The Sun.
London, England, 1862-06-13 00:00:00

IHEI''SITN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, JUNE 13, 1862.

sure ; and, accordingly, he expresses his disappro-
bation at " the absence of organization at the doors
of the playhouses, stations, railroads, omnibuses,
&c., the consequence of which is that people elbow
each other, and everyone tries to force a passage."
He does not doubt, however, that the English will
reform this altogether, and of course " will not fail
to borrow this reform from France."

M. Havin passes on to the Exhibition, which he
thinks "has not been sufficiently praised, nor suffi-
ciently understood." He is naturally proud of the
brilliant part France plays in the World's Fair.
He takes, however, but a general view of it, and
does not enter into details, either on the building
itself or what it contains. None will be surprised
at this, for he visits London rather as a philosopher
and statesman, and leaves such things to others,—
" Our collaborateurs who are to review the divers
branches of human industry will give our readers
curious, useful, and detailed information, &c."
M. Havin's visit to England is no ordinary event,
and his future letters will excite much curiosity, if
not among the whole French people, at least among
the one hundred millions who look upon him-as (to
use their own words) "le plus grand homme du
Siecle."

THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA;

NEW ?ORE, MAY 30.

The cities of the North have somewhat recovered
from the panic which took possession of Washing-
ton as soon as the news of the retreat of Oen. Banks
from the valley of the Shenandoah burst upon the
astonished ears of Mr. Secretary Stanton. Believing
that the safety of the capital was threatened—as it
indubitably was by that event—and that the Con-
federates were well aware of their chance, and had
audacity enough to make the most of it, the Secre-
tary telegraphed to all the States of the North to
despatch to Washington every available man that
could be raised for its defence. The consequence
was what the people here call "a general scare,"
and such a universal uprising of the Militia and
inflation of the war spirit as are quite sufficient to
prove that there is a reserve of half a million of
armed men available for the defence of Northern
soil, should their services be needed. The regiments
were mustered in hot haste on Monday and Tues-
day, and took their departure in the full belief that
Washington was really at the mercy of a highly
probable coup de main. But a few hours changed
the whole aspect of the situation. The Confederates
had either not imagined the possibility of such a
dash, or declined to take advantage of it, for want
of means or knowledge, as at Bull's Run ; and the
War Secretary telegraphed a second time to all the
Governors of the North, not to say in precise words
that he had been the victim of a false alarm, which
he certainly was, but that no further aid was neces-
sary, and that the militia might remain peaceably
at home until further orders. And so this storm
has for the time blown over, leaving behind it a
vague impression in the public mind that the back-
bone of the South is not so utterly broken as it was
believed to be a fortnight ago, and that there may
be a great deal of fighting yet to be accomplished
before North and South can again dwell together
in unity or in amity.
The war languishes somewhat before Rich-
mond and Corinth. Neither Gen. M'Clellan nor
General Halleck is in haste to strike a decisive
blow. Both of them believe that they must be
outnumbered by their opponents, and they natu-
rally wish to make sure as they go, so that there is
little to record from either quarter, except a few
premonitory skirmishes, just sufficient to indicate
that the war lives, and may burst out in full fury
at any moment. But while news is slight from
both of these quarters, there comes a perfect gush
of it from New Orleans, where General Butler is
carrying matters with as high a hand as if he were
the Austrian Governor of Venetia or the Russian
Generalissimo at Warsaw. He has suppressed two
old-established newspapers ; he has prohibited the
observance of the fast and humiliation ordered by
President Davis, though how his prohibition can be
made effective is difficult to see. The old proverb
says you can bring a horse to the water, but you
cannot make him drink, and it would be just as im-
possible a task, one would think, to make a whole
people eat flesh when they had determined to eat
fish, or to sing songs and dance dances when they
had determined to humiliate themselves in prayer.
The General has also forbidden the currency of
Confederate bills, or "shin plasters." He has
seized 800,000 dols. in hard money, supposed to
belong to the Confederate Government, and de-
posited for security in the custody of the Dutch
Consul. He has thereby drawn upon himself a
remonstrance and protest against the aet, signed by
the Consuls of every European Power except Spain,
to which protest he has returned a true military
reply ; he has seized three British subjects for con-
travention of the Neutrality Act, and snubbed the
acting British Consul for his interference in their
behalf; and, worse than all, he has insulted the
women of the South in a manner so gross that he
never will or can be forgiven by Southern man or
woman, and which will pile up against his name and
person an amount of execration that any ordinary
man would rather die than deserve. The proclama-
tion was so unmanly as well as so unsoldierlike as
to be incredible. Nobody in New York believed in
its authenticity. It was said to be a fabrication of
General Beauregard for the purpose of inflaming
the Southern mind still further against the North;
and one New York Journal, bitterly hostile to the
South, declared that if General Butler had really
issued such a document he was a disgrace to the
army, and should immediately be dismissed. But
the proclamation is now admitted to be true, and is
likely to be more prejudicial to the Northern arms
than a defeat in a pitched battle. The people of
New Orleans are subdued by superior force, but
they do not acknowledge the Northern Government.
They offer it passive resistance in default of any
other; and the women, high and low, rich and
poor, not only wave Secession flags from their win-
dows, and wear Secession ribands in their bonnets,
and teach their little children to revile the
" Yankees," but when they pass a Federal soldier
or officer in the streets they move out of his way
with expressions of disgust in their faces, if not on
their tongues, as if there was contamination in his
touch or presence, They resort to all the man can-
vres of woman's malice—and how great that can
be if aroused, either in love or war, needs not be
told—to prove to the Federal armies how odious
they are to the South, and that the ultimate sub-
jection of such a people is impossible. General
Butler would have done well to treat this display of
feminine spite with indifference, if he could not treat
it with good humour. He might even have gone so
far as to say that if women mixed themselves in
public affairs like men, they would be treated with
the severity of the sex they assumed, and locked up
for a night in the guard-house, to teach them the
impropriety of playing with edged tools ; but
when he went so far as to say that women insulting
the soldiers of the United States by word, or look,
or gesture should be treated as "harlots plying
their vocation in the streets," he outraged all de-
cency and humanity, and committed an error as a
General only exceeded in amount by his breach of
good manners as a gentleman. The offending and
offensive document has been publicly read in every
camp and in every church of the South, and will not
only cover the name of General Butler with ob-
loquy, but will go far to supplement the half-rations
of the Southern armies by a glow of indignation far
more warming to their hatred than a full allowance
of whisky, or any Southern stimulant that fires the
blosd and inflames the passions of an excitable and
proud people. General Hunter's proclamation, free-
ing the slaves in these States because " martial law
and slavery were incompatible," was a harmless
piece of nonsense compared with General Butler's
escapade. The President has disavowed the one,
but, if he were ever so prompt and resolute to dis-
avow the other, he could not undo the mischief that
nsaoubthectuhdaon that he
createanyotherimpreqsolte o b
impression
sin the
ad
he personally is not •
as his generals.

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THE MURDER AND SUICIDE IN
BLACKFRIA.RS-ROAD.

Yesterday afternoon Mr. W. Carter, Coroner for

West Surrey, opened an inquiry at the Lord Nelson
Tavern, Nelson-square, as to the circumstances con-
nected with the death of James John Mockford,
aged 35; Catherine Mockford, aged 7 ; and Emily
Mockford, aged 4 ; whose lifeless bodies were dis-
covered in the second-floor front room of the house
No. 189, Blackfriars-road, late on Tuesday night.

Mr. Joseph West Pearse, of 189, Blackfriars-road,
shirt collar manufacturer, said—The second floor of
my house I had let to the deceased, James John
Mockford, for the last three years and eight months.
Of late hi% two daughters lived with him, and his
sister, who kept his rooms for him. There was no
one else. • On Tuesday night, at half-past 11, I was
in bed, when there was a knock at the door, and a
ring at the bell. I got up, and on proceeding to the
front door I found Mockford's father, mother, and
his sister Sarah, and his late wife's sister-in-law.
Some conversation took place, in consequence of
which I called in a police-officer, whom I requested
to accompany us upstairs to the second floor. We
first opened the door of the back room, which was
unlocked. No one was there, and we then went to
the door of the front room, and finding it quite fast
and no key in the lock, the police officer forced it
open with a poker. The policeman turned his bull's-
eye into the room, and in an instant we saw the
body of Mockford sitting in a chair and lying back,
in front of one of the windows, and facing the door.
He had only his trousers and shirt on, and I at once
noticed blood on the latter. His trousers were not
unbuttoned, but were slipped down. He was quite
dead and the blood on his shirt quite dry, as if he
had been dead for some considerable time. Directly
afterwards I saw the bodies of his two daughters
lying on the hearthrug. The eldest was on her
face and the youngest on her left side. They were
laid out quite straight and were very much dis-
coloured, as if they also had been dead for some time.
A surgeon was sent for, and Dr. Henderson, Trinity-
square, arrived in a few minutes; nothing having
been moved until he came. I found no letter on the
table. There was only an empty wineglass and a
small book of Devotions, which Mrs. Pearse had
lent him. There was a phial under the table, and
on a chair clOse by I saw a carving knife, a carving
fork, teacup with a little sediment in it, and a satu-
rated rag. I saw the children alive on Sunday
morning after 1 returned from church, and they
then seemed in excellent health. Their father was

with them at the time. They were then coming in
from the street, and I never saw them again alive.
I do not recollect seeing the sister at all on that
day. There were no marks of violence, or injuries,
or blood about the persons of the children. Ino
ticed that the window blinds were drawn down.
Thomas Gardner, M 25, metropolitan police ser-
geant, corroborated the evidence of the previous
witness as to the state of the room when he arrived
at the house a little before 12 on Tuesday night,
having been sent for from the Stone's-end station,
adding that he searched Mockford's pockets, and
took from one a key which fitted the lock on the
door of the room. He said further that there were

two pillows on the hearth-rug near the bodies of
the children, near which was also a great quantity
of blood ; and that in a utensil standing near the
body of the man was a quantity of what appeared
to be blood. From the appearance of the body, and
the fact that there was blood on the carving fork,
The witness inferred that the deceased had stabbed
himself with the fork as well as with the knife ;
that he inflicted the wounds near the bodies of his
children ; and that subbequently he crawled to the
chair on which he was sitting when the door was
broken open, a distance of about four yards.

Sarah Mockford, a very respectable and intelli-
gent-looking young woman, said—lhave been living
with my brother James for about five weeks up to
last Sunday. I went to take care of his home and
children in consequence of the death of his
wife. There were two children—Catherine and
Emily. On Tuesday night last I was at my father's,
13, Granby-gardens, Lower Marsh, and had been
there since Sunday afternoon. I left my brother's
about half-past 3or 4 o'clock on that day, and by
an arrangement I was not to return until he came
to fetch me. When I left his room he 'was sitting
against the window, and the children, who were in
good health, were with him. I have not seen either
him or them since.

Mr. James V. Henderson said,—l am a surgeon,
and assistant to Dr. Evans, of Trinity-square, South-
wark. On Tuesday night I accompanied Police
Inspector Turpin and Sergeant Gardner, and on
going to the second floor front room I found the de-
ceased seated in a chair, and quite dead. There
were two openings by the left side of his navel—
they were evidently stabs, and were close together.
I:probed the wounds, one to the depth of about two
inches. The length of the wound was one inch and
an eighth, and the carving-knife produced would
produce exactly such wounds. There was a third
and similar wound about an inch and a half above
the navel. All these wounds were such as a man
might inflict upon himself. When I first saw the
body it was quite rigid, and I concluded the de-
ceased had been dead for two days and two nights.
At the same time I saw two children lying on the
floor, as has been described. The lungs and liver
were slightly congested, but otherwise healthy. The
abdomen was quite healthy. I took out the stomach
and tied it at both ends. Subsequently I opened it,
and found it to contain food and air; but I have not
had sufficient time to analyze its contents. I noticed
two pillows on the floor by the side of the children,
and they might have been pressed on the faces of
the children so as to cause death, but I cannot say
that it was so. A phial was found on the floor near
the bodies, which may have contained opium, and I
think it had had a preparation of opium in it.
There was another phial on the drawers containing
a very small quantity of brownish liquid, which
seems to be methylated spirit of opium. If this
had been used the lapse of time would have de-
stroyed the smell of the opium. The post mortem
appearances in the younger child were the same as
in the elder, except that the lungs and brain were
much more congested. I saw the cup. produced. It con-
tained castor oil with a brownish sediment. There
was no smell except of the oil. My opinion is that
the children were poisoned, but death may have
been produced by the compression of the pillows
over their faces before the poison had time to act.
The blood was fluid, but it would remain so after
suffocation as well as after poison.
Sarah Mockford was recalled, and in reply to the
Coroner said her brother seemed rather strange in
his ways. He was always speaking of his wife, and
putting his hand up to his head. She used to try
to cheer him up, telling him that he would be better
in two or three months, to which he used to reply
that he never should. Nothing struck her attention
when she left him on Sunday, and she had never
heard him threaten to make away with himself.
She had told her family that he took on a good deal
about the death of his wife. She never knew him
to take laudanum at night, but was frequently dis-
turbed by his walking about the room at night, as
she slept on a bed in the same room as her brother,
but with the eldest child. While he was walking
about he used to put his hand to his head and ex-
claim, "Emmy, Emmy, I can see you now; I can
see you sitting there." This occurred several times,
and she spoke to him about it, but with no result.
He seldom slept well, and had lost almost all his
strength. He ate a hearty dinner on Sunday, and
seemed quite cheerful when witness left home. She
had no doubt that he died by his own hand, and
that he had done it through mental distress, brought
on by the death of his wife. There were no pillows
in the front room when she left on Sunday, and it
was not customary for the children to take them
there. Her brother rather pressed her to go away
on Sunday, telling her not to stay to change her
clothes, but she did not think anything particular
about this, because he was in better spirits than
she had ever seen him before.

Wm. Dunkley, an undertaker, was examined, at
his own request, and deposed that Mockford imme-
diately after the death of his wife was like a mad.
man. He never saw a man so cut up before.

John Smith, who had worked with Mockford for
the last thice years, and James Henry Mockford,
the father of the deceased, confirmed what the pre-

ceding witness had said as to the low spirits of the
deceased since his wife's death.

Mr, Pearse, re-examined, stated that during the
three years for which Mockford had lodged at his
house he had been a most steady and sober man.
The children had been in the habit of taking a good
deal of castor oil. They were very fond of it, and
witness had no doubt that their father administered
the poison in castor oil.
The jury unanimously agreed that no further
evidence was necessary; and, after the Coroner had
summed up, returned as their verdict that the
children: were wilfully murdered by their father,
who immediately after destroyed his own life while
in a state of mental aberration.

LAW INTELLIGENM—June 12.

COURT OF QUEEN'S BENCH.

(Sittings in Banco, before Justices Wightman,
Crompton, and Blackburn,)
THE QUEEN V. THE PARISH OF LAMBETH,

This case came before the Court upon a demurrer
to a plea to a return to a mandamus obtained by Mr.
Prendergast commanding the vestry of the parish
Lambeth to light that half of Vauxhall Bridge
which was declared by the company's act to be in
the parish of Lambeth) and to erect lamp posts for
that Jurpose. The question raised was whether
the Vauxhall Bridge Company was exempt from
the duty of lighting the bridge, and whether that
duty was now thrown upon the vestry of Lambeth
by the 18th and 19th Vict., cap. 120, entitled the
Metropolitan Local Management Act.
Mr. Bovill, Q.C., Mr. Digby Seymour, Q.C., and
Mr. Le Breton were counsel for the vestry of Lam-
beth ; Mr. George Denman, Q.C., and Mr. Pren•
gast for the Vauxhall-bridge Company.
The arguments were commenced yesterday (Wed-
nesday), and were concluded to-day, when the
Court took time to consider its judgment.