Trial of William Palmer

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Various. Trial of William Palmer

Trial of William Palmer

Table of Contents

PREFACE

WILLIAM PALMER

INTRODUCTION

Leading Dates in the Palmer Trial

THE TRIAL

Evidence for the Prosecution

Second Day, Thursday, 15th May, 1856. The Court met at ten o’clock

Third Day, Friday, 16th May, 1856. The Court met at ten o’clock

Fourth Day, Saturday, 17th May, 1856. The Court met at ten o’clock

Fifth Day, Monday, 19th May, 1856

Sixth Day, Tuesday, 20th May, 1856. The Court met at ten o’clock

Seventh Day, Wednesday, 21st May, 1856. The Court met at ten o’clock

Eighth Day, 22nd May, 1856. The Court met at ten o’clock

Evidence for the Defence

Ninth Day, Friday, 23rd May, 1856. The Court met at ten o’clock

Tenth Day, Saturday, 24th May, 1856. The Court met at ten o’clock

Attorney-General’s Address to Jury

Eleventh Day, Monday, 26th May, 1856. The Court met at ten o’clock

Twelfth Day, Tuesday, 27th May, 1856. The Court met at ten o’clock

APPENDICES

APPENDIX I

APPENDIX II. Short Account of the Judges and Counsel engaged in the Case

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Various

Published by Good Press, 2019

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I shall not attempt to give the facts as to the post-mortem and the analysis. It would be a futile effort. Not a fact was undisputed either by one side or the other, and the value of the evidence, for the reader, consists in the exercise of the patience and memory and judgment required to master their complicated details, and to see the relations of one fact to another. In the speech for the defence by Mr. Serjeant Shee, and the final speech by Sir Alexander Cockburn, he will further see how the same facts may be rendered for opposite purposes by advocates of the first rank.

The trial marked an important step in English criminal procedure. In the ordinary course Palmer would have been tried by an Assize Court in Staffordshire, but the prejudice against him there was so strong that it was felt he would not have a fair trial. An Act was therefore passed, the 19 Vict. cap. 16, for enabling the trial to take place at the Central Criminal Court in London. Since then that Act has been available in any similar circumstances. To the magnitude and difficulty of the Palmer case must be assigned the reason for three judges, Lord Chief Justice Campbell, Mr. Justice Cresswell, and Mr. Baron Alderson being appointed to try it: a very rare occurrence in England. The bar on each side was remarkably strong. Sir Alexander Cockburn became the successor of Lord Campbell; Mr. Edward James, Q.C., was one of the most brilliant advocates of his day, and was only prevented from rising to the highest professional honours by certain private incidents in his career which happened subsequently; Mr. Huddleston became Baron Huddleston; Mr. Bodkin and Mr. Welsby were the leading men of their time in the special practice of the Old Bailey. Mr. Serjeant Shee, the leader for the defence, became Mr. Justice Shee, and Mr. Grove, Q.C., who was one of the most distinguished physicists of his day, and wrote a famous book on “The Conservation of Energy,” became Mr. Justice Grove. Mr. Kenealey was subsequently the famous Dr. Kenealey, the counsel for the Tichborne claimant, a man of great learning and natural genius, inferior to none of his professional contemporaries.

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