The Express.
London, England, 1864-08-04 00:00:00

Wen WATER AT Wino! Biumia

1133 aiIa.T.TXIII33.
To-hoosaw Moralse. 3h. 40i.....Mtvies"

LONDON, THURSDAY, AUGUST 4.

Tut Coroner's jury has finished its investiga-
tion of the circumstances attending the violent
death of ROSINA BISHOP at Somers Town, and
has come to the conclusion that she was murdered
by bet paramour, JAMES BROWN. Since the dis-
covery of the woman's body there has not been any
doubt about the matter ; and as Baow& had pre-
viously committed suicide, the jury had little
more to do than to verify the known facts. The
evidence taken as a whole presents oue of the
completeat pictures of what may be called the
besotted life ever offered to the public. A dread-
ful crime has been committed, chiefly because both
the murderer and his victim were too muddled and
stupified by low and vicious habits to overcome or
remove the small difficulties in the way of their
living in peace. BROWN, who was 56 years of
age, had a wife and child whom he had deserted ;
and BISHOP, who was 40 years old, had • husband
who before the murder had not seen her for nine
years. BROWN was a carpenter, and BISHOP
carried on some petty private trade by which she
was able to get her own living. How the two
came first to live together is not known ; but it
appears that having severally forfeited the respect
of their friends, they had come to consider them-
selves thrown by circumstances upon each other.
Both were given to habits of intemperance, and
were accustomed to vent upon one another the
inward gnawing dissatisfaction which always follows
self-indulgence. The neighbours say, they were
continually gnirrelling. If they had been man
and wife the law which bound them together might
have borne the blame of their unhappiness ; but a
common wretchedness appears to have been the
bond of their lives, as it was the cause of their
deaths. The woman is said to have been good
looking, and BROWN suspected her of maintaining
an intimacy with another man. On the morning
of Tuesday, July 19, they were seen together by
the neighbours in the yard at the beck of the
house "on the best of terms." About 1 o'clock
of the same day, at which hour they were both in
the back kitchen, they bad an altercation, and
then a lodger named LOADER, who was in
the front kitchen, heard her scream loudly,
as if in great agony, and fall heavily on the
floor. After that, no one saw her alive, unless
this same woman LOADER did. BROWN gave out
that Humor, of her own accord, had gone away for
good, and related several incidents of her depar-
ture—how that she snapped her fingers and made
faces at him in the street. At 4 o'clock on the same
day he took tea with the lodger in the front kitchen.
On Wednesday and Thursday he was at times about
the house, and then was absent until Saturday
evening. On Sunday be dined with his lodgers, the
Losnzaa, and after dinner sat for a time in the sum-
mer-house in the back yard. This was the last time
he wad seen alive. All this while the murdered
body of ROSINA BISHOP was decomposing in the
coalhole, and her disappearance was being discussed
by the neighbours. From their evidence before
the Coroner it is clear that the woman kunst'
knew much more of the dreadful affair than she
bad been willing to state to the Court. She had
told them that after the screams BROWN bad come
to her and asked her to fetch some beer ; that she
did so, and returning with it saw ROEINA BISHOP
bleeding on the ground, and offered to fetch water
to wash her face, which Baows refused to permit
her to do. She also said that before fetching the
beer she said to BROWN, "My GOD, BROViti, are
" you murdering the woman f " Another neigh-
bour, a married woman living with her husband,
deposed that LOADER had said to her that she was
so upset at the eight of the blood that "she was
" obliged to have three-ha'porth of gin to settle
" her nerven." Mrs. LOADER attempted to deny
the accuracy of these reports of her conversations ;
but the testimony of several witnesses was
opposed to hers, and at last she blamed her
excited memory for the defect& of her story.
These discrepancies are only of interest as showing
the benumbing effects of certain habits of life.
BROWN had celebrated the murder by • libation
of beer, and here was • woman, who it is
evident believed in the murder of her house-
hold companion, which, indeed, she had almost
seen, and who bad an evident pity for the victim,
nevertheless remaining in the house with the mur-
derer, for whom she had no special friendship,
talking to him, fetching his beer, taking meals
with him, and suppressing the physical homer
which she could not help feeling with " three-
" heporth of gin." But for the hot weather the
dreadful facts mieit have been concealed a little
longer, but the progress of decomposition forced
an inquiry. BRowN's rooms were broken open on
the Monday following the murder, and there were
found in the parlour his dead body suspended by •
cord, and in the coal-cellar that of limits* Butner
doubled up and the skull bettered in with his
hatchet. The mystery was at an end. We have
had murders more exciting from the powerful
passion or the deep calculations they revealed,
but very few which upon reflection seem sadder,
because of its connexion with causes operating, it
is to be feared, constantly and on a large scale
in the lower strata of society, and tending to
destroy all sense of the sacredness of human life.

We rejoice to bear that the Bible Society's agent
at Coeetestisople has ieformed the committee that the
meet reprieves romeorea there were taken leithoet the
knowledge d the Salton, and all is now set right. —Ascent