Mr Briggs' Hat: The True Story of a Victorian Railway Murder by Kate Colquhoun Page B

he asked. Drawing his argument to a close, he asserted that it would be better that his nation should perish than that the constitution be violated by the treaty-making power of any other country. Müller must be released.
    Shaffer then recalled Detective Inspector Richard Tanner.
    Sitting within a yard of the inspector, Müller cast his eyes about the court. Was he still watching for the appearance of his resolutely absent sister?
    Shaffer asked Tanner to describe the man before him. I should judge him to be about five feet six and a half inches in height. He has no beard, nor any signs of ever having one. I should not call him a tall thin man, nor a thickset man.
    Did Müller bear any resemblance whatsoever to either of the men described by Thomas Lee?
    I don’t think he will ever have any whiskers.
    Can you see him clearly? asked Shaffer.
    He is standing quite near to me, and there is no obstruction between us to my view of him .
    Shaffer had finished his galvanising defence. As he resumed his seat, spectators in the court shifted their attention to Francis Marbury. For a moment he was silent. Then he characterised his opponent as a blusterer, wasting their time with a bafflingly long and exaggerated speech, an address full of irrelevances and diversions. He suggested that Shaffer’s loquacious ramblings stemmedfrom the fact that there was nothing in the facts of the case out of which he could legitimately offer to the audience the entertainment which is always expected of him whenever he makes his appearance . He had, said Marbury, resorted to verbal pyrotechnics only because he had no persuasively competing evidence to offer.
    Point by point Marbury reprised the physical evidence against Müller and turned the defence’s arguments. The question of the treaty’s legitimacy was for the executive government. Despite the fact that the Hackney inquest had not yet drawn to its conclusion, Marbury considered that the corpus delicti , or body of evidence, had been fully established against Müller. The prisoner’s absence from Park Terrace on the evening of 9 July was proved beyond doubt and he had suggested no other alibi that might prove his presence elsewhere at the time of the fatal attack. Useful though Mr Lee’s evidence was, Francis Marbury reminded Commissioner Newton that Lee was unable to say whether one or both of Briggs’ fellow passengers had left the carriage before the train pulled off.
    As I look upon Müller it appears almost inconceivable that he could have perpetrated the dreadful crime , Marbury continued. If I could escape from the evidences of his guilt which seem to gather from so many quarters, all converging and pointing to him, I should experience a sensation of relief. He reminded the court that Thomas Briggs was a worthy, venerable man and that this crime was one of the most revolting in British criminal experience. Despite the clouds lowering about the head of the prisoner, who would not rejoice if he could prove himself to be innocent of the crime? Müller could not explain his whereabouts on the night of 9 July, he could give no convincing explanation for his ownership of the watch or the supernumerary hat . Had the crime taken place in New York then the magistrate would be compelled to commit him for trial. It was beyond doubt, he countered, that the certificate for the prisoner’s extradition should be granted.
    The courtroom was hushed. Commissioner Newton cleared his throat and prepared to speak. Gentlemen , he began, I think my duty is plain . I do not desire to sit in judgement upon this man … but I am bound to say that the combined circumstances, to my mind, appear so clear, and so distinct, that I can have no doubt. I shall be constrained to grant the certificate .
    Rising from his chair, Newton withdrew from the court. The journalists watched as, just perceptibly, Müller’s jaw tightened. Tanner and his colleagues relaxed backwards, then leant forwards to shake hands with