The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-01-24 00:00:00

THE NORTHERN TIMES. LIVERPOOL, SATURDAY.

THE DOUBLE Ar URDER AT IVALWOI?TIir.

LIPE.RPOOL BANKRUPTCY COURT.

ADDITIONAL PARTICULARS.

BEFORE MR. COMMISSIONER PERRY.

From the facts that are now in the possession of the police
officers who have the investigation of this diabolical murder, it
will be proved that probably a no more atrocious and premedi-
tated crime has disgraced the annals of this country for many
years past. That the man Bacon is the murderer of his two
unoffending children there it no* grave reason to fear ; and if
the police succeed in corroborating the evidence they are already
prepared to adduce, there will be very strong presumptive
proof that he bad previously attenipted to btirn them to death,
whilst residing at Stanifdrd. When the murders were in the
first instance discovered, it will be recollected that Harriet
Payne, the aunt of Mrs. B icon, had. in consequence of an
invitation Made to her by the prisoner Bacon, sent her daughter
on Monday evening, the 26.11 Lee, to the house in Fouracre
street, istewington, to stay with Mrs. Bacon during her
husband's absence at Reigate. Mrs. Munroe, the
daughter, - not being enabled to gain admittance into the
house, went back to her mother at Milo end and in-
formed her of the fate It Was then late' at night,
but the circumstance somewhat alarmed Mrs. Payne, and early
on the following morning she proceeded, accompanied by her
daughter, to the house. When she arrived in the street she
met Mrs. Bacon a few doors from her own house, and asked
her where she had been all night, as her dau Otter could not
gain admittance, although she had knocked at the door repeat-
edly. Mrs. Bacon replied that she had been in doors all night,
and then stated that a man had entered the house by the
window, and murdered the children, and, attempted to murder
her also. Information, as is already known, was given to the
police, and from the fact that the woman had previously boon
in a lunatic asylum, there appeared to be very little doubt but
that she had committed the murders herself. Bacon was
immediately sent for from Reigate, and upon his arrival, and
being informed that his children had been murdered, and that
his wife was in cuttely, lie appeared to be overwhelmed with
grief, and, what was then believed, to have fainted away.
That appears now to have been a sham. Had he rested here,
he never would have been suspected of being the murderer,
even' had the same abatement as to his guilt been made
by. his wife. But now comes the point of his
over cautiousness. Pour days after, he makes an
extraordinary statement to Mr. Yining concerning a
robbery, which he said had taken place in his house at the
the time of the murders, alleging that between Monday the
29th, and Wednesday the 31st, his house had been robbed of
'a £5 note, two sovereigns, a Geneva watch, and a suit of
clothes ; but in the great prevarication in his statement to the
inspector, _that officer had his suspicions aroused, and from
that hour, up to the time of his being charged with the
murder on Wednesday, he was virtually in custody of the
police. That the murder was committed on the Sunday
night, (December 28,) after his return from Mrs. Payne's,
there is very little doubt, for it will be recollected that all the
neighbours-examined at the inquest, deposed to the fact that,
the children, or at least one of them, was previously continu-
ally screaming ; but, that they had heard nothing of it on the
Monday. The screaming is now accounted for, that the
unfortunate little boy was afflicted with a cancer, for which he
was attended by Mr. Payne, a surgeon, in Fouracre street,
and who had prescribed a lotion which had to be applied
frequently, and the application of which had caused the poor
little sufferer the most excruciating agony. It may be as
well to observe that the fact of not heatling the screaming
was a subject of remark by the neighbours before
they knew that a murder had been committed. That
the murder was premeditated, will be shown in the
course of subsequent inquiries before the magistrates, we have
every reason to believe, and the evidence in proof of it will be
that the only relative or acquaintance Mrs. Bacon had in Lon-
don was her aunt, Mrs. Payne, and her daughter, Mrs Monroe.
Both those persons were visited on the Sunday for the reasons:
above stated, and Bacon having ascertained that neither would
come to his house that night, and fully expecting that Mrs.
Monroe would be there in the course of Monday, proceedeet
home at once. How long the children had been in bed, or at
what hour the crime was committed, of course it is impossible
to say, unless some reliance is placed upon the statement made
by Mrs. Bacon, who asserted, when she was first taken into
custody, that it was eight o'clock. At the inquest a short
female's nightgown, reaching about to the hips, was produced,
This garment was completely saturated with blood, and the
chemise which was worn by Mrs. Bacon, and which reached
.nearly down to her feet, had no blood upon it, with the excep-
t:on of round the neck, which of course could be accounted for
by the incised wounds on her throat. Now if she had worn
that nightgown, in the state it was in, it is quite certain that
the blood must have percolated to the chemise underneath.
The mystery in connection with the affair is, why Mrs.
Bacon should not have made the extraordinary statement when
the murder was first discovered, or why she had not previously
given an alarm when she knew who it was. But at the next
inquiry this will probably be cleared up, as a very intimate
female friend of Mrs. Bacon's has been brought up from
Stamford to have a conversation with her, and to whom, it is
believed, she will make a full revelation of the circumstances
in connexion with the melancholy transaction. One great
point in the case, and which may have struck the readers of
previous accounts as appearing strange is, that, notwithstanding
the numerous wounds on Mrs. Bacon's throat, not one of them
was fatal or in any way approaching it. This she accounted
for by stating that shortly after she was attacked she became
insensible. Consequently, the inference is that he left her,
believing her to be dead. the question to be solved, in bringing
home the committal of the murder to Bacon, is the motive.
Thi., the police believe, they shall fully account for. Whilst
he was living at Stamford his wife was in a lunatic asylum,
and it is supposed that he had formed an illicit connexion
with a female there, and that in order to get rid of his children
and obtain means to leave the country, he set fire to his
house. Before much damage was done, the children were
rescued. After the fire had been extinguished, from cir-
cumstances that came to the knowledge of the insurance
company, the directors deemed it necessary to have the
prisoner apprehended on a charge of arson, for which he
was tried in July last at Lincoln, but by some means
managed to escape a conviction. What became of the female
alluded to afterwards is at present unknown, but Bacon
removed to London, and his wife was then released, described
as cured, from the asylum, and from that time up to the period
of the murder, had been living with her husband. It is,
however, generally supposed that during this time he has still
been connected with the female alluded to, as he has had
large sums of money, amongst which £2BO he received from
the insurace office, and which must have been spent in other
ways than in supporting his wife and family. Although Bacon
stated, when he first came to town after the murder, that be
left home before six for Reigate, on the Monday morning, it
will be proved by the milkman on the next examination, that
Bacon himself took in the milk from him on that morning long
after that hour. The circumstances detailed in the police
report of yesterday, in the evidence of sergeant Broad, of the
discovery of the watch alleged to have been stolen amongst
the other property, tells very strongly against the pri-
eioner. The murder was committed on the 20th December,
the inquest was,held on the 2nd of January, and on the 3rd
Bacon was closely questioned respecting the property which
ho stated had been stolen (at the time of the murder) after
the inquest on the previous evening. He must have
observed that Mr. Young discredited his statement, and on
the sth, two days afterwards, the watch is found on the door
step of an inhabited house, No. & Elizabeth street, Walworth.
Of course, if any person had committed the robbery, it is not
likely they would have thrown the watch away some days
afterwards. It would, in all human probability, have been
disposed of, being worth £3 or £4, but the inference is that
the prisoner, having the watch in his possession, and fearing
that, at any moment, he might be searched by the police, and
knowing, as he must have done, that he was under their
surveillance, he took the first opportunity that presented itself
of getting rid of it. When found it was securely wrapped up
in paper. There is one thing in connection with this case that,
notwithstanding the statement of the wife, it would be necessary
to have it corroborated by evidence, the law preventing a wife,
in cases of felony, from being a witness against her husband.
Tho house in which the murder took place has been taken
possession of by the landlord, having previously beau dis-
mantled by Bacon, and yesterday several workmen were
engaged in re-papering and painting it.

Ix an WuaAmes TysoN.—His Honour delivered
judgment in this case yesterday. He said : The grounds
of the opposition upon which Mr. Aspinall mainly
insisted were, first, an alleged fraudulent preference in
favour of a Mr. Wright, of Crosby. Second, an alleged
fraudulent preference in favour of Mrs. Hilton, to the
extent of £370. Third, the circumstances connected
with a loan from Mr. Humphreys. Fourth, the borrow-
ing money at an inordinate rate of interest of Mr.
Pemberton ; and, fifthly, the omission, by the bankrupt,
to keep proper books of, account, with intent to conceal
the true state of his affairs. The circumstances of the
case, as far as Mr. Wright was concerned, were these :
A purchase of wheat was made from him for the sum of
£42 Os 4d. The bankrupt made no entry of payment, but
states that the amount was paid in two sums—first,
a slim of £5, and then the balance afterwards. The
promise to pay is stated to have been made when the
wheat was bought. At what time the payment of 'the
balance actually took place would not have appeared
from the examination of the bankrupt, whose account
of the transaction was a most confused one, but for
the production of the receipt written on the back of
the ticket, when it appeared that the payment was made
on the 14th of June before the issuing of the letters call-
ing a meeting of the bankrupt's creditors, which were
sent out on the 16th or 17th of that month. The ticket
remained, according to custom in the trade, in the posses-
sion of the farmer, netil the payment was made. Apart
from the very unsatisfactory account of the transaction given
by the bankrupt, but which Wag le: a measure cleared up by
the production of the receipt, I don't think that this is
a payment in the course of trade, and 11; consequence
of an alleged previous promise, can be treated g 7 0 case
of fraudulent preference. The next point arises !hen
the payment of a sum of £370 to a Mr. Jones, This
money was paid into the bands of the bankrupt as
one of the trustees of the settlement on the marriage of
Mrs. Hilton, six or seven years since, Mr. Jones being the
other trustee. Upon this money interest had been paid to
Mrs. Hilton. The bankrupt represents Mr. Jones as
having pressed him much before his stoppage, and
after the letters were issued, and before the meeting ;
Mr. Jones was at his place two or three times a day;
and the bankrupt says that he applied also to his wife to
induce him to pay the money, saying, " What a serious
matter it• would be to the lady, or to him, if the money
were lost." The money was paid after the letters
issued, and after the preparation of a statement to be laid
before his creditors, prepared by a Mr. Wilson, but under
the direction of the bankrupt ; and yet, as urged by Mr
Aspinall, no mention is made of this payment in the
statements, nor by the bankrupt at the meeting of his
creditors which took plasm on the 25th of June. The
money was used in the bankrupt's business, and was
taken out of his business for the purpose of being paid
to Mr. Jones, and invested upon a dock bond. Now, as
to this, it may be said that the statement, being a mere
statement of debts and liabilities, the sum of £370, which
had actually been paid, no longer became a liability, and
was therefore properly omitted from the statement, but
its payment ought, in all fairness, to have been disclosed
to the meeting by the bankrupt. If, however, pressure by
Mr Jones was sufficient to take the case out of the opera-
tion of the statute, that pressure appears to have taken
place ; and, as Mr. Jones might have filed a bill against
his co-trustee for the purpose of securing the trust fund, I
am of opinion that he was in that sense a creditor of the
bankrupt. As to the objection founded on the circumstances
of a loan from Mr. Humphreys, we must, for the purpose of
the certificate, take the bankrupt's.own account of it in his
balance sheet and examinations, unconnected with anystate-
ments
made by him to third parties, not examined before
the court on this occasion; and there it appears that, hav-
ing borrowed £3,000 from Mr. Humphreys on mortgage,
he, the same day on which he received it, paid £lOOO, and
another £l,OOO a few days afterwards, to meet certain
liabilities Mr. Humphreys was under in respect of run-
ning bills—an arrangement which, if made bona fide it
was perfectly competent to make ; and there is nothing
regularly before the court to induce it, at this stage of the
proceedings, to form an opinion that it was not so made.
I come now to the transactions in which the bankrupt was
engaged with Mr. Pemberton. He had paid to Mr.
Pemberton, in interest on loans, £4,072 17s 4d, a sum
exceeding the whole of his profits, which are stated at
£3,635 7s 10d. The interest so paid was at various rates,
generally at the rate of 6 per cent. per month ; but there are
instances of charges made of £5 for the loan of £lOO for 12
days, which is after the rate of about £l5O per cent. per
annum ; and a cheque, in one case, of £2 for the loan of
£lOO for four days, which is'after the rate of about £lBO
per cent. per annum. Now, no one, I think, will be
found to contend that sums borrowed at such exorbitant
rates of interest. " for the purposes of business," to
use the words of the bankrupt, could be expected to
yield a profit ; and there will be few, perhaps, who
would net admit that a trader who for five years
continued to borrow at anything approaching to the rates
of interest before mentioned, had pursued a most reckless
course. Mr. Yates, indeed, calling attention to the facts
that Mr. Pemberton htd undertaken to repay £l,OOO
of the money he had received, and not to prove
upon the estate for the £1,500, or, as Mr. Yates
stated it, the £1,700 due to him, said that would
reduce the per tentage to. about £lB per cent,—
a rate of interest paid by many trades in Liverpool.
Even thus reduced, a prz.fit could scarcely be calculated
upon, so as to relieve the trader from the same charge of
recklessness. A case of ex parte Butcher has been
referred to before Mr. Commissioner Goulbarn, in which
he is said to have treated the borrowing by a bankrupt
at large rates of interest for the purpose of trade as a
fraud upon his creditors. I have not the particulars of
this case referred to by Mr. Aspinall ; but I have no hesita-
tion in saying that a trader who pursues this course, a trader
a trader who systematically borrows money at a rate which
the profits of his business will not warrant, acts in the most
unjustifiable manner towards his other creditors,and deserves
severe censure from this court. The last head of objection is
that of not keeping, proper books of account, with intent to
conceal the true state of his affairs. As to this head, it
has been abundantly shown that the books have not been
properly kept. There is the omission of the sum paid to
Mr. Wright, of Crosby, and ether creditors, of the like kind ;
there is the omission to enter, the money received from
Mr. Humphreys ; also the omission to enter the £370
paid to Mr. Janes ; and lastly, the , omission to refer
anywhere to the payments to Mr. Pemberton, though
alleged to be for business purposes. It is said, indeed, by
Mr. Yates, that the baukrupt left the keeping of his
books to a clerk, and he might be well advised in doing
so, if he did not understand book keeping himself, but then
he was bound to furnish the clerk with these particulars,
known only to himself, in order that his books might con-
tain a faithful record of his trade and dealings. By not
having done so, he has laid himself open to the charge of
" concealing the state of his affairs," and I have heard
nothing to satisfy my mind that this was not done advisedly.
Considering, therefore, that Mr. Aspinall has established
the fourth and fifth grounds of objection to the bankrupt's
certificate, I am of opinion that his certificate should
be suspended for two years from this day, and that when
granted it should be of the second class. One objection
being founded on the provisions of the 256th section, the
bankrupt will not receive protection, at least for the pre..
sent. In the judgment so pronounced I have given their
due weight to Mr. Yates's observations, as to Mr. Tyson
having previously carried on business for a length of time
without any compromise, and in good repute among his
neighbours.

QUEEN'S HALL.-HOFFMAN'S ENTER-

TAINMENT.

THE BOMBARDMENT OF GREYT)WN.—The merchants and
shipowners of Nantes have just signed a petition to the
Emperor Napoleon, praying him to obtain redress from the
United States Government for the French victims of the
bombardment of Greytown in July, 1854. A similar peti-
tion has also been presented by the merchants of Orleans,
and others are bring signed at Paris, Lyons, Marseilles, and
Bordeaux.

MR. J 0111( FROST IT NOTLINGHAIst —OR Wednesday
night, Mr. John Frost gave a lecture to a numerous body
of the working classes, at the Assembly Rooms, Notting-
ham, on " Transportation." Mr. Edward Hart, a town
councillor, was in the chair. The lecturer, who was received
with protracted cheering, commenced by an attack upon
the aristocracy, and said he knew that any man who
attempted to shake t letr power, or to make them disgorge
their plunder, must do so with his life in his hand. Mr.
Frost proceeded to say he bad converted one of the most
eminent judges of Van Diemen's Lind to the principles of
the' charter, and then described the, treatment of convicts in
that colony. From 1788 to 1852 more than £10,000,000
of the public money had been expended to degrade and
brutify their fellow subjects. In conclusion the lecturer
adduced various statements to prove the prevalence of crime
in the penal settlements. He said it'was a very common
thin., for murders to be committed there, and apparently
with:Out any cause. But the victims were destroyed
because they would not submit to the propensities of their
fellow convicts. The lecturer expressed his intention of
compelling the government to bring him before a com-
mittee of the House of Commons. If they refused, he
would appeal to the people of England. A vote of thanks
was accorded to the lecturer, and cheers were given for
" Ernest Jones."

THE FALKLAND ISLANDS AS A PENAL

COLONY.

Mr: C. W. Eddy, Radcliffe travelling fellow, has
called attention to the Falkland Islands as a penal settle.
ment. He shows that Western Australia cannot support
a large number of convicts, and the Moreton Bay
convi is cost £lOO each The Falkland Islands, he
confesses, are a barren and inhospitable region ; but
a rude and boisterous climate he thinks advantageous
for bracing the energies and compelling the convicts
to labour for their ova comfort. The old soldiers
settled in the islands just manage to live ; and where
an old soldier can just manage to live, a convict will
thrive. The country does not grow corn, but it grows
potatoes and all kinds of esculents in abundance, in
consequence of the humidity of the atmosphere, wh le the
Tussack grass grows to such a height that there is
unlimited food for herds of cattle and sheep. It has an
everlasting supply of peat for fuel, and a kind of bash
which burns when green. The neighbouring coasts
abound in whales. seals, anl fish of all
kinds. The neighbouring coasts of Terra del
Fuego are covered with wood to the water's
edge, affording abundant supplies for ship building.
The Falkland Islands, moreover, lie within 100 miles of
the route of the homeward-bound ships from Australia,
New Zealand, the Pacific Islands, &e., and want of a
Proper port for refitting, near Cape Horn, has long been
felt. For this purpose the islands possess the most splen-
did . sheltered ports in the world. A disabled ship
rounding Cape Horn would with the prevailing wind
easily make for the islands; whereas there is no place
now for refitting nearer than Rio. The Australian and
whaling ships would call there for fresh supplies,
instead of buying fowls, pigs, &c., at very dear prices, at
Melbourne or Sydney. They are more than half the size
z. 4 Ireland ; are favourably situated for convicts, escape
being; to any other country or British colony, difficult, if
not imp Mr. Eddy proposes that ticket of leave
men should i offered a passage to the island and a few
acres of land, with seen, &c., to take from them all excuse
out female convicts.
for idleness. lie would also send
" Of course, these women should be . subjected to a certain
penal servitude, and then allowed to naafity, Incase these
terms should be thought too favourable for ticket ufl`-'ave
men and expirees, it must be borne in mind that We want to
get rid of these people; we cannot drive them away; therefore
we must in a manner bribe them. I propose, in addition to
tho expirees and ticket of leave men, to send out a certain
number of those whose penal sentence has yet a year or a year
and a half to run, in order that government might have a
certain amount of labour to depend on for the construction of
the dock, which should be pushed forward with the utmost
rapidity, and such of this class whom government might not
absolutely require, or who might not be strong enough for this
kind of work (those, for instance, who would be draughted out
from Dartmoor), I would lend to those of the free class whose
conduct should justify the belief that they might he entrusted
with the charge, in order to assist them in breaking up their
land, &c., the prisoners, of course, returning at night to the
custody of government."