Dealing with the question, did Mrs. Maybrick administer the arsenic, there is absolutely no evidence _that she did. It was not for the prisoner to prove her innocence._ She was seen neither to administer the arsenic nor to put it in the food or drink taken by the deceased, and this issue was found against her in the absence of any evidence in support. INTENT TO MURDER NOT PROVED Mrs. Maybrick’s statement also bears strongly upon the question of administering with intent to murder. It is equally inconceivable that a guilty woman would have said anything about the white powder in the meat juice. She had nothing to gain by making such a statement, which could only land her in the sea of difficulties without any possible benefit, and here again the probabilities are entirely in her favor. It is beyond a doubt that Mr. Maybrick was in the habit, or had at some time or other been in the habit, of drugging himself with all sorts of medicines, including arsenic, and assumably he had obtained relief from it, or he would not have continued the practise. Mr. Justice Stephen, in his summing-up, animadverted in very strong terms on the testimony of arsenic being used for cosmetic purposes, although expert chemists had certified to large use of arsenic for such a purpose. An immense degree of speculation must have entered the minds of the jury before they could find as they did, and bridge the gulf between the soaking of the fly-papers and the death of Mr. Maybrick, for it is quite evident that the soaking of the fly-papers was the one connection between the arsenic and the prisoner upon which all the subsequent events turned; and, if that be so, the importance is seen at once of the statement she made regarding that incident, and conclusive evidence as to which was subsequently found in the providentially recovered prescription. [Illustration: SAMUEL V. HAYDEN, Of Hayden & Yarrell, American counsel of Mrs. Maybrick.] ABSENCE OF CONCEALMENT BY PRISONER Another remarkable circumstance is the absence of any attempt at concealment on the prisoner’s part. The fly-papers were purchased openly from chemists who knew the Maybricks well, and they were left soaking in such a manner as at once to refute any suggestion of secrecy; and her voluntary statement about the white powder which she placed in the meat juice, as to which there was absolutely no evidence to connect her with its presence there, seems inconsistent with the theory the prosecution attempted to build upon _a number of assumptions of which the accuracy was not proved_.