 indulgent consideration to any language used by the prisoner after an 
 event had occurred which placed him in a situation of difficulty and 
 embarrasment. In comparing the statement set up by the defence 
 with the evidence of the medical witnesses, two things of a good 
 deal of importance arose. The prisoner's statement was, that when 
 he entered the bed-room his wife told him what had occurred, and 
 that he took the tumbler out of her hand. The medical men had 
 told the jury that with the scream that was spoken of all volition 
 and power of speech wotlld cease : but then it must not be forgot- 
 ten that the judgement of those gentlemen must be tempered with 
 this caution, that none of them had ever witnessed the effect of prussic 
 acid on the human subject. On Monday the prisoner divulged his 
 statement to Captain Clark, but before that, he had written another let- 
 ter to Mr Bell, announcing his wife's death, but was ?ilout as to the 
 cause. Then came a series of letters, all of which had been written 
 after he was in custody, with a knowledge that they would be read by 
 others, and that they mijrht be considered as a statement of the defence on 
 which he stood. He (Mr Baron Gurney) did not think it necessary to 
 read any other document. 
 
 He had now given the jury the effect of all this mass of evidence, 
 and it was for them to decide whether they were convinced beyond any 
 reasonable doubt, that the prisoner either did administer, or, in effect, 
 caused to be administered, the poison (because, if he wilfully placed it 
 in her way irilh the intention she should take it, it was the same), for
 
 59 
 
 the purpose of destroying her ; if he did that, it was undoubtedly 
 murder ; 
 
 If, however, on the other hand, they should be of opinion that he had 
 merely been guilty of indiscretion, and that in consequence of the sudden 
 and awful event which occurred he had been driven to conceal it by 
 falsehood, they would acquit the prisoner. No doubt falsehood often 
 placed persons having recourse to it under awkward and embarrassing 
 circumstances. 
 
 In this case falsehood had been much exhibited. It was shown 
 before the death in the statement about the two medical men that 
 falsehood was followed by its repetition in the second letter another 
 falsehood appeared in the representation that the mother-in-law, who 
 had died of bilious fever, as appeared by an entry in the register, under 
 his own hand, was represented by him to have died of disease of the 
 heart. If the jury, however, thought the case conclusive, however 
 painful it might be, it would be their duty to pronounce the prisoner 
 guilty if they thought the case left in doubt and mystery, so that they 
 could not safely proceed, they would remember that it was better that 
 many guilty men should escape than that one innocent man should 
 perish. 
 
 The Jury then retired, and, after an absence of an hour, returned 
 into court, and delivered a verdict of NOT GUILTY. 
 
 The prisoner, who heard the verdict unmoved, and without the 
 slightest manifestation of feeling, slightly bowed to the bench, and 
 withdrew from the bar. 
 
 The case of Belany. In reference to the case of Belany, who was tried 
 at the last Old Bailey Sessions, on a charge of poisoning his wife, and 
 acquitted, we have received a letter from one of the Jury. Astound- 
 ing as it may appear, the writer informs vis that he and others, his 
 fellow-jurors, were perfectly impressed with a belief of the guilt of 
 the prisoner; but they were determined to disregard the evidence and act 
 upon conscience !!! The writer informs us, that he is conscientiously 
 of opinion that the punishment of death ought to be discontinued ; and 
 so long as it is practised, in evf ry case, whore the life of an individual 
 is involved, he himself is determined to return a verdict contrary to 
 evidence, and although the guilt of the prisoner may appear manifest. 
 We are making great progress in civilization, and in a short time, we 
 have no doubt the punishment of death will be abolished ; but the 
 Government ought not, by the means adopted by the writer, and the 
 gentlemen associated with him, to be goaded into compliance, 
 especially as the opinion upon the subject of the abolition of capital 
 punishment is pretty equally balanced. If such a sentence as trans- 
 portation had followed a verdict of guilty, the "Juryman" adds, that 
 Belany would have been found guilty. From the Weekly Dispatch, 
 of September 1 5th. 
 
 BELANY. The burning of Belany's house is virtually another rebuff 
 to the Jury who acquitted him of the murder of his wife. We are 
 disposed to hope, that though the active individual, who persuaded his
 
 60 
 
 fellow-jurors to join him in that verdict, was imbued with the feeling 
 that the punishment of death ought not to be attached to the crime of 
 murder ; yet that the rest of the jury, subdued by his obstinacy, per- 
 suaded themselves to agree with him on a. different ground, namely, 
 that it was just possible the accused was innocent. It seems to be 
 understood, that when the Jury first retired, seven of that body were 
 of opinion that Belany was guilty. One of the minority was the 
 crotchetty theorist we have already alluded to, and by some talk against 
 the nature of the punishment, and by threatening to stick to his opin- 
 ion till the last extremity, he soon converted two of the seven. A Juror, 
 who was for a verdict of guilty, stretched himself on a bench, appa- 
 rently as firmly bent on maintaining his opinion as was the champion 
 for acquittal ; but, in fact, he was a man of better understanding, and 
 consented to re-argue all the points of the case, and ultimately the 
 verdict of not guilty was given, upon the principle that it was better 
 that a guilty man should escape than that an innocent man should be 
 hanged. 
 
 If this were the only ground of the decision, if they conscientiously 
 believed Belany was guiltless, nobody could have quarrelled with their 
 finding. If, on the other hand, they yielded to the obstinacy of one 
 man, who objected to the verdict of guilty, on grounds entirely 
 disconnected with the innocence or guilt of the prisoner, their conduct 
 was pusillanimous and disgusting. If they were swayed by any opin- 
 ions about the fitness of the punishment for the offence, they over- 
 stepped the limits of their office, and trespassed on the exclusive duty of 
 the legislature. They might have trespassed as legitimately on thn 
 office of the Judge, and if they had found Belany guilty, have senten- 
 ced him to be hanged instanter by the neck, or to be suspended by the 
 heels and cut in half. An open trespass on the office of the Judge 
 would have been soon rebuked, but the trespass on the functions of the 
 legislature is not the less reprehensible, because it may be committed 
 in secret. It is not reasonable that the public should be better satisfied 
 with the opinion of an Old Bailey Petty Jury of 12 men, 
 unskilled in legism, called together by chance, ignorant of the mat- 
 ters to be raised before them till the moment arrives, determining in 
 secret, and therefore individually irresponsible for their notions it is 
 not reasonable, we say, that the opinion of such a body should be pre- 
 ferred to the time sanctioned punishments, enacted with the tacit 
 approbation of the mass ot the people, and by the great councils of 
 the nation, containing above 1,000 individuals. 
 
 In affixing punishments to crime, the Parliament generally has the 
 advantage of the help of men who have some knowledge of the exper- 
 ience of other countries, and other ages upon the subject, and punish- 
 ments are ordinarily imposed or modified with mature consideration, 
 and in accordance with the spirit of the age. The duty of the Jury- 
 man is not to make laws or execute them. He is simply to determine 
 whether the individual has committed the fact, and with what intention? 
 If a Juryman, believing a man has committed a murder, upon his oath 
 declares him not guilty, commits a foul perjury, he becomes an abetter 
 of the murder, he holds out the hope of impunity to other murderers, 
 and he infamously contributes to bring Trial by Jury, the mainstay of 
 our liberties, into disrepute. From the Weekly Despatch of Sept. 29.
 
 RECINA V. BELANY. 
 
 THREE LETTERS 
 
 ADDRESSBD TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES. 
 
 $ir, The verdict of "Not Guilty," in the case 
 of Belany, supplies matter for serious reflection. 
 The respectability of the marts station in life, and, 
 if report speaks truth, the merited reputation of 
 his friends for respectability of character, natur- 
 ally create a first feeling of satisfaction ; but 
 when we calmly consider the pernicious tendency 
 of such a verdict, opposed as it is to common 
 sense, to all the inferences which plain men draw 
 from plain facts, it is impossible to forbear the 
 conclusion that our system of trial by jury, on which 
 we have long plumed ourselves, requires revi- 
 sion and reform. The case presen ted to the jury was 
 simply this, and, having been present all yesterday 
 and most of to-day, I write with the same advan- 
 tage of hearing the evidence and witnessing the 
 deportment of the witnesses that the jury them- 
 selves possessed ; and also with the same impartial- 
 ity, for lam neither connected with the prosecution 
 nor acquainted with any of the parties :^-Mrs. 
 Belany died from taking a dose of prussic acid ; 
 the poison was in her husband's hands five min- 
 utes be/ore she took it ; she must either have taken 
 it spontaneously, or he must have administered 
 it to her, for no third parly was present ; she dies 
 in 20 minutes, and her husband, though too agi- 
 tated and confused either to administer the reme- 
 dies which he ought to have known were proper, or 
 even to call for professional aid till prompted by 
 his landlady, was not so lost but that he was 
 able, with a presence of mind truly selfish, to invent 
 a falsehood within five minutes of her death, that 
 her malady was the same as her mottor's, a diseas- 
 ed heart, with the same selfishness and presence of 
 mind he endeavoured to precipitate her funeral, 
 and on the evening of the same day, and after nine 
 hours refiection,he despatched a letter to their com- 
 m on friends, not to comjnitmcafe her death, but
 
 to prepare them for it by a false representation, that 
 she was attended by two physicians, one of whom 
 declared that her heart was diseased ; the same 
 letter stating another falsehood, that symptoms of 
 premature labour had occurred. After 48 hours, 
 but not till after the case had excited alarm and 
 legal inquiry, he confesses that she died by poison, 
 which he had himself left within her reach, and 
 which she had taken by mistake. There are many 
 minor facts of large importance, but this is a 
 sufficient summary to warrant any reasonable man 
 in arriving at a verdict of guilty ; indeed the 
 bare supposition that any human being whose 
 olfactory nerves were not paralyzed could mistake 
 such an oderous liquid as prussic acid for spring 
 water, and drink it under that impression, is too 
 absurd for belief, and this was proved in evi- 
 dence. To this strong case no answer was given 
 or offered, except that the man was a careless man, 
 that the motice was involved in obscurity, that 
 the conduct was such as agitation might explain, 
 and that the conjugal intercourse was affectionate 
 and confiding. To the first and third grounds of 
 defence the reply is sufficiently obvious, that his 
 carelessness and agitation did not interfere with 
 his self possession to such a degree as to pre- 
 clude an immediate and ingenious adoption of 
 measures for establishing his innocence, though the 
 falsehood of the excuses which he invented on the 
 spur of the moment, as he alledges, has since been 
 established and confessed ; nor is it less just to 
 observe that a motive was proved m the intended ac- 
 quisition of property, and if law would have frus- 
 trated the intention, because the will of a woman 
 under coverture is inoperative, that does not rebut 
 the intention, and that where poisoning is medi- 
 tated it is essential to preserve the confidence of 
 the victim. Jf Uiere ever existed a case in which 
 circumstantial evidence amounted to every thing 
 but demonstration, it is this case. If evidence 
 actually amounts to demonstration jurymen are 
 superseded in their office, for the appeal to them
 
 3 
 
 is not made to pronounce a verdict in cases of ma- 
 thematical certainty, but to decide where facts 
 are doubted, and circumstances admit of dispute. 
 In this case, not a fact was doubted nor a cir- 
 cumstance disputed, excepting one. The only 
 issue presented to them was, whether she took the 
 poison by mistake, or whether it was administered 
 by design ; and all the evidence tended with 
 irresistable force to the latter conclusion. We are 
 compelled, under these circumstances, to ask, 
 and to ask in the imperative tone of a demand, 
 upon what grounds the Jury can justify their ver- 
 dict ? 
 
 A jurymen is bound by a double obligation, the 
 weight of which is too great for language to ex- 
 press, the obligation to God and the obligation 
 to his country. By his oath he adjures the help 
 of God and invokes upon himself a temporal and 
 an eternal curse if he returns a verdict which his 
 conscience tells him is against evidence ; and 
 though compared with this the second obligation 
 is but slight, yet it is the next in social importance, 
 that on his verdict the peace, the security, and 
 therefore the happiness of all his fellow-countrymen 
 are at stake. 
 
 It is absurd to mince the matter ; it is impossible 
 not to feel that the jury who have tried Belany 
 have set an example which cannot but damage 
 the confidence which we love to cherish in our fa- 
 voured system. At the end of last October a simi- 
 lar conduct was pursued in another most important 
 case, which was tried in the same court; I will not 
 particularize it further than to say that in that 
 case, as in the present, it was the general feel- 
 ing that respectability of station is a counterpoise 
 to evidence in the judgment of a metropolitan jury. 
 Let this belief gain ground, and trial by jury 
 is no longer the boast of freedom, but the badge of 
 servility, and mean obsequiousness to wealth and 
 rank. Let the country once be convinced of this, 
 and it will not be long before there will be a unan- 
 imous cry for a reform more dangerous in its
 
 character, yet not less necessary, than the most 
 radical innovation of modern days. 
 I am, Sir, yours obediently, 
 
 G.S. 
 
 TO I HE EDITOR OF THE TIMES. 
 
 Sir, I have read with much interest the letter of "G. S.," in your pa- 
 per of the 24th, and after a pretty familiar acquaintance with criminal 
 jurisprudence for 60 years past, I must say, that I entirely concur in, the 
 view taken by your correspondent of this matter. 
 
 But there is another point connected with it which I think deserves 
 further inquiry I mean the circumstances of Mrs. Skelly's death, 
 as to the cause of which, Belany, a medical man, and the only one appar- 
 ently attending that lady, has deliberately made two several statement?. 
 Is there then not enough to raise a doubt whether this death was occa- 
 sioned by either of these alledged means? By Mrs. Skelly's death, her 
 property was to descend on her newly married daughter, and therefore 
 might be an object of cupidity. 
 
 In a case so circumstanced, surely it is almost a duty to ascertain 
 by exhumation, if possible, the real cause of Mrs. Skelly's death. 
 That this may not be even too late, is proved by a case which occurred 
 in Sussex a few months ago, where a body which had been buried for a 
 much longer period was disinterred, and the stomach carried to the 
 Louden Hospital for a joint examination by a surgeon at Petworth ; 
 after which, a full inquiry before the coroner for West Sussex took place, 
 the means of testing being even at that late period found sufficient to 
 come to a conclusion as to the facts suggested. I am, Sir, yours, 
 
 August 27, 1844. INQUISITOR. 
 
 REGINA v. BELANY. We are requested by Mrs. Matilda Heppen- 
 stall to explain the statement of one of the witnesses in this case, 
 respecting the clothes of Mrs. Belany, which was said were deman- 
 ded by the person who laid her out. Mrs. Heppenstall says, the only 
 garment the deceased had on was a night-gown, which, " according to 
 the custom of England, " becomes the property of the person who 
 performs the last office for the dead, and that she only asked the ques- 
 tion if it was to be given. 
 
 The above letter calls for the serious attention of the Coroner and 
 other Authorities of the Northern Division of the County of Northum- 
 berland, to institute an immediate and searching inquiry into all the cir- 
 cumstances connected with the sudden death of the late Mrs. Skelly, 
 together with the concealment of the birth of a child born in 1843, 
 known on the trial of Belany, "as a miscarriage." The Public has a 
 right to expect a proper investigation, of all the facts connected with 
 both cases, and the matter rigourously sifted to the bottom, and the 
 real facts made known. P. G. 
 
 Reprinted from " The Times," of the 24th, 26th, and 29th, August, 
 1844.
 
 THE LATE TRIAL OF BELANY FOR THE 
 MURDER OF HIS WIFE. 
 
 (From the Medical Gazette.) 
 
 Amongst the eventful scenes annually witnessed in the Courts of the old 
 Bailey, we can call to mind few of a more painful character, and of 
 deeper interest, than the trial of J. C. Belany for the murder of his 
 wife, a young' and beautiful women, by administering to her prussic 
 acid, which occupied two entire days in the past week. 
 
 Our readers have no doubt perused, in the ordinary channels of infor- 
 mation, the details of this mysterious case the admirable address of 
 the Solicitor-General, who appeared for the prosecution the evidence 
 of the numerous witnesses the extraordinary letters the eloquent 
 appeal of Mr. Erie in behalf of the prisoner the summoning up of the 
 judge and the verdict of acquittal. Upon these it does not fall 
 within our province to comment ; but, in the exercise of our duty as editor 
 of a medical journal, we cannot pass unnoticed the evidence of the 
 medical witnesses, and its important bearing in supporting the heinous 
 charge laid to the count of the prisoner. 
 
 Medical men have not always appeared to advantage in courts of jus- 
 tice ; with the gradual improvement of education, however, they have 
 gone on improving, and the appearance they made on the trial of Belany 
 was to the last degree creditable to them ; nothing could be more 
 precise, nothing more free from prejudice or partisanship, than their 
 evidence : and this is precisely what it ought to be. The excellent 
 courses of lectures on medical jurisprudence, which are now an integral 
 part of our medical education, have doubtless contributed in no small 
 degree to this satisfactory result. 
 
 The chief points which the medical evidence went to establish were 
 
 1. The generally healthy state of the body of the deceased ; the ab- 
 sence of disease of the heart, to which the prisoner had falsely attributed 
 his wife's death ; and the real cause, poisoning by prussic acid. 
 
 2. The total neglect of any effectual means of restoring the deceased 
 after she was discovered labouring under tlve effects of the poison, and 
 the prospect of recovery had proper remedies been resorted to. 
 
 3. The probability that the poison was put in the way of, or adminis- 
 tered to, the deceased by the prisoner. 
 
 We have already, in a pievious number of this journal, borne brief 
 testimony to the discretion of Mr. Garratt, the surgeon who was first 
 called to the aid of Mrs. Belany, but arrived after her death, in causing 
 a coroner's inquiry to be instituted in this mysterious case. The 
 careful post mortem examination of the body made by him and Mr. 
 Curling, of the London Hospital, not only proved the absence of any 
 important disease, and brought to light the real cause of death, but 
 excited fears of this discovery in the wretched husbands' mind, which it 
 cannot be doubted led him to make a most important statement as to 
 the cause of his wife's decease, and the mode in which the poison was 
 taken. 
 
 It appeared by the evidence of the mistress of the lodging house, and 
 of her servant, that the unfortunate lady continued to breathe for more 
 than 20 minutes after swallowing the poison a period which would
 
 (5 
 
 have afforded adequate time for resorting to remedies to counteract its 
 deleterious effects. We hesitate not to declare our conviction from the 
 fact, that the quantity taken could not have been by any means an 
 overwhelming dose ; and we question whether a case ever occurred to 
 any medical man which offered a fairer chance of recovery, had pro- 
 per measures been promptly resorted to. 
 
 We entirely concur with Dr. A. T. Thompson, * " that if a person 
 lived 20 minutes after taking prussic acid the probability would be in 
 favour of recovery, if remedies were applied ; " and with Mr. Curling, 
 " that so long as the deceased breathed he should not have despaired 
 of recovering her. " Dr. Letheby stated, " 1 have since made experi- 
 ments with prussic acid I got from Mr. Donahoo ( the druggist of whom 
 Belany purchased the poison) upon animals, and restored them by the ap- 
 plication of ammonia and the effusion of cold water. By those means 
 I restored a cat in 10 minutes. I had given that cat between 10 and 
 20 drops. I also tried an experiment upon a horse, to which I admin- 
 istered prussic acid 12 times the strength of the two per cent acid, and 
 by the same means restored the horse, though it was lying upon the 
 ground in convulsions, and in the incipient stage of death. I continued 
 the remedies for about 20 minutes, and the horse was restored." 
 
 Now what were the means employed for the recovery of this poor 
 lady during this period, the 20 minutes before death ? Placing the hands 
 and feet in warm water, applying a mustard poultice to the stomach 
 and bathing the temples with vinegar ; and the prisoner said he 
 would bleed her, but she had no pulse. Adopting the favourable con- 
 clusion of the jury, our blood boils as we write, to think that a human 
 being was thus cruelly left to perish that life was allowed by the hus- 
 band slowly to ebb away when the means of saving his wife were so 
 readily at hand. Nothing could be more decisive than the evidence of 
 the medical witnesses on this point. They all bore testimony to the 
 efficacy of remedies the most easily obtained such as hartshorn, cold 
 affusion, and artificial respiration; and to the utter inutility of the inert 
 means resorted to. As Mr. Curling well remarked, " none but energetic 
 stimulants could be of any service in counteracting the effects of so 
 powerful a poison." And yet the miserable wretch, the prisoner, stood 
 by with a lancet in his hand, prepared, as it appeared, by blood-letting 
 to guard against the possibility of the unfortunate women's recovery. 
 When asked by the mistress of the house whether he would not " send 
 for a doctor," he replied that he himself was one. 
 
 The unhappy wretch is a thousand times more blameable, setting 
 aside all idea of criminal purpose on his part for the moment, than 
 John Garland, who eviscerated Mrs. Dent, by pulling 1 9 feet of her 
 bowels out of her belly into a heap under the bed clothes. He was a 
 " doctor" forsooth ! He, the inhuman brute, stood coolly by, look- 
 ing on at the death agony of his young wife, with his own flesh 
 and blood, in the shape of a child several months old. under her heart, 
 and only suffered assistance to be brought when it could be of no 
 avail ! If Garland were prosecuted and convicted of mal- practice, and 
 punished for his ignorance, why is not Belany proceeded against on a 
 similar ground ? 
 
 * The Times' 1 report.
 
 Belany is another instance of a man practising medicine without atf* 
 equate education, and of the advantages that the public would be 
 likely to derive from the profession of physic being thrown open to 
 all and sundry who had but effrontery and dishonesty enough to set 
 themselves up as practitioners. No one who has gone through the 
 course of study now required of medical men, and who has solemnly 
 been charged with the responsible duties of the practitioner, could by 
 possibility be found to behave as this man did. 
 
 Before commenting on that part of the medical evidence which tend- 
 ed to show the probability that the poison was put in the way of, or 
 administered to, the deceased by Belany, it is necessary to remind our 
 readers that the prisoner, in the communication to Mr. Garratt, made 
 after the discovery of the cause of his wife's death, stated " on the pre- 
 vious Saturday morning he was about to take some prussic acid, which 
 he was in the habit of taking for an affection of the stomach, and was 
 endeavouring to remove the stopper from the bottle ; and as he had 
 some difficulty, he used some degree of violence to it with the handle of 
 a tooth brush, and the consequence was the breaking of the neck of the 
 bottle. Some of the acid was spilt, the remainder he put into a tumbler, 
 and placed on the drawers at the end of the bedroom." The prisoner then 
 said, "I went into the front room for the purpose of getting a bottle 
 wherein to place the acid. Instead of doing so, I began to write 
 some letters to my friends in the country. I had been there but a few 
 minutes when I heard a scream from the bedroom. I immediately went 
 in. My wife exclaimed, 'O dear ! I have taken some of that hot drink; 
 give me some water, some cold water.' "She immediately became 
 convulsed." It also appeared that the prisoner stated, that, "when he 
 entered the bedroom his wife told him what had occurred, and that he 
 took the tumbler from which she had drunk the poison out of her hand." 
 We shall now extract from Dr. Letheby's evidence that part where 
 he says " I have made numerous experiments with prussic acid 
 upon the lower animals. The first effect which the administration of 
 prussic acid produces upon the lower animals is the appearance of 
 a peculiar giddiness, of a disposition to run round, as if the head was 
 effected ; then the respiration becomes irregular ; subsequently there 
 is a scream. Perhaps before that scream is uttered the animal drops, at 
 the same moment, after two or three violent respiratory efforts, which 
 produce a cry, a shriek, or a scream ; convulsions follow, with foaming 
 at the mouth ; and in a longer or shorter time, according to the quan- 
 tity of the acid administered, death ensues. I have not had the oppor- 
 tunity of seeing its effect on the human subject. After the shriek or 
 scream, all sensibility and volition ceases. In my judgment, a person 
 after giving that shriek would not be able to walk or converse." 
 
 Dr. Thompson, who was the next witness examined, remarked 
 "The effects of taking it are those which have been so clearly explained 
 by the last witness ; giddiness, faintness, convulsions, resembling those 
 of tetanus or lock jaw, and screaming. When the symptoms have 
 advanced to a scream, the powers of volition are gone. After the 
 scream it would be impossible for a party to talk, so as to describe what 
 had happened." 
 
 The evidence which we have just adduced, founded chiefly upon ex- 
 periments made on the lower animals, could not tajJ to make a stronger
 
 8 
 
 impression on the minds of professional men than those of persons un- 
 acquainted with medicine and the action of poisons. To us, well 
 initiated in these subjects, the prisoner's statements appear wholly un- 
 satisfactory and improbable; but we were not surprised at the Judge, after 
 pointedly inquiring of the medical men examined, whether they had 
 ever witnessed a case of poisoning by prussic acid, and receiving a 
 negative reply from each of them, observing to the jury " The 
 medical men has told the jury, that with the scream I hat was 
 spoken of all volition and power of speech would cease ; but then it 
 must not be forgotten that the judgment of these gentlemen must be 
 tempered with this caution, that none of them had ever witnessed the 
 effects of prussic acid on the human body'' a hint sufficient to impair 
 in no slight degree the weight of evidence, which we have reason to 
 believe was not given without the most anxious and careful consideration 
 of the subject. 
 
 In further proof of the improbability of tbe prisoner's statement, 
 was adduced the striking circumstance, that the landlady and servant 
 who entered the small room in which the deceased lay, detected no pe- 
 culiar smell, although, if his account be true, some acid was poured 
 into a tumbler, and left for a few minutes in the room. Dr. Thompson 
 stated, "the smell of prussic acid is very peculiar. If any be 
 spilled in a room, the odour remains a considerable time, unless there is 
 much movement in the air of the room. If it were in a. tum- 
 bler the odour would be strong if it were lifted to the top, the odour 
 would be perceived." We have tried the experiment ; we have 
 poured a small quantity of the acid (Scheele's preparation) into a tum- 
 bler, and after leaving it for five minutes in a small room, have entered 
 the chamber, and we could scarcely believe it possible that any one pos- 
 sessing the ordinary sense of smell could fail to notice the remarkable 
 odour pervading the apartment. We think, then, the absence of all 
 odour of the acid strongly corrobative of the other points which impugn 
 the truth of the prisoner's statement. Had the poison been mixed with 
 a solution of Epsom salts in the adjoining room, carried into the 
 bedroom, and immediately swallowed by the deceased lady, scarcely any 
 smell would have arisen. 
 
 There is one point in Dr. Letheby's evidence, which, we think 
 was either not rightly understood, or not quite nghlly used. In his 
 cross-examination by Mr. Erie, he states, " Prussic acid is one of the 
 easiest to detect after death." Now, whilst we admit that this is the 
 case immediately after death, we know that prussic acid evaporates so 
 quickly, and so readily suffers decomposition, that we much doubt 
 whether it could be detected in the stomach, even at the end of a few 
 days after death. At any rate, arsenick, the mineral acids, and many 
 other poisons, if not more easy of detection than prussic acid, are yet 
 more permanent, and to be detected after a much longer period. Dr. 
 Letheby probably did not perceive the bearing of the question put to 
 him, and therefore did not answer it in a way that was calculated to 
 elicit the truth. His reply, at all events, was made a point of by the 
 judge, who in his charge certainly omitted no circumstance which 
 could tell in favour of the prisoner ; but desired the attention of the 
 jury to it particularly, as it was unlikely that a medical man, cointem- 
 plating the circumstance of murder, would have selected for his purpose
 
 9 
 
 "one of the poisons most easy of detection." We think that he 
 who has knowledge of poisons would select that which he knows to be 
 most speedy and most certain in its operation ; which produces sud- 
 den death, and whose effects to ignorant bystanders would look like what 
 they conceived to be "a stroke," or a disease of the heart, when 
 told so, that disease being rendered the more likely by family predispo- 
 sition : a momentary struggle, and six feet of cold earth to make all 
 snug, would be the prisoner's maxim ; and prussic acid, backed by the 
 Eastern Cemetery, are the precise elements required. Baron Gurney 
 was certainly wrong in this inference. Had he been a medical man, he 
 would have used the very point which he made a principal means of 
 saving the prisoner at the bar as one of the principal and most powerful 
 means of condemning him. 
 
 We have now adduced the chief part of the medical evidence for the 
 prosecution, which tended to inculpate the prisoner, and we leave it 
 without further comment. We have no space to analyze the other 
 important evidence and numerous facts adduced at the trial, which in- 
 fluenced the jury in the decision to which they arrived. Although the 
 indictment was not sustained, we believe that this prosecution, which 
 we feel bound to say was most fairly and impartially conducted, canuot 
 fail to promote the ends of public justice : a person was destroyed 
 by a subtle poison ; a studied attempt was made to conceal the cause 
 of death; that attempt was defeated, and the cause revealed by the 
 searching inquiries of skilful medical men. In fine, we say, let the 
 community see to it, that they secure themselves in the presence of well 
 educated practitioners of medicine. 
 
 BELANY'S CASE, FROM THE EXAMINER. 
 
 We cannot pretend to have been in the slightest degree surprised at 
 the acquittal of Belany. As we have before observed, the more atro- 
 cious the nature of a case, the stronger is the probability of the mis- 
 carriage of justice, either through the overstraining scruples or morbid 
 sympathies of juries, or the abuse of the clemency of the crown. It 
 matters not by what strength of evidence a charge of the blackest guilt 
 is supported, the chances are that through the one or the other of the 
 perversities to which we have alluded, the prisoner will escape. There 
 was a time when the opposite error prevailed, and when the heineous- 
 ness of a charge created a prejudice against the accused, inducing a 
 conviction without sufficient evidence. 
 
 In Belany's case there was another circumstance in his favour. He 
 belonged to the class of the respectable, which juries are very apt to 
 regard as impeccable. Had he been either higher up or lower down 
 in the world his chance would have been worse ; his place was in the 
 golden mean of the middle, nearest to thr^ station of the persons gen- 
 erally composing the panel, and in which jurors are disposed to be in- 
 credulous about the existence of any motives not within their own 
 experience. If the decencies have been observed, little weight is 
 attached to the proofs of guilt. It seems never to occur to these indul- 
 gent juries that such a character as a hypocrite can be in the dock before 
 them, and Tartuffe himself would be sure of an honourable acquittal,
 
 10 
 
 the Judge la) ing great .-uc..-> on the excellent te=tuuomal as to hie and 
 habits. 
 
 Mr. Belany appears to have fully appreciated the u*e= to be made of 
 character. When his unfortunate wife had swallowed the poison, he 
 had not presence of mind to think of the proper remedies, which, 
 promptly applied, might have saved her, but in his own case he was 
 more mindful of what was necessary to his safety 
 
 " Do, my dear sir, for heaven's sake, lose not a moment, and come 
 tip. I will pay all. and get a few of my friends, who know me and 
 my dear Rachel's habits of life and mine ; as, for my want of proper 
 proceeding, nothing else than bringing my friends who really know 
 ns forward, with all despatch, will relieve me from difficulties, if not 
 infamy. ! for heaven's sake move heaven and earth to my cause. 
 Go to Mr. Tater, and Dommy, and all you can think of 'Richard 
 Hall and Mr Simpson, and get them to do what you think requisite to 
 establish amongst the strangers here my character, It would be well, 1 
 think, for all to come up. / shall j)ay all expenses ; for Robertson 
 and Hunt will do all they can, I know. Go to Mrs. Stobbs, and let 
 her know what has happened. There has been a difference existing 
 betuxen RacheVs family and hers ; but as she is the only memorial 
 left of my dear wife, it shall be overlooked by me. Give her my love 
 and tell her this. I think I should like to see her here. Get me Mr Tew- 
 art's address in London, if possible. He can say something for me, 
 and I know will do all he can get and send it immediately, my 
 dear fellow, fr rite or show this to Thomas Dickson, and send also 
 to Mr. Smedler. Now, 0, Embleton, lose not a moment in going 
 immediately to these friends, and immediately come off by railway." 
 
 If Mr Belany had but been as alert and prompt to save his wife's 
 life as his own neck, there cannot be a doubt that the catastrophe would 
 have been averted. Had he thought of the remedies, which as a med- 
 ical man he could not have been ignorant of, or had he even lost not a 
 moment's time (as he recommended to his friend for the measures 
 for his own defence") in obtaining mediwil assistance, his wife's life might 
 have been saved. Several medical witnesses stated that by the prompt 
 use of stimulants, the poison might have been counteracted, and that the 
 treatment resorted to, simply putting the feet in hot water and applying 
 a mustard cataplasm to the stomach, was utterly unsuited to the case, and 
 inoperative. 
 
 But in taking care of himself Mr Belany evinced more alacrity and 
 judgment. He fixed on the right thing at once character respecta- 
 ^bility vouchers for loving habits. He gave way to none of the despair 
 about himself to which he so immediately and helplessly yielded in the 
 case of his wife, but prudently, promptly, and vigourously, took the 
 right steps to accomplish his deliverance. 
 
 If he had but thought of stimulants for hi? wife as he thought of 
 friends to vouch for himself, all would have been well. 
 
 We can hardly understand how a person knowing the proper remedies 
 for an urgent case, can neglect their application, or suffer utterly ineffec- 
 tual ones to be substituted. If we see our fire dying out, we call 
 for wood, and don't suffer non-combustibles to be thrust upon it. To a 
 
 medical man recourse to the known agents for counteracting a poison 
 
 r Belany permitted time to be lost 
 
 is like an instinct, but nevertheless Mr
 
 11 
 
 in bathing the feet and poulticing the stomach. Yet when he was beg- 
 ged to send for a medical man, his answer was that he himself was a 
 medical man ; but nevertheless he did not bethink himself of the med- 
 ical knowledge and practice suited to the occasion. He did not draw on 
 any of his skill to save his wife, but when the object of his care was 
 changed, and the business was to save himself, his letters show how 
 earnestly and judiciously he could take his measures. 
 
 If he had at once given up himself as he gave up his wife if, as ho 
 had said of her that ll she would not come through," he had aban- 
 doned himself in the same prompt way, and omitted to procure the 
 evidence as to character and habits it is to be apprehended that the 
 result of his trial would not have been so fortunate. 
 
 The summing of the Judge is as extraordinary as every other part of 
 this trial. 
 
 Mr Baron Gurney informed the jury that prussic acid was "a poison 
 most certain, fatal, and speedy, in its effects'"; and this after having 
 heard the evidence of several medical men, showing that the poison 
 was not necessarily certain and fatal, foi that by the timely use of well- 
 known remedies its action could have been arrested and overcome ! 
 
 It is singular too that the Judge did not advert at all to the prisoner's 
 neglect of the remedies, of which as a medical man, he must have had 
 knowledge, It could not have been that he had forgotten his business, 
 for when urged to send for advice he had such confidence m himself 
 as to reply that he was a medical man. 
 
 Two days before Mrs. Belany died of the poison her tender husband 
 wrote a lying letter to a friend, representing his wife as attended by two 
 medical men ; and on the 8th, when she was actually lying dead, be 
 posted a letter containing this monstrous and unnatural lie 
 
 London, JuneS. 
 
 " Dear Mr Bell, I have little else to write to the north about at 
 present than to give you (who, I know, are all interested in it) a very 
 unhappy account of Rachel's state. I have had her removed from the 
 hotel to private lodgings, where, with two medical attendants, she re- 
 mains dangerously ill. Symptoms of premature labour came on a few 
 days ago; but, what is still worse, one of the medical men pronounces the 
 heart to be diseased. Of this I have had some dread myself. This 
 will alter my plans greatly ; but, if she be spared, that will be every- 
 thing. Hoping you are well, I must, in haste, conclude. Yours 
 sincerely, 
 
 "J. C. Belany." 
 
 Upon this the Judge mincingly observed 
 
 " He (Mr Baron Gurney) could not conceive the motive whtcK' 
 should have induced the prisoner, on the very day when his wife was 
 well and cheerful, to write so complete a fabrication from beginning 
 to end. These were the only two letters which had unquestionably been 
 written before the event. The next letter, however, was dated the 
 8th, and was proved to have been posted on the evening of that 
 day. When it was written did not appear ; if it was written before 
 the death, it told against the prisoner. It concurred with the letter 
 written on Thursday, and practised the same deception as the two 
 medical men upon those to whom it was addressed. The defence 
 was, that the prisoner had been guilty of a lamentable indiscretion
 
 12 
 
 a sudden event, fatal to his wife, had happened that he was overpow- 
 ered and overwhelmed by the result of his own act of carelessness, and, 
 therefore, he did not divulge the truth. The only awkward part, 
 however, was. that he, in his last letters, had pursued exactly the same 
 system as he had adopted in the letters written two days before.' 1 ' 
 
 And this is called " the only awkward part" the forelaid train of 
 deception preparing for the death "an awkward part v ! Such awkward 
 parts have before now led to a most awkward fall from the new drop of 
 the Old Bailey. 
 
 If Mrs Belany had not taken Ihe prussic acid on the 8th, to what 
 purpose or for what conceivable end or object could Mr Belany have 
 written to Mr Bell on the 6th the lie that his wife was ill and attended by 
 two medical men ? Are we to believe that he wrote falsehoods for his 
 amusement, or for the mere love of lying ? 
 
 He wrote lies about his wife before her death ; he wrote lies about 
 her after her death ; he told lies about the cause of her death and her 
 mother's death after the catastrophe; but the jury had some instinct, 
 unshared in and unknown to the public, enabling them to ascertain 
 where he began to tell the truth. 
 
 His plea was that he had recourse to falsehood to cover the shame of 
 his fatal negligence ; but his falsehood commenced, as we have seen, 
 before that dale by two days. The question not to be got over is, 
 Why was this 9 Hundreds have suffered from a fact of less 
 significance. 
 
 Much stress was laid on the prisoner's kindness to his wife ; and that 
 he was fully aware of the value of that habit in the event that occurred, 
 appears in his prompt requisition of the evidence in proof of it. But 
 if there be a systematic design to take a life, the simulation of kindness 
 becomes a necessary part of the scheme. Donelly was all indulgence to 
 his pupil, Sir Theodosius Boughton, whom he poisoned with prussic 
 acid, the first known occasion of its use. The wretch Brinvilliers nursed 
 with seeming filial piety her father, whom she had poisoned, watching 
 the torments she had caused with every show of fond solicitude. 
 
 Whether an apparent affection has been sincere or not must be 
 judged of by other facts and ciicumstances. 
 
 Was it the part of an affectionate husband to give up all hope im- 
 mediately ? with the coarse, careless remark, that "she would not come 
 through " ! Was it the part of an affectionate husband, to neglect 
 the fitting remedies? Was it the part of an affectionate hutband, if he 
 did not know what to do, not at once to call in another who might 
 apply the necessary remedies ? 
 
 Then as to the concealment of the cause of death, is it not the habit 
 of affection to exaggerate blame ? Does it allow of a care for self? 
 Does it not, on the contrary, indulge in self-reproach, and in assigning 
 far more blame than is due ? 
 
 Mr Belany was not, indeed, at last wanting in self-reproach mixed 
 up with quite as much care of self; but his self-reproach did not gush 
 out till the discovery of the cause of his wife's' death was inevitable, and 
 but for the inquest he miirht perhaps have permitted it to be believed 
 that his bdoved Rachel had died of the feigned disease of the heart, 
 keeping the blame for his negligence snugly locked in his own breast. 
 
 The letter announcing the death, before the discovery of the cause,
 
 13 
 
 is singularly cold and dry, and much more full of business than of sor- 
 row. Few people could announce the death of a pet animal with less 
 expression of concern. 
 
 London, June 9. 
 
 " Dear Mr Bell, The worst that could be dreaded has come to 
 pass. Rachel is no more. You shall know all. Put the men off 
 work at the new house. As such could not be done at the quarry 
 and lime-works without great inconvenience to the partner ship, I shall 
 not desire the same there. 1 am hardly able to sit up ; but hope to 
 be able to write to-morrow more particulars. As her death has 
 occurred chiefly amongst strangers, and so suddenly, an inquest 
 and post mortem examination will be held. This has been mentioned 
 to me. Of course I do not object to it. Yours sincerely, 
 
 "J. C. Belany." 
 
 In the next letter, when he had to take care of himself and prepare 
 a defence, he was more profuse in his expressions of grief.* 
 
 As Mr Belany, by his own account, was in the other room, how did 
 he know all those circumstances which he so minutely narrates : that 
 his wife had got out of bed, first for one purpose, and next to take 
 some salts that she wanted to drink some water after the salts, and, 
 supposing the glass containing the poison to be empty, poured water 
 into it and swallowed it? By what wondrous means could he have 
 learnt all this ? He did not see it, for if he had he could have 
 prevented the mischief. He could not have been told it, for the poor 
 lady only exclaimed that she drank the poison according to his own 
 statement. What, then, is the authority for the statement so wonder- 
 fully exact and circumstantial ? Does it rest on the same foundation 
 as the announcement, on the 6th, that the lady was ill and attended by 
 two medi cal men ? 
 
 FROM THE GATESHEAD OBSERVER. 
 
 JAMES COCKBURN BELANY. This unhappy man unhappy whether 
 innocent or guilty left London on the morning of the 23d inst. 
 the day following his trial and acquittal), and passed through Gates- 
 head in the evening, on his way to North Sunderland. His return home, 
 as well as that of some of the witnesses who appeared in his favour on 
 the trial, (according to a letter dated the 28th instant, giving an account 
 of his arrival,) has been the reverse of welcome. One party (Mr. Hall,^) 
 it is said, was stoned from the village half way down to the Sea Houses 
 (where he resides); and on Wednesday an effigy was elevated on a pole, 
 and, after being paraded for some time round the neighbourhood, it was 
 set fire to in the presence and amidst the shoutings, of some hundreds 
 of the population, in front of Belany's house, on the road to Bamburgh. 
 It was afterwards thrown, half consumed, into a park or garden 
 adjoining his residence, the people concluding their "labour of love" with 
 a tremendous hurrah. A letter which appeared in the Times newspaper 
 of Saturday last, signed G. S., strongly condemnatory of the jury who 
 tried and acquitted Belany, has also been reprinted at Alnwick, and 
 extensively circulated. The excitement in the locality of North 
 
 *See letter produced on the Trial, dated "London, June, 1844."
 
 14 
 
 Sunderland, where Belany and bis unfortunate and much respected wife 
 were so well known, and where her friends mostly reside, is described 
 by a correspondent as being still very great. 
 
 FROM THE TYNE MERCURY. 
 
 We know of no similar case which has created such a sensation in 
 the public mind, as that of the trial and acquittal of Mr. Belany, for 
 the murder of his wife, the particulars of which we gave in our last 
 week's paper. Since that time, several articles have appeared in the 
 papers, remarking, with more or less seventy, on the conduct of the 
 individual who has been acquitted, and that of the jury, who, to the 
 astonishment of the public, gave so unexpected and extraordinary A 
 decision. Immediately after the trial, Mr. Belany, accompanied U a 
 friend belonging to Newcastle, set offfroru London for North Sunderland 
 where they arrived early on the Saturday morning after the trial, and at 
 which place Belany, with several friends, has been living since. During 
 the week, in addition to the particulars stated in the other papers, there 
 have been various exhibitions of the disgust the inhabitants entertain of 
 his witnesses, who gave evidence directly contrary to what theirfriends 
 and neighbours anticipated ; from the fact of Belany bearing a very 
 different character from that elicited at the trial. The effiges of Belany 
 and his friend were again burnt on Saturday evening, and the hooting, 
 hissing, and other marks of disapprobation sufficiently indicate the feeling 
 of those who are well acquainted with this individual's behaviour to 
 his respected and amiable wife, and the degree of confidence they attach 
 to the evidence of the witnesses and the decision of the metripolitan jury. 
 The Rev. R. Belany arrived at North Sunderland on Saturday last, 
 when he would witness the auto-da-fe of his brother and friends. The 
 letters of "G. S." and "Inquisitor," in the Tiw., have been reprinted 
 in Alnwick, and extensively circulated, with a few remarks addressed 
 to the coroner and authorities, requesting them '-to institute an immedi- 
 and searching inquiry into all the circumstances connected with the 
 sudden death of Mrs. Skelley," in order to ascertain whether either 
 of the causes alledged by Belany "a disease of the heart" (a 
 family disease, too !) or "bilious fever" to have been the occasion of 
 death, was really the true one. The public also seem "desirous of 
 knowing something about the "miscarriage" in 1843, and what became 
 of the child, &c., in order that the real facts of both cases may be 
 properly and fully investigated. 
 
 FROM THE BRITTANIA. 
 
 The trial of Mr. Belany at the Old Bailey, which terminated on 
 Thursday, will take its place among the most celebrated of the English 
 Causes Celebres. The mind is baffled in endeavouring to fathom the 
 intricacies of this singular case, and to reconcile the contradictions with 
 which it abounds. As an innocent man, the prisoner was one of the 
 most unfortunate that ever stood at the bar. 
 
 Do the annals of accidental coincidence furnish one instance so 
 striking as this ? The letters of the prisoner to his friends in the 
 country had, whatever the intention with which they were written,
 
 lo 
 
 JB 
 
 the effect of preparing their minds lor the speedy death of his wife, 
 though she was then in good health. On the day those letters were 
 despatched he procured prussic acid from a druggist, and, contrary to 
 all ex|>ectation or probability, the unfortunate deceased swallowed some 
 of the deadly druij, which caused her death, almost at the very time 
 that her friends must have expected to hear of it from the fictitious re- 
 presentations of the prisoner. 
 
 A circumstance so unprecedented was calculated to raise strong 
 suspicion ; yet not a particle of evidence could be adduced to show 
 that the prisoner had ever had one unkind word with his wife, or had 
 ever lived with her on other than the most affectionate terms. She was 
 gentle and kind in disposition, beautiful in person, and fascinating in 
 her manner. He had nothing to gain by the unfortunate lady's death ; 
 and it was a circumstance strongly in his favour that he had always 
 been careless in leaving his medicines about, even when engaged in 
 practice as a surgeon. 
 
 The defence of Mr Erie was eminently skilful. He judiciously 
 avoided all appeals to the passions, so unsuited to a court of justice 
 directed all his arguments to influencing the jury and analyzed the 
 evidence in a searching manner, bringing out every point favourable to 
 his client. The verdict was properly one of acquittal. 
 
 We have but one word to add on the closing direction of our judges, 
 which was, in this case, delivered with marked emphasis by Mr Baron 
 Gurney that the prisoner is entitled to whatever doubt may rest upon 
 the minds of the jury. "You will bear in remembrance, gentlemen," 
 said the learned judge, "that it is better that nine guilty men should 
 escape than that one innocent man should suffer." This is a maxim 
 worthy a Christian nation ; for though, fully acknowledging the lawful 
 power of human tribunals to determine guilt and adjudge its sentence, 
 and recognising the sanction given to them [by divine authority and 
 natural reason, we yet cannot forget that there is one Tribunal higher 
 still, which penetrates every disguise, and from whose awful power 
 the man of blood can no more escape than Cain could flee from the 
 brand placed upon his forehead. In cases of doubt and perplexity 
 a jury properly consigns to Providence the office of judgment, for 
 which their fallible understandings are unequal ; satisfied that should 
 even this most hateful of criminals occasionly escape, an eye is upon 
 him from whose sight he can never wander, and a punishment appor- 
 tioned him from which he will vainly hope to escape. 
 
 FROM THE NEWCASTLE ADVERTISER. 
 
 On the news arriving at North Sunderland of the acquittal of Mr 
 Belany, the figure of a man elevated on a pole was paraded through 
 the village and round the Sea Houses, in every lane and place, and 
 finally set fire to in the presence of some hundreds of spectators in 
 front of Mr Belany's house, amidst the shout and yells of nearly all 
 the population of the two places. After the figure had blazed about 
 fifteen minutes it was thrown over the wall into the park in front of 
 the house. The witnesses upon the trial were received with the most 
 marked disapprobation upon their return to North Sunderland. One 
 of them was literally stoned from the town half way down to the Sea
 
 16 
 
 . 
 
 Houses where he resides. The Globe says : Within one hour from 
 the time Mr Belany quitted the dock of the Old Bailey, he proposed to 
 a Gentlemen from the north to accompany him to a wine merchant's 
 in Regent Street, to select a dozen of champagne to regale his friends 
 on his arrival at North Sunderland, for which place he proposed start- 
 ing the same evening by the mail train. 
 
 FROM THE AGE. 
 
 Nothing can be more fatal to the peace and security of society, and 
 the happiness and welfare of communities, than that fatal and per- 
 nicious system of meddlesome and unnecessary legislation by which old 
 laws are abrogated, usages altered, customs changed, and by which, 
 instead of respect and confidence in the institutions of a country, 
 contempt is engendered and hatred kindled. 
 
 In the recent trial of J. C. Belany for the alledsed most wicked, 
 cold-blooded, and deliberate murder that ever stained the annals of crime, 
 the learned judge, in his address to the jury, favoured them with the 
 following observations : 
 
 In this case falsehood had been much exhibited. It was shown 
 before the death in the statement about the two medical men ; that 
 falsehood was followed by its repetition in the second letter ; another 
 falsehood appeared in the representation that the mother-in-law, who 
 had died of bilious fever, as appeared by an entry in the register, 
 under his own hand, was represented by him to have died of 
 disease of the heart. If the jury, however, thought the case conclu- 
 sive, however painful it might be, it would be their duty to pronounce 
 the prisoner guilty. If they thought the case left in doubt and 
 mystery, so that they could not safely proceed, they would remember 
 that it was better that many guilty men should escape than that ONE 
 innocent man should perish. 
 
 No man ever had such a reason to rejoice at the merciful construc- 
 of a jury, or the humane suggestion of a judge, as this man Belany. 
 We will venture to affirm that not one individual in five thousand, after 
 reading the evidence adduced in support of the charge, could have 
 anticipated a verdict of acquittal. 
 
 W hat were the facts ? 1. A subtle and evident preparation to 
 prepare the minds of his wife's relatives for the news of her death, 
 2. The absence of any vigorous effort to restore her, after the 
 poison had been taken, although she survived twenty minutes. 3. The 
 improbability of a poison having so strong an odour being mistaken for 
 clear water, and that her husband was in the habit of taking it. 4. 
 The brutality of not sending for medical aid until urged by the land- 
 lady of the house to do so. 5. The ready lie that was at hand, within 
 five minutes of her death, that she had died from a disease of the 
 heart ; fortified by another, that it is the same malady that had destroyed 
 her mother. 6. The indecent precipitation for her funeral, and the 
 despatch of another letter on the day of her death to his friends to 
 state that she had miscarried, and was attended by two physicians who 
 declared that her heart was diseased. 7. And above all, his studious 
 omission to say any thing of the poison, until he was aware that a post 
 mortem examination was to take place, and that the contents of the
 
 17 
 
 stomach would be analyzed. Lastly, the utter impossibilty of her going 
 to the drawer?, swallowing the poison, walking back to the bed, and 
 then narrating to her husband what s?he had done, and the mistake she 
 had made. 
 
 These are the facts, the solemn, thrilling, startling, undeniable 
 facts ; and these facts are totally opposed to, and inconsistent with, 
 innocence. 
 
 Well, then, (to recur to the position we advanced at the commence- 
 ment of these remarks.) meddlesome and unnecessary legislation has 
 interposed, and removed that remedy which, in a case- like this, for- 
 merly existed. The desire to avoid branding an individual with the 
 horrid crime of murder the feeling that many guilty men should 
 escape rather than that one innocent man should perish the impres- 
 sion made by testimonials of character to give an accused person the 
 benefit of a doubt induced our ancestors, in the atrocious crime of 
 murder, to authorize and legalize a second trial of the culprit. This 
 trial, however, being disfigured by the barbarous adjunct of the wager 
 by battle, led to its jinal abrogation, after Mr Chitty had availed 
 himself of its sanction, in the memorable case of the horrid murder 
 of Mary Ashford by Abraham Thornfon. 
 
 Previous to the repeal (f that enactment, many individuals that 
 had on a first trial been pronounced "' not guilty " of murder, were 
 tried a second time, condemned, and executed ; and surely if there 
 ever existed a case in which a revision of a verdict was a matter es- 
 sential to the feelings of the community to the peace, sanctity, secu- 
 rity, and confidence of social and domestic life to the repression 
 of a foul spirit of murder by one of the most ingenious and subtle 
 instruments in the hands of professional men, it is in the recent case 
 of Bel any. 
 
 The evidence which consigned Donellan to the scaffold for the 
 poisoning of Theodosious Boughton, Eliza Penning for admini^ter- 
 ing arsenic to the family of Turner, and Dr. Castaing for the ex- 
 hibition of morphine, was weak, insignificant, and scanty, compared 
 to this. 
 
 It is an awful subject to contemplate or approach ; but anyth'ng 
 that attends to shake confidence in trial by jury, the palladium of our 
 rights and liberties, should be noticed by the press, in order to its 
 more serious and proper notice to the public. 
 
 If a verdict is to be given according to the evidence, then without 
 doubt the British nation will condemn, universally and equivocally, 
 the recent verdict in the case of surgeon J. C. Belany. charged with 
 administering prussic acid to a young, beautiful, and virtuous wife, 
 which eventuated in her death, after a lapse of twenty minutes from 
 its being taken, without an effort being made to arrest its progress 
 or to neutralize its effects. 
 
 There was an attempt made last session to introduce a bill, having 
 for its object an appeal in criminal cases against a verdict of ''guilty,' 1 '' 
 and why not conclude in that bill an appeal against a manifestly 
 improper verdict of ' not guilty?" 
 
 Belany. Almo-t immediately after the trial, Belany proposed to one 
 of his witnesses, to go to a respectable wine merchant in the Cily, 
 C
 
 18 
 
 to choose some splendid Champaigne (o regale his friends in the north, 
 with, after his arrival in North Sutherland, his friend politely declined 
 his invitation ^ From the World." 
 
 Belany. Who was tried at the Old Bailey Sessions for the murder 
 of his wife. Left London on the following morning, after his acquittal 
 for the north, when he arrived in Newcastle, on the same night. 
 about 10 o'clock. One of his witnesses on his trial accompanied him. 
 They left Newcastle the same night, by the Magnet, they took 
 seats to North Charlton 6 miles north of Alnwick, where they arrived 
 about 2 o'clock in the morning, they proceeded to North Sunderland. 
 on foot, which is about 8 miles from the latter place. 
 
 NEWCASTLE COURANT. 
 
 Mr Belany. This individual, who, at the end of the second day'* 
 trial on a charge of poisoning his wife, was by the verdict of "Not 
 guilty" being brought in by the jury, liberated on Thursday, and 
 left London on Friday morning for the north. He passed through 
 this town the same evening, on his way to North Sunderland. His 
 return home, a? well as that of some of the witnesses who appeared 
 in his favour on the trial, according to a letter dated 28th ins-taut, 
 giving an account of his arrival, has been the reverse of welcome. One 
 party, it is said, was stoned from the village, and on W'ednesdtsy an 
 effigy was elevated on a pole, and, after being paraded for some time 
 round the neighbourhood, it was set fire to in the presence, and. amidst 
 the shoutings, of some hundreds of the population. A letter which ap- 
 peared in the Times newspaper of Saturday last, signed G. S., strongly 
 condemnatory of the jury who tried uid acquitted Belany, having been 
 reprinted at Alnwick, and extensively circulated. The excitement in 
 the locality of North Sunderland, where Belany and his unfortunate and 
 much respected wife were so well known, and where her friends mostly 
 reside, is described by a correspondent as being very great. 
 
 THE G. S. LETTER. 
 
 " G. S. Supposed to be Sir GEORGE STEPHEN, at whose instance 
 Pedro de Zulueta, an eminent London Merchant, was tried at the 
 Central Criminal Court, on the 26th, 27th, and 28lh October. 1843, 
 for Slave Trading. The latter is the Trial referred to in the Letter." 
 
 FROM THE GLOBE. 
 
 There is a screw loose somewhere in the public justice of this country. 
 We are not here again recurring to the case of O'Connell ; in which 
 there is matter, at all event?, for exclaiming with Cobbett, "Thank 
 God we have a House of Lords !" But to that of BELANY, which 
 furnishes one of the strongest arguments we ever met with for an ap- 
 peal in criminal cases in the sense opposite to that intended by Mr 
 KELLY. Twenty or thirty jears ago, the power of appeal was 
 required chiefly for the convict it is now exactly the reverse in most 
 cases. The ends of justice, not the accused of crime, are the main 
 and most frequent sufferers. 
 
 We recur to the wretched case of Belany, not simply to recal in its 
 most obvious aspects. On these a jury has already decided ; and,
 
 19 
 
 whatever we think of their decision, we have no appeal. But we re- 
 cur to it for (he purpose of enforcing an observation, which we met 
 \vilh in a medical publication some lew days back. 
 
 There is no possibility even of imagining -Belany innocent of wilful 
 murder, except by supposing him guilty of murder just one degree 
 loss atrocious murder by ''crass negligence" in his assumed professional 
 functions-; for which ignorance, was no excuse. The man cannot have been 
 ignorant to that excess, without knowing his own ignorance. Amongst 
 (lift monstrous and infamous falsehoods uttered by him, there is one 
 point we will take his word for. He knew well enough his wife had 
 taken poison whether by her telling him so, or otherwise. He must 
 h:ive known that appropriate and most active means existed 
 in case of such accidenls. 
 
 He must have known that he was not competent to apply those means 
 and that on their application depended every chance of life. All this it 
 i- utterly impossible but that any being (not an idiot, and Belany is none) 
 JMiiust have been well aware of. The whole urgency of the case was 
 before him and enforced on him even by his landlady, who did not 
 know (he cause of his wife's condition ; as he did by his own shewing. 
 What possible defence can be set up for him which shall not bring the 
 case as near as possible to the very complexion of the very crime he 
 was tried for ? If it is said that he acted in sheer ignorance we re- 
 peat, in such a case he must have known his ignorance, and the urgency 
 f calling in knowledge. If it be said he shrunk from treating the 
 case as he knew it should have been treated, for fear of bringing 
 suspicion on himself as having had guilty knowledge of the cause ; 
 we demand then in what degree does the case differ from wilful mur- 
 der ? it is wilful letting die, bv knowingly withholding medical 
 means ! 
 
 That which Belany considered as a property it has amply appeared 
 he knew how to look after. If his horse had drunk prussic acid, we 
 cannot doubt his horse would have been cured. Our only doubt is 
 what rank in animated nature to assign to his jury. 
 
 So far as that jury have had power to affect the character of our 
 criminal justice, we regard them as having employed it to decide that 
 wife-murder goes free. In any point of view that can be taken, 
 Belany murdered his m wife. We will suppose (for the sake of argu- 
 ment) that the evidence furnished by his letters, and (constrained) 
 disclosures against himself, can be construed otherwise than as evidence 
 of crime deliberately planned and executed. We will suppose this 
 possible; though we think we might ask what other construction is 
 possible ? In what other way is it morally possible to harmoni.-e these 
 monstrous mendacities ? Viewed from THAT point, they fall into perfect 
 perspective; viewed from no other point have they any conceivable 
 motive. The criminal (for criminal he is, even on his own shewing 
 not that his word is worth a straw, except as admitting a part of the 
 damning fact which he then sought to palliate) the criminal pretended 
 his lying letters to the north were to cover his falal negligence. But the 
 most elaborately lying of those letters was written two days before. No 
 explanation but premeditated crime any way accounts for that circum- 
 stance. Mr Baron GtJRNKY said, u He could not conceive the molive 
 [i- common sense, then, deprived of all power of conception upon the
 
 J20 
 seat ?] which should have induced the prisoner, on Ike 
 when his wife was well and cheerful, to write so complete a 
 n from beginning to end. 
 [his. observed the Examiner, "is called 'the only awkward 
 ; ibrelaid train of deception preparing for the death 'an 
 awkward part ?' Such awkward parts have before now led to a most 
 awkward fall from the new drop of the Old Bailey !" 
 
 We mint say that the learned Judge appeared to us at the time 
 (and nothing has altered our opinion) to have gone singularly out of his 
 way to strain points in the prisoner's favour. This might be erring on 
 the right side, in dajs when criminals had no eloquent voice such as 
 Mr BULK'S permitted to exhaust every resource in their defence. But 
 really such a point as that a medical man would not use prussic acid to 
 poison any one, because it was a poison most easy of detection [N.B. 
 immediately after death\, is one on which we cannot but agree with the 
 Medical Gazette against Baron Gurney . 
 
 And this brings us back to the point we started from. Baron Gur- 
 ney thinks no medical man, knowing the nature of prussic acid, would 
 have selected it, '-contemplating the circumstance of murder." Does 
 Baron Gurney think that any medical man, knowing the nature of prussiu 
 acid, and knowing that prussic acid had been taken by the person osten- 
 sibly most dear to him, could have innocently stood by, inactive, for 
 twenty minutes, while it was doing its work. 
 
 That is our question. Can the justice of the country yet afford no 
 answer to it ? 
 
 FROM THE NEWCASTLE JOURNAL. 
 
 JAMES COCKBUKN BELANY. The greatest excitement continues to 
 prevail at North Sunderland and its neighbourhood relative to the 
 issue of the trial of James Cockburn Belany, on the charge for the 
 murder of his wife at Stepney. The populace collected in great num- 
 bers about eight o'clock on Monday evening last, and paraded the 
 streets of North Sunderland, with three effigies, borne by three men 
 dressed in women's clothes, and having their faces blacked. The first 
 effigy was intended to represent Belany, the second the arch-fiend, and 
 the third one of Belany's friends, who resides in the neighbourhood of 
 Newcastle, and who took a very prominent part in the late trial, in fa- 
 vour of the prisoner. On the populace reaching Belany's gate, about 
 nine o'c/oc/r, they began to set fire to one of the effigies outside the gate, 
 upon which Belany rushed out of the house, and fired off a pistol in the 
 direction of the crowd. No injury was inflicted, but the firing of the 
 pistol was the signal for a general rush towards him, and in his escape 
 he dropped the pistol, which was taken up by one of the pursuers, and 
 used as an instrument in smashing the windows of his house, the shut- 
 ters and glass panes being soon completely battered in. Thepeoplc 
 then proceeded to set fire to the gate and the other figures, and finally 
 suspended the effigy representing Belany by the neck from the chimney 
 top of a house on the opposite side of the road, where it yet remains, 
 attracting multitudes from the surrounding neighbourhood every day 
 to view the exhibition and scene of desolation. The house on the, fol- 
 lowing morning appeared more like a place that had undergone the 
 f l < r yfa military assault, the walls being battered over as if struck by
 
 21 
 
 hundreds of gun shots. But the work of destruction did not end here. 
 The crowd assembled again on Wednesday evening, and of ter parad- 
 ing the streets of North Sunderland a short time, proceeded to fire 
 Belany's house, which in a few hours was completely destroyed, 
 scarcely one stone being left upon another. Intelligence of the fire 
 was conveyed to Bambrough, and the Castle fire-engine was dispatched 
 to the scene of the conflagration, where it arrived about 10 o'clock. 
 The roof had then fallen in, and the whole place was a mass of fire. 
 Th* engine was comparatively useless, there being so little water, and 
 shortly after the handle of the pump which supplied the water broke. 
 A great deal of linen, plate, and furniture was carried off by the pop- 
 ulace. Everything was consumed by twelve o'clock, but the engine 
 was kept in readiness least there should be any further outbreak. It 
 was fortunate, says a correspondent, that the miserable man himself 
 escaped, or his life would no doubt have been sacrificed. It is stated- 
 that the partnership business in the lime-kiln and quarry, at Forth 
 Sunderland, has been taken out of the hands of Mr Belany, and that 
 Mr Bell, who had been dismissed by Belany on account of the evidence 
 he gave on the trial, as it is generally supposed, has been appointed 
 by an order from the Court of Chancery, to manage the concerns till 
 the affairs are wound up. Belany arrived in Newcastle on Thursday, 
 having been driven out of North Sunderland by the enraged populace. 
 Where wilt the wretched man hide his head? 
 
 FROM THE NEWCASTLE CHRONICLE. 
 
 Mr J. C. Belany. The popular feeling against Mr Belany, which 
 has been kept alive by a series of public manifestations, was displayed 
 in a more marked manner at North Sunderland on Monday evening 
 last. Three men dressed in women's clothes, and having their faces 
 blacked, paraded three effigies hoisted on po4es, and were followed 
 by a crowd of about five hundred persons, loudly hooting and strongly 
 expressing their disapprobation. When the crowd, in the route of 
 their piocession, came opposite to Mr Belany's house, he rushed out 
 and fired a pistol among the crowd, but whether for the purpose of in- 
 timidation or destruction is not known, as it has not been ascertained 
 whether the piece was loaded. No injury was inflicted, but the firing 
 of the pistol was the signal for a general rush towards him. and in his 
 escape he dropped the pistol, which was taken up by one of his pursuers 
 and was used as an instrument in smashing the windows of his house. 
 The doors and gate were broken to piece?, and it is reported I hat 
 most of the furniture in the house was also destroyed. Mr Belany 
 escaped the vigilance of his pursuers, who, in the moment of excite- 
 ment would doubtless have inflicted on him some extreme punishment. 
 It is supposed that he is either concealed in the neighbourhood, or has 
 gone to South Sunderland with his solicitor. The principal effigy has 
 been planted on the top of a new building directly opposite to Mr 
 Belany's house. The partnership business in the lime-kiln and colliery, 
 at North Sunderland has been taken out of the hands of Mr Belany, 
 and Mr Bell, who had been dismissed by Belany on account of the 
 evidence he gave on the trial, as it is generally supposed, has been 
 appointed, by an order from the Court of Chancery, to manage the 
 concerns till the affairs are wound up.
 
 22 
 
 FROM THE SUN. 
 
 Burning of Belany's House. 
 
 populace again assembled on Wednesday night, and burnt the 
 
 /completely to the ground. The situation of Befaiiy's lunue 
 
 very romantic one. It is at thf end of the village, near the 
 
 edge of the cliff overlooking the sea, the drawing-room windows being 
 
 only a few inches from the summit of a fearful precipice. It was 
 
 built according to a plan laid down by himself, and has long afforded 
 
 food for gossip among the rustic population of the locality. 
 
 During the time the conflagration was proceeding, various articles 
 of furniture were flung out of the windows, in order to save them 
 from the devastating element, b :t they were instantly flung back into 
 the flames by the mob, anci in a short time everything was consumed. 
 Beiany effected his escape, and it is not known whither he has directed 
 his steps, but I have been informed that daring this morning he was 
 seen walking on the quay in this town. The news of the destruction of 
 his propei ty is hailed by all with delight ; and two or three persons, 
 in my hearing, on being informed of the event, expressed their sorrow- 
 that he was not consumed as well as his property. The popular indig- 
 nation towards him knows no bounds; and if he remains in this neigh- 
 bourhood much longer, his life will certainly be sacrificed. It is said 
 that the shopkeepers in North Sunderland have refused, ever since the 
 trial, to sell him even the necessaries ol life ; and indeed this is not to 
 be wondered at, considering the light in which he is regarded here by 
 everybody. I have conversed with n;anj persons about him, and not 
 a word of commisseration towards him has escaped from one of them. 
 A hand-bill, one of which I enclose, has been circulated extensively 
 in the district, and is known to have excited Belany's ire. Ho\v lie 
 can have the effrontery to remain at North Sunderland, with hund- 
 reds about him thirsting for his blood is a mystery ; it is supposed that 
 he was at first determined to brave the popular feeling, and by residing 
 as usiifil, in North Sunderland, to endeavour to stamp on the mind of 
 his neighbours the idea, that by so doing, he was innocent ; last night's 
 proceedings will, however convince him that North Sunderland is no 
 longer an abiding place for him. 
 
 FROM THE NEWCASTLE ADVERTISER. 
 
 From our Correspondent at North Sunderland we learn the follow ing 
 particulars : In looking over The Sun of Saturday last, there are some 
 slight mistakes in the paragraph respecting the " {Burning of Belany's 
 House." The house which was burnt, was not the romantic dwelling 
 of Belany. situated at the end of the village of North Sunderland, at 
 the edge of the cliff, but the farm-house where Belany was living. 
 The singular dwelling ;a the edge of the cliff is not yet finished in the 
 wood work ,f the inside, and other decorations ; the doors and windows 
 arc nailed up with rough wood protectors to prevent intruders from 
 entering " Burke's Cave," a-; it is called in ihis place, and from the 
 situation and appearance inside, it is well named. 
 
 Tire Farm-house, which was consumed on Wednesday night, was 
 the property of Lord Crew's Trustees of Bamborough Castle, and was 
 rented together, with a farm, from that tru^t, by Belany. About half- 
 past 6 o'clock on I ho evening of Wednesday se'linigM, three men were
 
 seen to cnler the premises, one by the front door, and two by the kitchen 
 door, carrying with them, as is supposed, a quantity of combustible 
 matter. They proceeded up s-tairs to th bed-rooms, and &et fire to the 
 bed.-, and heaping furniture on the top of them, the house was soon on 
 lire in two different rooms, which spread most rapidly through the other 
 apartments of the dwelling. The fire was observed from Bamborough 
 Castle, and the fire engine was ordered out immediately to proceed to 
 Sunderland to render assistance. Mr Smeddle, of Bamborough Castle, 
 was on the spot giving direction* as to the management of the castle 
 engine ; the short supply of water rendered it of liltle avail in stopping 
 the progress of the flames in the main house, which were fast consuming 
 the furniture and timbers in the building. The men at the engine 
 were directed to k-ave the bouse and prevent the flames from spreading 
 to (he out-houses. At twelve o'clock the roof fell in, with a crash ; 
 and the populace gave three cheers. When Belany, who with his 
 brother and some friend* had been enjoying ihomselves in the dining-room 
 below, found that the house was in flames, he gave the alarm, and 
 escaped with his parly through the corn fields to the house of one of the 
 witnesses on his trial, who keeps an Inn in North Sunderland, where they 
 remained incog, till Thursday. On that evening, about eight o'clock, a 
 post chaise was ordered from the White Swan Inn, Alnwick, and pro- 
 ceeded to North Sunderland, with a Newcastle friend of Belany's; the 
 post chaise left Sunderland about four o,clock, with Belany, his brother 
 and his solicitor who travelled the coast road to Alnwick, where they 
 arrived about seven o'clock on Friday morning. About half a mile 
 from Alnwick, Belany and his solicitor left the carriage, and told the 
 driver they were going to walk through the pasture, a different way 
 into Alnwick to that which the carriage was going with his brother, 
 who arrived at the White Swan Inn. Instead of Belany and his so- 
 licitor going through the pasture, they followed the road which the 
 carriage took, where they were met by a person who knew them, 
 going down a by lane at the end of the town, known by (he name of 
 the "Allerburu Lane." they went through Mrs Wilson's field, and got 
 on to the south turnpike road, and proceeded along the Newcastle road 
 to a small public house on the road side known by the sign of the Wil- 
 Jow Tree : they went in and ordered breakfast, and had not been long 
 there before the alarm was given by the person who met them. He 
 told a number of reapers who were going to the fields, and they entered 
 the public house and surrounded them. On the appearance of the 
 shearers with their hooks. Belany trembled and seemed to be much 
 alarmed ; he. however, ordered a gallon of ale, which they took, and 
 left him to get his breakfast, The solicitor perceived they were Known, 
 and, instead of stopping at this house as they intended to do until the 
 Tally Ho coach came past, and then take a seat for Belany to New 
 catle, he left Belany at breakfast, and walked into Alnwick to procure 
 a gig from the White Swan Inn where Belany's brother was stopping. 
 The people mustered .strong at Alnwick to give him a salute at the 
 Willow Tree, but the gig was immediately seen groing with the solicitor 
 and driver at a rapid pace, and got to the public house befoie the peo- 
 ple arrived ; his friend jumped from the gig, and Belany got in and drove 
 off, at a slashing pace, to Felton, nine miles from Alnwick. on the other 
 side of which place, he left the gig and walked away. The driver
 
 24 
 
 brought the gig back to Alnwick. The mail coach took up Belany 
 about four miles from Felton, and conveyed him to Newca-tle, where, 
 il is supposed, he is now on a vbit to a respectable tradesman. Belanys 
 friend, on returning from the \Villovv Tree to A In wick, got some plain 
 truths told him respecting his client. His brother and friend took a gig 
 from the Black Swan, Ainwick, and left for Sunderlaud, where they 
 remain to watch further proceedings. 
 
 Belany, when at the Willow Tree, looked most careworn, thin, 
 dirty, and shabby, and appeared to feel greatly the effects of his con- 
 finement, and the reception he had received since his aniva' in the 
 north. 
 
 am 
 
 FRpM THE GATESHEAD OBSERVE!?. 
 THE BURNING OF BKLANY'S HOUSK. The Bewick Advertiser. 
 after 1 elating the flight of Belany and his brother, and (he destruc- 
 tion of the doors, window?, c., of the house in fiorth Sunderland. 
 adds: " On Wednesday evening (Sept l&thj a fresh catastrophe 
 occurred. About seven o^clock an alarm iras reused that Belany's 
 house [the property of Lord Crcire's trustees] u~as on fire. It tcasjirst 
 discovered in the east parlour and, in a short time, the ground-floor of 
 the house was involved inflame. The inhabitants collected at the spot 
 used every endeavour to extinguish the Jlr c. but without affect. It teas 
 n from Bambrough castle, whence the fire-engine was dispatched, 
 nd arrived at \0o\-lock. Archdeacon Thorp a:td . M r Smcddle arriv- 
 ed about the same time. These gentlemen took an active part in giv- 
 ing orders and encouraging the people to exert themselves to save the 
 property. All teas of no effect, however ; and. by three o'clock next 
 morning, the whole interior icas reduced to ashes. The wind fortun- 
 ately blew from the E. N. E. ; as, had it come from a contrary 
 direction, it is very probable the whole of the farm-offices u'ould 
 have been involved in the ruin. It is not known whether the pro- 
 perty is insured; nor, according to the information we have re- 
 ceived, has the cause of the fire been as yet ascertained, ff'e trust 
 on investigation, the populace may be found to have had no hand in 
 raising it. Whatever cause there may be for feelings of contempt 
 or indignation towards Belany (and there is abundant.) sure!]/ 
 every reflecting person must see that the burning of properly is 
 the most abturd mode of giving expression to them. Admitting him 
 to be the combination of the -brute and the fiend which the charge 
 against him supposed, he has been acquitted by a jury of his country ; 
 and any such outrage as the above-mentioned can serve no other pur- 
 pose than mischief '."' ^| 
 
 FROM THE KELSO MAIL. 
 
 J. C. Belany. So universal would seem to be the feeling excited 
 in the case of this unhappy individual, that it is stated his London 
 solicitor having been recognised the other day at Doncaster Races, was 
 attacked, and actually ducked in a pond. 
 
 F I N I S. 
 
 G. Pike, Printer, Alnwick.