The Sun.
London, England, 1852-12-30 00:00:00

The trial of Mr. Bower for the murder of Mr. Saville
Morton took place at Paris on Tuesday, and occupied
the Court of Assize of the Seine the whole of the day.
It excited the greatest interest, and the court was
crowded during the investigation. The " act of accusa-
tion" was as follows :
Elliot Bower, an Englishman, aged 38 years, was
married in 1842 to Fanny Vickery, a widow, by whom
he had three children, the last borne on the 2d Sept.
1852. In the course of the year 1848, Bower established
himself at Paris with his family. He was correspon-
dent for the English journals published in London,
and occupied apartments in Rue de Seze, and an
intimate friendship existed between him and Saville Mor-
ton, his fellow-countryman, also a correspondent for the
English journals. They co-operated in the preparation of
the correspondence. Morton was a friend of the Vickery
family, and knew Mrs. Bower from her childhood.
Mrs. Bower apparently enjoyed complete happiness.
She appeared to be the object of her husband's assiduous
care, although her domestic life was not unclouded. She
often suffered from the violent character of Bower, and
probably also from his conjugal infidelities. In 1850 she
received a letter from Isabella Laurie, living in London,
in which that young woman accused Bower of having
sought to estrange her from her husband's affections.
That revelation produced a profound impression on
Mrs. Bower's mind, the bitterness of which time had
failed to soften. Mrs. Bower had the imprudence to
confide her griefs to Mr. Morton. He abused her
confidence, and forgot that Bower was his friend. There
was no certain proof, but unfortunate circumstances in-
spired Bower with the thought that he had been unwor-
thily betrayed. During many months Mrs. Bower was
in a state of excitement, the precursor of that derange-
ment which subsequently affected her intellect. Fif-
teen days before her last accouchement she ordered the
woman Pepin, the portress of the house, to come to her
immediately after her delivery, in order to bear the news
of it to Morton, together with some of the hair of the
expected child. fOn the 2d September, after her ac-
couchement, she said to that woman, "Go announce to
Mr. Morton that I have been confined, that the baby re-
sembles him, that I cannot send him a lock of its hair to-
day, but that he shall have it soon." Morton, on re-
ceiving this message could not refrain from making the
miserable exclamation, " Ah, what misfortune !" Never-
theless, Morton partook of the passion that inflamed
Mrs. Bower. He had conceived the mad project of
procuring a divorce between Bower and his wife, for
the purpose of marrying her himself. Several English
lawyers whom he had consulted as to the legal means
of accomplishing his object could not turn him away
from that wild desire. Mrs. Bower's accouche-
ment was favourable, and everything presaged a speedy.
convalescence ; but towards the 15th day, an im-
prudence induced puerperal fever, and the state of
excitement which already existed was increased so
as to produce mental aberration. Her relations were
summoned to her bed-side, and, with the consent of
Bower, Morton himself remained in the chamber of the
sick lady, where he passed the night on a couch. By
his presence and his discourse he appeared to calm Mrs.
Bower's agitated mind. On the 30th September Mrs.
Bower expressed an ardent desire to abjure the protest-
ant religion, in which she had been born and educated.
Her wish was accomplished on the evening of the same
day ; but her madness, far from calming, increased in
force during the succeeding night and the day of the Ist
of October. She refused to see her husband, and found
food for her fury against him in the letter of Isabella
Laurie, which she held constantly in her hand. On the
Ist of October, about nine o'clock in the evening, the
relations of Mrs. Bower and the mother of Mr. Bower
were assembled in the dining-room. Mrs. Bower called
her husband into her chamber, and then, after having
reproached him with acts of violence committed on her

person, she, in a fit of delirium and of fever, cried—show-
ing her infant which she held in her arms—" That baby
is not yours—it is Morton's ; " and when Bower protested

against that revelation, his wife, still further excited by
the resistance offered to her, added, that on the 2d of
December, in the absence of her husband, she had sent
for Morton, who had passed the night with her, and that
she had become a mother on the 2d of September. "If
I believed that," cried Bower, " I would kill this infant."
These words carried Mrs. Bower's insanity to its height,
and addressing her sister, who was present, she said,
" Queen of England, drive away that man." Such dis-
course, inspired by a raving imagination, should have
given rise to no feeling in the mind of Bower but that of
pity ; but a thirst for vengeance had taken possession of
him. He quitted the chamber of his wife and entered
the dining room. He was pale, and his features ex-
hibited the violent emotions that agitated him. Mor-
ton was sitting in the dining room. Bower seized
a table knife and rushed at Morton, who, com-
prehending his rage was directed against him, rose
precipitately and made for the ante chamber, in order to
escape by the principal staircase. Bower's mother at-
tempted to restrain her son, and caught him by his coat,
but his coat rent, and she fell by the effort which Bower
made to disengage himself from her grasp. Morton,
having traversed the ante-chamber, descended rapidly
the first steps of the stairs, when he was overtaken by
Bower, who struck him a violent blow with the knife
near the left ear. Morton fell never to rise again ; death
was the result of a terrible hxmorrhage, caused by the
cutting of the carotid artery. At sight of the man ex-
tended without motion Bower comprehended the enor-
mity of his crime. He reascended the stairs, and stood
like one annihilated ; but, hearing that Morton was
dead, he entered his apartment, changed his clothes,
took some money, and, taking advantage of the commo-
tion, he descended the back stairs, and left the house
without having been noticed. Although the pursuit
was active he was not arrested, and succeeded in taking

•efuge in England.
At the close of the trial, Mr. Bower was acquitted•

AUDACITY OF THE LONDON ROBBERS DURING LAST
CENTURY.—The following is an instance of theimper-
fect condition of the London police in 1727 :—At the
time of the first visit to the City by George 11. and his
Queen, soon after their accession to the throne, the
cities of London and Westminster had been greatly
pestered for a considerable time past with a number of
street robberies ; and so audacious had they become,
that they formed a scheme of robbing the Queen in St.
Paul's Churchyard, as she came privately from supper in
the City to St. James's Palace. This scheme was, how-
ever, frustrated by their being busily employed in rob-
bing Sir Gilbert Heathcote, an alderman of London, as
he was returning in his carriage from the House of
Commons, during which time her Majesty luckily
escaped. This circumstance greatly alarmed both the
Court and City. Letters were immediately sent to all
the magistrates, enjoining them to use their utmost
endeavours to suppress such robberies ; and many of
the parties implicated bell* apprehended and executed,
this barefaced system of robbery was, to a great extent
repressed. In 1744 the robbers again became trouble-
some after dark, and to such a pitch of insolence had
they arisen, that they went to the houses of the peace
officers, and made them beg pardon for endeavouring to
apprehend them ; and many, whose lives they had
threatened, were obliged to secure themselves by taking
shelter in Bridewell.—The Builder.

THE MANCHESTER POST-OFFICE.—There are employed
in this office a postmaster, above 40 clerks, 5 letter-
stampers, and nearly 100 letter-carriers ; mails arrive at
the office, and are despatched about 60 times daily.
Nearly 2,000 merchants and tradesmen pay for private
boxes at the Manchester Post-office, by which they are
enabled to obtain their correspondence direct from the
office, instead of through the medium of the letter carrier.