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

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

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
night. Mr Briggs, chief clerk in the bank of Messrs
Roberts and Co., of Lombard-street, was picked up,
dying, in the space between the up and down lines
of the North London Railway, on the canal bridge
between Bove and Hackney-wick. Upon examina-
tion his skull was found to have been battered in
by a tremendous blow over the left earl 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 cushions soaked
with blood, and the evidences of a deadly struggle
on the floor, sides, and windows of the carriage. An
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 at Fenchurch-street,
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 compieeed, 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 theside 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
depends 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-
ous aggravation of a murder, considered in its
effect on public 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 emergency 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 panio 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 if his cries had reached the next
compartment, or if any one had happened to get in
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 are 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 miscret:
nts 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 abam,?ful 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. Copenhage3
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 sent to save either city or King. The
English Parliament and the English people will
continue to prate about their sympathy with Den-
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 colours, and
mighty cheers for Denmark, but they will not back
their opinions by the outlay 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 of trusting to
England to make good her promises of help, he
had in the first instance offered Herr von Bis-
-Irk all he wanted, and accepted the patronage
"e- ` unscrupulous Minister who has proved that
of that, eeerest statesman of Europe. It is cur-
he is the cis . 'et well-informed quarters that the
rently reported —;ng are of a nature to more
'nee John of Glucksburg,
",-tg, is now inßerlin,
with Schleswig
Confederation. King Christian thus but
propositions of then
than
the y satisfyoubrother
not t
0i rbt
,
asking Germanyngest Germany.
but to recei the whole of Denmark in she German
antici-
pates what Germany declares to be the elete'rlY
written decree of fate. Jutland!first must succumb
to the German invasion which has already over-
whelmed Schleswig, the isles will follow, and
Fatherland will be thus compensated in the north
for what it has lost, and has yet to lose, in the west.
The great difficulty in the way of the adoption of
such an arrangement is the obstinate attachment of
the Danes to the maintenance of an independence
which they have enjoyed for so many centuries, and
to those liberal institutions which Conservatives
forbear to criticise in this moment of a nation's
death-struggle, but to which the organs of the
Radical party in this country eagerly ascribe all the
calamities which have befallen Denmark. Herr von
Bismark will decline to accept the peoposals of the
King of Denmark unless he promises to get rid of
his Constitution, and thus qualify himself to be the
to good brother of William 1." King Christian has
taken the first step to this consummation. He has
got rid of a Ministry which could not have con-
sented to any such terms, and replaced them by men
who have no affection for the existing institutions