was cut in so determined a manner that the wound extended down to the very bones of the neck; and this must have been done after the stabs had been inflicted and the poor woman overpowered.

The jury, with very brief deliberation, returned a verdict of Guilty, and the Judge passed sentence of death in suitable terms. The prisoner, who had retained his self-possession throughout, heard his doom unmoved, and walked from the dock with a firm and determined step.

The last hours of this unrelenting criminal were characterized by the same passions that had impelled him to his terrible deeds -an intensity of selfishness which blinded him to everything which did not accord with his own will. At first, after his condemnation, his strength gave way; but he speedily reassumed his confidence, that the tale he had concocted must prevail, and that they could not hang him. For this purpose he addressed memorials to the Secretary of State, which merely repeated his assertion, in nearly the same words, that it was all his mother's doing, and that he had murdered her in self-defence; nor could the warnings of the gaol authorities, or the exhortations of the chaplain, drive from his mind the one idea that this asseveration must prevail. The scene in which he parted from his family was a painful exhibition of ungovernable passion. Between him and his father there arose a dreadful altercation, in which the wretched man lashed himself into an ungovernable fury, denouncing his surviving parent as having been a bad father, and a bad husband to his mother-charges for which there appears no foundation. The Go

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vernor and Chaplain were compelled to interfere, and advise the father to withdraw. The entreaties of his sisters for a time subdued him, and he fell into a conversation, in which he again asserted his story. But again he lashed himself into rage against the witness Spice, particularly for his declaration that he would rather the young woman had hanged herself than married such a man; he declared in his frenzy, One thing only I wish, and that is, that I could get hold of this man Spice, for I would strike his head off." His animosity against this witness repeatedly broke out, and indeed seemed to be a favourite resort when he wished to turn away his thoughts from his inward terror. These paroxysms of passion were succeeded, sometimes, by tears; but though the increasing certainty of his fate somewhat repressed his excitement, and he sometimes joined with apparent fervour in the prayers of the chaplain, he let no word escape expressive of guilt or contrition. On the morning of his execution he repeated, in effect, his previous statement, rejecting the exhortations of the chaplain not to die with a lie in his mouth; nor, though he joined mechanically in the devotions, did he show any evidence of feeling.

He was executed on the 4th of September, in front of Horsemonger-lane Gaol. Not a single application for reconsideration of his case had been made; he seems to have inspired a general horror in the public mind; and upwards of 30,000 persons came to witness his retribution-a larger number than has been observed at any execution since that of the Mannings.

was, that Mullins put it in the shed for the purpose of making a false accusation against Emm. This would be proved to the jury as clearly as though they had seen the act done, and, if so, it showed the prisoner to be not only guilty of one murder, but guilty of an attempt to destroy the life of another person. In the first place, Mullins's story was an exceedingly improbable one. It was exceedingly improbable that, four weeks after the murder, Emm should go out of his cottage into the shed and there place this evidence of his complicity in the crime. It was suspicious, too, that he, if the murderer, should not have destroyed the cheque which would be useless to him and would furnish such cogent evidence against him. Besides the improbability of the story, it would be shown that Mullins was seen about the cottage a day or two before the parcel was discovered. Immediately after the discovery of the parcel, Emm was charged with the murder and the prisoner was also taken into custody. On the mantel-piece of his lodgings, near the Mile-endroad, a piece of string was found exactly corresponding in description with the old apron string round the outer parcel, and there was also a piece of cobbler's wax for waxing string or cord. If the prisoner placed the parcel in the shed, he might, knowing Emm to be a shoemaker, have intended to bring home the charge against him more strongly; at any rate, the wax was found upon the mantel-piece, and the two facts together formed important evidence to enable the jury to judge whether Mullins actually did make up the parcel. With regard to Emm, it would be shown that

on the night of the murder he went to Stratford for the purpose of collecting rents belonging to the old lady there. Witnesses would prove that Emm was not out of their company up to nearly 12 o'clock at night; and by a providential circumstance he was able to prove not only that Emms was not out of his cottage between 8 and 9 o'clock-the hour when Mullins declared that he had seen him come out and deposit the parcel-but he would prove that he was ill, and did not leave his cottage before 10 o'clock that morning. The falsehood of the prisoner's assertion would weigh with the jury in considering the other proofs of his guilt. The prisoner was at work on a house in the neighbourhood up to about 6 o'clock on the evening of the murder. He had with him when he left a plasterer's hammer, which he had been using to knock away the ceiling; and Dr. Gill, who was called in when the murder was discovered, would state that it was an instrument which might have caused the wounds in the skull, and that upon comparing the edge of the hammer with one of the wounds above the eyebrow, it exactly corresponded and fitted. This hammer was afterwards found by the police at the prisoner's lodgings. At 6 o'clock on the Monday evening the prisoner left work, intending to return on the following morning. At 8 o'clock he was seen by a man named Raymond, at the corner of Groveroad, and going in the direction of Mrs. Emsley's house. If innocent, he would have an opportunity of informing the jury, through wit nesses, where he really was that night if he was not there. It was not part of the law or the prac

tice of this country to cast upon the prisoner the proof of his innocence; but if he could give a reasonable account of his whereabouts, that would of course rebut the presumption which otherwise would be so strong. There was another link in the chain of evidence. At ten minutes past 5 o'clock on the morning of Tuesday, August 14, the day after the murder, the prisoner was met by a seafaring man named Mitchell passing through Stepney-green. He appeared to be in a state of great nervous excitement; his pockets were bulky; and so much struck was Mitchell with his appearance that he, before Mullins was apprehended, gave information to the police on the subject. Then, again, articles had been found in his possession, or traced to him, which pointed clearly to his guilt. Whoever the murderer was, it seemed unlikely that he obtained any great amount of money, for after Mrs. Emsley's death 481. in notes, gold, and silver, were found secreted under some wood and coal in the coal cellar, and it was pretty clear that the murderer had been baulked of his wished-for plunder. A pencil-case, however, was in the possession of the deceased, and that pencil-case was disposed of by the prisoner's wife only a day or so before he gave information to the police. The cheque, the lenses, the metal spoons, were taken by the murderer from the house that night. Near the body, on the landing, was a considerable quantity of blood, and in it was the partial imprint of a nailed sie. In matters of this kind eyesight was the best guide, and therefore it had been thought right that the board containing VOL. CH.

this impression should be cut out and laid before the jury. It had been discovered that the prisoner had occupied rooms at 12, Little Orford-street, Chelsea. He ceased to reside there about the 26th of August, and just before he left, the landlady saw flung out of the window a boot, which was afterwards found in the dusthole. The jury would see the impression in the board and compare it with the boot. Some human hair was found sticking to the boot. He did not attach too much importance to the fact. The head of the poor woman was dreadfully beaten in, and it was of course possible that some hair might have adhered to the boot of the murderer; but Mullins was by trade a plasterer, and it was possible that in the pursuit of his vocation another solution might be furnished. There was another point of importance. There were no marks of violent entry, and whoever entered last must have been let in by the deceased herself. There was reason to suppose that the prisoner, who was well known to her, would have some business there on the night of the murder. In the middle of the day the old lady had dined with her niece; and the prisoner, coming to her there more than once, had got the keys of some houses upon which he was at work. One of the keys was of a remarkable shape; and this key, which was given to him, was found in a basket along with other keys in the old lady's bedroom, in which she had been seen sitting at 7 o'clock. Again, the pri soner had assisted on a previous Saturday in taking a quantity of paper-hangings into the house, and these were carried up by him into a room where the body was disN N

covered. There could be no doubt that she was showing the patterns to some person at the time of the murder; and this would account for the prisoner getting access to the house. The learned Serjeant mentioned numerous other points of circumstantial evidence, all of which pointed to the prisoner as the murderer.

Mr. Rose, a solicitor, said he knew the deceased Mary Emsley, who was a client of his, and had been so for some years prior to her death. She was possessed of considerable house property in the neighbourhood, and collected great part of the rents herself. Knew Walter Emm, who occasionally assisted the deceased in the collection of her rents. On Friday, the 17th of August, Emm called upon witness and made a communication, in consequence of which he went to the house, and there met a police sergeant named Dillon. Knocked at the front door, but gaining no admittance went through the adjoining house, and got through the garden door at the back. The bed appeared not to have been slept in. In a front room on the second floor was the body of Mrs. Emsley, her head near the doorway, and the body, in fact, so close to the landing as to prevent the door from closing. In front of her was a bundle of wall papers, and she had two pieces under her arm. Noticed the key (produced), which was in the bedroom on the first floor-the room underneath that in which the body was lying. It was on a table, in a basket, he believed, with other keys.

The front door of Mrs. Emsley's house was latched and not bolted. There was a pool of blood around the body of the deceased.

Sergeant Dillon said he went to

the house, 9, Grove-road, on the occasion spoken of by the last witness. Mr. Rose, Mr. Faith, and Mr. Whitaker were present. Entered by the back door, the front door being shut. It was fastened only by a spring-lock. A person going out and pulling the door after him would leave it securely latched as they found it. The window of the back parlour was raised up four or five inches. The shutters were closed, but not wholly. The front parlour shutters were open and the curtains drawn back; the window was fastened by an ordinary catch. The bed was not made, nor did it appear to have been slept in recently. In the front room on the floor above was the body of Mrs. Emsley. Several pieces of paperhangings were lying about, and on the landing outside was a bloody foot-print pointing from the room. There were no marks whatever of violent entry. There was a great quantity of blood about the body, a pool on the floor, and splashes on the wall.

Dr. Gill said he was called in to see the deceased, whom he found lying at full length on her left side. Her dress bore no sign of preparation for going to bed. There was a large opening in the back of the skull extending deeply into the brain. That wound seemed to be the result of repeated blows, and was quite sufficient to account for death. Small portions of the skull were carried completely through the interior substance of the brain. There were several other wounds-one of which, a contused wound inflicted over the left ear, which had driven in the whole of the temple-bone on that side, would also have caused death. Found a lacerated wound above