They Hanged My Saintly Billy (75 page)

A
considerable
change
of
opinion
has
therefore
been
observed among
the
educated
public.
We
reprint
the
following
from
The Daily Chronicle:

A
public
meeting,
organized
neither
by
Dr
Palmer's
family,
nor by
the
Defence,
but
spontaneously
by
a
number
of
disinterested citizens,
took
place
today
in
St
Martin's
Hall,
Longacre,
to
consider the
propriety
of
staying
Wm
Palmer's
execution
on
the
ground
of doubtful
and
conflicting
testimony
given
at
the
trial.
Most
persons present
were
working
men,
with
a
considerable
representation
of
the middle
classes,
and
here
and
there
a
few
women.

When
the
doors
opened,
the
hall
soon
filled,
and
hundreds
who could
not
find
standing
room
remained
outside
during
the
proceedings.
A
petition
praying
that
the
hanging
might
be
postponed,
to allow
time
for
a
medical
inquiry
into
the
facts
at
issue,
lay
in
a
lobby at
the
entrance
throughout
the
evening,
and
a
stream
of
people appended
their
names
to
it.
The
feeling
manifested
by
the
greater part
of
the
audience
was
in
favour
of
a
respite,
though
a
few
score vociferously
asserted
an
opposite
view
at
all
stages
of
the
proceedings. So
high,
indeed,
did
feeling
run
at
one
time
that
a
well-dressed, portly
man
named
Bridd
jumped
upon
the
platform
and,
defying the
remonstrances
of
the
chairman,
Mr
P.
Edwards,
began
addressing the
meeting
while
another
speaker
held
the
chair.
Bridd
was
brought to
reason
amid
a
scene
of
indescribable
confusion
only
by
the
appearance
of
police
constables.

Mr
P.
Edwards
announced
that
he
and
his
fellows
on
the
platform had
not
the
least
personal
sympathy
with
William
Palmer,
knew nothing
of
him,
and
had
never
seen
or
conversed
either
with
him
or with
any
member
of
his
family.
Nor
did
they
feel
a
morbid
sympathy
with
criminals,
and
if
the
verdict
had
satisfied
public
opinion as
correctl
y
given,
he
for
one
should
never
have
considered
arresting the
progress
of
the
law,
which
was
always
a
thing
to
be
respected.
(Cheers.)
But,
since
public
opinion
found
much
cause
to
doubt Palmer's
guilt,
and
since
a
number
of
first-class
medical
men,
such
as Professor
Herapath
of
Bristol,
Dr
Letheby,
and
others,
stated
that, given
more
time,
they
could
throw
additional
light
on
this
subject, the
meeting
had
been
convened
to
ask
for
more
time.
(Cheers.)

He,
and
those
who
acted
with
him
on
this
occasion,
demanded neither
a
reprieve,
nor
the
Royal
clemency;
they
demanded
simple justice.
If
his
listeners
considered
the
evidence
submitted
at
the
trial to
have
been
doubtful,
he
hoped
that
they
would
endeavour,
with him,
to
procure
a
re-investigation
of
the
case,
so
that
there
might afterwards
be
no
cause
for
resentment
at
a
judicial
scandal.
He
had not
met
with
a
single
man
who
ventured
to
assert
that
Palmer's
guilt was
proved.
(Cheers and uproar.)
Despite
the
show
of
a
fair
trial,
most people
thought
that
Palmer
had
too
many
counsel
against
him,
and that
Lord
Campbell
himself
might
be
included
in
their
number.
(Renewed uproar.)
He
thought
Lord
Campbell
to
stand
high
above all
interested
and
petty
motives,
yet
all
judges
are
fallible
human beings,
and
he
might
well
have
erred
in
his
direction
of
the
trial.

Though
Mr
Edwards
admitted
that
he
himself
believed
in
Palmer's guilt,
belief
(he
insisted)
was
one
thing
and
certainty
another.
Surely a
man
was
not
to
be
hanged
on
mere
belief
?

Mr
Baxter
Langley
now
moved
the
resolution:
'That,
there
being grave
doubts
as
to
whether
or
not
John
Parsons
Cook
died
from strychnine,
and
it
being
essential
to
the
interests
of
society,
the
progress
of
science,
and
the
safety
of
individual
life,
that
such
doubts should
be
removed,
this
Meeting
is
of
opinion
that
the
execution
of William
Palmer
should
be
delayed
till
an
opportunity
has
been
afforded
of
proving
whether
or
not
strychnine
can
be
found
in
all
cases where
it
Has
caused
death.'

Mr
Langley,
too,
denied
that
he
had
any
sympathy
with
the convict
Palmer,
or
with
his
pursuits.
He
stood
there
to
vindicate
the majesty
of
the
law,
which
was
dear
to
all
Englishmen
as
a
protective, and
not
as
a
destructive,
principle;
and
he
wished
the
public
mind
to rest
satisfied,
before
the
sentence
was
executed,
that
no
link
was wanting
in
the
chain
of
evidence
against
the
prisoner.
He
did
not affirm
Palmer's
innocence,
but
he
asked
the
Meeting
for
their
own sakes
and
for
the
sake
of
the
law,
to
give
Palmer
the
benefit
of
the doubt
which
still
hung
over
his
guilt.