Report of the trial of Madeleine Smith : before the High Court of Justiciary at Edinburgh, June 30th to July 9th, 1857, for the alleged poisoning of Pierre Émile l'Angelier / by Alexander Forbes Irvine, advocate.

Smith, Madeleine, 1835-1928.

Date:: 1857

Credit: Report of the trial of Madeleine Smith : before the High Court of Justiciary at Edinburgh, June 30th to July 9th, 1857, for the alleged poisoning of Pierre Émile l'Angelier / by Alexander Forbes Irvine, advocate. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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$thing from her which had made him ill upon the 22d of Februaiy. Coming to the evidence for the defence and referring to jSIr Pringle's statement about L'Angelier's pointing a counter-knife to his throat in Mr Laird's shop, his Lordship said he should think, according to all one's knowledge of human nature, that the man who talked in this way of suicide—of throwing himself over the Dean Bridge, and over the ivdndow of his bed-room, six stories high—of di'ownmg himself if he should be jilted, after, in reahty, he had been jilted, was not a man very likely actually to commit suicide. The Jury would consider whether all that was merely the mere vapoui'ing of a loose, talkative man, fond of awakening an interest in the minds of others about himself, or whether it afforded any indications that he was likely to commit suicide. With regard to L'Angelier's state- ment to Mr Ogilvie, assistant teller in the Dundee Bank, as to gi^^iug horses arsenic in France, that was a very odd story too, for in most ])laces on the Continent there were well-regulated posts, and it was nonsense to talk of a small quantity of arsenic making the horses long-winded, as it was only the long use of it in small quantities which could produce any effect. He said to this man, Oh, I take arsenic myself. E\idently that was to keep up the truth of his vapom'ing story, and to remove the force of jVIi- Ogihae's remark about arsenic being dangerous. That evidence was brought forward in order to support the notion that the deceased poisoned himself with arsenic, but he did not think it had much bearing upon the matter. Unless they were satisfied that he took up and had a pm^pose of suicide in his mind, his vapouring about it was of no consequence. No doubt it did not lie upon the prisoner to show that the deceased poisoned himself; it was enough that she satisfied the Jury that it was not proved that it was she who poisoned him. But it was certainly a very unlikely thing that L'Angelier, after coming to Glasgow to see her, should have poi- soned himself in the street nobody knew where, and that he car- ried about with him such a quantity of the white powder, and swallowed it. He thought, therefore, the case stood far better for the prisoner to take her stand on the point that the guilt could not be brought home to her, Avliich was really the })oint on which the matter turned. His Lordship thouglit it Avas not luilikely that L'Angelier had talked to the panel about the use of arsenic as a cos- metic, and this may have led her to use it; or it may, on the other hand, have suggested this excuse to her. The question was, whether there was anything in the whole character of the deceased which looked like a person who was in any danger of committing suicide; or whether he was not a man of far too nuich levity to do so. From all they knew of him, he believed he Avas not the man to do so. There seemed to be no reason for any depression of spirits on his part, so far as his worldly circumstances were concerned. He had a salary of L.100 a-year—was l)etter oft' tlian ho had ever been in his hfi' beli)ro, and liad every reason to congratulate himself, instead$