The Sun.
London, England, 1862-10-31 00:00:00

111 E NAVY.

--.0,-._____

The Grand Duke of Saxe-Coburg and suite paid a
visit to Chatham Dockyard on Wednesday, and in-
spected the various departments connected with that
establishment. After spending a short time in the
inspection of a variety of moulds and drawings in
the office of Mr. Lang, master shipbuilder, the dis-
tinguished visitors, accompanied by Capt. Fanshawo
and the other officials, made the tour of the dock-
yard, visiting in the first instance the iron frigate
Achilles, in the examination of the works of which
they spent some time. They next proceeded to No.
3 dock, occupied by the iron-cased frigate Royal
Oak, over which they were conducted, and the in-
terior of which was very minutely inspected, his
Serene Highness descending into the engine-room
and examining the machinery. Leaving the Royal
Oak the party was conducted to the end of the yard,
where the Duke and attendants witnessed the ope-
rations connected with the preparation of the slabs
of iron for forming the armour-plates for the Royal
Oak. Before quitting the dockyard, the visitors
went over the factory, and examined the Salamis
paddlewheel steamer, building on the first slip.
The Resistance, 16, iron screw ram, Capt. Cham-
berlain, went into Portsmouth harbour on Wednes-
day, and was hauled alongside the dockyard, in
order to have certain repairs made good to her iron
capstan, damaged on weighing anchor at Spithead.
The Revenge, Capt. C. Fellowes, bearing the flag
of Rear-Admiral Smart, and the Defence, Capt.
Phillimore, got up steam yesterday afternoon at
Spithead, in obedience to a signal from the Victory
flagship, and were expected to proceed direct to
Gibraltar yesterday evening or early this morning.
Admiral Kingcome has arrived at Portsmouth
Dockyard, and is expected to hoist his flag on board
the Sutlej, Capt. M. Connolly, on Monday or Tues-
day, for the Pacific, to relieve the Bacchante, flag-
ship of Rear-Admiral Sir Thos. Maitland.
Orders were yesterday received at Chatham for
70 non-commissioned officers and men of the 83d
Regiment to proceed from the garrison to join head-
quarters of that regiment.

CENTI?AL CRIMINAL COURI.—Oct. 30.

OLD COURT.
(Before the Lord Chief Baron.)
THE MURDER IN THE CITY.
(Continued from the Sun of yesterday.)

.• •
Samuel Gardner, aged 38, described as a sweep,
and Elizabeth Humbler, 19, a married woman,
were jointly charged upon an indictment, and also
by the coroner's inquisition, with the wilful murder
of Elizabeth Gardner, the wife of the first men-
tioned prisoner.
Elizabeth Humbler was then brought from the
gaol and examined as a witness. She said—l am
the wife of John Humbler, and I am 19 years old.
I have known the prisoner since I was eleven years
of age, and I used to live in his house with the de-
ceased. There was an intimacy between me and
the prisoner of an improper kind ever since I was
15 years old. My mother took me away from the
prisoner's house, and 12 months ago I married my
present husband, and I left my husband and went
again to live in the prisoner's house. This was
about Vireo months before this occurrence happened.
Mrs. Gardner was agreeable to my going to live
there. I acted as servant, and did all that there
was to do, While I was living in the house
on this second occasion I renewed my intimacy
with the prisoner. I did not know that I was
going to leave on the Monday the affair happened
till the prisoner told me so after the murder, and
he had accused me of it. On the Sunday before
the murder I went to bed at seven o'clock at
night, and wished the deceased good night. I got
up on the following morning at half past seven
o'clock, and between those hours I never left my
bedroom. I went to a room on the ground floor
to light the fire, but I had only one lucifer match,
and it did not seem to catch, and I went up to the de-
ceased's bedroom to get some matches, and saw her
lying on the floor, and the child was lying by her feet.
I had taken up the box of lucifers before I saw the
body, and the moment I did so I dropped them on the
ground. I had heard the child cry while I was dress-
ing. The child was between two and three years
old. I took her out of the room. Soon after this Mr.
Gardner came home. I had not seen him before on
this morning. When I saw him come in I said, "Good
God, Sam, come upstairs," and when he saw his
wife lying dead he said to me, " You wretch, you
have done this ; if you don't move from here I will
give you in charge. When he said this I dropped
on my knees and said, " Good God, show mercy
on my innocence." Mrs. Gardner was in very good
health when I saw her on Sunday, the 14th of
September. The police went into my room and
searched my clothes and everything I had. The
prisoner said I should not stop in his house, and I
went to a person named Spenser, who lives in
Northumberland-alley, and I never went back to
the prisoner's house again ; but I asked the prisoner
to give me some money to enable me to go to my
mother at Gravesend, and he said he would give
me anything in reason, and he gave me 3s. When
I came downstairs on Monday morning the street
door was shut, and no one could get in without
knocking. I left the door open when I went to
fetch the doctor, and the prisoner came in while I
was away. I went with the prisoner to the last
Epsom races.
Mr_ Poland (to the witness)—Had you anything
to do with this murder P

The Lord Chief Baron said that that was not a
question that should be put. What they wanted
to ascertain was' what the witness did, and not what
she did not do.

Cross-examined—l only lived with my husband
six weeks after I was married, and I then went
again to live with the prisoner. My usual time for
going to bed was nine or ten o'clock, bnt on this
Sunday night I went to bed two hours earlier than
usual. I went to bed on account of the prisoner being
angry and ill .tempered to me. I did not go to bed
immediately, but sat up for an hour, thinking of the
sufferings that Mr. Gardner had caused me. I got
up at my usual time on the Monday morning. I
went downstairs with my stockings only on, and I
put on my boots downstairs. There was only one
match in the lower room. I found out that I had
trodden in blood on the Monday morning. I gave
the stockings I was wearing at the time to
the police sergeant, but I did not look at them to
see if they were bloody.
By the Court—My stockings were of a dark
brown colour.

Cross-examination continued—l felt something
cold and wet to my feet through my stockings as I
went into the deceased's room. The deceased had
received a good many letters, such as valentines,
for some time before she died. She could not read
or write. I never sharpened a knife except upon
one occasion, when Mrs. Gardner asked me to do
so at dinner time. I did tell the constable who took
me into custody that Mr. Gardner might have seen
me sharpening a knife on the door-step. I swear
that 1 did not know I was to leave the house on the
Monday until the prisoner told me I was to do so.
Re-examined—l never saw the knife that has
been produced to-day until the Sunday before Mrs.
Gardner's death, and she said it had been brought
there with a fork and a plate by some strangers.
Mr. Ribton asked the witness whether she had
not frequently sharpened a knife at eleven o'clock
at night and taken it into her bedroom, where the
prisoner took the knife from her ?
Witness—Before God, he never took a knife from
me in my bedroom.
Mr. Ribton—Did you never say that, if Mr.
Gardner were not more sociable with you, you
w.-nld stick him with a knife ?

Witness—Never. He has threatened me repeat.
edly.

Mary Spencer said—l live in Northumberland-
alley, and on the morning of the 15th of September
I saw the prisoner. He had a child with him and he
asked me to go to his house, and I did so, and saw
the body of the deceased. Before I went I asked
him what was the matter several times, and he made
no answer. The last witness was in the deceased's
room, and she said, " Oh, Mrs. Spencer, Mrs.
Gardner has cut her throat, and he says I have
done it." The prisoner then said, "Fetch a police-
man," and I did so, and the prisoner refused to
allow Elizabeth Humbler to leave the room. She
was crying, and she said she knew Mr. Gardner to
be a bad man, but she did not think he was capable
of accusing her of such a thing. After Humbler's
clothes had been examined by the police, the pri-
soner said she should not stop in the house any
longer, and I took her to my house. Before she
went the prisoner gave her 38. to enable her to go
to her friends at Gravesend.
Sergeant Moilbs, of the City police, said—On
Monday morning, the 15th of September, in conse-
quence of some information I received, I went to
the prisoner's house, and saw the dead body of the
prisoner's wife on the ground. Dr. Sequeira, the
prisoner, and Humbler were present, and the. (lec-
tor handed the knife to me. When the
done.. it," I prisoner
made the
. observation to Humbler, that "she had
advised him to be cautious, and
.
inquired what grounds he had for making
such
intercourse with the girl, and she
a charge.
$e replied that he had been in the
habit of having
was to leave that day. I examined all her clothes
and found no marks of blood. Her hands and face
were begrimed with dirt, as if they had not been

washed for a considerable time. There were some
valentines on the chair. (They were of a very offen-
sive character, and had reference to the coilnecticn
that existed between the prisoner and Humbler.) I
examined the room carefully, and could not find
any marks of blood on the wall. There were two
windows in the room, and one of them had no blind
and the blind to the other was drawn down. There
were no marks of blood on the bed, and I did not
observe any upon the person of the prisoner. After
the first inquiry before the coroner the prisoner told
me he was sure his poor wife had been murdered. I
asked him why he thought so, and he said because
the girl Humbler was to have left his house on the
same day, and he added that he had gone to Hum-
bler's bedroom one morning before she was up, and
saw a knife sticking in her door, and when he asked
her what that meant, she said she did not intend
that he should have found her alive, and he had also
frequently seen her sharpening knives on the sink
stone, and when he asked her what she was doing
that for, she sometimes said they were for herself,
and sometimes for him. He had told me before this
that an improper intimacy had existed between him
and Humbler. On the Friday after the death the
prisoner told me that he had seen several marks of
blood on the wall upstairs and by the side of the
bed, and he showed them to me, but I am positive
these marks were not there when I examined the
place before. He also showed me a mark on the rail
of the bed, as though a wet cloth ipid been drawn
across it, and some other marks which I am sure
were not there when we searched before. I told the
prisoner so, and he said they might perhaps have
been done in washing the body. The prisoner then
took me to a downstairs room and pointed out a mark
of blood on the curtain and on the shutter, and he
said at the sametime that Humbler had opened that
window on the morning of the 15th. I told the pri-
soner upon this that I had examined the curtain and
the shutter several times previously, and I was
quite certain that the marks he had pointed out
I were not there, and he made no reply. A detective
officer named Monger was with me when all this
I took place. I subsequently apprehended the girl
Humbler at Gravesend, where she was staying
with her friends. I examined her stockings and
they were very dirty, but no trace of blood was
discovered upon them, snd the stockings were re-
turned to her.
Cress-examined—l examined the girl Humbler's
clothes on the Monday, but I did not observe any
traces of blood upon her stockings. She did not say
anything to me about having trodden in blood, but
the stockings were carefully examined by the
coroner's jury, in consequence of her having after-
wards said that she had trodden in blood.
Thomas Tallett, the wilt d beadle of the district in
which Northumberland-alley is situate, deposed
that he went to the prisoner's house on Monday, the
15th of September, and he corroborated the evi-
dence of the last witness as to what took place on
that occasion.
Anthony Wilson Monger, a detective officer who
was with the witness Mobbs when he went to the
prisoner's nouse, deposed that he went with the
prisoner to look at the body of the deceased after
she had been placed in the coffin, and he began to
cry, and said he was sure that his poor wife had
been murdered. Witness asked him why he thought
so, and who he suspected, and he replied "Elizabeth
Humbler." After this the prisoner repeated the
same statement he had made to the other constable,
and said that Humbler had several times threatened
that she would kill him and afterwards destroy
herself'. He also said that Humbler had met him
one day and had said that she thought he never
meant to speak to her again, and she drew a large
knife from her mantle and said, " I intended this
for you, and afterwards for myself."
Cross-examined—Witness was quite sure that the
prisoner said that Humbler pulled out a large knife
from her mantle.
Elean or Buxton said that she went to the prisoner's
house on the 15th of September, and saw the body
of the deceased, and the prisoner said he was sure
she did not do it herself, she was too weak nerved.
Witness assisted to wash the body, and she did it
carefully, and no blood was splashed upon the walls I
of the room.

James Gardner, a young man, the son of the de-
ceased by a former husband, was then examined,
and he proved that she was a right-minded woman.
In cross-examination this witness said he had
frequently heard the girl Humbler jeering his
mother and annoying her, and that he heard his
mother give her express instructions to leave on
Monday, the 15th, which was the day she died.
Mr. Ribton here proposed to ask this witness
whether he had not heard Elizabeth Humbler say
on one occasion, shortly before his mother died, that
now she had got once more into the prisoner's house,
she was determined never to leave it again.
The Lord Chief Baron said he was of opinion that
this question could not be put. The witness Hum-
bler had not been asked in cross-examination whether
she had ever made such a statement; and, besides
this, he really did not see that the fact was of any
importance one way or the other.
Mr. Ribton said be considered it of very great
importance to the prisoner. He should ask the jury
to say that it was just as probable that, if there was
any murder at all committed, this girl was as guilty
as the prisoner, and her conduct, and any expres-
sions made use of by her which tended to support
such a hypothesis, were, as it appeared to him, very
important. _

the Lord Chief Baron said he was of opinion that
the question certainly could not be put until the
witness Humbler had first been asked whether she
had ever made any such statement, and he would
allow her to be re-called for that purpose at the
close of the case for the prosecution, if the learned
counsel wished that this should be done.

Mr. Payne, the deputy coroner for the city of
London, was then called as a witness, and he proved
that at the first inquiry before him, which took
place on the 17th of September, the prisoner came
forward and offered to give evidence, and that he
cautioned him, and told him he was not bound to
make any statement, and that any thing he did say
might be used as evidence against him. After
he had given him this caution the prisoner was
sworn and gave his evidence, which witness took
down in writing, and the prisoner signed it.

The deposition of the prisoner was then put in
and read. It was to the effect that he was willing
to tell all be knew. that he had been married to the
deceased for seven years, and that they lived hap
pily together until the girl Humbler came to live in
their house, about five years ago, and that after this
period his wife was very disagreeable about her, and
wished her to go away, and that she left and got
married. She however only lived with her husband
a short time, and came back to live with them again;
after this the deceased seemed to complain of her
more than ever, and frequently said that she thought
her conduct was worse since her marriage than it
was before. The prisoner went on to say that on
the Sunday evening before his wife died, the girl
Humbler was annoying and insulting his wife, and
he was determined that she should leave on the fol-
lowing day. He said that he and his wife slept
together on the Sunday night, and they were very
friendly, and he got up as usual, and went to his
work in the morning, and when he left his wife was
in bed, with the child. He then enumerated the
places where he went to work on the Monday morn-
ing, and said that he returned home about 8 o'clock
and then found that his wife was dead, and he said
that the reason he charged Humbler with the mur-
der was, that he thought it probable that she had
insulted his wife and quarrelled with her after he
lett, and that this had led to the act. He also said
that the deceased was not left-handed.
This closed the case for the prosecution.
The witness Elizabeth Humbler was then re-
called at the request of Mr. Ribton, and he asked
her whether she had not stated upon one occasion
that now she had got into the prisoner's house she
was determined not to leave it.

The witness, in reply, declared that she had never
made any such statement, but, on the contrary, she
said that about three weeks before Mrs. Gardner
died she offered of her own accord to leave the pri-
soner's house. She went on to state that one night
the prisoner came home late, and he appeared to
be very angry, and said that both his wife and wit-
ness should go, and that he would have the house
to himself. Witness, in reply to this, said that she
would rather go herself than that Mrs. Gardner
should go, and the prisoner told her to mind her
own business, and that he was the master of the
house and he should do what he liked.
James Gardner, the son of the deceased, was then
again placed in the witness box, and he declared
positively that ho heard the girl Humbler make use
of the expression imputed to her upon more than
one occasion.

In answer to a question put by Mr. Poland this
witness said that he heard Humbler say this about
three or four weeks before his mother died.
This closed the case for the Crown.
Mr. Ribton then addressed the learned judge, and
said that the usual hour for the adjournment of the
court had nearly arrived, and he inquired of his
lordship whether he proposed to finish the trial
that night.
The Lord Chief Baron said that the inquiry was
one of a most important character, and the atten-
tion of the jury had already been directed to
it for several hours, and he therefore thought it
would he better to adjourn the case to the follow-
ing morning. He also thought it would only be
fair to Mr. Ribton, after the course that had been
taken of calling the young woman Humblera s a
witness, that he should have an opportunity for
considering the effect of her evidence.
The trial was consequently postponeds all cases of
London
till to-mor-
row (Friday) morning, toe jury, in
felony, being taken to the ncioan Coffee-house
charge of the officers of the court.