CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE. 21 



thatj being alarmed in the night by a violent noise, he went upon 

 deck and saw the prisoner throw the captain overboard ; that he 

 was not seen or heard of afterwards, and near the place on the deck 

 where the captain was a billet of wood was found, and the deck and 

 part of the prisoner's dress were stained with blood. It was stre- 

 nuously argued that, as there were many vessels near the place 

 where the transaction was alleged to have taken place, the probabi- 

 lity was that he had been taken up by some of them and was then 

 alive ; but the court, though they admitted the general rule of law, 

 left it to the jury to say, upon the evidence, whether the deceased 

 was not killed before the body was cast into the sea, and the jury 

 being of that opinion, the prisoner was convicted and executed.* 



The cases which present the greatest difficulty in establishing the 

 corpus delicti, are those of infanticide, poisoning, and suicide. As 

 a consequence of the rule which requires express proof of the corpus 

 delicti, that, in cases of alleged infanticide, it must be proved that 

 the child had acquired an independent circulation and existence ; 

 it is not enough that it had breathed in the course of its birth.t If 

 a child has been wholly born and is alive, it is not essential that 

 it should have breathed at the time it was killed; as many children 

 are born alive and yet do not breathe for some time after birth. J 



Cases of this distressing class generally involve questions purely or 

 principally of medical jurisprudence, and are, therefore, so far not 

 within the province of this Essay. § The moral circumstances gene- 

 rally adduced as indicative of this crime, may commonly be account- 

 ed for by the agency of less malignant motives, and can seldom be 

 unequivocally pronounced to afibrd a safe presumption of murder. 

 Hard must be the struggle between the opposing motives of shame 

 and affection, before a mother can form the dreadful resolve of tak- 

 ing away the life of her own child. The unhappy subject of these 

 conflicting emotions is commonly the victim of brutality and trea- 

 chery. Deserted by a heartless seducer and scorned by a merciless 

 world, scarcely any condition of human weakness can be imagined 

 more calculated to excite the compassion of the considerate and the 

 humane.|| The wisdom and the humanity of the legislature, in 



" Hindmarsh's case, Leach's Cases in Crown Law, vol. ii., p. 571- 



+ Rex V. Poulton; Carrington and Paine, vol. v., p. 399 — and Rex v. 

 Enoch, ibid., 539. 



X Rex V. Brain ; Carrington and Paine, vol. vi. , p. 350. 



§ See Til,' Proofs of Iii/anlicidr Consvlcicd, by Dr. Cimimin, for ii sunnuary 

 ol'lhc present slate of niedico-lcgal knowledge on that subject. 



Il Sec Dr. AViUiaiu Hunter's tract on CliM Murder. 



