The witness Cheshire was then cross-examined by Mr. Serjeant Shee: I knew Cook very well. I did not know his handwriting. I have seen it, but am not sufficiently familiar with it to be able to identify it. I have seen him write. When I refused to sign the document which Palmer presented to me for signature he observed, “Oh, it is no matter, I daresay they will not call in question Mr. Cook’s signature.” What Palmer asked me was, “whether I had seen or heard anything?” I said that I had seen something, but that it would be wrong for me to tell him what. He then inquired what I had seen. I think the phrase he used in speaking of his own innocence was that he was “as innocent as a baby.” I remember having been told by Palmer, the Saturday before Cook died, that the latter was very ill. On that day I saw Cook. He was ill and in bed. I saw Palmer about midday of Wednesday, the second day of the Shrewsbury races. I saw him at Rugeley on that day.
To Mr. James: The duration of the journey from Stafford to Shrewsbury is upwards of an hour.
Ellis Crisp, examined by Mr. James: I am inspector of police at Rugeley. On the 17th of December I assisted in searching the prisoner’s house. There was a sale of his furniture, &c., on the 5th of January. The book now produced I found in his house, and took it away. It was being sold, and I took it away. (A laugh.)
Cross-examined by Mr. Serjeant Shee: It was brought out at the sale with a lot of other books. There were several medical books in the house. There was no attempt to conceal the volume I seized.
The Clerk of Arraigns read from the book referred to this sentence, proved by the witness Boycott to be in Palmer’s writing—“Strychnia kills by causing tetanic fixing of the respiratory muscles.”
J. Burdon, examined by Mr. James: This manuscript book I found in the prisoner’s house on the 16th or 17th of December. I am an inspector of police in Staffordshire.
The Attorney-General read an extract from the book in question. It related to strychnine, and alluded to the mode of its operation.
Lord Campbell: That may be merely a passage extracted from an article on “Strychnine” in some encyclopædia.
The Attorney-General: No doubt it may. I put it in for what it is worth.
Elizabeth Hawkes, examined by Mr. Huddleston: I keep a boarding-house at 7, Beaufort-buildings, Strand. I know Palmer. He was at my house on the 1st December last. He asked my porter to buy some game and fish for him. I purchased some fowls for him on the 1st of December. They consisted of a turkey and a brace of pheasants. The porter purchased the fish. I packed these things up in a hamper. I had no conversation with Palmer about these things. I bought them by Palmer’s order, conveyed through the porter. I sent them somewhere. I directed them myself, and gave them to the porter, who carried them to the railway station. I have never been paid for them. Palmer came to my house on the evening of that day, but I did not see him. The direction on the hamper was “W. W. Ward, Esq., Stoke-upon-Trent, Staffordshire.”