EDITED BY HERR HARRWITZ.

PROBLEM No. XXII.-By a young Amateur.-White to move, and mate in 5 moves. BLACK.

WHITE.

depraved curiosity, and sympathy with the acts of the prisoners; and in other cases, marked by a saddened interest in the fate of the accused. The crier of the court, with official bombast and indistinctness, having proclaimed silence, the grand jury list was called over, and the oath administered in due form. The judge delivered his charge amidst unusual quiet, and the few murmurings which sounded through the building during the first sentences of the address, were hushed into breathless stillness, as his lordship proceeded to review the various matters in the calendar, which would necessarily come under the attention of the jurors. Among them was named the charge against Henry Meanwell, of having murdered Frederick Parker, on the afternoon of the sixth of January. There were several counts in the indictment, but the judge pointed out, that if any charge could be supported, it was that of murder; that in case that failed to be established, the charge of manslaughter could not be sustained. This and several other cases, the evidence upon which was glanced at, were commended to the especial attention of the grand jury, the members of which immediately afterwards left the court, to examine the bills of accusation against the prisoners. The court was then occupied for a short time in calling over the names of the petty jury, after which the clerk of the court announced that the grand jury had found true bills against several of the prisoners, and among them Henry Meanwell. These prisoners were forthwith placed at the bar, and after hearing the indictment, were called upon to plead in answer to the clerk's inquiry, "Guilty, or not guilty?" To this, Henry Meanwell, in a voice scarcely audible, replied

THERE was only a short time between the arrest, the committal, and the day upon which Henry Meanwell was to be tried. There were few opportunities for the prisoner to prepare his defence, and the services of the most eminent barristers who practised in the criminal courts had been engaged for the prosecution. Mr. Keen had an interview with the prisoner, and having received from him a declaration of innocence, accepted the statement as truth, and laboured incessantly to secure such evidence as should prove his former friend free from the dreadful accusation against him. Barney, with enthusiastic gratitude, sought night and day, under Mr. Keen's direction, for the witnesses whose statements were required, but he was singularly unsuccessful. His search and labour, however, was not useless, for it led to the discovery of a clue to a series of events which otherwise might never have come to light. Three weeks rapidly passed, and the day of trial came on. The court was crowded in every part. In the innermost circle of seats were periwigged barristers, chatting în robed ease and professional carelessness, on the probable events of the day, which involved the happiness of hundreds besides those with regard to whom the law pronounced its decisions. Near them, with great nonchalance, the attorneys sat, with satisfaction contemplating the red-taped briefs which their clerks had prepared; and here and there among them strangely contrasting-were the anxious friends and relatives of the accused. In a semicircle beyond, was seen the jury-box, seats for various officers of the court, the bar at which the prisoner was arraigned, and the elevated rostrum from which the evidence of the witnesses was delivered. The galleries were filled with well-dressed spectators, who came with morbid tastes and opera-glasses, to obtain a familiar acquaintance with the persons of the crimi-mitted under distressing and palliatory nals; while the broad area of the court was crowded by a mass of heated and upturned faces, animated in some instances by

VOL. III-NO. XXXV.

"Not guilty, my lord."

"Let the prisoners stand down," said the clerk, "except Amelia Hawkins "— and Amelia Hawkins was forthwith put upon her trial, the jury having sworn that they would "well and truly try, and true deliverance make between their sovereign lord the king and the prisoner at the bar, and a true verdict give according to the evidence." The robbery had been com

circumstances; but the poor woman had been unable to fee a counsellor in her defence, and accordingly suffered some injus

M

tice as a punishment for her poverty. There was no doubt as to the fact, and the jury returned a verdict of "guilty;" and the judge, who was a severe man, with no experience of the sad temptations to which the poor are exposed, passed a severe sentence upon the despairing criminal, accompanied by an address which showed that he had greater confidence in the terrors of the law, than the happiness of virtue, as incentives to morality.

deceased in great disorder, as if some one had been searching for money. This was shown to have happened about half-past two on the sixth of January, soon after which time, Parker was seen to leave a gamblinghouse in St. James's Street, and to go in the direction in which he would be sure to meet with Meanwell on his return from the Uxbridge Road to the City. Lastly, it was proved by the constables that the dead body of Frederick Parker was found not far distant from the very road on which the two men were supposed to have met; and that the prisoner had immediately absconded, nor had since been heard of till a few hours before his arrest.

Henry Meanwell was then placed at the bar; and the jury having again been sworn, and the other forms of the court having been complied with, the barrister for the prosecution opened his brief, and stated the case. In doing so, he gave a short account The counsel for the defence then rose, of the rise and progress of (what he called) and, in opening his case, alluded to the the greatest swindling transaction he had difficulty in which he was placed in proever known, under the name of the Grand curing the attendance of witnesses whom Marine Joint-Stock Mining Company; he he had hoped would be forthcoming. He drew a striking picture of the recklessness begged the jury to dismiss from their of those who had promoted the speculation, minds any prejudices which might arise and argued that the dishonest plans of from the rumours which had been circuMeanwell had been frustrated by the cir-lated in reference to the prisoner, and to cumstance that persons as unprincipled as give him the benefit of all the doubts himself had anticipated him in the sale of which there might be as to inferences dethe fictitious shares which had been created ducible from the evidence. After comby him and his coadjutors. The speaker menting upon the unfair manner in which laid great emphasis upon the passion which the character of the prisoner had been prehad been manifested by the prisoner, and sented to the jury, in connexion with the the threatening words which had been used Grand Marine Joint-Stock Mining Comby him on finding that Parker was not at pany, he proceeded to say, that although the offices when he (the prisoner) sought him the evidence which had been adduced, there, and the fury he had evinced, moreover, proved great irritation on the part of on his visit to the house of the deceased. Meanwell, yet the language used did not The ransacking of the desk was pointed out imply intent to take away the lives of the as indicating the murderous resentment persons against whom the threats were of the accused; and the disappearance expressed. Was it not highly improbable, of Parker, which occurred just at the time, that at such a time as four o'clock in the and the discovery of the body in the Park, afternoon-the hour at which the violence was connected therewithin such a manner was supposed to have been committedthat the listener could hardly fail to be there should be no witnesses of the transassured that Meanwell had indeed mur- action? Yet no evidence had been prodered the unfortunate Parker. duced to show that the prisoner and deceased had met. Moreover, he was in a position to prove that the prisoner had come into the gambling-house in St. James's Street almost immediately after Parker had left that place, and had remained there during the whole of that night; whereas Parker was seen by one of the witnesses for the prosecution walking along Piccadilly at least half an hour later. He regretted that he should have been unable to bring into court witnesses to prove the

Witnesses were then called, who testified to the violence of Meanwell at the offices of the Grand Marine Joint-Stock Mining Company, and the threatening expressions he had used with reference to Parker, whom he had immediately sought. The servants at the residence of the deceased described the manner in which Meanwell had entered the house, demanding to see their master; and proved that, after he had left, they found the desk and private drawers of the

exact time at which the prisoner left for Boulogne, or when he arrived there in search of his fellow-speculators, who had fled thither; but this he thought was of small consequence. At the conclusion of the address, which seemed to have considerable effect upon the jury, the barrister, Sergeant Powell, called the witnesses to whom he had alluded. The first was Mr. Croupier, who described himself as the manager of a private club in St. James's Street, and who stated that on the sixth of January, at a little before three o'clock, the deceased Frederick Parker had left his house with another person whose name he did not know, expressing an intention of coming back again; that, in about half an hour afterwards, and certainly before four o'clock, the prisoner Meanwell came in, and, in great excitement, inquired if Mr. Parker had been there. The witness went on to describe that the prisoner, after waiting there for some time, at last consented to join other parties in playing at hazard; that Meanwell, being unfortunate, grew maddened with excitement, and drank deeply; that, while in a state of intoxication, he had given IO U's for very large sums, and then had attempted to commit suicide with a carving-knife, in consequence of which he had been forcibly taken to a bedroom, where he was detained till the next evening, when he expressed an intention of going home, and went out accordingly.

Mr. Oakleigh was then called, and proved that Bamford, whose calamitous death was known to every person, had told him in Boulogne that Meanwell had been there; but the judge objected to evidence of this character, and told the witness that if he could not, of his own knowledge, speak of Meanwell's appearance in Boulogne, he

=must at once stand down.

give the prisoner the benefit of their most careful deliberations.

The jury turned round and consulted in their box, but were apparently unable to agree, as they applied to the judge to be allowed to retire; upon which they were locked up to deliberate. Several of the jurymen held a strong opinion that the case was not proved; but the greater number, including the foreman, were prepared to declare him guilty. As the time passed on, no food being allowed them, the majority began to be more clamorous and urgent against the objectors to their verdict; and hunger and importunity at last secured a unanimity which otherwise could not have been obtained. Conscientious principle was sacrificed to the qualms of hunger; and at five o'clock in the afternoon-eight hours from the sitting of the court-the foreman, in answer to the clerk of the court, said that the jury had agreed, and found Henry Meanwell guilty of the murder of Frederick Parker.

The clerk then, addressing the prisoner, informed him of the verdict of the jury, and asked him if he had any thing to say why sentence of death should not be passed upon him.

With the manner of a man who scarcely knew where he was, and whether all he saw and heard ought not to be some terrific dream, Henry Meanwell stood forward, and in a voice whose tremulous accents revealed the agony which had pierced the breast of the speaker, said :- "My lord, I have had no time to prepare my defence, or I could have proved that I did not commit the dreadful act imputed to me. My friends have failed to procure the evidence which could have saved me. I call God to witness that I am entirely innocent of this crime."

In a few minutes afterwards, the prisoner The judge forthwith proceeded to sum-pale and haggard-heard from the judge up, and did so, strongly against the prisoner. the awful sentence, that he should be Ongoing over the defence, he instructed the "Hanged till he was dead!" jury that no dependence could be placed upon the evidence of an individual so bankrupt in moral character and truthfulness as a gambling-house keeper was sure to be, and argued that the counsel for the defence had only injured the case of his client by the evidence he had produced. His lordship concluded by a few sentences of caution to the jury, not hastily to decide, but to

The summing up of the learned judge had prepared the wretched man and his friends for the worst; but the harsh words of dreadful meaning struck him down like one who had been shot, and he fell insensible into the arms of the turnkeys who stood beside him in the prisoners' dock. There was a shuffling of feet in the court, with a rising murmuring of voices, and the