The Maybrick trial, which lasted seven days, ended on Wednesday
in a verdict of "Guilty." The announcement of the verdict was followed by faint hissing in Court, and the Judge, on leaving, was hooted by the mob,—'a great disgrace to Liverpool, for a more carefully conducted trial can hardly be imagined. The decision of the jury seems to have caused surprise in Liverpool; but considering the extreme care with which the investigation was conducted from first to last, it is difficult to see how it can be impugned. The Judge's summing- up was a model of fairness and moderation, and reviewed the whole of the evidence with a clearness and precision that left nothing to be desired. The result of the testimony, taken as a whole, was practically to narrow the matters in dispute to a single moot point. Arsenic, it was admitted by both sides, was found in the dead man's body. How did it get there ? This once answered, the conflict of the experts over the second question,—its it certain that arsenic was the actual and immediate cause of death F—did not greatly affect the case. If the poison had an innocent origin, then no murder had been committed. If, on the other hand, it had been administered by the prisoner with criminal intent and death had actually ensued, it was impossible to acquit her on the ground that it could not be certainly proved that arsenic poisoning, and nothing else, killed the deceased.
