The Southland Times. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1872.

Southland Times, Issue 1971, 3 December 1872, Page 2

The Southland Times. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1872.

THEcase of the unhappy woman Caboline Witting, now lying under sentence of death, claims from the thoughtful mind more than a passing attention. "Whatever may be the conclusion ultimately | arrived at by those who may take the subject under consideration, as to tbe propriety or otherwise of allowing tbe law in this instance to take its course, it will probably be admitted by all persons that the gravest reasons exist that the subject itself should be calmly, dispassionately, and carefully discussed (if possible) under its every phase and ( aspect. We admit in approaching the case a tendency, for which we do not expect to be blamed, to err on the safe side, conceiving at the outset, that the interests of society are in no way likely to suffer by this admitted tendency. It is not intended to connect with the case the discussion of tbe question of capital punishment, yet even here we have no hesitation in asserting that there is what very many well-trained minds agree to consider a sufficient reason for doubting tbe propriety of tbe ordinary acceptation of that which is relied upon by the advocates of capital punishment as to the intent of the Divine declaration, " Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed." There exist in the instance now under consideration reasons which may be urged as recommendations to mercy apart from the abstract question of capital punishment, and unless the decision has been already arrived at to show no mercy whatever in any case in which human life has been taken, the prisoner now under sentence is entitled to the benefit of these reasons. Perhaps, after all, it is scarcely fair to the convicted to take thia ground, because it appears like assuming what is by no means a certainty, the sanity of the prisoner. Were this assumed, what then are tbe circumstances which may be pleaded, that in some degree appear to tone down tbe atrocity of tbe offence? for tbat a tragically horrible event has transpired, which, as a record, after the event itself bas passed from the memory of living witnesses, will be sufficient to thrill the breast of everyone reading it with horror and amaze, there is no denying. It is an admitted fact, that for years the poor creature has led a miserable life afc the instance of her husband, being shamefully neglected and cruelly illtreated. Yet, with all tbis, the testimony of the neighborhood is uniform as to the fact tbat until the day of the death of the children, tbe said children had been carefully tended and kindly treated by her, and this notwithstanding her own weakness from bodily ailment, and the painful fact that for months past she had been deserted by, and was wholly ignorant of the whereabouts of, the man (her husband) whose duty it was to support tbem and to comfort herself. But for the intervention of neighbors, who disi covered the man, and brought a certain amount of pressure to bear upon him, there is not much reason for supposing he would have returned to her, but: would have left her still to bear her burden as she best might. The fact is also admitted, that, after the return of the husband, his treatment of her was still harsh and unkind. It is worthy of note, too, that the quarrel wbich occurred on the morning of the death of tbe children, arose out of the refusal of tbe husband to accept permanent employment, which was offered him in the neighborhood, and the inference is that the woman believed be was again about to leave his home and go none but himself knew whither. Without committing ourselves to the theory of insanity set up as the defence, may it not be reasonably inferred that a person of tbe prisoner's nervous and excitable < temperament, with a mind pointed at by independent testimony as evidently not well balanced, should if she were able to argue at all, argue thus — " There will be a repetition of the misery through whicb we have already passed ; I do not see how I these little ones are to be provided for, and I cannot bear to see them want ; is it not far better tbat I should at once end their misery and my own afc the same time ?" This mode of reasoning cannot (as a matter of course) be accepted as a justification of the act, but it is nevertheless tbe most likely to have been j adopted, and certainly does to charitable minds relieve the act to some extent of its darkest features of turpitude. As a reasonable presumption that this was the course adopted by the prisoner, we may take the evidence of one of tbe witnesses who had noticed that the burden of her mind was v fear lest her children should , suffer, or rather an impression tbat tbey were actually suffering. . Tbe verdict of I the jury has disposed of tbe defence, yet | it by no means follows that we are com- | pelled to accept their conclusion. We , do not need to fall oack upon the other assumption so frequently put forth, tbat a crime of peculiar magnitude necessarily supposes insanity, and yet there is a class of crime which, in respect of its outraging natural instincts, does to a very considerable extent warrant the inference ; and the crime now under review certainly belongs to that class. Tbe question of holy writ, " Can a mother j forget ber Bucking child, tbat she should not h;ive compassion on tbe sou of ber womb ?"' is thus answered, " Yea, she may forget ;" but the answer is- intended to convey to the --mind' tlie -idea of it* ex- j

treme improbability, except under verypeculiar circumstances. The verdict of a jury is an utterance so sacred as not to be lightly impugned, and it is very far from our intention to impugn it, but we are none the less at liberty to express a decided conviction that the unhappy woman was at the time of the occurrence in friuih a state of mind as to render it exceedingly doubtful aa to whether she was able fully to comprehend the character of the act she was committing. Under these circumstances we conscientiously recommend the condemned woman, Caroline Witting, to His Ex cellency's clemency, and in thus recommending her we doubt not we are sanctioned by the judgment of by far the majority of the community, and without any misgiving as to the answer to the question, " Whether the interests of society will not be best served by the , exercise of clemency ?"