The Express.
London, England, 1863-07-11 00:00:00

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TO 001LIZIPONDII4TS.

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HAVMAALIT.

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nod llama; Urn A. Wigan. Urn Wanton Wu L. Angel.—
EASY SHAVING.—And THU STAR OF ANDALUSIA.

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Tim ETEunrg, 1111 WISHING GLEN, introducing THE
GREAT GHOST EFFECT, Professor Pepper a Anna of Mr.
Melee Spectral Illusloo.—The BrothersCoor and Means.
Plimpton end Woodman. -And PAVED WITH GOLD.

MOH WATID AT LONDON MIMIC
TRU DAT Uwelas. 1012. Dm. . Ananias. 106. M.
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LONDON, SATURDAY, JULY IL

IT has been our painful duty before to-day to
call attention to the defects of our Police system,
and particularly to the miserable inefficiency of
our so-called " detectives." Hardly has the un-
solved mystery of the Bloomsbury murder been
registered as a disgrace to these officers, when
another case turns up which is even more damag-
ing to their reputation. If the Home Office offi-
cial' and the Scotland-yard martinets take any
pride in their work, the discovery of the body of the
poor ChiId—ELIZABETH HCIITES—in
William-
street, Islington, must have filled them with shame.
We have never been called upon to record a case
where more carelessness and stupid disregard of
facts have been shown by the police, or a more
mechanical adherence to routine has been exhibited
by their super'-itendenta. In placing a connected
story before our readers to justify these strong
statements, we are not about to vio-
late a very wholesome rule of journalism. We
shall not prejudge WILLIAM HENRY CLARKE—the
yoing man who is in custody as the suspected
murderer of Euzmurrvi Hinfren—any more than
if we were writing an ordinary report of the pro-
ceedings that have already taken place before the
magistrate and the coroner.
On Sunday, the 30th of March, 1862, about
ten o'clock at night, two little girls, named CHAR-
LOTTE and ELIZABETH HUNTER—the first about
twelve years of age, the second about eight years
o: age—were standing in Green Man's-lane, a
narrow turning in the Lower-road, Islington. A
man, dressed in nothing more noticeab'e than a
turban cap, with two ribbons hanging behind,
came up to these girls, and asked the youngest to
take a letter into William-street, New North-road,
offering her twopence. They were poor people's
children, and the eldest appears to have prevented
her sister carrying this letter. The man then took
ELIZABETH If cyrr.• by the hand and walked away
with her, and the eldest child followed them. The
distance from Green Man's-lane to William-street is
not more than an eighth of a mile in a direct line,
and CHARLOTTE HUNTER missed ELIZABETH and the
man in the latter street. Her bonnet fell off, and
by the time she had picked it up they had disap-
peared. That was the hut Ca.taLorrz Burma
ever saw of her sister, and her consistent story
of ELIZABETH'S abduction has never varied in any
particular.
The usual information was given to the police,
and the loss of the child soon excited considerable at-
tention throughout England. The matter was
taken up by a local committee, headed, we believe,
by the Rector of Islington, and a subscription list
was opened to pay for advertisements and other
expenses incident' toto the search. Representations
were also made to the Home-office, and a Govern-
ment reward of 501., in addition to a private reward
of the same amount, was offered for the discovery
of the child. A full description of her and her
clothing was printed, and the man who took her
away was described by CHARLOTTE HUNTER as
, being as old as her father. Her father is a young-
looking man, about thirty•five years of age.
So much for the materials with which the police
had to deal, and now we come to the way in
which they dealt with them. The commonest
principle of investigation is to exhaust the known
before we fly to the unknown ; and if this had
been acted upon, the mystery of ELIZABETH
HuNvEs's disappearance need not have lasted
forty-eight hours. CHARLOTTE HUNTER stated
clearly and unwaveringly that her sister was asked
to take a letter into William-street. She followed
her into that street, and she missed her in that
street. William-street is a short turning in the
New North-road, within a third of a mile of the
Islington Police-office, and containing exactly
twenty-three small houses and one small nursery-
garden. We are fully prepared to say that no