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                        THE MOST EXTRAORDINARY

                                 TRIAL

                                  OF

                            WILLIAM PALMER,

                                FOR THE

                          RUGELEY POISONINGS,

                       WHICH LASTED TWELVE DAYS.

                            [Illustration]

                                LONDON:
          W. M. CLARK, 16 & 17, WARWICK LANE, PATERNOSTER ROW
                     AND SOLD BY ALL BOOKSELLERS.




        COUNSEL FOR THE CROWN.


          The ATTORNEY-GENERAL,
          Mr. JAMES, Q.C.,
          Mr. BODKIN,
          Mr. WELSBY, and
          Mr. HUDDLESTON.


        COUNSEL FOR THE PRISONER.

          Mr. Serjeant SHEE,
          Mr. GROVE, Q.C.,
          Mr. GRAY, and
          Mr. KINNEALY.


        The following Gentlemen were sworn on

        THE JURY.

          THOMAS KNIGHT, of Leytonstone.
          RICHD. DUMBRELL, Fore Street.
          WM. MAVOR, Park Street.
          WM. NEWMAN, Coleshill Street.
          GEORGE MILLER, Duke Street, Grosvenor Square.
          GEORGE OAKSHOTT, Ham Lane, West Ham.
          CHARLES BATES, Borough Road.
          WM. ECCLESTONE, HAM LANE.
          SAMUEL MULLETT, Great Portland Street.
          JOHN OVER, Grosvenor Road, Pimlico.
          WM. NASH, Conduit Street.
          WM. FLETCHER, Fore Street.


The prisoner, WILLIAM PALMER, Surgeon, of Rugeley, aged 31, was indicted
for having at Rugeley, county of Stafford, on November 21st, 1855,
feloniously, wilfully, and with malice aforethought, committed murder on
the person of JOHN PARSONS COOK.




                                MEMOIR

                                  OF

                            WILLIAM PALMER.


William Palmer is a member of a wealthy family, and is thirty-one years
of age. He was educated for the medical profession, was a pupil at St.
Bartholemew’s Hospital, London, received the diploma of the Royal
College of Surgeons in 1846, and shortly afterwards settled at Rugeley,
his native place. He seems, however, to have paid more attention to the
“turf,” and what are commonly called sporting pursuits, than to his
profession, and to have confined his practice to his own family and
friends.

His name appears in the “London and Provincial Medical Directory” of
1851, and again in 1855, as that of one of the persons who had neglected
to inform the editor of that work of the nature of their qualifications.
He married, in 1847, Anne, the natural daughter of Col. William Brookes
and Mary Thornton, his housekeeper. Col. Brookes, who, after quitting
the East India service, took up his residence at Stafford, died in 1834,
leaving considerable property, and more than one natural child.

To Anne Thornton he bequeathed, by a will dated July 27, 1833, nine
houses at Stafford, besides land, and the interest of 20,000 sicca
rupees, for herself and her children, and appointed Dr. Edward Knight, a
physician of Stafford, and Mr. Dawson, her guardians and trustees. To
Mary Thornton, the mother of Anne, the colonel bequeathed certain
property, which was to pass to her daughter at the decease of the
mother. Mary Thornton departed this life--it is said, while a guest at
Mr. Palmer’s house,--in 1848 or 1849.

Now, although the will of Colonel Brookes would seem clear enough to
anyone who was ignorant of law, and although, in the present state of
the law, as we are informed, it would be sufficient, yet it was
discovered by the legal fraternity, some years since, that the language
conveying the bequest to Anne Thornton was not sufficiently forcible to
convey it to her absolutely, but only to give her a life interest in it,
insomuch as, at her decease, it was liable to be claimed by the
heir-at-law to Colonel Brookes.

Under these circumstances, there was nothing unnatural or unusual in the
idea that Palmer should insure his wife’s life, in order to protect
himself from the inevitable loss which must ensue in case of her
decease; and since her property consisted of seventeen acres of land,
valued at between £300 and £400 per acre, besides nine houses, and the
interest of the sicca rupees--probably altogether worth at least £400
per annum, upon which he had borrowed largely from his mother--there
could be no doubt of his having such an interest in his wife’s life as
would justify insurance.

Accordingly, in January, 1854, he insured her life for £3,000 in the
Norwich Union, and in March in the Sun for £5,000; there was also an
insurance in the Scottish Equitable for £5,000. Mrs. Palmer died on
September 29, 1854, leaving only one surviving child, a boy of seven
years; and, as if to justify the husband in effecting an insurance, an
action was brought within a month by Colonel Brookes’s heir-at-law, to
obtain possession of Mrs. Palmer’s property.

Palmer brought up the life policies on the Sun and Norwich Union on the
16th of October, 1854, and employed Mr. Pratt, the solicitor, to obtain
the money from the offices. Mr. Pratt, who seems to have acted with
entire _bona fides_, and the caution usual among lawyers, required to be
furnished with evidence of the husband’s pecuniary interest in his
wife’s life, took counsel’s opinion on every step, and obtained the
£8,000 from the offices on the 6th of February, 1855; strangely enough,
the £5,000 from the Scottish Equitable was paid through a banker unknown
to Pratt.

Great excitement prevailed in reference to the trial, and large bodies
of persons who could have no possible chance of admission crowded the
avenues of the court. Day after day notices have appeared in the papers,
that only those who had obtained tickets of admission from the Sheriffs
would be admitted; and the under-sheriffs very wisely adhered to that
determination. In consequence of their very excellent arrangements, the
Court was at no time inconveniently crowded. At ten o’clock the judges
appointed to try the case entered the Court, and took their seats on the
bench. They were Lord Campbell, the Lord Chief Justice of the Queen’s
Bench, Mr. Baron Alderson, and Mr. Justice Cresswell.




                        TRIAL OF WILLIAM PALMER

                                  FOR

                        THE RUGELEY POISONINGS.




CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT, MAY 14, 1856.


The long-deferred trial of William Palmer, which, owing to the necessity
of passing a special act of Parliament to enable it to take place in
this court, has been delayed for a period of several months since the
finding of a true bill by the Grand Jury of Staffordshire, commenced
to-day at the Old Bailey; and, notwithstanding the interval which has
elapsed since this extraordinary case was first brought under the notice
of the public, the intense interest and excitement which it then
occasioned seem in no degree to have abated. Indeed, if the applications
for admission to the court which were made so soon as the trial was
appointed, and the eager endeavours of large crowds to gain an entrance
to-day, may be regarded as a criterion of the public anxiety upon the
progress and issue of the trial, the interest would seem to have
augmented rather than diminished.

At a very early hour every entrance to the court was besieged by persons
of respectable appearance, who were favoured with cards giving them a
right of entrance. Without such cards no admittance could on any
pretence be obtained, and even the fortunate holders of them found that
they had many difficulties to overcome, and many stern janitors to
encounter, before an entrance to the much-coveted precincts could be
obtained. On the whole, however, the arrangements of the Under-Sheriffs
Stone and Ross were excellent, and, although there may be individual
cases of complaint, as there always will be when delicate and important
functions have to be performed with firmness, it is but justice to
testify to the general completeness and propriety of the regulations
which the Sheriffs had laid down.

Among the distinguished persons who were present at the opening of the
Court were the Earl of Derby, Earl Grey, the Marquis of Anglesea, Lord
Lucan, Lord Denbigh, Prince Edward of Saxe Weimar, Lord W. Lennox, Lord
G. G. Lennox, and Lord H. Lennox. The Lord Advocate of Scotland sat by
the side of the Attorney-General during the trial.

At five minutes to ten o’clock the learned Judges, Lord Chief Justice
Campbell, Mr. Baron Alderson, and Mr. Justice Cresswell, accompanied by
the Lord Mayor, and Aldermen Sir G. Carroll, Humphrey, Sir R. W. Carden,
Finnis, Sir F. G. Moon, and Sidney, Mr. Sheriff Kennedy, Mr. Sheriff
Rose, Mr. Under-Sheriff Stone, and Mr. Under-Sheriff Rose, took their
seats on the bench.

The prisoner, William Palmer, was immediately placed in the dock; and to
the indictment which charged him with the wilful murder of John Parsons
Cook, who died at Rugeley upon the 21st of November last, he pleaded, in
a clear, low, but perfectly audible and distinct tone, “Not guilty.” The
prisoner is described in the calendar as “William Palmer, 31, surgeon,
of superior degree of instruction.” In appearance Palmer is much older,
and, although there are no marks of care about his face, there are the
set expression and rounded frame which belong to the man of forty or
forty-five. His countenance is clear and open, the forehead high, the
complexion ruddy, and the general impression which one would form from
his appearance would be rather favourable than otherwise, although his
features are of a common and somewhat mean cast. There is certainly
nothing to indicate to the ordinary observer the presence either of
ferocity or cunning, and one would expect to find in him more of the
boon companion than the subtle adversary. His manner was remarkably calm
and collected throughout the whole of the day. It was altogether devoid
of bravado, but was respectful and attentive, and was calculated to
create a favourable impression. He frequently conversed with Mr. Smith,
his professional adviser, and remained standing until the close of the
speech for the prosecution, when at his request his counsel asked that
he might be permitted to sit--an application which was at once acceded
to by Lord Campbell.

The counsel engaged in the case were:--The Attorney-General, Mr. E.
James, Q.C., Mr. Bodkin, Mr. Welsby, and Mr. Huddleston, for the Crown;
and Mr. Serjeant Shee, Mr. Grove, Q.C., Mr. Gray, and Mr. Kenealy, for
the prisoner.

A most respectable jury having been empanelled, and all the witnesses,
with the exception of the medical men, having been ordered out of court,


THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL

proceeded, amid breathless silence, to open the case on the part of the
prosecution. He said: Gentlemen of the jury, the duty you are called
upon to discharge is the most solemn which a man can by possibility have
to perform--it is to sit in judgment and to decide an issue on which
depends the life of a fellow human being who stands charged with the
highest crime for which a man can be arraigned before a worldly
tribunal. I am sure that I need not ask your most anxious and earnest
attention to such a case; but there is one thing I feel it incumbent on
me to urge upon you. The peculiar circumstances of this case have given
it a profound and painful interest throughout the whole country. There
is scarcely a man, perhaps, who has not come to some conclusion on the
issue which you are now to decide. All the details have been seized on
with eager avidity, and there is, perhaps, no one who is not more or
less acquainted with those details. Standing here as a minister of
justice; with no interest and no desire save that justice shall be done
impartially, I feel it incumbent on me to warn you not to allow any
preconceived opinion to operate on your judgment this day. Your
duty--your bounden duty--is to try this case according to the evidence
which shall be brought before you, and according to that alone. You must
discard from your minds anything that you may have read or heard, or any
opinion that you may have formed. If the evidence shall satisfy you of
the prisoner’s guilt, you will discharge your duty to society, to your
consciences, and to the oaths which you have taken, by fearlessly
pronouncing your verdict accordingly; but if the evidence fail to
produce a reasonable conviction of guilt in your minds, God forbid that
the scale of justice should be inclined against the prisoner by anything
of prejudice or preconceived opinion. My duty, gentlemen, will be a
simple one. It will be to lay before you the facts on which the
prosecution is based, and in doing so I must ask for your most patient
attention. They are of a somewhat complicated character, and they range
over a considerable period of time, so that it will be necessary not
merely to look to circumstances which are immediately connected with the
accusation, but to go back to matters of an antecedent date. I may
safely say, however, that, in my conscience, I believe there is not a
fact to which I am about to ask your patient attention which has not an
immediate and most important bearing on this case. The prisoner at the
bar, William Palmer, was by profession a medical practitioner, and he
carried on that profession in the town of Rugeley, in Staffordshire, for
several years. In later years, however, he became addicted to turf
pursuits, which gradually drew off his attention and weaned him from his
profession. Within the last two or three years he made over his business
to a person named Thirlby, formerly his assistant, who now carries it
on. In the course of his pursuits connected with the turf, Palmer became
intimate with the man whose death forms the subject of this inquiry--Mr.
John Parsons Cook.

Now, Mr. Cook was a young man of decent family, who originally had been
intended for the profession of the law. He was articled to a solicitor;
but after a time, inheriting some property, to the extent, I think, of
some £12,000 or £15,000, he abandoned the laborious profession of the
law, and betook himself also to the turf. He kept racehorses and betted
considerably; and in the course of his operations he became much
connected and familiarly intimate with the prisoner William Palmer. It
is for the murder of that Mr. John Parsons Cook that the prisoner stands
indicted to-day, the charge against him being that he took away that
man’s life by poison. It will be necessary to show you the circumstances
in which the prisoner Palmer was then placed, and the position in which
he stood relatively to the deceased Cook. It will be impossible
thoroughly to understand this case in all its bearings without those
circumstances being laid before you, and it will be necessary,
therefore, that I should go into them particularly. The case which, on
the part of the prosecution, I have to urge against Palmer is
this--that, being in desperate circumstances, with ruin, disgrace, and
punishment staring him in the face, which could only be averted by means
of money, he took advantage of his intimacy with Cook, when Cook had
become the winner of a considerable sum, to destroy him, in order to
obtain possession of his money. Out of the circumstances of Palmer at
that time arose, as we say, the motive which induced him to commit this
crime. If I show you upon evidence which can leave no reasonable doubt
in your minds that he committed that crime, motives become a matter of
secondary importance. Nevertheless, in inquiries of this kind, it is
natural and right to look to see what may have been the motives by which
a man has been induced to commit the crime charged against him; and if
we find strong motives, the more readily shall we be led to believe in
the probability of the crime having been committed; but if we find an
absence of motive the probability is the other way. In this case, the
motive will be matter for serious consideration; and inasmuch as the
circumstances out of which we say that the motive arose come first in
order of time, I will deal with them before I come to that which is the
more immediate subject matter of our inquiry. It seems to me that it
would be most convenient that I should follow the chronological order of
events, and I will therefore pursue that course. It appears that as
early as the year 1853 Palmer had got into difficulties, and that he
began to raise money upon bills. In 1854 his circumstances became worse,
and he was at that time indebted to different persons in a large sum of
money. He then had recourse to an expedient which it is important that I
should bring before you; but, as it will become necessary for me to
detail to you transactions involving fraud, and, what is worse, forgery,
I wish to make a few observations to you before I detail those
transactions.

Although I am anxious, where I feel it to be absolutely necessary for
the elucidation of the truth, that those circumstances should be brought
before you, I wish that they should not have more than their fair and
legitimate weight. You must not allow them to prejudice your minds
against the prisoner with reference to that which is the real matter of
inquiry. I cannot avoid bringing them forward; but I would anxiously
caution you and pray you not to allow any prejudice by reason of those
transactions to operate against the prisoner; for, though a man may be
guilty of fraud and forgery, it does not follow, therefore, that he is
guilty of murder.

Among the bills on which Palmer raised money in 1853 was one for £2,000,
which he had discounted by a person named Padwick. That bill bore the
acceptance of Sarah Palmer, the mother of the prisoner. She was, and is,
a woman of considerable property, and her acceptance being believed to
be genuine, was a security upon which money could readily be raised. The
prisoner forged that acceptance, and that was, if not the first, at all
events one of the earliest transactions of that nature by means of which
for a long period of time money was obtained by him upon bills, with his
mother’s acceptance forged by him. This shows how, when things came to a
climax and he found himself involved in a position of great peril and
emergency, he had recourse to a desperate expedient to avoid the
consequences which seemed inevitably to press upon him. He owed in 1854
a very large sum of money. On the 29th of September in that year his
wife died. He had effected an insurance upon her life for £13,000, and
the proceeds of that insurance were realised, and by means of them he
discharged some of his most pressing liabilities. In dealing with a
portion of these liabilities he employed a gentleman named Pratt, a
solicitor in London, who was in the habit of discounting bills. Mr.
Pratt received from him £8,000, and Mr. Wright, a solicitor of
Birmingham, received £5,000; and with those two sums £13,000 of debt was
disposed of; but that still left Palmer with considerable liabilities,
and among other things, the bill of £2,000, which was discounted by
Padwick, remained unpaid. In the course of the same year he effected an
insurance on his brother’s life, and upon the strength of that policy
Palmer proceeded to issue fresh bills, which were discounted by Pratt at
the rate of 60 per cent., who kept the policy as collateral security.
The bills which were discounted in the course of that year amounted in
the whole to £12,500. I find that there were two bills discounted as
early as June, 1854, which were held over from month to month. In March,
1855, two bills were discounted for £2,000 each, with the proceeds of
which Palmer bought two race-horses, called Nettle and Chicken. Those
bills were renewed in June, and one became due on the 28th of September,
and the other on the 2nd of October, when they were again renewed. The
result of the bill proceedings of the year was that in November, when
the Shrewsbury races took place, there were in Pratt’s hands one bill
for £2,000, due the 25th of October; another for £2,000, due the 27th of
October; two for the joint sum of £1,500, due on the 9th of November;
one for £1,000, due on the 30th of September; one for £2,000, due on the
1st January; one for £2,000, due on the 5th of January; and another for
£2,000, due on the 15th of January; making altogether £12,500. £1,000 of
this sum, however, he had contrived to pay off, so that there was due in
November, 1855, no less than £11,500, upon bills, every one of which
bore the forged acceptance of the prisoner’s mother.

Under these circumstances, a pressure naturally arose--the pressure of
£11,500 of liabilities, with not a shilling in the world to meet them,
and the still greater pressure resulting from a consciousness that the
moment when he could no longer go on and his mother was resorted to for
payment, the fact of those forgeries would at once become manifest, and
would bring upon him the peril of the law for the crime of forgery. The
prisoner’s brother died in August, 1855. His life had been insured, and
the policy for £13,000 had been assigned to the prisoner, who, of
course, expected that the proceeds of that insurance would pay off his
liabilities; but the office in which the insurance was effected declined
to pay, and consequently there was no assistance to be derived from that
source. Now, in these transactions to which I have referred, the
deceased John Parsons Cook had been to a certain extent concerned. It
seems that in May, 1855, Palmer was pressed to pay £500 to a person
named Serjeant. He had at that time in the hands of Palmer a balance
upon bill transactions of £310 to his credit, and he wanted Pratt to
advance the £190 necessary to make up £500. Pratt declined to do that,
except upon security; upon which Palmer offered him the acceptance of
Cook, representing him to be a man of substance. Accordingly the
acceptance of Cook for £200 was sent up, and upon that Pratt advanced
the money. When that bill for £200 became due, Palmer failed to provide
for it, and Cook had to meet it himself. In August of the same year, an
occurrence took place to which I must call your particular attention.
Palmer wrote to Pratt to say that he must have £1,000 by a day named.
Pratt declined to advance it without security; upon which Palmer offered
the security of Cook’s acceptance for £500. Pratt still declined to
advance the money without some more tangible security. Now Palmer
represented this as a transaction in which Cook required the money, and
it may be that such was the fact. I have no means of ascertaining how
that was; but I will give him the credit of supposing it to be true.
Pratt still declining to advance the money, Palmer proposed an
assignment by Cook of two racehorses, one called Polestar, which won the
Shrewsbury races, and another called Sirius. That assignment was
afterwards executed by Cook in favour of Pratt, and Cook, therefore, was
clearly entitled to the money which was raised upon that security, which
realised £375 in cash, and a wine warrant for £65. Palmer contrived,
however, that the money and wine warrant should be sent to him, and not
to Cook. Mr. Pratt sent down his cheque to Palmer in the country on a
stamp as the Act of Parliament required, and he availed himself of the
opportunity now offered by law of striking out the word “bearer” and
writing “order,” the effect of which was to necessitate the endorsement
of Cook on the back of the cheque.

It was not intended by Palmer that those proceeds should fall into
Cook’s hands, and accordingly he forged the name of John Parsons Cook on
the back of that cheque. Cook never received the money, and you will see
that, within ten days from the period when he came to his end, the bill
in respect to that transaction, which was at three months, would have
fallen due, when it must have become apparent that Palmer received the
money; and that, in order to obtain it, he had forged the endorsement of
Cook. I wish these were the only transactions in which Cook had been at
all mixed up with the prisoner Palmer; but there is another to which it
is necessary to refer. In September, 1855, Palmer’s brother having died,
and the proceeds of the insurance not having been realised, Palmer
induced a person named Bates to propose his life for insurance. Palmer
had succeeded in raising money upon previous policies, and I have no
doubt that he persuaded Cook to assist him in that transaction, so that,
by representing Bates as a man of wealth and substance, they might get a
policy on his life, by which policy, deposited as a collateral security,
they might obtain advances of money. Bates had been somewhat better off
in the world, but he had fallen into decay, and he had accepted
employment from Palmer as a sort of hanger-on in his stables. He was a
healthy young man; and, being in the company of Palmer and Cook at
Rugeley on the 5th of September, Palmer asked him to insure his life,
and produced the form of proposal to the office. Bates declined, but
Palmer pressed him, and Cook interposed and said, “You had better do it;
it will be for your benefit, and you’ll be quite safe with Palmer.” At
length they succeeded in persuading him to sign the proposal for no less
a sum than £25,000, Cook attesting the proposal, which Palmer filled in,
Palmer being referred to as medical attendant, and his former assistant,
Thirlby, as general referee. That proposal was sent up to the Solicitors
and General Insurance Office, and in the ensuing month--that office not
being disposed to effect the insurance--they sent up another for £10,000
to the Midland Office--on that same life. That proposal also failed, and
no money, therefore, could be obtained from that source. All these
circumstances are important, because they show the desperate straits in
which the prisoner at that time found himself.

The learned counsel then read a series of letters from Mr. Pratt to the
prisoner, all pressing upon the prisoner the importance of his meeting
the numerous bills which Pratt held, bearing the acceptance of Mrs.
Sarah Palmer; and these letters appeared to become more urgent when the
writer found that the insurance office refused to pay the £13,000 upon
the policy effected on the life of the prisoner’s brother, and which
Pratt held as collateral security. The letters were dated at intervals
between the 10th of September and the 18th of October, 1855.

On the 6th of November, two writs were issued by Pratt for £4,000, one
against Palmer and the other against his mother; and Pratt wrote on the
same day to say that he had sent the writs to Mr. Crabbe, but that they
were not to be served until he sent further instructions, and he
strongly urged Palmer to make immediate arrangements for meeting them,
and also to arrange for the bills for £1,500 due on the 9th of November.
Between the 10th and the 13th of November, Palmer succeeded in paying
£600; but on that day Pratt again wrote to him, urging him to raise
£1,000, at all events, to meet the bills due on the 9th. That being the
state of things at that time, we now come to the events connected with
Shrewsbury Races. Cook was the owner of a mare called Polestar, which
was entered for the Shrewsbury Handicap. She had been advantageously
weighted, and Cook, believing that the mare would win, betted largely
upon the event. The race was run upon the 13th of November--the very day
on which that last letter was written by Pratt, which would reach Palmer
on the 14th. The result of the race was that Polestar won, and that Cook
was entitled, in the first place, to the stakes, which amounted to £424,
_minus_ certain deductions, which left a net sum of £381 19s. His bets
had also been successful, and he won, upon the whole, a total sum of
£2,050. He had won also in the previous week, at Worcester, and I shall
show that at Shrewsbury he had in his pocket, besides the stakes and
the money which he would be entitled to receive at Tattersall’s, between
£700 and £800. The stakes he would receive through Mr. Weatherby, a
great racing agent in London, with whom he kept an account, and upon
whom he would draw; and, the race being run on a Tuesday, he would be
entitled on the ensuing Monday to receive his bets at Tattersall’s,
which amounted to £1,020.

Within a week from that time Mr. Cook died, and the important inquiry
which we have now to make is how he came by his death--whether by
natural causes or by the hand of man? and if the latter, by whose hand?
It is important, in the first place, that I should show you what was his
state of health when he went down to Shrewsbury. He was a young man, but
twenty-eight when he died. He was slightly disposed to a pulmonary
complaint, and, although delicate in that respect, he was in all other
respects a hale and hearty young man. He had been in the habit, from
time to time, especially with reference to his chest, of consulting a
physician in London--Dr. Savage, who saw him a fortnight before his
death. For four years he had occasionally consulted Dr. Savage, being at
that time a little anxious about the state of his throat, in which there
happened to be one or two slight eruptions. He had been taking mercury
for these eruptions, having mistaken the character of the complaint. Dr.
Savage at once saw that he had made a mistake, and desired him to
discontinue the use of mercury, substituting for it a course of tonics.
Mr. Cook’s health immediately began to improve; but, inasmuch as the new
course of treatment might have involved serious consequences in case Dr.
Savage had been mistaken in the diagnosis of the disease, he asked Cook
to look in upon him from time to time, and Cook had, as recently as
within a fortnight of his death, gone to call upon Dr. Savage. Dr.
Savage then examined his throat and whole system carefully, and he will
be prepared to tell you that at that time he had nothing on earth the
matter with him except a certain degree of thickening of the tonsils, or
some of the glands of the throat, to which anyone is liable, and there
was no symptom whatever of ulcerated sore-throat or anything of the
sort. Having then seen Dr. Savage, he went down to Shrewsbury Races, and
his horse won. After that he was somewhat excited, as a man might
naturally be under the circumstances of having won a considerable sum of
money, and he asked several friends to dine with him to celebrate the
event. They dined together at the Raven, the hotel where he was staying,
and had two or three bottles of wine, but there was no excess of any
sort, and no foundation for saying that Cook was the worse for liquor.
Indeed he was not addicted to excesses, but was, on the contrary, an
abstemious man on all occasions. He went to bed that night, and there
was nothing the matter with him. He got up the next day, and went again
on the course, as usual.

That night, Wednesday, the 14th November, a remarkable incident
happened, to which I beg to draw your attention. A friend of his, a Mr.
Fisher, and a Mr. Herring, were at Shrewsbury Races, and Fisher, who,
besides being a sporting man, was an agent for receiving winnings, and
who received Cook’s bets at the settling day at Tattersall’s, occupied
the room next to that occupied by Cook. Late in the evening Fisher went
into a room in which he found Palmer and Cook drinking brandy-and-water.
Cook gave him something to drink, and said to Palmer, “You’ll have some
more, won’t you?” Palmer replied, “Not