THE PAINE TRIAL. T HE eight days' trial which ended on
Tuesday has resulted in a verdict which certainly does not err on the side of severity. It is plain that if Mr. Justice Hawkins had been in the jury-box instead of on the Bench, he would have been in favour of finding the prisoner guilty of the greater of the two crimes with which he stood charged. It is difficult, indeed, to see how, if the jury believed the evidence for the prosecu- tion, they resisted the conclusion that Miss Maclean had been murdered ; while if they did not believe the evidence for the prosecution the proof of manslaughter was only con- structive. If Paine gave Miss Maclean all the alcohol he is stated to have given her, and gave it under the circumstances under which he is stated to have given it, there seems no doubt that he must have intended to kill her. If the administration in the quantity and manner alleged is not made out, how is it shown that he was guilty of criminal negligence ? When a drunken man and a drunken woman are living together, he may be legally bound to take care that she does not kill herself by over-doses of alcoholic poison. But he may not know how much she is taking. The craving for drink arms its slaves with preternatural cunning ; and if even a careful and sober nurse is sometimes over-reached, the chances that a careless and drunken nurse will be so are very great indeed. What really determined the verdict was pro- bably just that suspicion of doubt which, though it was not sufficient to give the prisoner any claim to the benefit of it, was still sufficient to indispose the jury to make their deci- sion irrevocable. They found Paine guilty of manslaughter, not so much, perhaps, because they did not think him guilty of murder, as because they did not wish to back their opinion by a capital sentence. The most essential parts of the evidence for the prosecution were not as satisfactory as they might have been. We see no reason to doubt the trustworthi- ness of the witnesses, but they were not precisely the witnesses the prosecution would have brought forward, if they could have had their choice. Fanny Matthews had narrowly escaped being tried as an accomplice ; she had told a different story at the coroner's inquest ; and her relations with the prisoner showed that she must have seen a good deal of cruelty inflicted, without feeling either pity for the victim or repugnance towards the ill-doer. The Powells had not had their bill paid, and were probably not well pleased to find that they had lost money by a disreputable lodger. The• jury evidently thought that these facts were not enough to dis- credit their testimony ; but it is quite conceivable that they wished to leave a loophole, in the event of its being discredited at some future time.
No one need be under any alarm on the score of Paine having got more than his deserts. The objections made by the counsel for the defence, whether to Fanny Matthews 's evidence or to that of the Powells, fail to show any adequate inducement to the commission of the double offence which, in their case, false witness would have constituted. They must have perjured themselves, and they must have perjured themselves for the express purpose of taking away Paine's life. Why should Fanny Matthews have done either of these things 1 She is not known to have had any grudge against Paine, and the lying before the Coroner is explained by her desire to shield herself as well as him. No doubt she was tempted into telling the truth by the withdrawal of the charge against her ; but when that had been withdrawn she was free to say what she liked, and if she had been drawing on her imagination for the facts, she would most likely have broken down under the skilful cross-examination to which she was subjected. The Powells, again, must have been criminals of a very unusual type, if they were willing to swear away Paine's life because he owed them a little money. At least, if the probability of these motives is admitted, it will become immeasurably more difficult to obtain conviction for murder. The evidence on which such cases rest is constantly dashed with suspicion of this sort. Men who kill their neighbours for gain seldom live in very high-minded circles. The reason why such evidence is accepted is that women who are by no means strictly virtuous, and men who cherish grudges against their debtors, are not for that reason to be held guilty of a pecu- liarly base crime. They may be neither particularly moral nor particularly heroic, but they will not go into a Court of justice and swear that an innocent man has committed murder.
If the evidence of Fanny Matthews and the Powells be taken as true, Paine's share in Miss Maclean's death is indis- putable. She had lived an intemperate life possibly for some time before, but it was only when Paine came to have an interest in bringing about her death that she began to take alcohol in large quantities. From that time onwards he con- tinued to give it to her against the doctor's orders, and with full knowledge of what the consequences must be. Whatever Miss Maclean asked for, she was given spirits, And when she showed distaste for them, the dose was forced down her throat. When Paine was away she took much less, and during that interval she began to mend. As soon as he returned she got worse, and according to Paine's account, as reported by Fanny Matthews, she began to drink spirits as constantly as before. When to all this is added the direct interest that Paine had in her death, whether as a means of getting possession of her property, or as a means of enjoying it with less incumbrance, the inference seems irresistible that in giving her that which was calculated to cause death when he had a specific motive for desiring her death he intended his conduct to have its natural consequence. Most people will agree with Mr. Justice Hawkins that he richly deserved hanging, and no one will regret that though he escaped this fate, he has been sentenced to penal servitude for life.
It is a matter of great public importance that a crime like this should not escape detection and punishment. In a society such as ours, the number of reckless men who are willing to do anything which will bring them in money, and thereby spare them the necessity of working for it, is considerable. There is no easier method of achieving this than to make the acquaintance of a weak and perhaps half-imbecile woman, possessed of some means, and perfectly ready to put herself in the power of any scoundrel who professes to be in love with her. To murder her by any common-place expedient is too dangerous to be thought of. Violence is almost certain to be detected ; poison is extremely likely to be de- tected. But overdoses of alcohol, if a woman can be persuaded to take them, are very well calculated to bring her into a con- dition of mind and body in which, if she cannot be persuaded to take them, they may be administered by force. The dis- position to drink to excess is easily created, and the kind of life which Miss Maclean lived with Paine, and which such a woman living with such a man would naturally live, is exceed- ingly likely to foster and develope it. If Paine had escaped scot-free, the inducement to attain the same end by similar methods would have been increased to a dangerous extent. Every unscrupulous man who is interested in the death of a woman completely under his control would have read in the trial and the verdict a suggestion, to say the least, of a safe and easy way of ridding himself of a companion who is only tolerated in the belief that her death will bring him gain. Penal servitude for life will prove, it may be hoped, a suffi- ciently deterrent sentence to prevent the example from being largely followed.
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