The Assistant-Judge, Mr. Edlin, sitting with the Middlesex Magistrates on
Monday, quashed the conviction of Mr. Slade, the "spirit-medium," by Mr. Flowers, on the legal ground that the Vagrancy Act, under which he was convicted, was not ade- quately described in the sentence of conviction,—the words, "by palmistry or otherwise," which limit the scope of the offences punishable under the Act, having been left out in the conviction appealed against. On the following day, however, Dr. Lankester, who denies that the he feels any sort of vindictiveness, though he thinks it his duty in the interests of science to obtain a decision on the case, applied through his solicitor, Mr Lewis, to Mr. Flowers for another summons against both Mr. Slade and Mr. Simmons for conspiracy to defraud, as well as one against Mr. Slade under the Vagrancy Act, which Mr. Flowers, evidently reluctantly, and not without an appeal to the applicant to consider whether the first prosecution had not been sufficient for his purpose, granted. In the meantime, however, Mr. Slade, who was looking very ill when in Court on Monday, had left for the Continent., and his solicitors say that it is doubtful whether his health will permit him to appear in Bow Street on the 8th February, the day on which the writ is returnable. Indeed, in the interests of mere science, it would have been better if Dr. Lankester, on the quashing of this conviction, had not attempted a second prosecution against a foreigner in bad health, but had attended the seances of one of the numerous English spiritualists who make their livelihood by the exercise of their professed powers, and had prosecuted him.
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