The Sun.
London, England, 1862-05-19 00:00:00

LONDON ROADS AND RAILWAYS.

As if to make amends for a long state of apathy,
the employes of the Board of Works are pushing on
their operations in regard to the formation of the
new street from Blackman-street, Borough, to
Blackfriars-road, with great vigour. At the Borough
end of the new thoroughfare the results of their
labours aro especially apparent. For a considerable
distance the pavements are completed, and the pav-
ing of them with granite is in a fair way of being
so. The value of this street when finished and
opened will be great. The difficulty of reaching
London-bridge from Stamford-street, Blaekfriars-
road, except to the initiated, has hitherto been im-
mense, especially as respects vehicular conveyance.
There was nothing for it but to go up the road to
Union-street, a sufficiently narrow line of communi-
cation, and through it, if found possible; or else to
take Holland-street, and then tempt the " dark per-
plexed ways" of Bankside. The new street
passes through hallowed ground, as some
would term it, for the supposed site of the theatre
where Shakespeare played in his own eternal
dramas is in the line it takes. The site of the
Bear Gardens, too—to step at once from the sublime
to the barbarous,—of three hundred years ago, will
be covered by the rapidly advancing thoroughfare.
In close proximity are the works of the London,
' Chatham, and Dover Railway; and these are pro-
gressing with satisfactory spirit. The line will
pass very close to the venerable and picturesque
church of St. Saviour's, the appearance of which
was not improved by the formation of the ap-
proaches to New London Bridge.
Apropos of the Chatham and Dover Railway, it
is to be lamented that the City authorities can
come to no conclusion as to the kind of structure
which shall supersede the ricketty, dilapidated,
and dangerous bridge of Blackfriars. Their hesita-
tion on this point is a serious misfortune for the
London, Chatham, and Dover Company, and retards
their movements to a considerable extent. It seems
to us that the proper solution of the question lies
in the construction of abridge of sufficient width and
stability to sustain both the ordinary and the
railway traffic. One or two plans for such a
construction were submitted, we believe, to the
Bridge Committee, but so far, without inducing
.
then. concurrence. It would be difficult to conceive
anything more incongruous or inharmonious than
would be two bridges of a totally different character
as regards architectural arrangement, spanning the
Thames within a few feet of each ether; and we
hope that the people of London will be spared so
humiliating au exhibition.

What with lines of railway in process of forma-
tion, the throwing of not particularly handsome
bridges across the principal streets and roads, and
the bustle contingent upon the anticipatory demo-
lition of dwelling-houses, the boroughs of South-
wark and Lambeth are in a constant state of con-
fusion. The landmarks of the " oldest inhabitants"
are disappearing at the shrill summons of the com-
ing locomitive ; and the words of the poet--
"The presence of perpetual change is ever on the earth,"
are receiving literal illustration at the hands of the
work-people of the two boroughs. Out of that
chaos order will eventually arise, no doubt; and in
the moral certainty that all the changes thus made
will " work together for good," must be found con-
solation for the inconvenience arising from their
procedure.—Building News.

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mechanism."—Morning Post. Gold watches, sto 100 guineas;
silver watches, 2 to 50 guineas. Benson's new Illustrated
Pamphlet, free for two stamps, descriptive of every construc-
tion of watch, enables persons in any part of the world to
select with the greatest certainty the watch est adapted to
their use. Watches sent free and safe by post on receipt of
a remittance. —J. W. Benson, 83 and 34, Ludgate-/1111. 40 and
17, LQ114911 E.C.—E4t4/9Jitihed 1749. ; •

_ •
7111? QUA DRTJPEE MURDER AT MAN-

CHERTER.

The inquest on the Into M-. Melier was adjourned
from Friday to Saturday, when :Aso the prisoners
were to be further examined before the nn
The surgeon who examined one of the murdered
children of the prisoners had not discovered what
kind of poison was used, and was to make post mor •
tern examination of the other bodies. It was thought
some kind of narcotic was used.
The offices where Mr. Mellon was murdered are
entered from South King•steot. His office is on
tho second floor, and on the same floor are two
rooms occupied by Mr. Frederick Andrew, solicitor.
The stairs leading to the offices are wide ; and there
are four sets of steps numbering 28 in all, and four
small landings, of which the uppermost is the land-
ing to Mr. Meller's office on the second floor. On
this landing there are only ono or two drops of
blood. This is the place where Mr. Meller was first
struck. Drops of blood were found upon the steps
leading to the next !landing, and there Mr Meller
appears to have stumbled against the baluster rail,
his bloop trickling down the rail and dripping on
to the ground floor. Down eight more steps he
stumbled, and then on the first floor landing. At
the head of the next flight of stairs, he appears to
have fallen, the spot being marked by a stain of
blood on the floor. Mr. Meller struggled with his
assailant, endeavouring with his hands to ward off
the stabs, and his hands consequently were much
cut. Mr, Meller was lying bleeding where he fell
for the last time, when Mr. Letherbrow and his
porter Hooley found the body, and were raising it
up just as the prisoners came down the stairs. The
male prisoner presented his revolver at the head of
Mr. Meller, and fired ; the shot missed the deceased
and, piercing the right hand of Hooley, lodged in
his right knee. When the prisoners were safely
locked up, they both expressed the greatest con-
cern for the safety of the porter Hooley. The male
prisoner, after his apprehension, said he much re-
gretted that he had not been able to kill Mr.
Meller's two sons.
The dwelling occupied by the prisoners in Bri-
tannia-buildings, Great Ducie-street, is one of a
number of very fine houses (with shop fronts), the
rents of which are £5O a year. Fronting the street
there is a lofty and spacious shop, which has been
closed for some time, but was at first used by Taylor
for the sale of general provisions. The house is
fuur stories in height, and contains 10 rooms, be-
sides the shop and cellars. All the rooms are lofty,
and have been fitted up with marble chimneypieces,
and papered and ornamented in a superior style.
The house is nevertheless in a most desolate condi-
tion. It does not contain a single article of furni-
ture of any kind—no table, chair, or stool ; no bed-
ding, not even straw ; and the cupboards were found
completely bare, there not being a particle of any
description of food. The house also bears traces of
gross mistreatment. The marble chimneypieces
were found defaced, the corners and edges having
been chipped with some blunt instrument. The
panels and jambs of the doors had been cut,
and, judging from appearances, probably with the
very knife that Mr. Meller was murdered with.
The wainscotting in some of the rooms had been
similarly damaged. In the shop there were no ar-
ticles of furniture or fixtures, either in the way of
shelves, counters, or boxes, The baluster rail was
chipped and hacked all the way from the ground
floor to the top of the house. The front room imme-
diately over the shop had been prepared with a
white satin coloured paper, but was smeared in
every part with soot and water, and the door of
this room was cut worse than any other, some of
the panels having been cut completely through.
When the detectives—Bateman and Watson—
entered the house, they were prepared to find
something of a dreadful nature, but when
they came to the room where the three
little dead children lay as though placidly sleeping
side by side, they were completely overcome, and
burst into tears. Each child had been washed and
dressed, and lay the very picture of innocence and
beauty, but in the "sleep of death. The children
had white night-dresses on them ; round the waist
of each was a black sash, and a bit of black ribbon
was tied round the wrists and neck. The girls' hair,
dark brown, curl naturally, but had been combed
with unusual care. '1 he hair of the little boy was
lighter than that of his sisters, and it had been
combed after death, into tufts on the centre of the
head. Tho bodies lay in a bit of carpeting, the
only fragment in the house. The room in which the
children were found is on the left-hand landing, a
few steps below the first floor, The windows of the
house have very large panes of glass, but not one of
these had been broken. The staircase is lighted by
a stained-glass skylight.

There had been two executions put into the house
by Meller and Sons, the prisoners refusing to pay
rent on the ground of a set-off for £5O against the
agents for loss arising out of alleged damage by the
explosion before alluded to :in our report of the
murder, and which set-off Messrs. Meller would
not allow.

MANCHESTER, SUNDAY EVENING.

In endeavouring to gain some light upon the
antecedents of the prisoners Taylor and his wife,
the police have obtained possession of some MS.
books, chiefly account books, which were among
the articles seized the last time the murderer's
goods were distrained by the house agent who has
fallen a victim to his vengeance. The two prisoner's
and their children appear to have lived in as much
seclusion from all neighbouring intercourse as was
possible for persons engaged in retail business, and,
since the closing of their provision shop, their re-
tirement from all observation was so complete,
that inquirers about their character or history
were rather misled than answered by contradic-
tory versions of idle gossip. A statement that
the female prisoner is now enciente, whether
for the first time or not, is the assertion of
neighbours ; and the belief that she is the
step-mother of the murdered children seems to
rest on a possible conjecture from her appearance
and her own declaration that she was 25 years old,
while the age of the eldest child was said to be 12.
At the funeral of the child who was killed by the
explosion of a kitchen boiler, some months ago, the
undertaker says there was not a single relative of
the prisoners present. By the books above referred
to the police have an imperfect trace of the male
prisoner's occupation as far back as April, 1860.
Nothing of an earlier date is yet known of him here,
but the nature of the entries may lead to further in-
f.rmation Tieing obtained. In the spring of 1860
Wm. Robert Taylor (or as he appears to have inva-
riably styled himself in business matters, " W.
Taylor,") seems to have been a traveller in the south
of England for a Mr. P. M. Hadley, for Messrs.
Fraser and Thurkettle, and for other persons, ap-
parently spirit merchants. Among the places named
as having been visited by Taylor in his accounts of
travelling expenses, are Exeter, Yeovil, Taunton,
Sherbourne, and Lyme Regis. Afterwards, for a few
months, he must have kept a publichouse at Bide-
ford, North Devon. One of his books contains the
names of persons by whom he was then supplied
with liquors ; for instance. " Norman and Wood-
cock, City Brewery, Exeter, March 4, 1861." The
visit of an excise officer is noted, with the date,
"April 26,1861,"
in one of "Loftus's Spirit Books!"
which is a ruled account book. Nothing further is
known of him before his coming to Manchester, and
when he came has not been ascertained. . He be-
lieved to have been living somewhere in the city or
the neighbourhood nearly a year ago. Of his wife
the only trace is what may be conjectured from a
book which appears to have been used originally
as
an exercise book of some youthful student in arith-
metic, whose progress is manifest through addition,
subtraction, multiplication, and division, when, the
book having been half filled, in the latter portion
there is an interval of blank pages, and the rest con-
tains a considerable number of pencil copies of short
musical pieces. On the fly-leaf at the beginning is
an elaborate and boy-like inscription--" Joseph
Giles, 1856." Some pencil notes at the head
of each of the sums (which aro in ink) seem to
have been written by a feminine hand, and likewise
the copies of music; and on a leaf at the end of the
book, a female pen in some idle moment has written,
among a number of apparently meaningless words
and scratches, the following :--" Miss M. A. Giles,
flatherleigh Farm, near Win
maven, Somerset," and A

below this three names, placed apart from one
anctker :—" Martha Ann Giles," " Mrs. Taylor,"
"Hannah Mariah Taylor." The Lame peculiar
spelling appears in the "Haanah Maric,l3.
Taylor, 8 years of age," on the papers which were
found attached to the bodies of the murdered chil-
dren. The names and ages on these papers were
written in a feminine hand; while the inscription
on the other side of each paper, " We are six, &c.,'
is in a man's writing, bold, but rather rough. The
name of the female prisoner is " Martha Ann" Tay.
lor On one page of the exercise book is a rude
childish drawing of a building which looks very
much like a dissenter's chapel. Along with the
books were found what seems to be an old daguer-
reotype likeness of a man and woman, unknown.

THE DARING CASE OF HOUSEBREAK-

ING AT TRANMERE.

We are glad to state that the whole of the scoun-
drels who broke into the residence of Mr. John
Arthur, Sea Bank Villas, Tranmere, on Wednesday
last, and who murderously assailed Mr. Edward
Corris, joiner and builder, are now in custody. The
third man, who effected his escape at the time his
accomplices were captured, was apprehended on
Thursday evening, in Chester, by detective-inspec-
tor Egerton, of the county constabulary, and
brought to Birkenhead. He is respectably attired
in light cloth clothes, and has the appearance of a
" swell mobsman." He gives the name of Stephen
William Browning, 22 years of age, and describes
himself as a salesman, residing at 52, Mansfield-
street, London.

Yesterday, Browning was brought up before
Messrs. Case, Derbyshire, and Younghusband,
magistrates, at the Birkenhead police-court.—ln-
spector Egerton stated that on the previous evening
he went to Chester-street, and apprehended the
prisoner in Mr. Roberts's Temperance Hotel, Eger-
ton-street.—James Sarson, assistant car-driver to
Mr. Huntriss, of the Rock Ferry Hotel, stated that
the prisoner called at the hotel about half-past
three o'clock on Wednesday afternoon. He appeared
to be in a great hurry, and witness drove him in a
hansom to the Coach and Horses public house in
Chester, where they arrived at 20 minutes past five
o'clock. The prisoner did not pay him his fare of
£1 4s. 6d., but gave him ls., and after telling the
ostler that witness was to be " well done to" said
he would return in an hour. Witness waited until
half-past nine o'clock at night, and as the prisoner
had not then made his appearance he returned to
Rock Ferry.—Mr. John Roberts, of the Temperance
Hotel, Egerton-street, Chester, deposed that the
prisoner and the other two men (whom he had pre-
viously identified in the bridewell) came to his
house on Monday night last and engaged a double-
bedded room for the week, for which they paid two
guineas in advance. On Wednesday morning the
three men left the hotel about half-past nine o'clock,
and the prisoner returned a little after five in the
afternoon. On Thursday the prisoner paid for all
they had had to eat. Witness had not the least
doubt but that the three men were the persons who
took lodging at his house on Monday.—The prisoner
stoutly denied that he was in Birkenhead at all on
Wednesday, stating that he was at the Chester
races all day. He was then remanded until Mon-
day next, when he will be again brought up with
his two accomplices.
Mr. Corris is happily recovering, and it is ex-
pected that he will in a few days be able to leave
his house to give evidence against the prisoners.--
Liverpool Mercury.

COUN2.RY MdIREL IS.

... JA

YORK—MAY 17.
We had a small supply of , wheat on offer to-day, and
the demand ruled inactive, late prices declining is to 2s
per qr. Barley an inactive business, and scarce; former
prices were not exceeded. Oats in fair demand, at late
prices. Beans at late currences.
Wheat, red 56s to 58s Oats.... 22s to 26s
White do .60s to 648 Beans 42., to 44s
Barley .32s to —s Peas ....—s to —s
Malt, 66s to 68s per qr. ; rye, 34s per qr.; flour, 43s
to 44s per sack.