perceived that they watched me more attentively than the other
servants, and that they began to examine very carefully; I crept in
the bottom of the scullery and seized the parcel I had put there
during the night, and put it in my pocket. As soon as I was in my
pantry, I placed the purse where it was found. One of the police
came then to me, and told me I must go with him, so that I had no
time to conceal the watch. I was kept in the dining-room the whole
day, excepting the time my room was searched, and I could not get
rid of the watch.
"On Thursday, the 7th of May, when I went to bed, I took what I had
placed under the staircase carpet.
"Friday morning, I wrapped the sovereigns in some paper, and
concealed them in my stocking. I went down to the pantry. Nobody
being there, I placed the watch and the ring where they have been
found. The policemen came then in the pantry to shave and wash
themselves. I went to the kitchen and burned the watch-ribbon. I
did not know what I was to do with the seals and two watch-keys. I
could not get rid of them for the present, and was replaced in the
dining-room. All the morning I entertained the hope that the things
I had hidden would not be discovered. I broke one of the watch-keys
in three or four pieces, and then threw them in the fire-place. I
broke also the top and the bottom (the two extremities) of the
other. After they had found the purse, &c. they brought me down
into the pantry, where I staid for some time. One of the inspectors
went then into the scullery, in which I entered also, thinking of a
place where I could conceal the two seals and the watch-key, the
two extremities of which I had broken. The inspectors stooping to
look under the sink, I placed the great seal where it was found,
and threw the broken key among some old rubbish in the bottom of
the scullery. I then came near the door. After that, two inspectors
and two masons being there, when I saw them busily engaged I let
the small seal fall to the ground, and put my foot upon it in order
to bend it. I stooped, as if looking under the boiler, took up the
seal with the left hand, and rose up. I leaned my hand against the
wall for a time, waiting for the moment when those who watched me
should turn their heads, and succeeded in placing the seal behind
the pipe where it was found. The inspectors went out thence to the
kitchen, excepting one, who remained in the pantry with me for
about an hour. During that time I let fall the small locket of Lord
William's, and two sovereigns. They took me then to my room, where
I was searched, for the first time. I had two policemen with me.
They made me draw my boots, but not my stockings. I went not to bed
on Friday night, nor on Saturday. On Sunday night I went to bed for
five minutes, but I did not draw off my stockings. They made me
rise up, and led me into prison. When I was in Tothill-fields
prison they searched me very carefully. I feigned to be very cold
and shivering, as a person who has the trembling fever, thinking
they would let me keep my stockings on, but they told me to take
them off, as I had three stockings, two on the right leg. I first
took off the stocking which was alone, and then one of the others.
When they were feeling if there was any pin or needle I placed my
hand under my heel and concealed the ten sovereigns in a paper,
under the thumb of my hand. The following morning they made me take
a bath, when I had a good opportunity of hiding them on my person,
where they remained till the morning of the day I came to Newgate.
I thought that I should perhaps be examined more closely, and
that, should that money be found on me, it would be sufficient to
condemn me to death; but other evidence was found, and this was not
wanted. I placed one behind the post of a bench in the cell of
Bow-street, the last time I appeared before the magistrates; three
on the top of the door, one on the window, as I believe, and four
or five in the pit of the water-closet.
"This is, reverend sir, to the best of my recollection, a faithful
account of what has passed since the time I conceived the dreadful
idea of robbing and murdering my master to the day I came to
Newgate. I wish to express to you my deep gratitude for the
spiritual instruction you have given me, and your interest in the
salvation of my soul.
"I am, my dear Sir,
"Your humble and thankful servant,
"F. B. COURVOISIER."
On the following day, the condemned sermon was preached by the Rev. Mr.
Carver, in terms befitting the occasion on which it was delivered.
The wretched criminal still appeared deeply sensible of his crime, and
remained in prayer during the greater part of the day. At about eight
o'clock in the evening he retired to rest, but awoke again at twelve,
and then he gave directions that he should be called at four o'clock. At
that hour he arose and dressed himself, and was occupied until the
arrival of Mr. Carver in writing letters in the French language to some
of his relatives. The reverend gentleman immediately entered upon prayer
with the prisoner, affording him all the spiritual consolation which the
situation in which he stood would admit. A few minutes after the arrival
of Mr. Carver, M. Baup was introduced to the cell by Mr. Sheriff
Wheelton, and this reverend gentleman also joined in prayer with the
criminal.
At half-past six o'clock Mr. Newman, the principal turnkey of Newgate,
was ordered to take the sacramental bread and wine into the prisoner's
cell; and, in a few minutes afterwards, the holy sacrament was
administered to him. The prisoner received it with great fervency of
manner. After the conclusion of this religious rite, Calcraft, the
executioner, entered the cell, with a black bag containing a rope, with
which his arms were to be pinioned. The prisoner clasped his hands
together to undergo the operation, and in this position the rope was put
round his arms and wrists. The reverend ordinary continued to pray with
him for some time, and put several questions to him as to whether he was
fully penitent for the crime he had committed, and whether he believed
in the atonement of the Saviour; to which he replied in the affirmative,
in barely audible whispers, accompanied by an expression of countenance
which but too plainly showed the deep anguish of his soul. As he spoke
he wrung his hands, and as far as the ropes with which he was bound
would allow, raised them upwards. His form was much attenuated, and his
eye expressive of the deepest mental suffering.
The scene without the jail afforded a strong contrast to that which was
passing in the condemned cell.
The scaffold was raised at a very early hour in the morning; and, by six
o'clock, the crowd collected in front, and filling all the adjacent
places from which any view of the apparatus of death could be obtained,
was immense. The people were pressed together in the compactest mass;
and we believe it to be a moderate calculation when we state, that
twenty thousand persons at least must have witnessed this memorable
execution. So great indeed was the anxiety felt to procure a favourable
station, that some hundreds of individuals had taken up their position
in front of the Debtors'-door of the Old Bailey as soon as ten o'clock
on Sunday night, cheerfully exposing themselves to the inconvenience of
standing in the open air during the whole of the night, in order that
their curiosity might be fully gratified in the morning. The windows of
the neighbouring houses were all occupied by spectators, who in most
instances paid a high fee for their places; whilst others, who had less
money to spare, but more nerve, ascended to the roofs, and perched
themselves in the most precarious situations. Among the crowd there was
a considerable sprinkling of females and boys, and the number of
men-servants present was remarkable, as evincing the fearful interest
taken in the culprit's fate by the class to which he had belonged. In
the long interval between the assembling of the multitude and the hour
of execution, a few incidents, such as the futile attempts of some
daring individuals to attain an enviable eminence without the ceremony
of paying, or the tossing about of a stray hat or bonnet, occasionally
excited bursts of merriment; but in general the demeanour of the mob was
decent and proper for the solemn occasion which had drawn them together.
A numerous body of city police was on the spot in front of the scaffold
and dispersed through the crowd, and their conduct and arrangements for
the preservation of order were in every respect commendable. At five
minutes to eight o'clock the dismal sound of the prison-bell struck upon
the ear, and immediately the vast multitude uncovered. This was a moment
of intense excitement; it was impossible to behold the mob, with their
heads all bared, and their eyes all eagerly directed towards the
gallows, without the deepest feeling of awe; and the spectacle thus
exhibited was enough in itself to have struck terror to the heart of the
miserable felon, whose ignominious fate rendered him the sole gaze of
such an immense mass of human beings.
The solemn and dreadful ceremonies in the prison in the mean time had
been completed, and the usual procession was formed shortly before eight
o'clock. The wretched culprit at this period displayed extraordinary
nerve. His step was firm and unwavering; and, while his countenance was
pale, and exhibited great dejection, it was calm and unmoved. At two
minutes past eight o'clock he ascended the steps of the scaffold, and
advanced, without looking round him, to the centre of the platform,
followed by the executioner and the Rev. Mr. Carver. On his appearance a
few yells of execration escaped from a portion of the crowd; but the
general body of the people, great as must have been their abhorrence of
his atrocious crime, remained silent spectators of the scene which was
passing before their eyes. While the executioner was placing him on the
drop, he slightly moved his hands (which were tied in front of him, and
strongly clasped one within the other) up and down two or three times;
and this was the only visible symptom of any emotion or mental anguish
which the wretched man endured. His face was then covered with the cap,
and the noose adjusted. During this operation he lifted up his head and
raised his hands to his breast, as if in the action of fervent prayer.
In a moment the fatal bolt was withdrawn, the drop fell, and in this
attitude the murderer perished. He died without any violent struggle. In
two minutes after he had fallen, his legs were twice slightly
convulsed, but no further motion was observable, excepting that his
raised arms, gradually losing their vitality, sank down from their own
lifeless weight.
After hanging one hour, the body was cut down and removed to the prison,
and it was buried within the precincts of the jail on the same evening
at eight o'clock.
He admitted, a short time before his execution, that he had contemplated
self-destruction; but the vigilant superintendence under which he was
kept ever since he was placed within the walls of Newgate, rendered it
impracticable for him to carry his meditated scheme into execution. It
is related, that he proposed to take away his life by bleeding himself
to death, and the following statement was published with regard to the
discovery of his object:--
At half-past ten on Sunday night, Mr. Cope went to Courvoisier's room,
and told him that he must go to bed. Upon receiving this intimation he
seemed dissatisfied, and expressed unwillingness to strip. Mr. Cope,
however, insisted that he should pull off his clothes, and the turnkeys
received directions to take away even his shirt. Mr. Cope then narrowly
searched the clothes, and in the coat-pocket he found a strip of cloth
folded up carefully. When Courvoisier saw the cloth in the governor's
hand, he acknowledged that he intended to use it as a means of
destruction. "In what way?" asked Mr. Cope. "I intended," said he, "to
tie it tight round my arm, and to bleed myself to death in the night."
"But how," said Mr. Cope, "could you have bled yourself?" "I had made
preparation," said he. "I had been looking about for a pin, but not
being able to find one, I sharpened a bit of wood which you light your
fires with, and I intended to bleed myself with that." "Where is that
wood?" said Mr. Cope. "That, too," replied Courvoisier, "you have
deprived me of by changing my bed, in which I had deposited it." He then
described to the governor the manner in which he intended to get rid of
life; and he declared he could easily have accomplished the object, if
he had not been prevented by the caution of the governor. He stated then
that he had, while in the water-closet, torn the extra cloth along the
seams in the inside of his trousers and fastened it together, for the
purpose of using it as a ligature. Mr. Cope examined the mattress, which
he had caused to be removed on Sunday night, but no piece of wood was
found in it; and it is believed that, in the confusion of removing it,
the instrument dropped unperceived and was lost.
The wretched malefactor, at the time of his death, was twenty-three
years of age, and was born of decent parents in Switzerland. Having
received a moderately good education, he is reported to have come to
England to his uncle, who has been before alluded to, through whose
instrumentality he obtained several most respectable situations. In his
career in the metropolis he does not appear to have been guilty of any
conduct likely to draw upon him general attention, and the dreadful
crime of which he was guilty seems to have been rather the result of a
sudden impulse than of pre-determined malice. The motive which prompted
the deed, it is clear from his confession, was that of avarice; and
while the human mind cannot sufficiently abhor an act of so atrocious a
character, levelled against an aged and infirm man, unable to make any
resistance, by his servant, whose duty it was to protect and assist him
rather than assail him, one is at a loss to understand how a man of
virtuous and sound mind could quit the path of rectitude, and, with such
an object, commit so foul a murder.
It is not a little remarkable, that two members of the Bedford family
met with sudden deaths before the noble lord whose destruction we have
just related, though in neither instance by the hands of an assassin. A
former Duke of Bedford, and the Marquis of Tavistock, the father of the
deceased nobleman, were both of them killed while hunting.
EDWARD OXFORD.
TRIED FOR HIGH TREASON, IN SHOOTING AT THE QUEEN.
While yet the public mind was occupied with the contemplation of the crimes
of Courvoisier and Gould, which we have just related, and before the
termination of the inquiries which took place in reference to those
culprits, an occurrence of a yet more striking character,--more
calculated to excite interest, because levelled at the life of the
sovereign, and therefore, at the welfare of the country,--an attempt to
shoot her Majesty, Queen Victoria, took place. Happily for the honour of
the country, this attack turned out to be that of a maniac; but
melancholy indeed would have been the result, if an attempt, so dreadful
in its consequences to the nation, had not been rendered unsuccessful by
the all-powerful hand of Providence. In the case of Courvoisier, we have
seen the inscrutability of the ways of the Almighty exhibited in the
detection of a murderer; here we perceive His all-seeing eye watching
over and protecting our Queen from the assassin's blow, and thereby best
securing the interest of our country.
The circumstances immediately attending this dreadful attempt, as well
as the early life of the offender, will be best described by our
reciting the proceedings which took place at the trial of Oxford, for
the offence charged against him, at the Central Criminal Court, on
Thursday the 9th of July, 1840, before Lord Denman, Mr. Baron Alderson,
and Mr. Justice Patteson.
The prisoner had been indicted at the previous sessions; but his trial
was postponed, on the ground of the absence of witnesses, whose evidence
was material to the defence of insanity, which it was intended to set up
on the part of the prisoner. Upon the occasion of the arraignment of the
prisoner, and throughout the whole of his imprisonment previously to his
trial, he exhibited an extraordinary degree of apathy. His observations
during his confinement were principally directed to the degree of
excitement which his case had made in the world, and the interest which
was exhibited to see him; and he appeared to view his crime and its
consequences to himself as of slight importance in comparison with the
notoriety which he was likely to obtain. On his being placed at the bar,
to plead to the indictment preferred against him, he looked round the
court with a self-complacent gaze, at the same moment eagerly inquiring
of the jailor whether any person of distinction was present. A smile was
observed to be constantly lingering on his lips; and on the reading of
the indictment, which we subjoin, he frequently burst into fits of
laughter. He was a well-looking youth, and was attired in a manner
superior to his situation in life. The indictment was in the following
terms:--
"Central Criminal Court, to wit.--The jurors for our lady the Queen,
upon their oath present, that Edward Oxford, late of Westminster, in the
county of Middlesex, labourer, being a subject of our lady the Queen,
heretofore, to wit on the 10th of June, in the year of our Lord 1840,
within the jurisdiction of the said court, as a false traitor to our
lady the Queen, maliciously and traitorously, with force and arms, &c.,
did compass, imagine, and intend to bring and put our said lady the
Queen to death. And to fulfil, perfect, and bring to effect his most
evil and wicked treason, and treasonable compassing and imagination
aforesaid, he the said Edward Oxford, as such false traitor as
aforesaid, to wit, on the said 10th day of June, in the year of our
Lord, 1840, aforesaid, and within the jurisdiction of the said court,
with force and arms, maliciously and traitorously did shoot off and
discharge a certain pistol, the same then and there being loaded with
gunpowder and a certain bullet, and which pistol he the said Edward
Oxford then and there had and held in one of his hands at the person of
our said lady the Queen, with intent thereby and therewith maliciously
and traitorously to shoot, assassinate, kill, and put to death our said
lady the Queen. And further, to fulfil, perfect, and bring to effect his
most evil and wicked treason and treasonable compassing and imagination
aforesaid, he the said Edward Oxford, as such false traitor as
aforesaid, afterwards, to wit, on the said 10th day of June, in the year
of our lord 1840, aforesaid, and within the jurisdiction of the said
court, with force and arms maliciously and traitorously did shoot off
and discharge a certain other pistol, the same then and there being
loaded with gunpowder and a certain bullet, and which pistol he the said
Edward Oxford then and there had and held in one of his hands, at the
person of our said lady the Queen, with intent thereby and therewith
maliciously and traitorously to shoot, assassinate, kill, and put to
death our said lady the Queen, and thereby then and there traitorously
made a direct attempt against the life of our said lady the Queen,
against the duty of the allegiance of him the said Edward Oxford,
against the form of the statute in that case made and provided, and
against the peace of our said lady the Queen, her crown, and dignity."
To this indictment the prisoner pleaded "Not Guilty," and upon the
application for the postponement of his trial being granted, he appeared
considerably disappointed at his being unable to remain any longer in
court.
On the day of his trial, he observed the same demeanour, but he
occasionally became more serious, and gave evident signs of his being
now aware of the danger of his position. The same smile was, however,
still observable, and the same eager curiosity and gratification at the
crowded state of the court were exhibited by him.
The prosecution was conducted by the Attorney-General, the
Solicitor-General, Sir F. Pollock, Mr. Adolphus, Mr. Wightman, and Mr.
Gurney; and Mr. Sidney Taylor, and Mr. Bodkin, appeared for the defence.
The court was crowded to excess during the two days occupied by the
trial, by persons of distinction.