the Procurator Fiscal, whose name, anala- of a few bullets whose presence showed that gous as it is to that of the ministeres pub- it had begun to spread, that the cartridge liques and procureurs des rois of France, at wad was lying a little way from the corpse, once recalls the memory of the ancient that there was no trace of scorching, and league between France and Scotland; and that certain pellet marks were to be found all the proceedings up to trial are conducted in a rowan tree, at whose base the dead with a secrecy which excites the imagination lieutenant was discovered lying in such a of the public without satisfying it. When position as to indicate that the fatal shot Monson was placed in the dock, therefore, no had been fired by some one standing be one knew, in spite of the surmises which hind a bush some yards away. On behalf had done daily duty in the press since the of the prisoner, Mr. Comrie Thomson con date of his arrest, what the Crown was really tended and supported his contention by the about to prove — or to make an attempt at evidence of Dr. Matthew Hay, Professor of proving. The Lord Justice Clerk of Scot Medical Jurisprudence in the University of land, Lord Kingsburgh, less known perhaps Aberdeen, and Mr. Scott Sandars, that the by his courtesy title than as Mr. J. H. A. absence of scorching was due to the amMacdonald, the Lord Advocate of the late berite cartridges which the deceased had Conservative government, presided. The been in the habit of using, that the failure of solicitor-general for Scotland, Mr. Asher, the charge to enter Hambrough's skull was Memberof Parliament for the Elgin Burghs, J attributable to the fact that the shot was a appeared for the Crown, while the prisoner . glancing one, and that it was possible that was defended by Mr. Comrie Thomson, Hambrough might have shot himself acci the Sheriff of Forfar, reputed to be the dentally. It cannot be denied that while the ablest "jury lawyer" at the Scotch Bar. expert evidence for the Crown was singularly The evidence for the Crown fell naturally coherent and probable, there was just room under two categories : ( I ) that Lieutenant for that reasonable doubt of which a prisoner Hambrough's death was not accidental, and is entitled to the benefit, and the jury, (2) that Monson either shot him or was an therefore, took the view that the case for the accessory, before the fact, to his death. Crown on this vital point was not estab An array of distinguished expert witnesses, lished, and — if we may anticipate a little including Dr. Henry O. Littlejohn, the — returned that verdict of " not proven " to veteran surgeon to the police in Edinburgh which the law of Scotland assigns an inter and the hero of a hundred contests in mediate place between " guilty " and " not medico-legal causes celcbres, Mr. Patrick guilty." The evidence by which it was Heron Watson, perhaps the most distin sought to bring home Hambrough's death guished surgeon in Scotland and formerly to Monson was of a twofold character. In the officer in charge of the hospital for the first place it was said that he had a wounded soldiers during the Crimean war, motive to murder him, and here we are and Mr. Joseph Bell, the " Sherlock plunged into a labyrinth of financial trans Holmes" of Canon Doyle's charming ro actions through which it is difficult indeed mances, deponed that the gunshot which to find a reliable path. Moreover, as many of killed Hambrough, and which admittedly these transactions are involved in the after struck him on the side of the head from be math of litigation to which the Ardlamont hind forwards, must have been fired at a case is threatening to give rise, it would be distance of some feet from his head. This improper to comment upon them at any view was based on the facts that the charge length. We shall therefore merely say that had not entered his skull with the exception the contention for the Crown was that two
