of acquittal. This announcement was received with
the most vociferous applause, which was taken up by
the crowds assembled outside; who interspersed their
exclamations of delight with groans for the attorney-
general and her Majesty's law-officers. The jury was
composed of five Protestants and seven Roman Catholics;
the foreman was a member of the Established Church.
James Hamilton, a boy concerned in the burning of the
books, was tried on Monday, and acquitted. Edward
Haydon, an ardent disciple of Father Petcherine, was
tried on the 10th, for assaulting one of the witnesses for
the prosecution. He was found guilty, but strongly
recommended to mercy. Baron Green sentenced him
to three months' imprisonment with hard labour. The
streets in the neighbourhood of the court were
illuminated in commemoration of the acquittal of
Petcherine.

At Durham, on the 7th inst., the trial began of Mr.
Joseph Snaith Wooler, who has been in custody for the last
three months on suspicion of having wilfully Murdered
his Wife, by administering poison to her during a very
long illness. The trial lasted several days, and excited the
greatest interest. The following is a summary of the
facts. Mrs. Wooler, the deceased, was the daughter of
a medical man, and married the prisoner eighteen years
ago. They resided for some time in India. About
seven years since they came to live at Burdon, near
Darlington. She never was of robust health, but
experienced no serious illness till the 8th of May last, when
she was seized with vomitings. Dr. Jackson, a medical
man, was then called in, and attended her till her death,
on the 17th of June. His assistant, Mr. Henzell, saw
her on the 16th of May, but not again till the 4th of
June, and thence continually till her death. Her
illness continued, accompanied by diarrhœa. On the
7th of June, the symptoms of the patient attracted Dr.
Jackson's attention, and he began to suspect that she
was labouring under arsenical poison,—restlessness,
faintness, severe hiccough, intense thirst, besides
purging and vomiting, which went on as usual. On
the 8th of June, Dr. Hazlewood, of Darlington, was
called in, but Dr. Jackson did not communicate his
suspicions to him. Consumption being apprehended,
her lungs were examined, but nothing wrong could be
discovered in them. Dr. Jackson treated the case as
one of influenza. The three medical men continued
their attendance till her death, on Wednesday, the
27th of June. For fourteen days before her death their
attention was attracted by certain indications. On
Friday, the 29th, a post-mortem examination took place,
from which they concluded the cause of death to be an
irritant poison. A portion of the viscera was tested by
Dr. Richardson, and he detected the presence of arsenic.
An inquest was held on the 30th of June, and, by
adjournment, on the 13th of July. The conclusion of the
inquest jury was that the deceased died of poison, but
no person was charged with administering it. Soon
after Mr. Wooler was apprehended on this charge. The
body was exhumed on the 4th of August, and a portion
of the viscera was sent to Dr. Taylor, of London, who
had no doubt of the presence of arsenical poison in it,
apparently administered from time to time in small
portions in solution. Dr. Richardson, of Newcastle,
also tested a portion of the viscera, and detected the
presence of arsenic. The symptoms exhibited during
her illness also indicated death by slow poison. The
bottles containing the remains of medicine which had
been administered were also submitted to competent
persons, and in those remains no traces of poison could
be discovered. The poison, it was urged, must have
been administered by some person of skill. The deceased
objected to the attendance of a nurse, and none was
engaged. Two friends, Miss Middleton and Miss
Lanchester, frequently saw her during her illness. These
two ladies, with the exception of the prisoner's brother,
were the only persons about the deceased during her
illness. To use poison in the way in which it must
have been administered to the deceased required skill
and knowledge in the subject of poisons, the evidence
given of Mr. Wooler's own conversation went to show
that he possessed both knowledge and skill. He was
about her during the whole of her illness, with the
exception of one day, the 20th of June. He administered
injections and other medicines. On two occasions the
prisoner produced to Dr. Hazlewood and Dr. Jackson a
small basket containing bottles, one of which was
labelled "Fowler's arsenic," a well-known preparation
of arsenic. They spoke to him on the subject of this
arsenic, but the bottle which contained it had
disappeared. At the inquest it was sent for from the
prisoner's house. Several bottles were brought back. This
could not be found. Enemas were employed for
administering injections. The prisoner had a syringe of
pewter, which was used. On one occasion the elastic
pipe got stopped up. The prisoner borrowed a syringe
of Mr. Fothergill, a medical man. No other syringe
was used till her death. Fothergill's syringe was then
returned to him. Some time after, when this matter
became talked about, Mr. Fothergill examined this
syringe. The pipe was stopped up. It was carefully
examined by him, and in his opinion arsenic was there.
His test, it was admitted, was not a safe one; but a
further and more accurate examination showed a greater
quantity of arsenic than the test could contain. The
conduct of the prisoner, however, showed no indications
of a desire to get rid of his wife. Throughout her
illness, and during her last days, he attended upon her
by day and night with the most affectionate solicitude.
They had always lived together upon the most
affectionate terms, and no pecuniary reason existed why he
should desire her death, neither was any suggestion
thrown out that he wished to disembarrass himself
of his wife, that he might contract a fresh marriage or
form any illicit connection. It was not, however, until
several times urged by Dr. Jackson that he consented to
further advice being called. It was stated by the medical
witnesses, that among other undoubted symptoms of
arsenic having been taken there is tingling of the
hands. On the 23rd of June Dr. Hazlewood ascertained
from deceased herself the existence of this symptom.
It was not till the same day that the prisoner, who had
seen the deceased after she had told the circumstance to
Dr. Hazlewood, told them. In his presence the medical
men asked her how long she had this tingling. She
answered, "Three or four days." He remarked it was
not so long. She replied that it was, and that she had
requested him to inform the doctors, but he had
forgotten it. Mr. Henzell examined the deceased's stools
and urine before the 22nd and after the 23rd of June.
On the former day Mr. Henzell went to the coach-
house, where the urine was usually kept for examination,
but he could find none. He asked prisoner for
some. A bottle of urine was sent on that day, but it
differed in character from what he had examined
previously or subsequently. The servant girl on the 22nd
brought the urine from the coach-house into the
kitchen, whence prisoner himself conveyed the bottle
to Mr. Henzell. Many other slighter circumstances of
suspicion were urged against the prisoner, amongst
them his apparent indifference when his wife's death
was evidently approaching, his not attending her
funeral, the different accounts of the nature of her
illness which he wrote to her relations, and an incorrect
statement of the cause of death made by him to the
registrar. Yet throughout these suspicious occurrences,
nothing in the shape of motive could be traced, and the
whole of the evidence failed to suggest any. Mr.
Serjeant Wilkins, who conducted the defence, insisted that
Mrs. Wooler's death was to be ascribed only to the
infamous conduct of the medical attendants of the
deceased. "Had they," said Serjeant Wilkins, "divulged
in time the suspicions they entertained on the 7th of
June, she might have been saved. They say that the
poison must have been administered by a person of
skill. What says Dr. Taylor? He says that the poison
might have been administered 'or taken.' He drew
the distinction between administering by skill and
taken by mistake. They say the poison must have been
administered by a person of skill who had the means.
Dr. Jackson, Dr. Hazlewood, and Mr. Henzell were
each such persons. Why should not they be accused?
It may be said, they had no motive; no more had he;
his motives were all the other way." Serjeant Wilkins
rebutted the accusation of indifference, and demonstrated
from the evidence that the prisoner's conduct
proved quite the contrary. It was said that the prisoner