The Sun.
London, England, 1864-08-11 00:00:00

Murder and Suicide,

At Reading yesterday morning it was discovered that a
young married woman had deliberately drowned her three
children in the Thames and then committed suicide by
drowing herself. The deceased woman was named Emma
Legge, and she was the wife of James Legge, a journeyman
upholsterer, and her three children were—Flora, aged five
years; Louis, aged three years; and Napoleon, aged three
months. On Monday morning, Aug. 1, she, her husband,
and children arrived at Reading from Tunbridge Wells by
the South-Eastern Railway, and the man took lodgings for
them in the Rising Sun publichouso in the Forbury. He
seems, however, to have left them there, for he went away
the same evening, and it has been ascertained that he slept
at the Spread Eagle Tavern, in another part of the town.
From that time he abandoned his wife and children, she
having only a small sum, besides a few articles of furniture,
with which to provide the common necessaries of life. After
remaining at the Rising Sun a few days she removed to a
publichouse in Minster-street, where she remained until
Monday in the present week. The furniture she had she
disposed of on Monday for about 40s. She then paid or her
lodgings and a few small bills she had incurred, leaving her
with little more than half-a-crown for future maintenance.
On Tuesday evening she took lodgings at the Jack of New-
bury, Bridge-street, and slept there thst night. On Wed-
nesday morning she roso soon after 6 o'clock, and dressed
herself and her children. A little before 7 she went to a Mr
Boseley, a furniture dealer, in Horn-street, and hired a
perambulator, stating that she wanted to give her children
an airing. As the weather was dull and threatening rain, Mr
13oseley told her he thought it was too cold to take children
out at so early an hour, but as she appeared determined Logo
he allowed her to take the perambulator, into which she put
the children and went away. She was observed to go along
Cavereham-road, r nd turn into the yard adjoining the White
Hart, Caversham, towards the towing path of the Thames.
There was nothing in her conduct to excite suspicion, as it is
rather a favourite place for people to take an airing.
Some time afterwards the gardener at Mrs Monck's, on
the opposite side of the river, observed a perambulator on
the bank without any one in it, or even near it. While he
was looking to see what had become of the person in charge
of it he saw something like a human body floating on the
surface of the river. lie then got into his mistress's plea-
sure-boat, pulled across the river, and within a fey- yards
of the bank he saw the three children and a woman lying
within a short distance of each other, all dead.

All the bodies were removed to an outhouse belonging to
the White Ilart Inn. The children were quite dead and
cold. As there was, however, a slight warmth about the
body of the woman, every means were used, under the direc-
tion of Mr. Bailey, surgeon, to re.t,tore animation, but with-
out avail.

Mr J. J. Dandy, the Coroner for the borough, opened
the inquest in the large room at the White Hart lan, Caver-
sham, in the afternoon. After viewing the bodies the jury
heard the following evidenco

Mr F. A. Bullet', surgeon, Reading, said,—About half-
past 9 o'clock this morning I was summoned to the White
Hart Inn, Caversham-bridge, to attend a woman and her
three children, who I understood had been taken out of the
water just above the bridge. I attended immediately, and
found them lying in a stable adjoining the inn. Several
persons were actively engaged in endeavouring to restore
animation. The bodies of the children were quite cold, but
as there was slight remaining warmth in the body of the
mother, I requested they would continue their efforts for
some time longer, in which I assisted, but without avail.
Judging from the very slight warmth in the mother's body
when I first saw her, and the total absence of it in the
bo;lies of the children, I should say that they had been im-
mersed from half an hour to an hour before they were taken
out of the water. There was no appearance of violence on
the body of either child.

William Jacobs, the gardener, then described the mane
nor in which he had found the bodies. He said—On near-
ing the baak, and when within seven feet of it, to my great
surprise I saw three children and a woman floating on the
surface of the water. I took the children out of the water,
placed them in the boat, and called to my little boy 10 years
of age, and told him to go to Piper's and tell him to come
and render me some assistance, as there was some one
drowned. I lifted up the woman by the head, and held her
up, and shortly Piper and his man came in a punt and took
her out. They were all dead whenl found them. The peram-
bulator was about four feet from the water's edge. The
water is a dozen feet deep where the bodies were found. The
baby was floating on his back ; the second seemed to be the
same, and the elder one was dipping in the water with the
face downwards. The woman was in the same position as
the last mentioned child. They had all been immersed, and
on rising were kept up by their clothes. The children were
separated from each other, and the woman from all of them.
They formed a kind of group floating. Their hats were off
and in the water. I found a purse in the perambulator. It
contained only three halfpence. There were two paper
bags, in which had been broken biscuits, and at the bottom
of the perambulator was another halfpenny. The two elder
children had been eating biscuits, and the youngest, from
milk coming out of his mouth, could only a short time be-
fore being thrown into the river have been suckled by the
mother.

James King, a respectable-looking young man, living at
Whittey, said the deceased Emma Legge was my sister,
I svw her on Saturday morning last at half-past 10 o'clock.
I saw the three children on the day mentioned, and that
was the last time I saw them all alive. I did not know her
husband, but I met a man in the street whom I supposed to
be him, from the description given of him to me. I spoke to
him, but he said he was not the man. Of my own knowledge
I do not know whether she was married. She said she was,
and I have reason to believe she was stating the truth. She
gave me one day last week the address of her husband's
brother at Tunbridge-wells, and by her desire I wrote to him
to inquire if he had gone back there to work, but no answer
was received. I was in Australia about 17 years. and re-
turned on Lie 19th of June last. Since that time I have
seen my sister four et five times. She came to Reading on
the Ist August, and her husband took lodgings for her at
the Rising Sun. Her husband did not stay there with her,
but went and got a bed at the Spread Eagle. He did not
return to her again. She told me she thought her husband
had gone away drinking, and that she had very little money
left. She did not know what he was going to do about

work, and she expected him back every hour. I asked her
if I got work in Reading if she would come and live with
me, and I said I would try to support her and the children.
She said she would not, for she would not be under obliga-
tion to anyone. On one of the occasions when I saw her
she talked of selling the things she had with her, and going
back to Tunbridge to see if her husband was there.
The Coroner—Did she state what her object or motive
was in coming to Reading ?

Witne.s—She stated that they were come to Reading to
live. That her husband was an upholsterer by trade, and
that ho had sent goods or luggage, above 20 cwt., by rail-
way, and, she and the four children were to follow it, as she
believed, to have a home there.

The Coroner—ln her conversation with you did she
speak in a way that led you to suppose she was in a despond-
ing state ?

Witness—She appeared to me to be low spirited on ac-
count of her husband's absence and drinking as she sup-
posed. She was under the impression that ho had gone
back to Tunbridge.
The Coroner said that was all the evidence he was pre-
pared to lay before the jury at that time, but, as it was de-
sirable to find the husband, an adjournment must take place.
In the meantime, Inspector Peck would communicate with
the police at Tunbridge-wells, and probably some informa-
tion would be obtained respecting him, and also other evi-
dence which might enable them to arrive at a verdict.

The inquest was then adjourned until next week,

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

TIMES.—The absorbing affairs of Europe, the
embarrassments of the present, and the uncertain-
ties of the future have left us but little time of late
to consider events that are passing in other quarters
of the world. The civil war in America is now,
however, no longer the topic of absorbing interest
that it was before the war in Denmark. The Polish
insurrection has been finally trampled out, yet little
is said and less thought about the wrongs of a coun-
try which a few months ago almost monopolised the
sympathies of Europe. Under these circumstances
we nt ed no apology to our readers for recalling their
attention to the local affairs of a dependency of the
British Crown which as yet at any rate is enjoying
the blessings of profound and uninterrupted peace.
The time is rapidly approaching when the comple.
tion of the public buildings erected at Ottawa for
the reception of the Governor-General and the two
Houses of the Canadian Parliament will permit the
session to be opened in that remote locality. The
place was, as our readers will remember, fixed upon
by an award made in the name of the Queen for the
site of the future capital. Many were the murmur-
ings, bitter was the discontent with which this de-
cision was received. Quebec, Toronto, and Montreal
each had their advocates and supporters, Toronto
might plead that she was the capital of the wealthier
the more fertile, and more progressive part of the
colony ; Montreal that she was situated on the con-
fluence of two mighty rivers, accessible to steam
navigation, and on the boundaries of the Upper and
Lower Provinces ; Quebec could boast of her anti-
quity, of the unrivalled beauties of her picturesque
and commanding situation, of her historical renown,
and her long possession of the rank of capital. It
was not likely that persons actuated by these vio-
lent local jealousies should readily acquiesce in any
decision, but there was a large portion of the Cana•
dian public who, without any decided sympathy for
the three competitors for the rank of capital, were
nevertheless as much displeased at the selection of
Ottawa as those whose patriotism was more local or
municipal. They objected to a transfer of the
Canadian Parliament from civilised and thickly
peopled districts, from places busy with the hum of
commerce and presenting the attractions of settled
and civilised society, to a small town, placed, indeed,
in the neighbourhood of resounding waterfalls and
splendid woods, but recently founded, inhabited by
a rude and turbulent population, and remote from
the habitation of almost every member of the Legis-
lature which it was to receive. Placed high up on
a river the navigation of which is impeded by rapids,
and the mighty tributaries of which have not even
yet been all named and explored—with nothing be-
yond it, with no commerce but the lumber trade, and

few inhabitants besides those whom that rude and
primitive labour supports, there was at Ottawa
something wild and repulsive which those authori-
ties who merely contented themselves with unrolls
in.; the map and fixing upon the most central
position they could find between East and West
could scarcely conceive. Probably, also, there was
another feeling, less openly avowed, and perhaps
less consciously entertained, which made the
selection of Ottawa unpopular. There was a
time when Canada thought seriously of annexa-
tion to the United States, when, fretting over
imaginary grievances, she believed she would find
a remedy for them all in the bosom of the great
Republic. But long before the breaking out of the
present civil war this feeling had cooled, if it had

riot entirely passed away. The United States and

their institutions had lost their charms in the
sight of a Canadian placed c n the spot, and there-
fore not to be deluded by those sounding phrases
which so long had passed current among English
Radicals. 'there was no wish to copy the American
plan of selecting the capital of a State the most
insignificant and out of the way town that could
he found, provided its situation was only central.
They saw in the selection of Ottawa for the capital
of Canada a servile imitation of the strange policy
which forbids Baltimore to be the capital of
Maryland, Philadelphia of Pennsylvania, New
York of New York, Cincinnati of Ohio, Chicago
of Illinois, or St. Louis of Missouri. They thought,
not unreasonably, that the presence of good so.
ciety, the sessions of Courts of Justice, the assem-
bling of a military force,—that wealth, commerce,
and industry, with all their adjuncts, were more
fitting accompaniments to a Legislative capital
than logs, rapids, and Red Indians. This was, we
believe, the almost unanimous feeling of Canada;
yet, to the honour of Canada be it spoken, this
unanimous feeling did not prevail. The word of
the Colony had been given, and that word, though,
it must be confessed, not without many demurs and
much repining, has hitherto been honourably ob-
served. Not withstanding the embarrassment of the
Colonial finances, money has been found for the
erection of suitable buildings for the Legislature,
though others existed elsewhere, and the time is
rapidly approaching when the Canadian Parliament
will take possession of its new residence. A diffi-
culty has, however, been started, which, so far as
we know, nobody had mentioned during the long-
and acrimonious controversy to which the decision
of the Queen gave rise. It is asserted with con-
siderable snow of reason that the true basis of ope-
rations for the defence of Canada in case of invasion
from the United States must necessarily be the sea.
The frontier of the colony is long and low, running
in the Lower Province from north to south, and in
the Upper Province from east to west, along the
shore of the St. Lawrence and the great Lakes. It
is said, then, that it would be impossible to defend
the Upper Province, a long and narrow strip of
land, against the invasion of armies so numerous
as those which the American Government could
bring against it, now that the Northern States
have become a great military Power. As we
recede from the shores of the St. Lawrence there
is little to tempt an invading or to shelter
and support a retreating army. From this
point of view all those parts of Canada
which a British man-of-war cannot protect are
virtually at the mercy of the United States.
Among these must be reckoned the city of Ottawa,
which though situated on a mighty river is in-
accessible from the sea to ships of any burden on
account of the rapids which obstruct the naviga-
tion. It is therefore argued that to place the Par-
liament at Ottawa would be to place the Governor
and the Legislature absolutely at the mercy of the
Americans, and it is earnestly pressed upon us that,
at any rate till the present danger is over, we should
retain the Legislature at Quebec. There is but
one objection to this argument—that it proves too
much. If no place is fit for the capital of Canada
which is not accessible at all times to nn English
man-of-war, we fear that Canada must go without
a Legislative capital altogether- Certainly, Quebec
is no such capital, for its port is closed by the ice
every year from the end of November to the end
of April ; and the same consideration, of course,
applies with still greater force to the towns of
Montreal and Toronto, which lie higher up the
stream of the St. Lawrence. We have never ap-
proved the policy of forcing a capital into existence
in defiance of man and of nature, and even though
this argument against Ottawa be not conclusive, it
may be allowed some weight in support of a view
against which, as it seems to us, there is really so
little to be said. At the same time, we hardly see
how in the present state of affairs the English
Government can very well take the initiative in
inviting the colony to break that promise to which
they have hitherto insisted on holding it so fast.
PosT.—Macaulay's New Zealander is quite as
likely to find himself occupied, when the time for
the
fulfilment of the prophecy arrives, with an his-
torical inquiry at some university at the Antipodes
Into the number of Lord Palmerstons who governed
England during the nineteenth century, as to be en-
gaged in sketching ecclesiastical ruins from the
broken arches of the Thames. He will perhaps be
in much the same doubt as to the plurality of Lord
Palmerston that we are in as to the plural existence
of many a mythical hero the diversity of whose
_deeds we cannot attribute to any one man. The
estew Zealander will probably record that he finds
this Lord Palmerston in office during the first de-
cade of the century, that he finds him Prime
Minister also in the seventh ; he finds him a young
man in 1804, he finds him still a younger man in
1864; he finds him a friend of Fox and Pitt; he
finds him again the energetic chief of a Cabinet
(=Wining men of the generation of Argyll, and De

Grey and Ripon, and Hartingto Nor is this all
The New Zealander will not only conclude that
there were two or three Lord Palmerstons in the
course of the century, but that there must have been
more than one at the same time, and that they must
all have been very young men too. The proof of
this he will adduce from the fact that this Lord
Palmerston, even so late as 1864. appears to be in
various places simultaneously. One day he is stated
to be in Northamptonshire, the next day he is 1n
London; again he is the sii,jtct of a public ovet ion
at Bradford, the next instant he is at half.a.dozen
other places, and before die distances could well be
traversed he is again Prime Minister in London.
Then there are 20 speeches, ail purporting to be de..
livered within a fortnight of each other by a ":Lord
Palmerston ;" and it is quite clear that, even if ono
man could have made them all, they are in as many
varieties of style, and that they are therefore the
.
speeches of different persons. No man could be et
once an incipient Statesman in 1804 and a youn in
Prime Minister in 1864 ; nor can any man be
twenty places and make as many speeches in
,"
many styles in half the number of days. The "I
duction of the historical essayist in New Zealaeu
will therefore be clear that there were not onlY:ge,ved
ral Lord Palmerstons in England daring the nine-
teenth century, but that there were several simul
tane.ously. It will be construed to be merely an
official title taken by many, and not dissimilar to
that
.which a French journal less pardonably terroed,
some. time ago, " Lord Chiltern Hundreds, an offic°
in her Majesty's household." We are very !°rr.Y
to reflect that there is a limit to political activity int
producing public reputation, and that the b°ze
antiquity tends to lend a doubt whether a gr.e"
variety of actions extending over a correspon.dinige
.variety.. of time can reasonably be ascribed to a lung
individual, For ourselves, we have a good old Cona
servative belief that there was one Hengist, °n__
Hercules, one Zoroaster—and only one;, and so on:
But, nevertheless, we cannot wholly dispel, our aP.
prehension. that it may at some distant prod be d'
favourite subject for college essays in New Ze51.511.,
How many Palmerstons were there in the Dine.
u
three Palmerstons at any one time ?" It
teenth century ? and could there have been less °la.
verse of Whately's " Historic Doubts ;'' is the C°ol..
guments. for the übiquity or plurality of Palwerstoo
will beat all those that have been raised for. t.
vagueness of Napoleon. At Bradford, aer.tainbut
t
Lord Palmerston has come forward in anYthi.ng is
the character of a Minister to whom busineB.9.o
mar lest,
wea.risome or fatiguing. " The more the
is, in fact, the drift of his speech from first
.to
The first care of the hiirdezt working Premier Who
has ever governed England was to expose a. PO of
lar fallacy concerning " the labours and anxieties a
office." He tells at once that he believes theb..
and the a a
labours and anxieties to be a sheer chimera.
If
te.e
fla
man's testimony is to be taken on such a aub
the verdict of a Minister who has had an cincl„
experience of filly years, and whose activity 5
absorbed all the duties of every office that he bad,
held, c,rtainly ought to be conclusive. If Y°rlhat
your duty, Lord Palmerston says in effect, W
business. have you to complain of labours any
anxieties ? If you don't, then, no doubt, you wan,
very well be harassed. All this work and resP° _
sibility. seems mere child's play to Lord
It. is only to be compared to roiling a stone Wu.,
hill. One thing, however, Lord Palmerston. allow":
to harass even him. It is, whatever .4 time and
opportunity. prevent him from doing." That
haqi •
Ministers do, he tells us, is to them a source
not hi.nvgd
faction ; they are of the nature of anvils;
wearies. them ; nothing puts their admin
Palynerst°u_.
istratird
machinery out of gear. Can, again, this be the
Palmerston. of sixty years ago ? Perhaps, v! oar,,he
his lordship's character is best to be cieseribed
clu.
.words. he has himself used to shadow out the Pe
words
liarities of the English people • and the" plc of
seems to have caught the fancy' of the peop.- a
Bradford. " The English character," oils litorr
Palmerston, "is marked by perseverance, dus
at
enterprise, judgment, and courage in pursuing tn:e
which has been undertaken." This, he tel.'s tu_
people of Bradford, represents especially their own.
character, for they have done wonders thong?
perseverance and hard labour; they have converted
a great and barren moor into a great and thriving
commercial town, though in fact their progress her
but begun, and Bradford is destined to see greate
days. All this must be very pleasant to the Brad'
fordites ; but, whatever may be the fulfilment of the
prediction, there can be no doubt that, as far aS
things have gone at present, Bradford deserves the
encomium passed upon it. With the same felicity
Lord Palmerston passes on to other subjects; an
ewers the Knight of Northamptonshire, who told
him at Towcester that he had got all the halfpence
while his colleagues got nothing but kicks, by saying
that the merits of the Administration were in a
marked degree the collective merits of all, and that
no other Cabinet ever possessed a greater proportion
of men of first-class intellect. Possibly this is true;
but at the same time popular instincts are not often
very wide of the mark ; and when everybody com-
bines to think that all these first-ciaas men would
do but little without Lord Palmerston, it becomes
hard to gainsay the universality of the opinion•
The country is generally inclined to think that it
owes more to Lord Palmerston than it has owed to
any man since the Duke of Wellington ; and we are
in
inclined
ed to think that, however partial its disp°sl
tion, its judgment is not altogether inaccurate.