From a Correspondent, London, Jan. 20, Students in the psychology of *|murder are very much interested in the developments of what is known as the Eastbowne Murder Case. Last autumn, a London typist was killed onthe beach near Pevensey and lightly buried under the shingle. The police arrested two men named Field and Gray but hesitated for a long time definitely to proceed against them because the evidence was so circumstantial, so very slender. It lacked positiveness but as time went on, little additions were made to it, of which the chief was an admission made by one of the prisoners to a fellow prisoner in Maidstone Anyway both men were con but there would have been plenty of people, had they been executed at this stage, to say that after all ye here was just an clement of doubt, while in time to come we might even have had a new chapter added to some authors" ages Justice." In its subsegent stages the case has shown the truth of the oft-repeated assertion that prisoners are us z ed by themselves far less polies action. They both app gainst their sentence and each, while admitting knowledge of the crime, taxed the other with its per-pet ration. The sentence in rach ease was confirmed and although there was a recommendation to mercy by the jury, it seems doubtful if the Home Secretary will reprieve either.
Occasionally circumstantial evidence is at fault, as it was two recent cases, the Kidwelly Poisoning Mystery, otherwise the Greenwood Case and the Mystery of the Green Bicycle, in which as will be recollected the accused man, innocent but panic stricken because he did happen to pass and speak to the dead sit subsequently threw his machine secretly into the canal whence it was fished up. Some people criticize the police for invariably acting on circumstantial evidence in 80 per cent. of the cases their action is justified. Fortunately, these cases do rot often happen, for though murder is far commoner than it used to be, the crimes are mostly very obvious and_ anstice has no difficulty in inflicting punishment.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.