The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-02-03 00:00:00

THE DOUBLE CHILD MURDER IN WALWORTH.

On Saturday the whole of the papers containing the
particulars, as far as they have reached Mr. Elliott,
relating to the death of Mrs. Bacon, were forwarded to
Sir George Grey, the Secretary of State for the Home
Department, for his consideration. This course was
considered necessary, in consequence of the extraordinary
apathy shown on the part of the authorities at Stamford,
and the magistracydn Rutlandshire, in which county the
body is buried, in neglecting to have the remains exhumed
and subjected to the necessary investigation by a coroner's
jury. This apathy is the more extraordinary when the
strong grounds for requiring such a course is considered,
and the desire expressed by Mr. Elliott for such a pro-
ceeding is taken into account. It is now proved, beyond
a doubt, that Bacon, the prisoner in custody under such
peculiar circumstances, had, on the Bth of May, 1855,
purchased half an ounce of arsenic at the shop of Mr.
Patterson, a druggist, at Stamford, and that he had invited
his mother to dine with him on the Sunday following is
equally certain. It is also beyond a doubt that the old
woman was seized with illness after dinner, and that her
sickness bore all the symptoms of that generally produced
by arsenic. Yet after her death, which took place two
days afterwards, the medical man in attendance on her
gave it a_e his opinion that death had been produced by
" cerebral disease." This was taken for granted, and,
much of the difficulty that has taken place to the exhuma-
tion of the body has, it is believed, arisen from the fear
that the examination of the body itself will present a
different state of things, and disclose a carelessness on the
part of the magistracy and police in permitting at the
time such a case to pass without a close and searching
investigation. It was generally believed that last night's
post would convey to the proper authorities the order of
Sir G. Grey for the disinterment of the body, as well as
directions that an inquest might be held on it, and a
searching investigation take place. Adverting to coroners'
inquests, nothing can appear much more farcical than the
inquest that has been held on the poor children in this
instance. In fact it was much worse. it was mischievous,
and as nearly as possible defeating the ends of justice. In
the first place the "coroner's officer!' ;took it on himself,
the very morning after the murder o'f the poor children
was discovered, to have their bodies removed 'from the.,
position in which they were found, and washed, and he
had also all the stains of blood in the place removed, and
thus destroyed many important parts in the evidence which
a close inspection, after a suspicion against the wretched
father had been excited; might have supplied. The inquest
itself was a most hurried affair. The coroner bound over
the witnesses' to appear at the Old Bailey 'on the morning,
of the thy appointed for the further examination of Mrs.
Bacon, to give evidence on an inquistion in which verdicts
of " Wilful Murder " in both cases against the unfortunate
woman were returned. Had there been no other power
to interfere in the matter, the consequences would have
been that the unhappy woman would have been tried,
acquitted on the grounds of insanity, consigned to Bethlce
hem as a criminal prisoner, and her husband allowed to
roam about in perfect security. In the whole of the
evidence that has been given, there is nothing that strikes
one with deeper suspicion against the male prisoner than
the fact that not a single cry was heard from either of the
poor children after Sunday, the 28th of December, and-
Bacon did not leave home until the Monday morning, at
seven o'clock. The neighbours on both sides were in the
constant habit of hearing both children cry, and considered
them exceedingly cross children, yet not a single cry was
to be heard the whole of Monday or the Tuesday ; and the
impression of nine persons out of ten of these who heard
the witnesses was, that the appalling murder took place
on the MOnday morning, and before Bacon left home.
The Solicitor of the Treasury has been spoken to on the
subject of the prosecution in the case, and it is believed
that he will at once take it up and conduct it from the
present point.

DARING BURGLARY IN PLYMOUTH.—It is but a fortnight
since we congratulated our townsmen and others living in
the west, at our comparative freedom from those gross out-
rages ou persons and property that we are constantly read-
ing of as occurring elsewhere. The congratulation is a
sbort-lived one, for since our last publication there have
been a series of burglaries and robberies in Plymouth, as
well as a brutal highway robbery in its immediate suburb,
which have excited a great deal of terror amongst its honest
inlaabitauts,—Plymouth Journal.