The antimony has not been found in the cesspool for
all the stirring. The inquiry into the Bravo case ended on Wednesday, Dr. Gully having occupied the previous two days as a voluntary witness, and on Friday the jury returned a verdict of wilful murder, "but there is not sufficient evidence to fix it upon any person or persons." That verdict corresponds probably with the belief of the majority of the public, though much more evidence had been produced for the theory of suicide than was expected. There was no evidence whatever that Mr. Charles Bravo had taken antimony, or had ever possessed any ; but there was evidence that he bad married under discreditable circum- stances, that he lived unhappily at times with his wife, and that he was a man of violently impulsive temperament. Whoever is guilty or innocent, there can be no doubt that the inquiry, with all its vast expense, has broken down, and it has not during its course increased the public respect for the administration of
justice. There has been, as it were, no Judge ; all kinds of irrele- vant matters have been introduced ; and witnesses have been allowed to contradict themselves flatly within half an hour. In- deed, as all the witnesses could read exactly what the others had said before they gave their own evidence, there was every facility for perjury, and apparently no particular desire either to prevent or reprobate it. A more unsatisfactory inquiry never terminated in a more unsatisfactory verdict, and the only result gained by the public is a doubt whether, after all, the public examination of accused persons will so much help the ends of justice as the Recorder of London hopes.
