When was it?—I should like to fetch my documents and papers; I should then be able to answer you accurately.
Oh, never mind the papers. Was it in October, 1855?—I think it was.
Did you send up a proposal for an insurance of £10,000 on the life of Bates?—I did.
Did William Palmer ask you to make that proposal?—Bates and Palmer came together to my office, with a prospectus, and asked me if I knew whether there was an agent for the Midland Counties Office in Rugeley. I told him I never heard of one. He asked me afterwards if I would write to get the appointment, because Bates wanted to raise some money.
Did you send to the Midland Counties Office to get the appointment of agent, in order that you might be enabled to effect this insurance on Bates’s life?—I did.
Did you make the application in order to get the insurance effected?—I did.
Upon the life of Bates for £10,000?—I did. [Sensation.] Bates was at that time superintending William Palmer’s stud and stables. I do not know at what salary. I afterwards went to the widow of Walter Palmer to get her to give up her claim on the policy of her husband. She was then at Liverpool. William Palmer gave me a letter for Pratt to take to her to sign. Mrs. Palmer said she would like to see her solicitor about it. I brought the document back with me because she did not sign it. I had no instructions to leave it.
Did she give any reason for not signing it?
Mr. Sergeant Shee objected to the question.
Lord Campbell decided that it could not be put.