THE GLASGOW MURDER CASE.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 7, Issue 327, 22 January 1863, Page 4

THE GLASGOW MURDER CASE.

This case, which excited great interest a! the timejhe committed, lias lately stirred the public feeling to an almost nnpiecede ited degree, in consequence first «tf the woman accused being found guilty, and then of doubts 1 e'ng raiser! as to the propriety of the verdict by a statement of rbe woman’s read in Court after the verdict laid been returned, in which statement she declares tlmt lire old man Fleming, who was first taken up on suspicion, was the murderer, and that she is innocent. So deep an impression uid this statement make on the public mind that- in a few days petitions with above 100,000 signatures attached—

the memorial from Glasgow alone being signed by more than 50,000 individuals—v. ere sent to the Home Secretary from all parts of Scotland and some towns in England, praying fora respite and that enquiry i-hou! - be made into the credibility of the statement. A respite was granted, and a e-nv. which had so' , (conducted puv: j. when the October mail left. ■: ; e following are the leading facts of S caseOn Monday afternoon, the 7th July, it H as discovered that Jessie M‘Pherson, aged 33, servant to Mr. John Fleming accountant, residing at 1/ Sandyford Place, had been cruelly murdered. The family were all living at Dunoon at the time, excepting one, Mr. James Fleming, aged 87, who -was loft alone in the house with deceased from Friday afternoon, when Mr. John Fleming and his son went down to Dunoon. At four o’clock on Saturday morning, Mr. Fleming, whose bedroom was on the ground-floor, heard tinea “squeals,” the first of which, being loud awakened him, but lie thought

it came from the street; the other two were faint, and, thinking them of no importance, he fell asleep again. The servant was not visible iu the morning when he arose about 9 o’clock, and, fii.diug her bedroom door locked, the old man made his own breakfast. Previously, the milk boy had come to the door and had been told by Fleming that no milk would be needed. This occurrence he seemed at first to have forgotten ; then he had difficulty in explaining why he had not taken any milk ; and lastly he stated that the chain was oft' the door when he went to it, whereas the milk boy asserts that it was taken off by Fleming. The bell was only rung once. Fleming lived in the house till Monday afternoon, going to the church twice on Sunday, and on Monday morning doing some business iu town and calling at his son’s office, but be said nothing to any one of the servant’s disappearance. On Monday afternoon, when Mr. John Fleming came home, search was made, and her body was found, fearfully mangled, with several deep gashes on the head, lying in her own bedroom—the floor of Which was covered with gore. There was an indistinct trail of blood across tb'e kitchen floor and some spots of blood on the kitchen walls. On the bedroom floor were found two bloody marks of a left nuked foot which could not have been Fleming’s, but were exactlythe size and shape of the condemned' woman’s. Old Fleming was taken into custody, but was liberated after some days, in consequence of discoveries made by the police. There had been some silverplate taken from the house on the night of the murder, and this was found on the following Wednesday forenoon in a pawn office in Glasgow, where it had been pledged on the previous Saturday admittedly by the condemned woman M'Lachlan, who was apprehended in her lodgings on the Sunday following. S >me days after, clothing belonging to deceased, which had been sent by Mrs._ M‘Laclilim to. a feigned address at Ayr, then brought back and sent to a relative’s at Greenock, was given up to the authorities by the prisoner’s husband ; and subsequently, bloody rags were found in fields near Hamilton, which had been part of M'Lachlan’s dress on the night of the murder, and which she hepelf had some days afterwards placed where they- -were found.

To proye her innocence, the prisoner made a statement, which the evidence led at the trial showed to be false in every important particular. If circumstantial evidence can prove anything, that evidence proved that the prisoner was without money on the Friday, having then her husband’s clothes and other articles in pawn ; that she was at Fleming’s house on the night of the murder, having boon a servant with the family previously along with Jessie M'Pherson jjwith whom she was intimate; that she did not return to her lodgings till 9 o’clock next morning, though she had a child of three years of age at home dependent on her; that she returned dressed in a gown of Jessie M'Plierson ; that on the same day she paid her long overdue rent and relieved several articles from pawn ; and lastly, the articles missing from the house were proved to have been in her possession, and to have been disposed of as already mentioned. On this circumstantial evidence the woman was found guilty, and sentenced to death. Before pronouncing sentence, the Judge, at her urgent request, allowed a declaration to be read, which, she alleged, gave a true account of the transaction, but which is too long for our limited space. The following is an abstract of it:—

The prisoner went to the house of John Fleming on the night of Friday, the 4th July, to see deceased with whom she had been long intimate. She went on that day as Jessie had more leisure when the family were from home, and at that hour to avoid old Fleming, who, if not in bed, might inflict his company on them. On going in, she found Jessie and the old man sitting in the kitchen at supper. The old man brought a bottle of whiskey, gave prisoner a glass, and was taking the bottle, away, when deceased said in a displeased tone, that was not the way to treat a person—that he ought to send it round. He reminded iter that they had had some that afternoon already, and that his son bad been, complaining of the too rapid disappearance of his stock of liquors, adding, " However, if you baud your ill

tongue, I’ll give you half a nnitchkin if you’ll go or send for it.” She.said, “I’ve a tongue that would frighten somebody, if it were breaking loose on them.” The prisoner went for whiskey, but, the shops' being all shut, did not get any. On her return Jessie was not in the kitchen, and she went into the bedroom for her; she was, lying on the floor insensible, with her head down and her elbow below her, a large wound in her forehead, her nose cut, and bleeding a great deal. Prisoner asked the old man what he had done that for. He said he did not intend it ; it was an accident. He did not appe&r to be in a passion ; perhaps be had been attempting something wrong with her, and she had been cut by falling. Prisoner washed her and got her into bt cl. She proposed several times sending for the doctor, but the old man objected. He helped to wipe up the floor, but in doing so spilled some bloody water over prisoner’s legs, which obliged her to take off her shoes and stockings to have them dried at the fire. Deceased slept, and about three o’clock seemed much better. Prisoner had a good

deal of conversation with iier then. She said that on a Friday night some weeks before the old man had come home late the worse of drink, and after she was in bed, had come in and tried to use liberties with her; that she threatened to tell his son, which alarmed him greatly ; that they bad had some words about it that day” und after pr soner had gone out for the whiskey ;Miat he then struck her and when she spoke back camepnto the bedroom where she was, and struck her in the face with something, and felled her. The old man would not give a direct answer why he had done it, but just said it couldna be helped now, although be was very sorry, and that be would make everything richt to Jess and make up for it, as Jess very well knew, and he promised prisoner, if she would never mention what she had seen not to forget it to her. He made her swear on the Bible, by Almighty God, that she would never tell to man, woman, or child, anything she Had seen or heard that night between him and Jess. About three o’clock Jessie felt cold, and with the assistance of Mrs. M'Lachlan and Fleming walked to the kitchen fire, where she slept for some time ; but between four and five o’clock she got rapidly worse, and asked prisoner to go for a doctor. The old man objected, though she seemed dying, and would not give prisoner the key of the house door to let hers.elf out by it. She declared she would'get a doctor in spite of him, and went upstairs to cry to some one from the street. She saw no one at the back, and was going to the frout of tlie bouse, when she heard a noise in the kitchen ; she ran down and saw Fleming striking M‘Pherson

with the meat-chopper. She £ skirled out,’ and ran up part of the stair, but was so frightened she could go no further. He first cried to her not to be afraid and then came to her and said that he “ kent frae the first she eoublna live ; and if any doctor had come in he (Fleming) would have to answer for her death, for she would have told.” Prisoner pleaded to be allowed to go away, but he said, “ My life is in ’your power, and yours is in my power, but if both of us would keep the secret it would never be found out who did it, and that if I -would inform on him lie would deny it, and charge me that I did it; it was as much as our lives were worth if either of us would say a word about it.” Prisoner then describes how the old man dragged the body into the bedroom, washed the floor, burned some clothes, and went to the door when the milkboy came. He brought the silverplate and deceased’s dresses, and told her how and where to dispose of them, and gave her 7s. She consented to take the things, and promised never to breathe a syllable of what had passed. He said that if she did it would be her life as well as his, and that he would set her up in a shop and never see her want. After the reading of the declaration, which was listened to with breathless interest, Lord Deas, the judge, said that all his experience led him to look on such statements with extreme suspicion, that he could regard the present only as a tissue of as wicked falsehoods as any to which he had ever listened, and that there was not the shadow ef a suspicion in his mind that the old gentleman had anything to do with the murder. He passed sentence of death on the prisoner in accordance with the evidence led.

It is stated that every ship belonging to the Channel fleet got on shore, at one point or another, during the recent cruise in the Baltic. The Admiralty is engaged on the designs of Mr. Reed, in the construction of a vessel which is expected, with the fifth of the Warrior’s armour, to solve the problem of an effective iron-cased ship which shall he neither immoderately large nor immoderately expensive. Mr. Whitworth says, in a letter to the Times, that both his 70-pounder and 120pounder, which recently threw shells against a target at Shoe’ouryness with such startling effect, will penetrate stronger defences at still greater ranges. American Finance.— Little lias yet been heard of Southern finance, except that the South owes about J'80,0: : 0,000 now. The Secretary to the Treasury has, however, introduced a Tax Bill, the late of which it will be well worth 'while to watch. Since Robespierre died, no such proposal has ever 3 T et been nfade to a civilized legislature. The Government asks only for a single tax, but it is a fifth of all revenue, of all crops, and of all the increase of cattle. The fifth bale of cotton, the fifth tub of molasses, the fifth barrel of rum, the fifth calf born in the year, and in fact the fifth of everything, besides four shillings in the pound of the profit on the jemainder, is to go to the State. A people who in one session can vote every male between eighteen and forty five into the field, and one fifth of all their resources, can never be conquered by another people not prepared to sacrifice all.

HALLETT’S WHEAT. Mr. Hallett, of the Manor House, Brighton, England, is a gentleman with whom, as with many others, agricultural pursuits have been a hobby ; his attention was for some years given chiefly to breeding of shorthorns, in which he was reasonably successful, and from the' value of pedigree with regal’d to this kind of stock, it was, that he bethought himself of attempting to improve wheat by'applying to it the principal of selection of parents. It struck him also, that for the plant to attain its utmost developement, it must, like the shorthorn, have ample food at all seasons, and that to this end, space, both superficially and in depth) was essential. Thus, deep culture as well as width in which the roots could ramify were indicated, and another essential was a fine seed to start with. The largest earwas selected in the first instance, but after some years trial, Mi\ Hallett found that his parent had not been wisely chosen ; it was not of “ the right sort,” it was too coarse in quality, and he 1 ) wisely determined to, begin again. In 1857 he selected an ear of “Nursery” wheat, moderate in size, and of fine quality, which latter property, it is said, is transmitted to the present year’s produce. The ear measured 4f- inches in length; and contained 47 grains ; whilst the aver-'

age of ears would be found under 30 grains. These grains were dibbled in December, 12 inches apart either way, and in the following season one of them produced a stool pf ten ears, the largest of which measured 6| inches, and contained 79 grains. The best single seed from these grains was sown next season by itself, and the. remainder by themselves dibbled as before. The best stool in 1859 was one of 23 ears, the finest of which measured 7§ in., and contained 91 grains. The season of 1860, it will be remembered, was unusually wet, yet pro,gress continued, for on a stool of 52 ears was one which measured 8| inches, and another which contained 123 grains. These were sown in the following October’, and the result is most gratifying, as many as eighty eai’s springing from one stool, and many of these ears had from sixteen to eighteen sets on each side. Thus, by means of selection alone, in five years, “ the length of the ears ” says Mr. Hallett, “ has been doubled, their contents nearly trebled, and the tillering power of the seed increased eightfold.” So long as Mr. Hallett’s proceedings were confined to garden culture, the press took but little notice of them, but this season, Mr. Hallett has over fifty acres of selected wheat, which fully bears out the character he lias given it. Those who have visited the crop state not only that a comparison with anything in the neighbourhood would be ridiculous, but that it far surpasses anything they ever saw.

It has to be remembered that the seeding is part of the system, and a very essential part too. Dibbled as Mr. H. has it, early in autumn, twelve inches apart, a half peck of seed has planted an acre of land. The saving of seed is thus something considerable towards keeping the nation in bread. Will it be believed that, although Mr. Hallett’s perseverance and ingenuity liave produced these results, of the importance of which it is impossible to form an estimate at present, the jurors of the great International Exhibition have omitted even to notice his productions. It would appear, indeed, that much of the grain which has received honor at their hands was totally unworthy of it, and thus, as it is said, Mr. Hallett’s wheat is most distinguished in not having been selected for notice in company with such samples. The success of Mi\ Hallett, in reference to wheat, should induce attempts by farmers to improve, in like manner, their barley and oat crops. All farm crops, indeed, are amenable to’improvement, if agriculturists will only devote to the subject the amount of untiring perseverance which has been exhibited by their English brother professional, Mr. Hallett.

ANew York paper says, an eminent physician has discovered that the nightmare, in nine cases out of ten, is produced by owing a bill for a newspaper. ‘ Come, sir, have your eyes about you.’ exclaimed an officer to a private of the Green Isle. ‘ Faix, thin, replied Pat, ‘ and about what else d’ye think I’d be afther having them V Western editor, in answer to a reader’s complaint that he did not give news enough, advised him. to read the Bible, which he had no doubt would be news to him. Some articles are now very dear in the Southern States. According to recent letters, shoes were selling as high as $25 per pair. An honest rustic went into the shop of a quaker to buy a hat, for which twenty five shillings were demanded. He offered twenty shillings. ‘As I live, said the quaker, ‘ I cannot afford to give it thee at that price.’ ‘As you live,’ said the countryman ; ‘ then live more moderately, and be hanged to you !’ ‘ Friend,’ said the Quaker, ‘ thou shalt have the hat for nothing. I have sold hats for twenty years, and my trick was never found out till now.’ A Pei’thshire baronet saw what he supposed to be a deadly game net hanging behind the door of a farm-house. Pointing it out exultingly to his factor, “Here Mr M.—, I’ve long been suspecting these poaching nets, and now we have the proof.’ ‘ Hoot, Sir P—said the honest farmer, ‘ that’s the lassie’s crinoline. — Blackwood’s Magazine. Stays were quite unknown in Russia until Peter the Great danced with some Hanoverian ladies on his journey to Pomerania. Quite astonished, the monarch exclaimed to his suite after the the ball, ‘ What confounded hard bones these German women have !’