The Press.
London, England, 1857-10-17 00:00:00

THE PRESS, OCTOBER 17, 1857.

Both the thigh, leg, and back bones have been sawn
asunder, in order, doubtless, to pack them in a small
compass in the vessel of brine, in which they have evi •
dently remained from two to ►hree weeks. Among these
bones were discovered four long light bruwn hairs
of a woman. With these bones were packed a brown
mixture single-breasted over-coat, a single-breasted
back frock-coat, a black cloth double-breasted waist-
coat, black lining, strap and buckle behind; a pair
of new rough Oxford mixture tweed trousers ; a
pair of elastic long drawers, one metal and one bone
button—a small piece of thread tied in one button-
hole, which appears to be the private mark of a
laundress ; a calico shirt, linen front, with small
plaits—enamelled or porcelain buttons ; part of a
merino under-shirt with three linen-covered buttons ;
the half of a black silk necktie; a piece of black
silk with a blue hedge, as a point or contrast; and a
pair of knitted socks.
The remains have been inspected by hundreds of
persons, but without any satisfactory result. The
clothes, which have evidently once been good and of
superior quality, are so torn, stained with blood,
marked with earth and whitewash, and, above all, so
shrunken and altered by long immersion in strong
brine, as evidently to be totally changed from
the appearance which they must have presented
when clean and new and worn by the unfortunate
deceased. Still they are far Irom being quite un-
recognisable, though at the first glance few would
suppose it possible that they were the clothes of a
well-dressed gentleman.

A minute examination of the dress and the con-
dition in which it is at present seems, writes a
contemporary with peculiar gusto, to show at
least the manner in which the murder was committed
There are marks of three stabs in the back, between
the shoulders, three in the abdomen, and no less
than seven exactly over the region of the heart. All
these are clean cuts, showing that tney must have
been inflicted with a double-edged knife, about the
thickness of a crown piece in the centre—a poniard-
bladed weapon similar to those called Spanish knives.
The waistcoat is not pierced, so that it must have
been unbuttoned at the time the murder was com-

witted. The trousers, also, must have been partly
undone, as they are only punctured in one spot,
though the shirt shows marks of three stabs having
been inflicted. If any conclusion can be founded
upon these appearances they would certainly lead to
the belief that the deceased must have been first
stabbed from behind, and that then a desperate
struggle ensued, for the other wounds in the back
and abdomen are wide apart, as if the assailant
struck when and where he could. As the deceased
became weaker and offered less resistance the finish-
ing wounds in the heart appear to have been given
with ferocious rapidity. They almost all lie within
the circle of a crown piece, and must therefore have
been struck as rapidly as the hand could rise and
fall. The back of the great-coat is marked with
white, as if the murdered man had struggled hard
with his back against a white or lightly papered wall.
After the assassination had been effected it is sup-
posed that the body must have been left as it fell
upon its face for twelve or twenty-lour hours, as the
blood has completely saturated all the front parts
of the dress. The coats, waistcoat, shirt, and
trousers, also, are all split down the back in two
halves, and the sleeves of the coat ripped open,
which leads to the supposition that the body must
have become perfectly rigid and in a contorted and
unnatural position before any attempt was made to
remove the dress. _ _ _

The only evidence of any consequence adduced at
the coroner's inquest, which was adjourned till next
week, was thatof Etherington, a toll-keeper on Water-

100-bridge. He states that about 11.30 p.m. on
Thursday night—

A woman came from the Middlesex side of the water,
and paid the toll at the western tollgate. H e took the toll,
and saw that she had with her a brown-paper parcel tied
with cord ; it was long, bulky, and apparently heavy. She
had also the carpet-bag which he identifies, and in which
the remains were afterwards found, and which also seemed
full and heavy. His attention was particularly directed to
the woman in consequence of her turning the turnstile
twice while endeavouring to get the carpet•bag through.
He spoke to her about this, said that he would have to
pay the money himself, and that she should have been
more careful. The woman did not reply, but looked at
him steadily while he lifted up the carpet-bag for her and
placed it on the top of the turnstile. She then muttered
something in a very gruff voice to the effect that he should
have told her the right way to get through, took the
carpet-bag and walked slowly away. As it was thought
possible from the gruffness of the voice that it might have
been a man in woman's clothes, Etherington has been
questioned on this point, but is positive as to its being a
woman, as he saw her face most distinctly, and further-
more that be remarked she was short even for a woman.
The police who are engaged in endeavouring to
penetrate the mystery which surrounds the whole
case believe that a woman so unequal to carrying a
heavy weight as the woman at the bridge evidently
showed herself to be must either have been assisted
by male accomplices or have driven to the neighbour-

1015

hood of the bridge in a cab. Against the former
supposition is the fact that none of the police in the
vicinity of Wellington-street t eve seen persons carry-
ing bundles such as described, though the carpet-bag
could not have escaped attention and remark had it
been so conveyed. On the other hand, the most
minute inquiries have been set on foot among the
cabmen throughout the metropolis, as to whether any
one answering the description of the woman with a
carpet-bag and bundle, or any one at all with a
carpet-bag and brown-paper parcel, was set down in
the neighbourhood of Waterloo-bridge on Thursday
night. As yet these inquiries have elicited nothing,
though it is still hoped that, as the details of the
atrocity committed are widely spread, information on
this point may be obtained.
It would be tedious and useless to detail the
innumerable doubts and suspicions and unfounded
statements of missing persons which have appeared.
Suffice it to say that up to a late hour yesterday
nothing decisive had come to light. The police are
pushing their inquiries with great vigour and with
some hopes of success.

THE EXCITEMENT IN BATH occasioned by the
Leigh Woods murder had scarcely began to subside
there, when a still more fearful tragedy occurred
to spread consternation through the neighbourhool.
The victims in this case are a man and his wife,
named Andrew Border and Sarah Rebecca Border,
the former of whom was a groom in the employ of
P. B. Skrine, Esq., Warleigh-house, about four miles
from Bath, the murderer being a man named Thomas
Miller, a cowkeeper, in the service of the same
gentleman, who also lies in a precarious state from
wounds inflicted by himself. On Saturday evening
Border and his wife, who resided in a cottage about
one hundred yards away from the Millers, went to
the latter for the purpose of ascertaining whether it
was safe to leave Thomas Miller by himself or not.
Immediately on their entering the cottage, Miller,
who was sitting alone, rushed upon Border and
stabbed him in the bowels with a large clasp•knife.
He then turned upon Mrs. Border and aimed a blow
at her as she was running screaming from the
apartment, which cut through the side of her bonnet
and inflicted a wound near the shoulder bone. When
she reached the porch it is supposed she caught her
foot in something, and falling with great
violence against the stone border of the garden,
fractured her skull so severely that she died shortly
afterwards. The screams of the unfortunate woman
brought the mother of the murderer down stairs,
when she found Border alive on the floor, with a
dreadful gash in his abdomen. She called several
neighbours to her assistance, and a surgeon was sent
for, but medical skill was of no avail, and, two hours
after, the unhappy man expired. In the meantime
Miller had been found in the garden, with several
severe cuts in his throat and another in the abdomen.
He was taken into the cottage and his wounds
dressed, and hopes are entertained of his recovery.
He is about twenty-eight years of age. Border was
twenty-five, and a native of King's Staunton, Devon ;
his wife was twenty-nine, and came from Poplar.
The inquest on the bodies was held on Monday.
A great deal of evidence, confirmatory of the facts
already stated, and of the opinion that the prisoner
was insane when he committed the fearful crimes
with which he is charged, was then taken.

THE LATE SIR CHARLES M. CLARKE, BART.—At
the half-yearly meeting of the Society for Relief of
Widows and Orphans of Medical Men, held on
Wednesday evening, present Mr. Walne, V.P., in the
chair, Drs. Roe and Merriman, Messrs. Miles, Pro-
pert, Iliff, Self, and other zealous members, the
strongest feeling of regret at the loss of their presi-
dent, Sir C. M. Cla►ke, Bart., was expressed in an
appropriate resolution, couched in terms of grateful
iegard and high estimation of his uniform urbanity
and liberality. It is understood that in his will Sir
Charles did not forget a society to which he was
during life a most liberal benefactor.
THE FATE OF THE AMERICAN STEAMSHIP " PA-
CIFIC."—The maritime prefect of Brest has trans-
mitted to the Minister Secretary of State for the
Navy and the Colonies, a note written with a pencil
in English, and which was inclosed in a glass
bottle, found on the 14th September, 1857, on the
strand of Melon, in the syndicate of Porspoder
(department of the Finisterre). Great interest is
attached to this note, which appears to have been
written by a passenger on board the American
steamer Pacific, supposed to be wholly lost, with all
hands, in 1856; and we think it, therefore, our duty
to publish its contents verbatim :—" Steamship
Pacific, Eldridge, commander. Smith, passenger.
Steam-ship Pacific run between two icebergs. All
hands lost. On the Ist of April, 1856. Just going
down, two p.m." The word April is written over a
word effaced, for the author of the note had first
commenced with a capital M,, as if about to writ('
March.—Monikur.