The Express.
London, England, 1864-09-27 00:00:00

HAYMLBIKET.

THIS EVENING. RACCUUS A-ND ARIADNE—TRK CASTLE
OF ANDALUSIA. Mews. Weise, Ferree, Buctstame, Comptes :
Miss L. Keeley ant Madame WeIss.—YRIKIND WAGGLES.
Mr. Compton.-And A KISS LN THE DARK.

PRINCI&M

Trri9 Knarnta. BORN TO wcs. Mr. D. Murray.
And THE STRXICTS OF LONDON. Mears. Vining. J. W. By,
D. Fisher, D. Murray, J. Nelson. H. Forrester. and H. Mellon;
Mrs H. Marston, Misses Barnett and Gwynn..

BRITANNIA.

Tm 9 isvzimia. THE Mesdames Yarnold,
Cranford, and Scott.-Singing by Messrs G. lasts. sad Louis
Lindsay: Madame Pleon.—And THE BAY OF BISCAY.
Wawa. Crauford, Drummond, Blgwood Miss S. Mills.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON-BRIDOR.

Tuts DAT ---A/ternnollT Oh. Om.
T,..MogitoW Morning, Oh. 2tm.. Afternoon, Oh. 44m.

LONDON, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27.

THE adjourned examination of Franz Muller at
Bow-street, for the alleged murder of Mr. Briggs,
was brought to a close yesterday, and the prisoner
was formally committed to Newgate to take his
trial. The very easy proceedings at the inquest at
Hackney probably helped to lessen the popular
attraction of this examination, for Bow-street was
not besieged by anything like the eager crowd who
besieged it last Monday week, and the magisterial
bench was not ornamented with any foreign kings
and ministers. The small court was certainly
crowded, as it easily may be with about two hun-
dred people, and many foreigners were present, but
beyond the immediate circle of the prisoner's legal
advisers the interest in this preliminary trial ap-
peared to flag. The further the case goes the more
the evidence is piled up against the prisoner,
and the sharp decisive way in which the
coroner and the coroner's jury dealt with
it yesterday morning at Hackney very fairly repre-
sents the popular feeling. The verdict of that jury
was one of wilful murder against the prisoner ;
and at Bow-street he was committed without an
instant's hesitation by the presiding magistrate,
and with nothing but the statement that the defence
is reserved by Mr. Beard, his solicitor. A reserva-
tion of defence is always a sign of weakness ; and
in this case the tenor of the cross-examination of
witnesses for the prosecution showed that it was
weaker than ordinary. The promised revelations
with regard to the cabman Matthews have swin-
dled down almost to an innendo about some passage
in his career at Norwich in 1850 ; and in the mean-
time his story, which at first seemed rather impro-
bable, that he had bought a hat for
the prisoner, has been admitted by Muller.
Whether the hat found in the carriage in which
Mr. Briggs was either murdered or so attacked that
he was induced to jump out and so end his life on
the railway is the one purchased by the cabman for
Muller has not yet been proved by any evidence
beyond the cabman's assertion ; but nearly every
other point in the evilence has been driven home
by three or four witnesses. One contemporary—
more gushing than prudent—has even gone the
length of hinting that the cabman was concerned in
the murder ; but the explanation of his manner at
the previous examination, upon which many sup-
positions were founded, appears very simple. Mr.
Matthews, with no disrespect be it said, is 'a Lon-
don cabman, and nothing more, and the part he
has been suddenly called upon to play in the eyes of
his country might well have elated a much stronger
minded man. Ile hots travelled to New York and back
as a first-class passenger upon whom much depended
in an important case ; he has probably been made
the little hero of au Atlantic steamer during a
month's sea voyage ; has been treated in New York
bars, and has nut been stinted in champagne ; and
he comes back fresh from this glorious excursion to
be bullied by as unpretending solicitor. Under
these circumstances some little allowance ought to
have been made for his somewhat rampant manner
at the first examination, especially as he said nothing
which met with the open disapproval of the magis-
trate. Any elket, however, that his cross-exami-
nation might have produced in favour of the
prisoner was more than dispelled by the evidence
of his wife, given yesterday, for anything more
apparently truthful than her manner was never
seen iu a court of justice.

The case against the prisoner now stands in this
position. Mr. Briggs was killed upon the North
London RaiNay on the night of the oth of July
in the present year, A respectable surgeon, who
examined the b vly, swears that death was caused
by fracture of the skull and compression of the
brain. The carriage in which the unfortunate
man last rode was saturated with blood, and in
this carriage was found a hat which the cabman,
Matthews, swears is the one which he bought iu
Crawford-,tr,, Mar)lebone, a short time pre-
viously, for Thifler. Muller admits that Matthews
did buy him a hat, but says that the transaction
took place many month, before. Early in the week
following the di-,.•v, ry of the body of Mr. Briggs,
Muller is (wool changing a gold watch chain at the
shop of Mr. Death, which chain hasbeen proved to be
one worn by 3lr. Briggs the last time he was seen
alive. For this chain Muller got another chain,
and also a ring. The ring he has lost, but the
chain, with a small Geneva watch, he pawned,
according to the evidence, just before he paid his
passage-money to New York. When captured on
bnaril the Vn•toria sailing-vessel in the harbour of
New York he stated be had lost a ring like the one
he had received from Mr. Death, while in his pos-

THE

session was found a watch which hap be ide,ti-
fied, with exams of proof, as the -watch talons-
log to the late Mr. Briggs, and a hat which
it was suspected also belonged to the same
unfortunate gentleman. After much evidence
concerning this hat, given at both examinations of
the prisoner at Bow street, it turns out that this
suspicion is correct, and that the hat is really the
late Mr. Briggs's, with this important difference. It
has been cut down in the body until it looks like a
theatrical hat, and the cutting down hasbeen effected
by some one clever with the needle and scissors,
though not a hatter. Franz Muller, we may state,
is a tailor.

There are many details of evidence, Inch as his
giving the paper box, in which Mr. Death had put
the new gold chain, to Mr. Matthews's child, which
have all been established at the examinations, and
they all tell with terrible force against the prisoner.
The mere array of witnesses, when they were sum-
moned into court to be sworn to appear against the
prisoner at the Old Bailey sessions, was very for-
midable. His defence is stated to be reserved, but
our own impression is that it will have to be made,
and his counsel will probably not only attempt to
discredit the cabman, but will strive to show that
he had the command of money on or before the
day when be pawned his watch and chain and paid
his passage-money.
The prisoner took a more lively interest in the
proceedings yesterday than he did on the previous
Monday, but he could evidently suggest little to
his keen and watchful solicitor, Mr. Beard, to
shake the overwhelming testimony of the witnesses.
After viewing the prisoner again carefully, we see
nothing to alter in our former description of
him. He is certainly not such a thoroughgoing
pugilist and ruffian as most of hie photographs
represent. Dr. Juchs, the representative of the
German societies who are finding the means for
the prisoner's defence, very naturally takes a
warm personal and national interest in the case,
and is the medium of communication between
the prisoner and his solicitor. Muller, we are
informed, is a native of Saxe Weimar--a place
hitherto celebrated as a residence of Goethe—
and his parents are still living. His father is a
respectable gunsmith. Moller has been absent
from home, and working always steadily as a tailor,
for about two years ; and the German societies
cannot find that there is any previous crime which
can be laid to his charge. If he should be prsava
guilty by an Old Bailey jury of this murder, this
fact, if it be a fact, will render the case all the more
remarkable.