Will come over in a day or two.'
"This was written on a buff paper, which Dr. Stevenson said must have
contained 35 grains of strychnine, sufficient to kill thirty-five
persons, and the direction written was, 'One dose; take as told.'
"These inscriptions were sworn to by experts as being in the
prisoner's handwriting."
Here I pointed out the alleged resemblances in the characters of the
letters, so that the jury might judge if the prisoner wrote them.
"If the prisoner wrote the words 'take as told,' you must ask
yourselves the meaning of it.
"Also, you will ask whether it was not a little strange that the death
occurred on that very Friday night when he said he would go over and
see her. Again, the word 'harmless' is of the gravest character,
seeing that within the folds of that paper were 35 grains of a deadly
powder, which even for rat-powder would be mixed with something else.
"Again, as to motive, upon which so much stress has been laid by the
defendant's counsel. If the prisoner had no motive, who else had? Is
there a human being on earth who had ill-will towards her, or anything
to gain by her death? The learned counsel carefully avoided suggesting
any one; nor could he suggest that any one in the neighbourhood wrote
the same handwriting as the prisoner. I will dismiss the theory that
some one had imitated the prisoner's writing in order to do him an
injury, and ask if you can see any reason for any one else giving the
woman the powder.
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