23 SEPTEMBER 1865, Page 3

The trial of Currie for the murder of Major de

Vere resulted -of course in sentence of death without hope of mercy. The remarkable feature of the trial was the defence made by Mr. Sleigh. After vainly attempting, on the ground that no witnesses had been called for the defence, to preclude the Solicitor-General from the right of reply, he entered upon a very elaborate effort to prove that the prisoner was insane. He boldly dispensed with any attempt to show insanity from anything whatever in the prisoner's past life, but simply took his stand on the position that madness may be instantaneous and without premonitory symptoms —just as in the material world there were "unexpected outbursts of volcanoes "—and that the man who committed a murder under circumstances like those under which Currie shot Major de Vere virtually committed suicide, and was therefore of unsound mind. This is going farther than the maddest mad doctor. The Solicitor- General rightly characterized the speech as "very remarkable," and Mr. Justice Shee put it to the jury to consider whether, even if of diseased mind, the prisoner did or did not know the "nature and quality" of the act, and that it was wrong, and a verdict of wilful murder was immediately returned.