the scholar in the lawyer, but cherished to the last those varied, elegant, refined, and refining tastes and pursuits, which, having acquired him early academical distinction, rendered in after life his intercourse always delightful to the most accomplished and gifted of his friends and acquaintance, and supplied him with a never-failing source of intellectual recreation. Above all, his conduct was uniformly characterised by truth and honour, by generosity and munificence, hid from nearly all but the objects of it; and by a profound reverence for religion, and a sincere faith in that Christianity, the inestimable consolations of which he experienced in the trying time of sickness and death, and which could alone afford him a well-founded hope of eternal peace and happiness.

WHO IS THE MURDERER?*

A PROBLEM IN THE LAW OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE.†

YORK, 15th March 1842.

A TRIAL for murder occurred here a few days ago, during the spring assizes for this county, which, taken altogether, is, in my opinion, the most remarkable that has been witnessed in this country for many years-little less so, indeed, than that of Eugene Aram; to which it bears, in several respects, a striking resemblance. The more I reflect upon it, the more am I struck with its peculiar interest and difficulty; and I consider it so calculated profitably to exercise the understandings of all clearheaded persons, lay or professional, interested in the administration of justice, (but is peculiarly instructive to students of our criminal law,) and so illustrative of the working of that law under circumstances of extreme difficulty, that I have determined to devote my leisure evenings at this place to the task of giving a pretty full account of it. That there are in it circumstances of mystery and horror, is certain; but I shall reveal no more of them than is necessary for my purpose; for I scout the idea of "ministering to minds diseased" by that degrading appetite for the loathsome details of crime, which certain late publications have engendered in persons of inferior capacity and education. They will find little to interest them in this sketch; but I hope and believe, that it will be otherwise with readers of a higher order-who * Blackwood's Magazine, May 1842. The Queen v. Goldsborough.

may live under, or be acquainted with, other systems of criminal jurisprudence, (say in Scotland, and on the Continent, particularly in France and Germany), with which I shall enable them to compare that of England—and to say how such a case as the present would have been dealt with by their own system. Who, indeed, here or elsewhere, can fail to be profoundly interested on behalf of JUSTICE in quest of a great criminal, and endeavouring, spite of a long lapse of time, to frustrate all his devices for secrecy and concealment;-and in ascertaining that neither the innocent has been condemned, nor the guilty acquitted? I shall proceed to detail all the material facts of the case with scrupulous accuracy, and so enable the reader to form a judgment on this case for himself, just as if he had sat beside me in court during the trialobserving the demeanour of the different witnesses and listening to their testimony with his eyes, too, riveted— at moments of intense and thrilling interest-upon the features of the man standing at the bar, to answer the most dreadful charge on which man can be arraigned before man.

In the summer of the year 1830, there lived at a place called Eagle's-cliffe, near Yarm, in the North Riding of Yorkshire, a man of the name of William Huntley. He was one of the sons of a respectable farmer who had died about ten years before, leaving behind him a widow and several children, and considerable property to be divided between them; but his will was so imperfect and obscure as to have led to a Chancery suit, in order to determine the true distribution of the property according to his intention-which was, to leave his widow the interest of a certain sum for her life, and considerable legacies to each of his children, payable as they became of age. His son William was, in the year 1830, about thirty-four years of age, and married, but lived apart from his wife, with

whom he had quarrelled. Owing to his being so long kept out of his little property, he became a weaver in order to support himself-and was, in fact, in humble circumstances. In point of personal appearance-a matter deserving particular attention-he was of middling stature; he had a broad, squat face; his head was large behind; his forehead a retreating one, with rather a deep indentation between the eyebrows; and he was pitted with the smallpox. But there was one peculiarity in his face—a very prominent tooth on the left side of the under-jawwhich caught every one's eye on first looking at him. It occasioned him to have a sort of "twist of the mouth".for which he had been always known and ridiculed by his companions, even at school. The solicitor who had the management of the affairs in Chancery was a Mr Garbutt, residing at Yarm, and still living. He had occasionally assisted the family, and, amongst them, William Huntley, by small advances during the time of their being kept out of their property.

At length, on Thursday, 22d July 1830-which will be found a date of great importance-Mr Garbutt was enabled to pay over to him the money due under the will; and on that day gave him a sum of £85, 16s. 4d.— the balance due after deducting the above-mentioned advances in seventeen £5 bank-notes of the bank of Messrs Backhouse and Company, bankers at Stocktonupon-Tees, and the remainder in silver and copper. He was also entitled to receive other money, which Mr Garbutt had received instructions from him to endeavour to obtain; and I believe that he would have been entitled to a still further sum on his mother's death. As I have already mentioned, Huntley at this time resided at Eagle'scliffe, but was in the constant habit of coming over to a small village at a few miles' distance, called HuttonRudby, where his mother lived, and also an intimate friend of his, one Robert Goldsborough (the prisoner), whose house, on such occasions, he was in the habit of

making his own—always passing the night there. Goldsborough was about Huntley's age; was a widower, with a couple of children, and in destitute circumstances, having even been in the receipt of parish relief down to within a few months of the period at which this narrative commences. On the day of Huntley's receiving his money, viz., Thursday, the 22d July, he went over to Hutton-Rudby, and stayed there one or two days, principally in company with his friend Goldsborough. There is some reason to believe that Huntley was desirous of preventing two or three creditors of his from knowing that he had received so considerable a sum of money; and also that he had, about the time in question, intimated to one or two persons a wish to go to America. He appears to have gone frequently to and fro, between Hutton-Rudby and Eagle's-cliffe, during the ensuing week.

At an early hour, five o'clock, on the morning of Friday, the 30th July, he was seen coming to Goldsborough's house; again, about three o'clock in the afternoon of that day, walking on the high-road, in company with Goldsborough, and a man named Garbutt; a third time, at eight o'clock in the evening of the same day, sitting in Goldsborough's house; and about ten o'clock that night, he, Goldsborough, and Garbutt, were observed walking together in a cheerful and friendly manner-Goldsborough with a gun in his hand-all bending their steps towards Crathorne Wood, which was close by, apparently on a poaching errand. From that moment to the present, Huntley has never been seen or heard of. The circumstance of his disappearance was noticed as soon as six o'clock on the ensuing day, Saturday—and his continued absence rapidly increased the suspicion and alarm of the neighbourhood. A quantity of stale-looking blood being seen on the side of the high-road, on the ensuing Monday morning, near the spot where he had been last seen walking with Goldsborough and Garbutt-and also