The Sun.
London, England, 1864-07-16 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATUM

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LONDON, SATURDAY, JULY 16, 1864.

The extraordinary circumstances attendant upon
the death of Mr. Triomas BRIGGS (chief clerk at the
banking firm of Messrs. RUBARTS, LUBBOCK, and
comp,cy), still remain, up to the moment at which
we era writing, wholly unexplained, All, in fact,
that is yet known in regard to that death may be
very readily recapitulated. It was frighffally
sudden in its occurrence—rapid in its completion—
and, to all appearance, was a death of extraordi-
nary violence. Everything about it—in spite of its
bewildering suddenness, and in spite also of
the still more bewildering rapidity of its comple-
tion—pointed distinctly, upon the first discovery
of the facts of the case, to its being the result of a
most brutal murder. The particulars that seemingly
point it out thus as a case of assassination are, amen g
others, these—The fearful
injuries (as from beau
blows) discovered upon th©
head of the deceased !
The blood-stained floor and cushions of the compart-
ment of the first class railway carriage in which he
had, but a few seconds before, been travelling. The
bloody finger-marks upon the windows, upon the door
handle, upon the latch of his empty leather-bag, as
wail as upon the footboard and the external pannel-
ling of the railway carriage in which he had died
and from which he had hem precipitated. Other
circumstances indicate no less conclusively the fact
that it must have been a death accomplished by the
hand of a murderer. Among these—the missing
watch and gold aibert-chain, the fastening
of the extremity of which chain was found
attached to tha buttonhole of the dead man's
waistcoat, the rest of the chain and the gold chro-
nometer having vanished. Added to this circum-
stance the fact of the chair having been exchanged,
under most suspicious circumstances, the very
morning after Mr. BRIGGS'S sudden and apparently
violent death, and pArted with thus by A MAU since

accident!

There is an old adage which tells us that there
are none SO deaf as those that will not hear ; and
certainly it may be followed by the aphorism that
none are so dull as those that will not under-
stand. It is cf:rtainly a very strange thing that no
amount of argument or opposition, or even an ad-
verse vote, can succeed in convincing her INIAJEsTv's
Ministers that it is the wish and intention of the
House of Commons to retain the National Gallery
on its present site. In this matter at least the pre-
sent House fairly enough represents the feelings of
the people, although its political views have in
many instances proved in opposition to the public.
It has given a decided opinion on the matter, and
has been supported in its opposition to the favourite
scheme of Government by
the general feeling of all
classes. The retention of the National Gallery on
its present site is readily recognisable as
the most
sensible and suitable
method of settling the long
discussion. The spot is still central in spite of the
spreading suburbs; it is easily accessible oa foot or
by vehicle, while the great focus of rain FOUS at

there is Tiungerford will add still greater facilities to the
then nowhere discoverable. Then, again,
the otherwise surely very remarkable eircumstance / means of access already existing.
Thanks to those
of a hat being found in the blood-bespattered rail- metropolitan lines which are threatening to turn
way carriage compartment, which turned out to be- - London upside down, entirely for the convenience
not the dead man's, but another man's hat—ar .d of the sufferers, persons may now traverse its wile
that man nowhere any more traceable as yet till derness of streets with very little delay or
the exchanger of the gold chain already mentioned ! fatigue ; but it is undoubtedly the right
There—in the scene of all this fearful bloodshed, course to pursue with a building of this character
there in that railway carriage compartment, noge- to place it in a position which is within easy reach
ther with the dead man's stick and leathern bag of all classes, not only of those more favoured mem-
(the latter with the mark of the bloody hand upon hers of society, who possees the magi agent which
its fastening)
was—not the deceased's hat, but contracts time and space. If, indeed, c the Netional
—another man's—a stranger's! Not a gentleman's Gallery were now in a situation which did not accord
hat—not a hat of the better sort—but a commcon with the character of the institution, it might be
cheap London hat—belonging to some unknoeyn desirable to reconsider the point, but Trafalgar-
rson. Everything here, we repeat, points to the Hiner° has been styled " the finest site in Europe,"
Ye
fact of Mr. BRIGGS'S death having been one of great and it is capable of being made, as it ought to be, the
' brutality and violence, caused by the hand of a centre of artistic interest. Within a iew cf the old
murderer. One's instant impression is that the historic walls of Westminster and the Houses of
strange, battered, bloodstained, common hat is the Parliament, were the intervening streets enlarged
murderer's ! One's instant impression is also that and improved, as they ought to be, with the monua
the blocdy finger-marks on the fastening of the ment of our greatest naval hero in its front,
dead man's leather bag were the bloody finger-marks surrounded, if the design be ever fairly carried out,
of the murderer, That murderer seeking—while by memorials of other English worthies, there
could scarcely be a more fitting locality with
yet red handed—in the bag, the booty he had
hoped to win by reason of this deed of assassins- regard to external associations. If half the care
tion. The forcible rending away from the dead and money were expended on Trafalgar-square
man's possession of his gold watch and his gold that have been lavished on those favoured snots near
chain—all except the hook or fastening of the latter, Kensington, it would now present an appearance a
where it was too strongly entangled with his little more in accordance with our national dignity
clothing to be extricated in a hurry—this likewise and with the wishes of the public. People very
seems to us, quite as clearly as the rest of it, to have naturally prefer to fix their place of abode at a little
been the work of a murderer, and of none else than distance from the centre of business, but they do not
a murderer, or a murderer's accomplice. It may pos• expect all the old fixtures, as CHAS. MATHEWS says,
sibly be deemed by some a mere waste of womb, in- to become part of the moveables. Nobody pretends
sisting upon all this, under such very frightful and that it would be desirable for the Commons to re.
extraordinary circumstances. Yet, so singularly move their place of deliberation from St. Stephen's
ingenious an hypothesis has been thrown out this to Kensington or Btompton—no one advises that
morning by an anonymous correspondent of our St. Paul's should be transported to some more airy
morning contemporary the Herald, to the effect or elegant situation in the west. There are changes
that the death of Mr. BRIGGS was, after all, the enough being clamoured for which the Government
is unwilling to grant, or even to entertain the idea
result of no murder whatever, that we have felt
constrained to recall the above mentioned facts of; but this transposition, which is not wanted,
to mind, before giving the argument pnt forth in they are always ready to tattle about. In the die-
this same ingenious hypothesis in the manner fol- cuseion which arose in Supply on Thursday even-
lowing, The deceased gentleman—suggests dais coring the old feeling was very strongly manifested.
respondent of our contemporary—" Mnßriggs, had Three separate representatives of the Government
been dining out, and possibly from congestion he —one of them the Prime Minister himself—per-
may have had an attack of hemastemisis, or vomiting sisted with some ascerbity in pretending that the
of blood ; from giddiness or other apoplectic feeling House of Commons had come to no decision on the
matter. The right hon. speakers were warned by
about the head he may ha 'e taken up the first hat
he found at his last place of call, and hurried to the the continued interruptions of the House that their
train ; there he is seized with vomiting, and to his memories were inaccurate, and, indeed, they were
horror he discovers it is blood ; he turns over the told so plainly enough. Sir JOHN SHELLEY, in his
cushions to ascertain the fact, and on doing so, he usual straightforward manner, said that he thought
tries the window, but finds it barred. He then, with it a most unfortunate circumstance that the House,
his bloody hand, tries the handle of the door to do what it might, could not peasuade Ministers that
get it open, and while pushing and turning the it was determined that the National Gallery should
handle, the door flies open, and out he is precipi. remain at Trafalgar square. Surely, said the hon.
tated on his heed, the watch guard or any loop baronet, it was the duty of the First Commissioner
catching any projection, and the watch and guard of Works to bow to the decision of the House.
either carried along the line on the footboard, or But Ministers with crotchets and pet schemes are not
thrown with him, where it may yet be found. I very willing to submit to any unfavourable decision,
might enter into more minute details to account for and accordingly it is easy to assert that the house,
though. it has expressed its opinion pretty often,
minor circumstances, " observes the correspondent,"
but fearing to tresspass on your columns, I only and once or twice in an unmistakable manner, has
wish to add that an assault oa a banker's clerk, never actually committed itself to any particular
with the hope of finding money, would scarcely scheme. Lord P - ALMERSTON was full of virtuous
indignation because the House expected the Govern-
be undertaken at ten o'clock on a Saturday night,
or any night returning from a bank." Now, of
ment to have a scheme ready at once when they
course, as the propounder of this (we repeat) had just refused to accept the Ministerial proposal,
very ingenious hypothesis insists above, all this which, even as the noble lord put it, sounds absurd
may have occurred precisely according to enough to merit the most emphatic disapproval.
" What they had thought best, was to provide for
his conjectures. Mr. BRIGGS may have taken the
stranger's hat instead of his own by mistake—and the National Gallery at the back cf Burlington
so forth. But—if he fumbles with his blood- House, and to leave the Royal Academy at Trafal-
gar-square." The noble lord hopes next session to
soaked band at the window and at the door to
t each open—how comes he to be fumbling pre- propose some scheme which will reconcile all existing
viously with the lock of his own empty leather differences. What that schcmo is to be the future
bag ? What possibly could he have been doing must unfold, but it must be very difLtrent from any-
that for ? Again, the gold watch may have thing that has yet issued from higher official quay-
ters before it will coal:need itself to the common
been torn out of his pocket, during the
accidental fall here hinted at, and have been thrown
sense and right feeling of the people.
somewhere on to the line, where it may yet be dis-
covered lying ! Only—days and nights have since
passed by--and it has not been so discovered nor
even a fragment of it! And—what is more—the
missing gold chain,
-the gold chain missed simul-
taneously, from the dead body, together with the
gold chronometer, is known to have been exchanged
the day afterwards, on the sly, by an unknown
man, who can nowhere since then be discovered.
No—the strange, common, cheap hat, found blood-
stained and battered in that ghastly railway car.
riage compartment—the disappearance of the gold
chronometer—the mysterious exchange made by
some unknown and undiscoverable person of the
lost gold chain—the bloody hand-mark on the
dead man's travelling-bag —to say nothing
about the murderous wounds discovered upon the
skull of the unfortunate deceased—all point clearly
and distinctly, to our thinking, to his death as the
result of a most brutal, sudden, ruthless, in hut- an
assassination. The railway official whom he had
cheerily bidden " Good Night" a minute or two
before his awful and violent death, can testify that,
even as recently as up to that moment, there was
no evidence of the confusion supposed by
the correspondent to have been so heavily by
that time upon Mr. BRIGGS' faculties that
he had blundered himself out of the possession of
his own hat and instead of that carrying away upon
his head that of another person'e! One other con-
sideration not yet referred to by us about the cirs
cumstance attendant upon Mr. BRIGGS'S appalling
death we would here direct especial attention to,
as, to our thinking, in its way, perfectly conclusive,
that the unhappy gentlemen did not come by
his death in the manner suggested by this
correspondent, but that he did die the death
of the victim of a cruel and inhuman murder. This
simple, and, as weteonceive, quite conclusive con-
sideration, being the fact that the door of that
hideously blood saturated compartment of the
railway carriage—in which the dead man's
stick and travelling bag (the both blood-
stained) was found, together with the
common cheap hat of some other person un-
known—that the door of that compartment, from
which the dead man's body had been precipitated,
was found—closed-to afterwards ! .And not swings
ing wildly open—as must have been the case had
the deceased fallen out, as suggested, merely by

The Factory Acts Extension Bill has passed
through Committee. This is very satisfactory to
reflect upon, for it is a measure that was urgently
called for, and indeed the only wonder is that it
was not sooner projected. It must not be supposed
either that enough has been done in this line, for,
as Lord SHAFTESBURY observed, this should be
only the precursor of a series of measures which
would confer the greatest benefit on the country.
It is a sad thing that while wealth increases and
commerce flourishes, the health of the operatives
should be injured, and their lives too often sacri-
ficed in consequence of the want of precauti:ma
being adopted and due observance paid to the im-
portant rules which relate to health and the
violation of which entails such useful con-
sequences. The working of this bill will be
the means of affording relief to a hundred

thousand children and young people who have
hitherto drooped under the pressure of overwork,
n d that
,under circumstances which militated
greatly against their health, It is always a source
of great pleasure to the deserving mind to reflect
that the rising generation are well cared for. There

is no greater security for the well-being of a State
than the right training of its youth. It is not in
accordance:with the.laws of ancient wisdom, or con-
sonant with the principles that modern science has

inculcated, to allow the culpable neglect that of late
years has taken place among U 3 to continue. If
this timely aid had not been administered, and this
respite allowed to those overtaxed faculties and over-
worked frames, the consequences at a future period
would undoubtedly have been fatal to themselves in
many instances, and injurious to the interests of the
community. There is no greater mistake than this
over hurry to get rich, and many disastrous results
have ensued therefrom: There is great truth in

Lord SHAFTESBURY'S remarks on the claims which
the workpeople of this country have on the conside•
ration of the House. During the late cotton famine
no riots had taken place, and indeed the noble lord
said that their predictions had been verified, that
if the Factory Bill passed there would be no more

sedition in these places. it is some relief to those
who regret that the state of the young operatives
throughout the country should be so Lad, to know

that since the recent factory legislation took place

the condition of the children there has much im-
proved, and that deformity has almost entirely dis-
appeared. These facts prove beyond dispute that
the criticism of captions persons is unfounded, and
that great good may be effected by the adoption of
these remedial schemes. A suggestion weis made
that the luciftr match manufacturers and the
makers of percussion caps should be exempted
these regulations, but most fortunately it was not
paid attention to, for Lord SHAFTESBURY con-
firmed the statement already made by many cora-
petent judges, as to the very injurious nature of
these professions. In fact, these trades are about
the worst that exist. The employment of mak-
ing Lucifer matches gives rise to jaw disease; and
women and young children are those who are
generally engaged in the making of percussion caps.
The two hours' extra work,
from six to eight, from
eihich the provisions of this bill release them, are
and the beneficial consequences of
very injurious,
this shortening of their toil will now be apparent,
as it has been is the case of the operativcs of the
factories. The gas at night is prejudicial in the
Iclose rooms where they work, and these hours after
the lon day's labour come very heavy upon 0198 e

who begin the career of an operative at so early an
age. What may seem trivial alterations to those
who have never been in the habit of being much
with these classes, or of witnessing the effects of
their toilsome career, is, in reality, a most important
change, and one that is sure to work well and hap-
pily for them in the longrun. Lord SHAFTESBURY
must be as competent a judge in such matters as
anyone, for he has devoted himself to the
task during many long years, and he has
exhibited such pains in the prosecution of the
arduous researches necessary for the due compre-
hension of the case, that those who have not had
inclination or opportunity to judge for themselves,
and become personally acquainted with the state of
the operations, and the effect which their labour has
upon them, can confidently rely upon his judgment
in all matters that are disputed. There was groat
opposition to the changes in the factory hours of
labour at the time when the measure was first in-
troduced, and the most disheartening prophecies
were uttered, but time has proved that these objec-
tions were fallacies, and that all the predictions of
the supporters of the bill have been more than
verified. It is then very gratifying to think that
another of these remedial measures has been passed,
and that there is every reason to believe that the
same beneficial results will accrue even as on a former
occasion. .It is one of the most difficult things in
the world to make the enactments that relate to
the hours of labour and the mode of conducting its
procedure, but the difficulties ought to be vigorously
contended with, and those who struggle in the
cause may learn that success in Bach an undertak-
ing is one of the most enduring and excellent kinds
of triumph, and that failure it such attempts is
still creditable, and may pave the way for the future
efforts of philanthropic individuals in the same

cam.

The Peacock Testimonial,

In laying the:subject of the Peacock Testimonial
before our readers, we merely perform, says the

Daily Shipping IC etc; one of the duties which it is

.. .. _
ntanded our journal shall discharge. Those inte.

rested in the shipping of the port of London stood
in need of increased facilities for getting their views

ventilated in matters of a purely class nature. The
claims of Captain Peacock will have been made
known this morning by the numereus circulars of

the influential corneaidea who held a meeting at the
office of Messrs. Cowan, Heatley, and Co., Great
St. Helen's, on Taesday afternoon. Captain Pea.

cock some four-and-twenty years ago sacrificed
commission and standing in the British Navy to
take command of the first steamship that passed
the Straits of Magellan to the Pacific coast. He
was therefore the pioneer of West Coast Steam
Navigation, and that circumstance, in conjunction
with the maintenance of useful and genial West

Coast relations subsisting from then till now, have,
in the opinion of numerous friends—especially of
the West Coast—justified the putting forward of

Captain Peacock's claims to acknowledgment. They
think that he who was the first to demonstrate the
practicability of long-voyage steam navigation, an
achievement chronicled in the annals of Chile,
Bolivia, Peru, Equador, and New Grenada should
not remain unrecognised in the England which
has profied so much by the development of
West Coast trade. They think also that at a
time when the officers and seamen of the
mercantile marine are at the best received into
the service of the Crown in a half-hearted kind of
manner, ha who among living men was one of the
earliest examples of preference for the merchant
flag should now, in his declining years, receive
that testimonial which long ago might have been
appropriately bestowed. The committee believe that
those now honouring Capt. Peacock will honour the
country's merchant flag.
Of Captain Peacock we profess to know nothing. i
For any other officer of the mercantile marine
similarly recommended for distinguished service
and honourable life we would cheerfully bespeak
us much favour. We think that they who ought