The Sun.
London, England, 1864-07-12 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF

The post mortem examination will be made by Mr
Toulmin, of Clapton, the family surgeon of the deceased,
assisted by Mr Brereton, of Old Ford, who was called in
to attend him at the Mitford Castle.
The bag which Mr Briggs had with him is of the kind
generally used by bankers' clerks in removing bullion, and
it has been thought that the deceased had been watched for
some time by his assailant, under the supposition that it con-
tained a large quantity of money ; that he was. followed into
the carriage, and that the murderer waited his opportunity
to obtain possession of the treasure. It is stated that the bag
was empty, but the brass lock bears bloody finger marks,
which would seem to indicate that it had been opened by some
one after the attack had been made. The near approach of
the train to Hackney• wick station, however, would account
for the murderer not possessing himself of the other pro-
perty which the deceased has, tr plunaer was his object,
Every moment also was of the greatest importance in en-
abling him to escape. The ordinary time allowed for the
passenger trains to run from Bow to Hackney• wick is four
minutes, but when the train is late, as was the case with the
train in question, the driver often puts on extra speed to
make up for lost time. An up-express train of yesterday
ran the distance in two and a half minutes. The carriage
window is guarded with three strong brass rods to prevent
passengers from leaning out. It is therefore clear that the
deceased must have been thrust off the open door. The first
thing that attracted notice was the furthermost cushion on
the right side, which lay bottom upwards on the seat. It
is covered with American leather cloth, and the spaces
where the buttons were secured were filled with blood. The
glass window and arm rest were also spattered and smeared.
The deceased had remarked to his family that he often
dozed off in the railway carriage when returning from busi-
ness, and it is conjectured that he might have dropped off
in a slight sleep during the journey, when he was so mur-
derously assailed. On the cushion on the opposite seat
there is a large clot of blood. Both centre arms bear marks
of blood, as if spurted on, and there are also smears along
the edges of the cushions, as if bloody fingers had been
wiped on them. The flooring of the carriage is covered
with a strip of cocoa matting, but there does not appear to
be much blood on it, except at the further end. The cloth
on the right-hand arm of the seat is besmeared, as if the de-
o ceased had been dragged over it in getting him to the door.
I Sir Richard Mayne has appointed Inspector Tann, of the
, detective force, to assist Superintendent Howie and Inspec-
tor Kerressey in their labours. Of course nothing could be
said as to how far they have been as yet successful,we must
therefore conclude this report with the stereotyped gene-
rality that a clue to the murderer has been obtained,
and that there is every probability of its leading to his
speedy capture.
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TIMEs.—A murder which must rank among
the most atrocious on record, if the atrocity of
crimes be measured either by the wickedness which
they betray or by the terror which they inspire,
was committed near the Victoria Park on Saturday
Mr Briggs, chief clerk in the bank of Messrs
Lab
of Lombard-street, was picked up,
Roberts atla Co.,
dying, in the space btatween the up and down lines
of the North London Railway, on the canal bridge
between Bow and Hackney-wick. Ulan examina-
tion his skull was found to hate been battered in
by a tremendous blow over the left ear; his head
was covered with wounds, and his gold watch and
eyeglass had been torn from their fastenings. He
lingered for more than 24 hours, but was wholly
insensible, and unable to utter a syllable which
might lead to the identification of his murderers.
All that is known is that he left Peckham by omni-
bus at half-past Bin the evening, intending to call
in the City, and that he took a first-class ticket by
a train at 945 from Fenchurch-street. The train
in which he travelled quitted the Bow station at
two minutes past 10, and was due at the Victoria
Park station, Hackney-wick, four or five minutes
later. In this interval the murder must have been
committed, and the body thrown out of the rail-
way carriage. Unfortunately, it was not suspected
when the train reached Hackney-wick, where it
may be presumed that the murderers got out. It
was not until it arrived at Hackney some minutes
afterwards that a passenger, opening the door of
the same compartment, found the cuanions soaked
with blood, and the evidences of a deadly struggle
on the floor, sides, and windows of the carriage. Au
alarm was instantly given, and a walking stick and
leathern bag, as well as a hat, were soon discovered.
The two former were recognised as the property of
the deceased by his son, but the latter, happily
for the purposes of justice, proves to be that of
a stranger. It bears the name of the maker,
Mr Walker, of Crawford-street, Marylebone,
and is stained with blood. It is believed
that the assassins got in pt Fenchurchustreet,
having followed their victim to the platform, but
as two other stations—Stepney and Bow—inter-
vene between the terminus and the scene of the
murder, it may be difficult to ascertain this fact be-
yond a 'doubt. Such are the main circumstances of
this fearful outrage, which is all the more calculated
to alarm the public because its apparent motive is so
simple and its execution must have been so rapid.
The disappearance of the watch would seem to prove
that plunder was the object of the murderers, of
whom we thus speak in the plural because it is
hardly credible that one person can have over-
powered a " tall and hale" man, such as Mr. Briggs
is described, and pitched him through the carriage
doorway in so short a time. On the other hand, it
is remarkable, and reveals the haste with which the
deed was completed, that £1 10s. in money and a
silver snuffbox should have been left in the pockets
of the deceased. It is also strange that some ladies
occupying the next compartment should have found
their dresses besprinkled with blood, doubtless
thrown off from the falling body as the train flew
by, without having heard a noise, or seen anything
through the window. It has been suggested that it
may nave been intended to fling Mr. Briggs into the
canal, to which the other or left side of the carriage
was much nearer, but it should be remembered that
this was the side on which the door would be opened
at Hackney-wick, and on which, therefore, marks
of blood might have been observed at once. Every-
thing shows that the infamous plot was cleverly laid
and boldly carried out, and its success reminds us
that our personal safety during an ordinary journey
depersds only on the consequences which the law
attaches to robbery and murder. The enormity of
the injury inflicted on society by such an act as this
can hardly be overstated, and it is right it should be
carefully weighed at a time when a commission has
just been appointed to inquire into the operation of
capital punishment. There is no ground for sup-
posing that personal enmity or revenge had anything
to do with the murder of Mr. Briggs, or that any
other elderly gentleman with a gold watch-
chain might not have been singled out
for the same fate. This is a very seri-
oas aggravation of a murder, considered in its
effect on pubiic security. There are few of us who
are conscious that others have speeial reasons to
wish for our death, but all of us are liable to find
ourselves in positions where we might easily be
murdered for the sake of a purse or a gold watch. A
railway carriage is a place where we are cut off for
a time from all chance of assistance, and this feeling
of helplessness in case of emergeacy has been a
bugbear to many nervous travellers, male as well as
female. Without the means of communicating with
the guard we are almost at the mercy of fire, colli-
sions, and fellow-passengers. This last danger is to
most minds by far the most intolerable of the three,
The idea of being shut up with a madman has
frightened sane persons into posting, and that of
being shut up with a murderer is still more intoler-
able. Highwaymen were bad enough, but they
rushed out at you from behind a hedge, instead of
quietly taking their tickets and seating themselves
beside you in the same carriage. When they had
robbed you they thought of nothing but making off,
having less to gain by taking life than by sparing
it. It would be idle to deny that these considera-
tions justify, in some degree, the sensation and
alarm which crimes like this never fail to create,
and for some months to come travellers by night
trains will probably scan their companions narrowly
before entering a railway carriage. The best anti-
dote to any such panic would be the speedy appre-
hension of the criminals, and this we trust we may
very shortly have to report. The police have a
clue to their detection in the hat left behind in
mistake, and if they have disposed of the watch
and guard-chain there ought to be a good prospect
of tracking them. In the meantime it may be
well to point out that the daring required for a
murder of this type is of a very rare order, and that
the temptation to commit it can hardly ever be as
strong as the risk of discovery is great, If the re-
sistance of the deceased had been protracted but two
minutes longer, or it his cries had reached the next
compartment, or if any one had happened to get id
at Hackney-wick, the guilt of these miscreants would
have been brought home to them then and there.
Railway murders, however suggestive of terror
when they do occur, are not likely to multiply. It is
dreadful to think there ere human beings about us
so careless of life, so abandoned to fiendish thoughts
or brutal passions, that they are capable of conceiv-
ing a murderous design, but to this fact we cannot
shut our eyes. Our comfort and safeguard is that
such miscreants are seldom gifted with the combi-
nation of skill and resolution, or furnished with the
opportunities, which could alone enable them to
brave the penalty of a shameful death or make them
the formidable monsters they would otherwise be-
come.
HERALD.—The debates of last week have taught
the King of Denmark that under no circumstances
has he anything to hope from England. Copenhagen
may be threatened with bombardment, King Chris-
tian himself may be in imminent danger of impri-
sonment or death, not a soldier or sailor in English
pay will be Gent to save either city or King. The
English Parliament and the English people will
continue to prate about their sympathy with Dane
mark ; they will still mock that gracious lady who
has learned so soon how hollow are all their shouts
and promises, with a parade of Danish colonrs, and
mighty cheers for Denmark, bat they will not back
their opinions by the nntlay of a penny, and they
will see with the same contented complacency with
which they have looked on at their own humilia-
tion the complete extinction of the Danish mo-
narchy. All the more dreadful that the atrocities
which usher in that destruction may be all the more
fervidly will the British Parliament congratulate
itself that England is out of the difficulty. King
Christian IX. finds that the nation and the Minis-
ter who placed him upon the throne will see him
driven from it with the utmost equanimity, and that
he has been trusting to a people who, if not pol-
troons themselves, have poltroons for their leaders.
So he has turned to his arch enemy Prussia, and
asked for terms of peace. Well would it have been
for him and for Denmark if, instead trusting to
England to make good her promises of help, he
had in the first instance offered Herr von Bis-
mark all he wanted, and accepted the patronage
of that unscrupulous Minister who has proved that
he is the cleverest statesman of Europe. It is cur-
rently reported in well-informed quarters that the
propositions of the King are of a nature to more
than satisfy Germany. Prince John of Glucksburg,
the youngest brother of the King, is now inßerlin,
asking Germany not to be content with Schleswig,
but to receive the whole of Denmark in the German
Confederation.
tesw
ht
a
declares Christian
to
he
thus
thebu clearly
t an
pa
tworitthteenGdeerea
creaehofiefavtees.ieJeuwtlahniellihreset malurestadsyuccumb
over-
whelmed Schleswig, the isles will follow, and
Fatherland will be thus compensated in
i the north
for what it has lost, and has yet to lose, n the west.
The great difficulty in the way of the adoption of
such an arrangement is the obstinate attachment of
the Danes to the maintenanceof an independence
have enjoyed for and
which they
to those liberal institutions
in
sowmina.enhy centuries,. .
forbeardeath-e t
rto
uConservatives
this moment of a nation's
Radical party in this country eagerly ascribe all the
which the organs of the
calamities which have befallen Denmark. Herr von
Bismark will decline to accept the proposals of the
King of Denmark unless hepromises to get rid of
his
bh r Constitution,ote rof William
thus., quality himself to be the
good
taken to this consummation. He has
the first step King Christian has
go a
t rid of Ministry which could not have con-
sented to any
such terms, and replaced them by men
who have
no affection for the existing institutions