QUESTION. (Hansard, 22 April 1869)

MR. BRUCE

Sir, I think I should carry with me the judgment of the House if I were to decline to answer the Question of the hon. Baronet on the ground that, in a matter involving necessarily some considerable explanation, the first portion of this Question should rather be brought forward on going into Committee of Supply, and the last matter is one as to which information can be obtained at the Home Office. But I am quite as ready to give the information as the hon. Baronet can be to ask for it; and, if the House will kindly give me their indulgence for a few minutes, I will endeavour to satisfy them that, during the short time I have been at the Home 1359 Office I have not exercised the prerogative of mercy entrusted to me unworthily. I will, with the permission of the House, invert the order of the hon. Baronet's Questions, and I will state at once the number of persons who have been sentenced to capital punishment during the time that I have held Office, and what has been their fate. Excluding cases of child murder, which, for the last twenty or thirty years, have never been visited with capital punishment, the number of capital sentences, passed since the 10th of December last, has been eleven. Four of these sentences were passed during the winter Assizes of 1868. The first prisoners I had to deal with were Robert Sweet and William Bisgrove. Both of these men were found guilty of murder, and both were sentenced to death, after, no doubt, a full and fair trial on the part of the Judge and jury. I reprieved both of these sentences, and ended by granting a free pardon to Sweet, and commuting the sentence of Bisgrove to one of penal servitude for life. That decision of mine has been called a great miscarriage of justice. I will leave the House to judge to what extent it was so. It is beyond all question that Robert Sweet was an innocent man. It is equally beyond all question that the other man, Bisgrove, was insane. Three separate Reports all establish his insanity. The next two cases were those of Priscilla Biggadike, who was condemned for murdering her husband by poisoning him, and who was executed; and of Martin Brown, who was convicted of murdering a man, with the intention of plundering him, by shooting him, and upon whom also the sentence of death was carried out. In the Lent Assizes there have been seven capital convictions, excluding cases of child murder. In the first case, that of John Dolan, the sentence was executed. In the second case, that of John M'Cormack, convicted for shooting a man, the sentence was executed. In the third case, that of Michael Atkins, convicted of the murder of his wife, the sentence has been respited. The evidence, confirmed by the opinion of the Judge, satisfied me that the man was wrongfully convicted. The Judge stated that the verdict took him by surprise, and that he was satisfied that the death of the woman was caused by accident. The next case was that of Michael James 1360 Johnson, who was sentenced to death for murdering a man, by stabbing him, at Manchester. That sentence was executed. The next case was that of William Sheward, who has recently been executed at Norwich for the murder of his wife. The last cases were those of James Macdonald at Chester, whose sentence has been respited; and Charles Wiltshire, whose case is the subject of this inquiry. It will be seen, therefore, that of these eleven prisoners, six have suffered the capital sentence; two, I believe, to have been entirely innocent; one is undoubtedly insane, and there remain the other two—Macdonald and Wiltshire. The prisoner Macdonald has been respited on the recommendation of the Judge, who has authorized me to state that, in his opinion, the case was not one in which the capital punishment ought to be enforced—a recommendation which I may say is never disregarded. The case of Wiltshire was a more difficult one. This man being drunk violated a drunken woman. She had been, according to the evidence, drinking at a public-house; had left about ten in the evening; had fallen down repeatedly when helped on her way homewards; and at last had fallen down in a lane and remained in a state of insensibility. There, about one o'clock on a very tempestuous night, she was seen by this man Wiltshire, and violated. Next morning, about eight o'clock, she was found about eighty yards off, under a hay rick to which she had been conveyed, quite dead. The inquiry before the jury was what was the cause of death. It was beyond all question that the woman had been violated by this man Wiltshire. But it was the opinion of the Judge, and it was the opinion of the jury, that the death of this woman was caused rather by her own intemperance, and by exposure to the weather, than by the violence of the prisoner. The evidence of the surgeon, who was the first person who examined her, and which was endorsed by the next gentleman also who examined her, was this— I conducted the post mortem examination with a view to discover the exact cause of death. I used all the means my skill afforded, and, considering all I saw, I found nothing inconsistent with death from natural causes—I mean from wet and cold. I have received from ten of the jury the following statement of their opinion in 1361 regard to the cause of death. They state— That the deceased was proved to have been totally incapable by reason of intoxication, and had been lying about in the rain and mud for many hours before the condemned met with her; and we believe that the death of the said Harriet Nurse was accelerated by cold and exposure as well as by the violence of the prisoner; that up to the time of the condemned meeting with Harriet Nurse there could be no intention on his part to molest her, or do her any injury, and we hope the clemency of the Crown will be extended to the condemned, as we believe the case is one in which mercy may with propriety be exercised. That is the opinion of the jury. The opinion of the Judge was communicated to me on another memorial being sent to me, which memorial stated that, in the opinion of the memorialists, there was no intention on the part of the prisoner to take life, and that the woman's death arose as much from natural causes as from any violence. The Judge, in his communication to me, said— I entirely agree with the memorial, that the evidence shows no intention on the part of the prisoner to take life; and I also think it probable that she would not have died from that violence, if she had not been intoxicated. I shall be glad if you find in these circumstances a reason for granting the prayer of the petition, and commuting the sentence of death to penal servitude. It is well that the House and the country should understand how in these cases, which so often offend the honest opinion of the public, there is apparent discrepancy between the opinion of the Judge and jury on the one hand, and that of the Home Secretary on the other. It arises from this—that the jury is obliged to find from the direction of the Judge, a verdict of wilful murder; and that the Judge is constantly required to pass a sentence of death, when it is quite certain it will not, cannot, ought not, to be executed. Take the cases of child murder. It is perfectly notorious that no woman is ever executed for the murder of her infant child. In many other cases, no sooner has the Judge passed his sentence than he immediately communicates with the Home Secretary, telling him his opinion that the capital sentence ought not to be carried out. Such is the state of the law, and so long as it is the state of the law it is absolutely impossible but that the decision of the Secretary of State must occasionally be in disaccord with the finding of the jury and the sentence of the Judge. I thank the House for their kindness in hearing me. I felt that, un- 1362 der the circumstances, I could not give a satisfactory explanation without exceeding the brevity ordinarily assigned to answers to Questions. I hope it will be the opinion of the House that, in exercising the high trust reposed in me, I have done so with discretion, and under a full sense of the great responsibility I incur, and that the reasons I have given are satisfactory to the House and to the country.