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expressed opposition of the public, — a cow 10th of February. On the 25th she died ardly and flabby doctrine which did little suddenly; the death was attributed to credit to a Minister of the Crown. Mr. apoplexy, and the deceased lady was taken Young soon reaped the reward of his extra back to Edinburgh and buried in the Grange judicial services. In November, 1862, he Cemetery. Mrs. Pritchard's illness contin became Solicitor-General for Scotland. ued, and she died on the 18th of March. In July, 1865, he prosecuted in the cause The body was taken to Edinburgh for burial, cdltbre of Reg. v. Pritchard. The story of and Dr. Pritchard accompanied it to the this strange case is worth telling at some house of his father-in-law, whence it was to be conveyed to the Grange. On the evening length.1 Edward William Pritchard, a member of before the funeral Pritchard returned to the Royal College of Surgeons (1846), after Glasgow by the last train. He was arrested travelling in the Pacific and North Polar Seas, at the railway station on a charge of having murdered his wife. The body of Mrs. Taylor in Egypt, and along the shores of the Medi terranean, settled at Filey, in Yorkshire, was exhumed; the interment of Mrs. Pritch where he married a Miss Mary Jane Taylor, ard was postponed; post-mortem examina tions were held by Prof. Douglas Maclagan daughter of a retired silk-merchant in Edin burgh. In 1859 he commenced practice in and Dr. Littlejohn, and these eminent gen tlemen came to the conclusion that in neither Glasgow, and by his contributions to med case had death resulted from natural causes. ical literature acquired a considerable repu tation among his brethren. In the summer Chemical analysis yielded unmistakable evi of 1863, however, public attention was drawn dence of poisoning by antimony, and in the to him in a somewhat unpleasant way. On case of Mrs. Taylor the symptoms pointed to the morning of the 5th May in that year, a the presence also of aconite. Pritchard was at fire broke out in his house, No. 11 Berkeley once fully committed on the charge of having Terrace, Berkeley Street. It was supposed at murdered both his wife and his mother-inthe time to have been caused by the servant- law. He was tried before three judges of the girl — who, by the way, was found burned to Court of Session, — the Lord Justice Clerk death in her bedroom — having fallen asleep Inglis, whose distinguished abilities were no with the gas-jet lit and close to the curtains. longer available for the defence of prisoners in distress, Lord Ardmillan, and Lord JervisBut ugly rumors got abroad which put a dif ferent complexion upon the matter: (1) the woode. Mr. Young, then Solicitor-General, Mr. (afterwards Lord) Gifford, whose intellec insurance office was said to have seriously de murred about paying for the damage, though tual energies were during a long lifetime the objection was subsequently withdrawn; evenly divided between the study of law and (2) the servant was reported to have been strange religious speculation; and Mr. Crichpregnant; (3) and it was credibly asserted ton, the late universally loved and admired that her bedroom door was found to be Sheriff Principal of Fifeshire, prosecuted for the Crown. Mr. Rutherfurd Clark was lead hiked outside. This incident passed, how ever, without further comment or inquiry. ing counsel for the prisoner. Most of the In the spring of 1865 Mrs. Pritchard became forensic interest in this remarkable trial poorly; and the prisoner wrote to her mother, centres round Mr. Rutherfurd Clark, whose Mrs. Taylor, to come through to Glasgow career forms the subject of the following and nurse her. Mrs. Taylor arrived on the paper. It may suffice for the present to say that Pritchard was convicted and ultimately 1 "A Complete Report of the Trial of Dr. E. W. executed, and to sum up the evidence upon Pritchard for the Poisoning of his Wife and Mother-inlaw." Reprinted by special permission from the " Scots which this eminently proper result was arrived at; the Solicitor-General's speech. man." Kdinburgh : William Kay, 5 Bank St., 1865.
