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The state of Cook's health previous to the incident at Shrewsbury was of the utmost importance. It was admitted by the prosecution that Cook was delicate of chest, but otherwise he was asserted to be hale and hearty. In May of 1855 he had consulted Dr. Savage for supposed syphilitic symptoms. He suffered from his throat, and had some eruptions about his mouth, and he had been taking mercury. Dr. Savage stopped this treatment, and advised that the symptoms were not those of syphilis. The post-mortem showed the cicatrised wound of an old chancre, but not of anything recent. The defence sought to show that Cook's death was connected with his history of ill-health.

When the races were over Palmer and Cook returned together to Rugeley--a curious fact, seeing that Cook had accused Palmer of putting something into his glass. Cook stayed at the Talbot Arms, which was opposite to Palmer's house, and it was at this inn that Cook's death occurred. Their arrival was on the night of Thursday, the 15th of November. When asked how he was Cook said that he was better than he had been at Shrewsbury. Cook dined next day with Palmer, and nothing happened that night. Early on Saturday morning Palmer saw Cook in his bedroom, and ordered him some coffee, which was brought there by Elizabeth Mills, the chambermaid, who gave most important evidence as to the various episodes of the illness until the death on the night of Tuesday, the 20th November. The coffee was given to Palmer, and he gave it to Cook, Mills having left. "Immediately after that the same symptoms set in which had taken place at Shrewsbury, and throughout the whole of that day and the next day" "the prisoner constantly administered everything to Cook." One incident was a bowl of broth being obtained by Palmer through a woman named Rowley. She was sent for it to the Albion, an inn in Rugeley. She took it to Palmer's house and put it in a saucepan on the kitchen fire to warm. Palmer, whilst she was absent in the back kitchen, poured the broth into a basin, brought it to her, and told her to take it up to Cook, and say Smith had sent it. This was Jeremiah Smith, an attorney in Rugeley, a common friend of Palmer and Cook. A spoonful of the broth made Cook sick. But the full significance of this intended inference is not seen until we take the evidence of Mills that she drank a spoonful and became sick in about half an hour, and had to go to bed.

And here we may refer to the evidence of this Jeremiah Smith, who was called as a witness on behalf of Palmer. His cross-examination was the most dramatic scene of the trial. He was shown to have been concerned with Palmer in the insurance schemes, and not a rag of his credit remained. But Sir James Stephen remarks, "No abbreviation can give the effect of this cross-examination. The witness's efforts to gain time, and his distress as the various answers were extorted from him by degrees, may be faintly traced in the report. The witness's face was covered with sweat, and the papers put into his hands shook and rustled."

During Saturday and Sunday Cook was attended by Mr. Bamford, a medical man in Rugeley. As Mr. Bamford's age gave rise to some observation, I may mention that he was eighty. He was told by Palmer on the Saturday that Cook had had a bilious attack owing to having taken too much wine at the dinner the day before, but when Mr. Bamford mentioned this Cook replied that he had only two glasses of champagne, and Mr. Bamford, in fact, found that the symptoms were not bilious.

On Sunday, as the sickness continued, Mr. Bamford prepared two opiate pills containing half a grain of morphia, half a grain of calomel, and four grains of rhubarb. The ingredients are important. The following Monday is a crucial day. Palmer went to London and saw Herring, a betting man, gave him a list of Cook's winnings, and instructed him to attend Tattersall's and settle. Herring was not Cook's regular agent, but Fisher, the man to whom Cook had entrusted his money at Shrewsbury whilst he was ill. Fisher declared that he had, in fact, advanced ?200 on the strength of the money which Fisher expected to draw at Tattersall's. This ?200, at the request of Cook, in a letter written by him from Rugeley on the 16th of November , was applied by Fisher to one of Pratt's acceptances. This letter was used by the defence to show that, as Palmer alleged, the bills were for the joint transactions of himself and Cook, and by parity of reasoning that Palmer had probably Cook's authority to draw his bets. Herring drew ?900 of the ?1020 at Tattersall's, and, as Palmer had instructed him, he paid ?450 to Pratt. He was also instructed to pay Padwick ?350 for a bet which Padwick had won, partly from Palmer and partly from Cook, but for which Palmer was liable: again a suggestion of joint transactions between Palmer and Cook. This payment was to be made, according to the prosecution, to keep Padwick quiet over his ?2000 forged acceptance, half of which remained unpaid. Herring, however, did not pay Padwick. If he had done so he would have been out of pocket, as it had been agreed between him and Palmer that part of the money he was to draw should be applied to debts of his own due from Palmer.

Palmer finished his business in town by going to Pratt. He paid him ?50, so that this, the ?450, and Fisher's ?200, with ?600 Palmer had previously paid, wiped off ?1300. He then returned to Rugeley, arriving there at an hour which was certainly mistaken by the prosecution, and which derived its chief importance from the story told by Jeremiah Smith of his meeting Palmer returning much later, and the account he gave of their movements together. If his story were true, that of the witness Newton, who spoke to the purchase by Palmer from him of strychnia that night, would be suspect. As it was, doubt was cast upon it by Newton never mentioning it until the day of the trial. Cook during Palmer's absence had no sickness, though in the morning Palmer, who had gone early to the hotel, had given him coffee, and Cook had vomited. But after Palmer left for London Mr. Bamford had come, and given him a new medicine. It was arguable, therefore, that the irritation of the stomach was soothed by the new medicine. Cook dressed, got up, recovered his spirits, and saw and talked with several people, and so he continued till night. This has the most important bearing, as will be seen by the medical evidence, on the vital point whether Cook's symptoms were either those of strychnia poisoning, or idiopathic or traumatic tetanus, or of some other form of nervous disease with tetanic convulsions.

On Palmer's return to Rugeley he went to see Cook, and he remained, going in and out of his room, until about eleven o'clock. He then left, and about twelve the house was alarmed by violent screams from Cook's rooms. I shall refer the reader for the details of this illness to the evidence.

According to the prosecution Palmer had gone previously on that night to Newton, who was the assistant of a surgeon at Rugeley named Salt, and had purchased three grains of strychnia. This was Newton's statement. Whilst Palmer was away in London Mr. Bamford had sent to the Talbot Arms the same sort of pills, in which were morphia, calomel, and rhubarb. They were taken by the maid upstairs, and put in the usual place for Palmer to administer, as he had done before.

The Attorney-General put his case thus to the jury, "It will be for you to say whether Cook took the pills prepared by Mr. Bamford, and which he had taken on the Saturday and Sunday night, or whether, as this accusation suggests, the prisoner substituted for the pills of Mr. Bamford some of his own concoction in which strychnia was mixed."

On Tuesday morning, the 20th, the day of his death, Cook was comparatively comfortable after his violent attack.

That same morning Palmer went to the shop of a druggist at Rugeley, Mr. Hawkins. He asked for six grains of strychnia, with some prussic acid and some liquor of opium. While Hawkins' assistant Roberts was putting up the prussic acid Newton came into the shop. Palmer took him by the arm, and saying, "I have something I want to say to you," led him outside, and began to talk to him about an unimportant matter. While they were talking a man Bassington came up, and when he and Newton were fully engaged in talk Palmer went back into the shop, and stood in the doorway. Palmer went away with what he had bought, and then Newton went into the shop and inquired what Palmer had bought, and was told.

At the preliminary inquiry before the coroner Newton only told of this incident at the shop. He did not tell of Palmer having purchased strychnia from him on the Monday night until the day before the Attorney-General was making his speech for the prosecution. An explanation will be found in Newton's evidence.

Before coming to the actual circumstances of Cook's death on Tuesday night two other facts must be mentioned. On the previous Sunday Palmer wrote to Mr. Jones, a medical man living at Lutterworth, with whom Cook lived when he was at home. He said Cook had a bilious attack with diarrhoea, and asked Jones to come and see him as soon as possible. On Monday he wrote to him again desiring him to come.

The Attorney-General said, "I should not be discharging my duty if I did not suggest this as being part of a deep design, and that the administration of the irritant poison, of which abundant traces were found after death, was for the purpose of producing the appearance of natural disease, which could account afterwards for the death to which the victim was doomed."

The irritant poison referred to is antimony, but one of the main facts, if not altogether the most important one, on which the defence relied, was that no strychnia was found in the body of Cook.

Mr. Jones came on the Tuesday about three o'clock, and was with Cook throughout till his death.

The other fact referred to is that during the same day Palmer sent for Cheshire, the postmaster at Rugeley. Palmer produced a paper and asked him to fill in a cheque on Messrs. Wetherby in Palmer's favour for ?350 , saying "Poor Cook is too ill to draw the cheque himself, and Messrs. Wetherby might know my handwriting." Palmer was a defaulter at Tattersall's. Cheshire did what he was asked to do. Palmer took the cheque away. It was sent that night, and returned to Palmer by Messrs. Wetherby. Notice to produce the cheque was given to the defence. This was not done, and the prosecution in these circumstances insisted that Cook's signature was forged by Palmer. If the cheque had been produced, and Cook's signature proved genuine, the defence would have had a strong case that Palmer drew the bets by Cook's instruction for their joint transactions.

Cheshire was brought from prison to give evidence. Palmer had induced him to intercept letters addressed to Palmer's mother to prevent her becoming aware of the forged bills. Besides this, Cheshire informed Palmer of the contents of a letter from Dr. Taylor, the analyst, who tested the remains for poison after the post mortem on the coroner's inquiry. This letter informed Mr. Stevens, Cook's stepfather, that no strychnia had been found, and Palmer was sufficiently audacious and foolish to write to the coroner, a Mr. Ward, a lawyer, emphasising this fact. More foolishly still he sent the coroner gifts of game. The prosecution asserted that much of the evidence given by some of the witnesses, Mills, for instance, at the trial, but not found in the depositions at the inquest, had not been given there because the coroner had conducted the inquiry so laxly. The defence, of course, disputed this.

We come to the actual scene of Cook's death on the Tuesday night. There was a consultation of the three doctors in Cook's presence at seven o'clock. Cook suddenly said to Palmer, "Palmer, I will have no more medicine to-night; no more pills." It was arranged that the pills should be made up as before without Cook knowing what they contained. Palmer went with Mr. Bamford to the latter's surgery for the pills, and Mr. Bamford was surprised at Palmer's asking him to write the directions on the box, as Palmer himself was to give the pills, but he did so. Palmer took the pills, and they were in his possession three-quarters of an hour before he returned to the Talbot. On opening the box he called the attention of Mr. Jones to the directions, saying "How wonderful it was that a man of eighty should write so good and strong a hand." Cook at first refused to take the pills, but Palmer insisted, and Cook took them. They were taken about half-past ten. A little before twelve o'clock Jones, who was to sleep in Cook's room, came in and undressed, and went to bed. In fifteen or twenty minutes he was roused by a scream from Cook, who called out, "For God's sake, fetch the doctor, I am going to be ill as I was last night."

I shall not set out the symptoms of Cook throughout this attack which ended in his death. They were the battle-ground of the case, and the scientific evidence must be referred to the reader's consideration. But the length of time from the administration of the pills to the first outcry of Cook must be particularly noted. The defence urged that strychnia could not possibly be so long in taking effect. This and the non-detection of strychnia in the body were the two chief difficulties of the prosecution.

On Thursday or Friday, the 22nd or 23rd, after Cook's death Palmer sent again for Cheshire, and, producing a paper with Cook's signature, purporting to be an acknowledgment by Cook that ?4000 worth of bills had been negotiated for Cook's benefit, asked him to sign it as witness. Cheshire refused, exclaiming, "Good God! the man is dead!" The prosecution asserted Cook's signature to be a forgery; they gave notice to produce the document, and this was not done.

We come to the appearance in Rugeley of Mr. Stevens, Cook's stepfather. His conversations with Palmer on money matters, his suspicions aroused by the appearance of the body, Palmer's ordering a coffin without his orders, and especially the fact that Cook's betting book and other papers had disappeared, with Palmer's evasions about them, all put him on the alert. Besides, at the time, the inquiries by the insurance office were going on in the neighbourhood about Walter Palmer's death. On Saturday, the 24th, both Stevens and Palmer had left Rugeley to go to London, Stevens to consult his London solicitor, Palmer to pay Pratt another ?100, he, as the prosecution pointed out, not having had any money at Shrewsbury, and having lost on the races there. Stevens and Palmer met in the train on the return journey, and Stevens told Palmer that he was determined to have a post-mortem and to employ a solicitor to investigate.

The post-mortem, the chemical analysis, the coroner's inquest, and the trial followed. In the meantime Padwick had arrested Palmer for the debt on his bills, the story of his mother's forged acceptances became known, and the Palmer case of 1855-6 became as intense a source of popular curiosity and excitement as the Crippen case of 1910. To the circumstances of the Cook case were also added the exhumations of Palmer's wife and brother, and the public inquiries relating to them, and the rumours that Palmer had poisoned many others.

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.

In an English criminal trial an inquiry into the family history of the accused, or into his personal character and previous career, has no place unless insanity is in issue. Such matters were rigidly excluded from the trial of Palmer. This trial as it stands is simply a great forensic contest famous in the records of the criminal law. The criminal himself is, as it were, an abstraction or automaton, his acts are only taken into account as part of certain outward events which enter into the general body of circumstances connected with the particular case. The motive is investigated, but strictly in relation to the particular crime; and in atrocious crimes the pecuniary motive always seems inadequate. Deadly hate or fierce passion, or an access of unreasoning fear in some circumstances, may be more intelligible. Yet such crimes seem always inexplicable, unless we can refer them to some abnormality in the character of the criminal himself, and either ascribe it to his ancestry or deduce it from his own doings outside the culminating crime which he commits. The normal man, we say, does not become base at a stroke.

In Palmer's case there is available evidence of both kinds bearing on abnormality. It may not amount to insanity. It may be only the "wickedness" of which Sir James Stephen speaks in a quotation given below. Whatever it may be called, it is traceable in Palmer throughout his life.

Palmer's father was a wealthy man who died worth ?70,000, at Rugeley, in Staffordshire, Palmer's birthplace. The origin of this fortune began with his maternal grandfather, who had been associated with a woman in Derby whom he deserted, taking with him some hundreds of pounds said to belong to her. In Lichfield he became prosperous and respectable. His daughter married the elder Palmer, who was at the time a sawyer, a rude, uneducated man. A previous suitor of Mrs. Palmer had been the steward of the Marquis of Anglesea. The two men were intimate after the marriage, and associated in dealings with the Anglesea timber; and to these dealings, and similar ones with stewards of other estates, the elder Palmer's wealth was attributed by the country tradition. After her husband's death Mrs. Palmer used her freedom in several love affairs that caused scandal. One of these was with Jeremiah Smith, the attorney, Palmer's associate in many nefarious transactions, who was called for the defence, and was cross-examined mercilessly by the Attorney-General on his relations with Mrs. Palmer.

William, the Palmer of this trial, was the second son in a family of five sons and two daughters. Of these, William, his brother Walter, and a sister lived badly and died miserably. Walter would have died from drink if his brother William had not hurried him away by poison for his insurance money. Other members of the family were reputable citizens.

William Palmer was first apprenticed to a firm of wholesale druggists in Liverpool. After a time considerable amounts of money sent through the post by customers to the firm were lost, and, after much inquiry, Palmer confessed he had stolen them, and his indentures were cancelled. His mother then for the first time began to cover up her son's misdeeds by advances of money. This story runs throughout the trial, and Palmer fleeced his mother without compunction.

At the age of eighteen he was next apprenticed to Mr. Tylecote, a surgeon, near Rugeley. In consequence of discreditable conduct with women, and in money matters, Palmer left, and Mr. Tylecote refused to take him back. He was then admitted into the Stafford Infirmary as "a walking pupil." Four years after, in 1846, he was back at Rugeley, and there, at an inquest held on a man named Abley, it was proved that Palmer had incited the man to drink large quantities of brandy. There was talk of Palmer's connection with Abley's wife, and a suspicion that the affair was something more than a "lark."

Whether Palmer intended or not at first to settle down to his profession, he was almost without practice in two or three years after his marriage. Horses and racing occupied him in place of medicine. He had means without practice, and, as Rugeley is a great horse-dealing centre, he was always familiar with men connected with horses and racing, and they were his chosen company. In 1853 he was in pecuniary difficulties due to his racing transactions, and was raising money on bills with moneylenders.

Withal he kept up an appearance of great outward respectability. Church-going sixty years ago was more than now one of its marks. In the diary, some extracts from which will be found in the Appendices, there are references in the year when he poisoned Cook to attendances at the Sacrament. It is not necessary to read into this church-going anything more specific than the radical falsity of Palmer's character. Great formalism and profession of rigid theological dogma were the usual mental furniture of the middle classes of Palmer's day. After all the disclosures of the trial Palmer used the customary pietistic phrases, and it was characteristic of the times that, after his conviction, his counsel, Serjeant Shee, sent him a beautifully bound copy of the Bible. The profession of religion, indeed, as a cloak to evil seems to have been purposeless, as he was notorious for seductions, as well as of bad odour in other details of his life.

Shortly after his marriage began a series of suspicious deaths which were attributed to Palmer after investigation started into the circumstances attending the death of Cook. An illegitimate child he had by a Rugeley woman died after it had visited him. Mrs. Thornton, his mother-in-law, was persuaded to live at his house, and she died within a fortnight. Palmer acquired property from her by her death. In 1850 a Mr. Bladon, a racing man, stayed for several days with Palmer, who owed him ?800 for bets. Bladon died in circumstances very like those attending Cook's death, and Palmer buried him with the haste he attempted in the case of Cook, and he narrowly escaped a similar accusation.

In 1854 Palmer effected insurances to the amount of ?13,000 on his wife's life. Within six months she died much as Bladon had died, and as Cook was to die. Dr. Bamford, a medical man of eighty-two, whom Palmer seems to have hoodwinked into serving his purposes, certified the death of Mrs. Palmer, as he had done the death of Bladon, and as he was to certify a year later that of Cook. Palmer drew the insurance money from the offices concerned. They were influenced by the popular suspicions and rumours in Rugeley and in the sporting circles Palmer frequented, but they paid after some hesitation and suggestion of inquiry, and Palmer was freed from the most pressing of his liabilities. His diary contains this entry--"Sept. 29th , Friday--My poor, dear Annie expired at 10 past 1." Nine days after this--"Oct. 8th, Sunday--At church, Sacrament." Nine months after his maidservant, Eliza Tharm, bore an illegitimate child to him. Within three months of his wife's death Palmer, with the assistance of Pratt, the moneylender, whose claims had been met by the insurance on Mrs. Palmer's life, was making proposals to various offices, amounting to ?82,000, on the life of his brother Walter. Ultimately an insurance for ?13,000 was effected, and the policy was lodged with Pratt to secure advances. After this the rest of Palmer's life-history is directly connected with the story of the trial. The account we have given will suggest the, perhaps unprecedented, interest with which the trial was anticipated throughout the Midlands, and afterwards with what absorbed attention it was followed by all England as well as on the Continent.

I conclude this sketch by quoting a characteristic description by Sir James Stephen, who knew Palmer, had studied the criminal type, and himself presided at one of the most famous trials for poisoning. He says of Palmer--"His career supplied one of the proofs of a fact which many kind-hearted people seem to doubt, namely, the fact that such a thing as atrocious wickedness is consistent with good education, perfect sanity, and everything, in a word, which deprives men of all excuse for crime. Palmer was respectably brought up; apart from his extravagance and vice, he might have lived comfortably enough. He was a model of physical health and strength, and was courageous, determined, and energetic. No one ever suggested that there was even a disposition towards madness in him; yet he was as cruel, as treacherous, as greedy of money and pleasure, as brutally hard-hearted and sensual a wretch as it is possible even to imagine. If he had been the lowest and most ignorant ruffian that ever sprang from a long line of criminal ancestors, he could not have been worse than he was. He was by no means unlike Rush, Thurtell, and many other persons whom I have known. The fact that the world contains an appreciable number of wretches, who ought to be exterminated without mercy when an opportunity occurs, is not quite so generally understood as it ought to be--many common ways of thinking and feeling virtually deny it."

Leading Dates in the Palmer Trial.

August Walter Palmer, William Palmer's brother, dies. Payment of policy on his life for ?13,000 assigned to William Palmer, and held by Pratt, moneylender, as security, refused by insurance office. Negotiations about it continue up to Cook's death.

Nov. 6. Writs issued by Pratt against Palmer and his mother for ?4000, Mrs. Palmer's acceptance being forged. Writs not served, for Palmer to have opportunity of raising instalments.

" 13. Palmer and Cook go together from Rugeley to Shrewsbury Races. Cook's mare, "Polestar," wins Shrewsbury Handicap, and he has in his possession, in consequence, ?700 or ?800, and is entitled to stakes of ?350 and bets, to be paid at Tattersall's the Monday following, of over ?1000.

" 14. Cook ill at the Raven, Shrewsbury, where he and Palmer stayed. Palmer is alleged to have dosed his drink.

" 15. Palmer's horse, "Chicken," beaten in his race, and Palmer loses heavily.

Cook and Palmer return to Rugeley, and Cook puts up at the Talbot.

" 16. Cook dines with Palmer and Jeremiah Smith. Cook apparently in usual health.

" 17. Cook ill in bed, with the same symptoms as at Shrewsbury.

" 18. His illness continues, and during the two days Palmer is in constant attendance, and orders and administers food, drink, and medicine. Dr. Bamford called in.

" 19. Palmer goes to London and arranges with Herring to draw Cook's bets at Tattersalls and make payments to Pratt and Padwick, the moneylenders.

Cook is better all the Monday while Palmer is away.

Nov. 19. Palmer returns in the evening. Goes to Newton, the assistant of Mr. Salt, surgeon at Rugeley, and purchases 3 grains of strychnia. Is in and out of Cook's room up to eleven o'clock. Gives Cook pills, and leaves about eleven o'clock. These pills were professedly those sent by Dr. Bamford, but were alleged by the prosecution to have been substituted by Palmer with others containing strychnia. Jeremiah Smith gave evidence that Cook had taken Dr. Bamford's pills before Palmer's arrival.

About twelve o'clock Cook is taken ill with violent spasms, and awakens household with violent screaming. Palmer is sent for.

" 20. Cook "comparatively comfortable" in the morning.

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