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24, 1860.] By the Court. “Ah! this is satisfactory, Dr. Dodge, we have got to the sævitia at last.”

Mrs. Barber then assisted the Court in arriving at a precise conclusion by baring her arm up to the elbow, and indicating the exact spot where her brutal husband had inflicted the blow upon her. I have rather a feeling for a lady’s arm, and I very conscientiously declare that the very last thing I should have dreamed of doing with Mrs. B.’s arm would have been to hit it with a bootjack. However, there was violence proved. It appeared, as Dr. Dodge proceeded with the examination, that Mr. Barber, failing in his endeavour to induce Mrs. B. to write to her parents for additional supplies, was not satisfied with breaking and bruising her tender body, but actually had recourse to metaphysical terrors. He took her down to Herne Bay, far away from all human assistance, and hired a lodging there, at the stormiest season of the year. He then told her ghost-stories for two or three days, and used to take her up in a dark room, and set fire to saucers filled with spirits of wine, till the poor lady was brought into such a state of low nervousness that any imposture could be practised upon her with success. It was upon that occasion that he had turned two cats shod with walnut-shells into her bed-room, and by some diabolical contrivance had caused a luminous inscription to appear suddenly upon the wall. It was conceived in these terms:

Mention of this at first produced a titter in Court; but when it came out that Mrs. B. had been so terrified by the trick that she had lost consciousness, and did not recover from the shock for some months, the first feeling of ridicule was soon changed into one of intolerable and burning indignation against the brutal husband, who, not satisfied with inflicting upon his poor wife the utmost extremities of violence, had absolutely tampered with her mind’s health, in order to convert her into a passive instrument for extorting money from her parents. From Herne Bay they had proceeded to Brussels, where they had resided for about a year, and here it was that Mrs. Barber’s child was born; and it appeared that the unnatural father was with difficulty prevented from forcing an oyster into the mouth of the newly-born babe, and sticking the end of a cigar between its little lips. Then there was the terrible incident about the cutting off of her hair, which also occurred at Brussels, soon after Mrs. Barber had recovered from the effects of her confinement. At Brussels Mr. Barber got involved again in