The New Solicitor-General on the Bartlett Case

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 173, 9 October 1886, Page 1

The New Solicitor-General on the Bartlett Case

MbEdwabd Clarke, Q C, contributes the following preface to a complete and revised report of the Bartlett poisoning case, which has just been issued by Messrs Stevens and Haynes, the well-known law publishers The preface is dated "5, Easex-court, Temple,. July, 1886 " :— The cage'ofl which a complete and corrected xeportwill be found in this volume attracted -bo much public attention, and had in it ao many elements of enduring interest, that I think it desirable that it- should be recorded in a permanent and convenient form. The very large correspondence, which came tojme during the progress of the case from members of the medical profession showed that the questions which had to be discussed were felt to be of great importance in the tudy of medical jurisprudence ; and I have never known a case, or at all events not more than one, which had in itself so strong a dramatic interest. The strange relations between the prisoner and the husband, with whose murder Bhe was charged, the yet more strange relations between her and the man who in the first instance wa3 included in the accusation, together with the exceptional circumstances of his acquittal and his immediate appearance in the witness-box, fully explain fche great public interest which existed during the trial, and which culminated in the very remarkable scene which followed its conclusion. It was at my request that my friend Mr Edward i**"— from whom, a-3 well as from Mr Mead, I received during the caee the most diligent and admirable assistance— has undertaken the duty, which he was specially qualified to perform, of preparing the volume for the press, and I am greatly obliged to him for the care which he has given so his task. Mr Justice Wills has been good enough to. revise the report of his summing-up, and Sir Charles Russel has kindly performed the same service in respect of his opening speech and reply. Mr Sidney Plowman, of St. Thomas's Hospital, l»as supervised the medical references in the report, and thereby added to the obligation under which all concerned in the defence already stood for his assistance during the case. I trust that the volume may be found useful to a 11 students of the administration of the law,