William Augustus Beach. tunate transaction. It is not the husband who reveals the wife's dishonor; it is the seducer, sir. Long before this action was commenced, the dark cloud had enshrouded this wife. This action was not commenced until that wife, stimu lated by her seducer, had deserted the home of her husband. This action was not commenced until that wife, led by that seducer, appeared before his chosen tribunal, and vented her spleen and indignation against this husband. Long be fore this action was commenced, the shadow had fallen over that household, and a happy and honored home was distracted and dissevered. The argument does not apply, sir. The pic ture is not appropriate to this occasion or this case. It is not appropriate to any occasion; because I assert it as an invariable conse quence, that the dishonor and the ruin which follow the path of the seducer commence long before the husband is apprised of his own dis honor. It comes, sir, in alienated love; it comes in inevitable discord and contention; it comes, at last, in the clear revelation to the distracted heart of the husband of his wife's seduction and dishonor. Whatever may be said by Theodore Tilton upon that stand will not add a jot or tittle to the agony, the shame, or the remorse of that wife." Mr. Beach was the leader for the plaintiff in the case of Bovven v. Chase, in which Bowen claimed title to the estate of the cel ebrated Madame Jumel. Charles O'Conor and James C. Carter were for the defendant. The trial occupied a month, and the jury dis agreed. It was never tried again. He defended Rubenstein, tried in January, 1876, for the murder of Sarah Alexander, in Brooklyn, in which the defendant was con victed on circumstantial evidence. A report of this trial, including Mr. Beach's summing up, was published. In the summer of 1876 he was the leading counsel for the Executors of Alexander T Stewart in proceedings brought by certain alleged heirs to revoke the probate of his will. He defended John Scannell, tried at the New York Oyer and Terminer for the murder of Donohue; the defence being that
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Scannell had been made insane by the belief that Donohue murdered his brother, Florence Scannell, in a political quarrel some years before, and that Scannell had an insane delu sion that it was his duty to avenge the mur der of his brother. On the first trial the jury disagreed. On the second trial the jury acquitted Scannell on the ground of insanity. He was sent to an insane asylum, where he remained for about a year and was then discharged. He defended James C. King, a noted gambler, tried for murder in the first degree, at the New York Oyer and Terminer. King was convicted of murder in the second de gree, and sentenced to State's prison for life. He prosecuted the famous divorce case of Compton v. Compton The narration of his marvellous speech in that case, and how in the midst of it the defendant fell at his feet, clasped him about the knees, and begged for mercy, is one of the stories often told by lawyers of the New York Bar when they meet together and talk of " the giants that were in those days." He defended Maggie Jordan, tried for aid ing in the escape of William L. Sharkey from the Tombs, where he was imprisoned, awaiting execution upon a conviction of murder. The case was full of romantic interest. Maggie Jordan had been the mis tress of Sharkey. She visited him at the Tombs, and obtained admission to his cell. She had come prepared, and quickly ex changed clothes with him, so that when the time came for her to depart Sharkey, dressed in her clothes, went out in her stead, while she remained in his. He escaped and was never recaptured. The last heard of him, he was in the army of Don Carlos in Spain. The evidence of Maggie Jordan's complicity in Sharkey's escape was perfectly clear; but Mr. Beach made such a powerful and touch ing appeal to the jury not to degrade and punish her for her self-sacrificing devotion, that the jury disagreed, and Maggie Jordan was discharged. He was associated with Charles O'Conor
