held to have proved its case. It was proved that as soon as the news of her death got abroad in the town, Spencer Cowper sent in haste for his horse, which was at Mrs. Stout's, lest it should be claimed as forfeited if the verdict of suicide were rendered by the coro ner's jury. His conduct, to say the least, was. indifferent and heartless throughout. The jury, after consulting half an hour, acquit ted him, and the very next day he went on with his business before the court of assizes as if nothing had happened. After all, this sad tragedy did not work that ruin to Spen cer Cowper's life which might seem probable. As years passed on, the fate of the young Quakeress was forgotten. Some people still believed in Cowper's guilt; but when he was raised to the bench as a judge of the Common Pleas, his worldly triumph over the accusation was complete. In the elements of evidence weighed by the courts, none is more grave and conclu sive than that of the death-bed accusation of a victim of foul play. One naturally supposes that such a person, with the near prospect of eternity before him, will not fasten the crime upon an innocent man; and his deposition is accorded.a weight which is rarely given to credible eyewitnesses of a crime. Especially strong does this sort of evidence become when the accused is brought face to face with his supposed victim at the bedside, and is then and there sworn to as the real criminal. Yet judicial an nals abound with instances in which persons have been thus accused, and have suffered the dread results of such accusation, who have afterward been proved clearly guilt less. It need scarcely be remarked that innocent persons often confess to having committed crimes sometimes for the sake of notoriety, sometimes to mitigate the punishment which they think certain to be inflicted upon them. As to deathbed accu sations, the case of Sarah Green, in London, is to the point. One night this girl was at tacked by three men, who had the appear ance of being brewers' apprentices. She
was taken to the hospital, and while she was lying there she was confronted by a man named Coleman, a brewer's assistant, whom a stranger, in a quarrel at an ale-house, had charged with being concerned in the assault. She at first declined to swear that he was one of her assailants, though she expressed a decided opinion that he was. Being brought to her a second time, however, she swore positively that Coleman was one of her assassins. Coleman was, however, set free on bail; whereupon he hastened to conceal himself. Soon after the girl's death he was found. He was indicted, convicted, and executed. Two years after it was dis covered that he was wholly innocent, the real criminals being apprehended, and con fessing that they did not so much as know Coleman by sight. A similar though yet more tragic instance of condemnation on account of an accusa tion in articulo mortis was that of the Shaws of Keith. William Shaw, laborer, had a daughter who was in love with a young man of whom the father strenuously dis approved. One day loud words were heard in the room where they lived. After a quar rel between father and daughter, Shaw left the house, locking the girl in the room. Not long after, the sound of groans caused the neighbors to break open the door, when the girl was found writhing in agony on the floor, a bloody knife lying at her side. When asked if her father had done the deed, she nodded faintly, and immediately drew her last breath. Shaw just then returned, and seemed over come at the sight of his dead child. He was arrested; blood was found on his shirtsleeves, which he accounted for as caused by his having bled himself several days before; but circumstances weighed too heavily against him, and he was condemned and executed. Some time after, a letter written by the girl was found in the chim ney of the room, stating that she was about to commit suicide, and also containing the words, " My cruel father is the cause of my death." This gave the clew to the fatal ges
