Letter from Marshall Lyle to the Governor and the members of the Executive Council, 10 May 1892

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Marshall M. Lyle,
Solicitor,
Melbourne

Petition that the condemned convict
Williams alias Deeming may be
allowed time to prepare for eternity.
(Private Secretary)

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92
3067

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May 10/92

Received 10 May 92
C.L.O.

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3066/9

To His Excellency
The Governor of the Colony of
Victoria

and the Honorable, The Members of the
Executive Council

My Lord
and Gentleman

It has been my
painful duty on some recent occasions to
approach you on the subject of the treatment
of the Criminal, and in each instance I have
been supported by a vein of sympathy amongst
the public. I now bow before the Throne of Her
Majesty as the Advocate of a being who has
completely lost the small particle of sympathy
which is usually shown towards criminals under
sentence of death. The heinousness of the acts
of the criminal in no way effect my judgment
nor can I permit the fact of the world being
to-day against him to impair my zeal or
weaken my energies on behalf of the man who
looks to me as his defender.

You have doubtless read in the public press
that the prisoner Albert Williams (so called) is
some unique moral monster of such a condition
that it is hoped that none other such monstrous
creations are to be found in the human family

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Although there may be few so atrocious, I
feel it my bounden duty to endeavour to
impress upon you the folly of permitting the
people to slumber under the mistaken idea
that the elimination of one clearly marked
specimen of a class, can be considered a satisfactory
method of protecting society. The Prisoner
represents a class which is rapidly increasing
with the so called civilisation of our times. He
is the typical criminal of the century and
amidst the darkness of blind prejudice and
heated animal passion he stands knocking at
the door of English conscience and thought.
The English speaking world may endeavour
not to hear the sounds but the sounds must
yet be heard. The intellect of the world must
yet assert itself over all sorts of dead ideas
and lifeless old beliefs England, Australia,
and America must face in an honest and truth
loving fashion the problem of grappling with
the criminal just as Italy Germany and
France are commencing to rationally treat the
subject. All this you may remark is quite beside
the case of the prisoner; but I submit I am
entitled to bring before the Representative of Her
Majesty much that cannot be mentioned in
the Court of Justice owing to the narrow view
at present taken by the Custodians of that
Temple. The duty of an English Judge compels
him to tread the beaten track of precedent and
it has fallen to the lot of the Counsel ever
and anon in history to present to the tribunal
the living Truth

There is not a Principle of Public Policy

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more firmly established in our Constitution
and more deeply revered by the wisest of our
statesmen than that Protection and Allegiance
are legal obligations which cannot exist
separately but do, and eternally must subsist
mutually and reciprocally between the Queen of
England and her subjects. The principle of
allegiance as the duty of a subject to Her
Majesty is founded upon the performance of
the Duty of our rulers in carefully thoughtfully
and prudently protecting the lives and liberties
of the people. That duty which the subject
demands and is entitled-to applies as fully
to the protection of the law abiding subjects
of Her Majesty from manifold dangers
within the Dominions as from the machinations
of enemies without. It applies to the duty of
protecting unfortunate women and children
from the criminal, as strongly as it forces
upon the State in these modern and more
enlightened days the protection of the Criminal
from himself.

I think I may claim that in this conception
of state duties I have not the merit of
originality. I am merely setting out what must
be in the mind of every virtuous Minister of
State.

My Lord and Gentlemen
The hinges of custom are not always
the hinges of reason; The supreme truth of
science teaches us that incessant change is the
law of the social quite as much as of the
physical and organic world. The rulers of the
people cannot much longer afford to adopt an

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attitude of hostility to the spirit of scientific evolution.
The criminal in the condemned cell covered
with your irons, and dressed in fantastic
attire, is entitled to ask you if you have ever
given intelligent consideration [insertion: to the subject of himself and his class]. It will be no
new step to take human life under the form
of law. The killing of Johnston, Wilson, Whelan
Colston and Fatta Chand are fresh in the
public mind. The circumstances connected with
the killing of Johnston carried out on a barrow
and the forced feeding of the Hindoo I must
assume you consider not very edifying to the
morals of your people. But I am entitled to
ask if you have found that by these proceedings
you have in any way diminished the crime
record or been successful in preventing more of
your people from being murdered.

It is not very encouraging to find by an
examination of the Statistical Register of Victoria
that crime is becoming as menacing a danger
in Victoria as it is at home. The rapid increase
of crime throughout the civilised world is shown
by Mischler Von Liszt and M Henri Joly
I must ask you to recognise the increase of
crime and the increase of lunacy in civilised
society, the failure either partial or total, of
the present penal system, and the rise progress
and developement [sic] of the Criminal Class in the
midst of the law abiding community. Valuable
information on these matters is within your reach.
I would on the subject of the Criminal Class
refer you to your excellent Inspector of Prisons,
Captain Evans and his staff of humane and
intelligent Gaolers and Warders

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My Lord and Gentleman
This case is one of unusual complexity
The medical men for the defence were asked to
examine a man practically charged with two
horrible murders said to be an unprincipled
liar and an unparalleled schemer.

Four examinations disclosed the chaos of statements
which they placed before the Jury. They considered
the evidence so difficult to assess; the data
before them so incomplete, that a satisfactory
opinion was utterly impossible. Owing to the
importance of the case they took the strongest
step open to them by way of protest and
stated their inability to come before the Court
with an expert opinion so that the Judge
might not be taken by surprise. This was
publicly stated before the Judge gave his
decision on the postponement motion Early in
the examination the question of epileptic fits
was raised. Temporary corroboration of this
was obtained from the Governor of Darlinghurst
Jail and also from those in charge of him
from Perth. In addition his statement that
he has been in the Calcutta General Hospital
for some affection of the brain has been
corroborated in the press and he certainly
bears in his neck the marks of a seton said
to have been then introduced the use of which
is practically confined to disorder of the brain.
Amongst the prisoner's statements were some
which might or might not be hallucinations
or delusions present to some extent at least since
childhood. As these might be the actual
dominant factors in his life and in his case

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as with so many lunatics the incentive to
criminal acts of unusual violence, it became
absolutely necessary for the medical experts
to be in a position to speak definitely as to
their value Continued examinations made
it more probable that some at least were
actual delusions and corroborative if not
legal evidence has already appeared in the
press in the information that Affidavits are
now on their way from England.

Further there are signs of severe injury to
the skull leaving depressed scars behind; the
actual value of which as factors in the
prisoners mental state it was impossible to
determine without a very thorough and elaborate
examination. The anterior scar seems on rough
examination to be near if not within the area
marked No 12 in Ferrier's map of the cerebral
convolutions. Disease of the brain in this area
need cause no motor symptoms beyond movements
of the head and eyes. The prisoner stated and
it has been observed that tremors of the eyes
are present. Further the prisoner's statement
that he has had severe syphilis is corroborated
by the presence of specific scars on the body. It
is impossible without further examination to
say if the prisoner may not have some
syphilitic affection of the brain itself. Lastly
there is the statement of the prisoner corroborated
as it has already been in many important
details by cablegrams to the effect that the
family history contains instances of insanity in
the present and the last generations That the
prisoner even if he has not himself been in an

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