The motive of that strange crime—the murder by Constance Kent
of her young half-brother—has at last been revealed. Dr. J. C. Bucknill, in closing the second of his Lumleian lectures on "The Legal Relations of Insanity," said that he had been asked to advise whether Constance Kent, after her con- fession, should be defended on the plea of insanity, and had advised against it. He had, however, heard her motive, apparently from herself, and it was desire of revenge on her step-mother, who, having been governess to the preceding Mrs. Kent, had indulged in depreciatory remarks on her pre- decessor. Constance Kent brooded over this, and at first deter- mined to poison her step-mother ; but reflecting that this would be no punishment, killed her step-mother's only child, as a worse penalty. There is something so utterly revolting in this expla- nation, that we trust, for the sake of human nature, that Con- stance Kent mistook her own feelings, and hated the child as well as its mother. Otherwise, we must go back to antiquity to find such another case.
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