DOCTOR RUXTON
The Trial of Buck Ruxton. By R.. H.' Blundell and G. Haswell Wilson. (William Hodge. los. 6d.) •
Tans volume is the sixty-sixth of the series of Notable British Trials.) Among such a collection the trial of Dr. Ruxton well 'deserved a place ; for few murders have presented more varied points of interest, either to the expert or to the ordinary reader.
Perhaps the most forcible impression that, emerges is that of the extraordinary perfection of criminal procedure., Ruxton was not a rich man by any means, but hc was able to enlist the very finest legal assistance : and none of Mr. Norman Birkett's victories has reflected more credit on him than his-conduct of this utterly hopeless defence. Day after day he combed and scrutinised the Crown evidence : patiently he examined and attempted to control his own solitary witness : admirably did he summarise to the jury the few elements of reasonable doubt that remained when all was done. It was an immense task, and no man in England could have done it better. On the side of the prosecution, the case was distinguished by the quality of the medical evidence. A class of medical witness does exist and thrive who can be better relied upon to "come up to his proof" than to speak the whole truth and nothing but the truth. But the erudite practitioners from Edinburgh and Glasgow who had pieced together the morsels of Mrs. Ruxton and Mary Rogerson turned out to be excellent witnesses as well. Their carefulness and moderation were of the kind that impresses a jury more than all the smartness and cleverness in the world.
The evidence, as the Judge observed in passing sentence, could leave no doubt upon the mind of anyone. Intolerable nonsense is talked about circumstantial evidence : but so long as murderers refrain from committing their crimes in the presence of witnesses, there will be no other sort of evidence which can convict them. The prosecution called nearly a hundred witnesses against Ruxton, and their testimony was all the stronger after it had stood the test of Mr. Birkett's cross- examination. But for an example of how powerfully such evidence can tell, when it is properly marshalled and put into perspective, it is only necessary to look at the Judge's summing- up, an admirable example of force without unfairness.
Legal and medical interests' apart, the character of the murderer himself has the quality of unexpectedness in a remarkable degree. From the humble circumstances of an Indian medical student in Edinburgh, he had risen to acquire a respectable practice and a comfortable household in Lancaster. There were indications that he was highly thought of in the town. Mrs. Ruxton, to whom he was never actually married, was no beauty by metropolitan standards : but she was certainly out of the common run of north-country drudges. Ruston was immensely proud of her, of his house and Children, of his medical skill. But he was still a foreigner and an Indian. He Stood in relation with his wife as Othello did with Desdemona. A vest-pocket Othello, perhaps : but his infatuation and his jealousy wrung him cruelly. "We were the kind of people," he said, "who could not live with each other and could not live without each other." Heaven knows the secrets of that Sunday when he drained the body of his mistress of its blood and cut it into unrecognisable morsels : but his sufferings certainly deprived him of his sanity. During the next few days his clumsy lies, his garrulity, his grotesque attempts to disarm suspicion, showed unmistakeable signs of madness. The innumerable charladies who ministered to his wants appear to have been surprised by nothing that might happen in a doctor's house ; but in the long run it is probably true that• Ruxton's conduct would have hanged him even if the bodies of his victims had never come to light.
CHRISTOPHER HOBHOUSE.
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