The Sun.
London, England, 1862-03-12 00:00:00

3ThRDER IN ESSEX.

A most extraordinary and sudden affair took place
at Dunmow late on Saturday evening; and, as an
instance of the cowardly effect of the concealed
knife, and its dreadful consequences, has (says the
Essex Herald) seldom been paralleled in this county.
About 11. o'clock a few wrangling words in rather
a high tone were heard coming from near the gas-
lamp, opposite the doctor's pond, and when two or
three young men went to the spot, they found that
a man was standing there who had just been
wounded in some way with a sharp instrument, and
at that moment two men were escaping across the
Downs as fast as they could; unfortunately the
persons alarmed were so occupied with their atten-
tion to the sufferer that the offenders made their
escape. The person thus desperately assaulted
walked only a few yards across the road before he
fell, and being taken into the Star yard, died almost
directly. It was soon found that the deceased is
named James Barnard, from Cophill, near Shefford,
in Bedfordshire—a young married man, about 27
years of age, who travelled the country as a hawker
of umbrellas, braces, clothes' lines, &c. From what
can be learnt at present, it appears that he had been
out on his calling, and was going home to his lodg-
ings at the Bell, at Church-end, where his wife was ;
no one seems to know whether he had had any
quarrel worth naming with any one; and he is said,
by parties who knew him, to have been a quiet in-
offensive person, and therefore the fear is that the
dreadful deed was done in a moment of malice and
spite, but by whom is at present involved in
mystery, which the police are sedulously endea-
vouring to unravel.
A 'correspondent writing (Monday morning, ten
o'clock) says :—When I wrote to you last night the
police were scouring the neighbourhood, and had
been hither and thither but without success ; how-
ever, early in the evening Superintendent Roger-
son obtained a clue, and forthwith, finding a Dun-
mow man, named John Button—who was said to
be one of the two seen to hasten across the Downs
just before Barnard fell—he (Button) voluntarily
confessed that he was present when the assault
took place, although he did not touch the deceased,
and that a man named Henry Eagle, of Little
Easton, was the person who had blows with the
deceased, and must have been the perpetrator of
the dreadful deed. Button further willingly and
earnestly detailed the conversation he had with
Eagle as they were going home. The superinten-
dent immediately took two constables with him.
(knowing that the accused, from previous circum-
stances, was a most desperate fellow), and succeeded
in finding him at the dwelling of a relative. While
the superintendent and police-constable Day went
in at the front door, the accused attempted to escape
from the back; but police-constable Johnson was
ready for him, and after some resistance he was
secured, and immediately brought to the Dunmow
police station. This dreadful case has caused much
more consternation at Dunmow than any occurrence
of the kind for many years, and although it was
Sunday evening a great concourse thronged the
sides of the cart when Eagle was brought into
tall
town. The prisoner has been quiet iu the ce 1
but he is watched most narrowly, and
a
night,
Police-constable sat up with him for that purpose.

I have only to remind you of the reiterated votes
of the chamber, which we shall not in any way de-
part from. It is evident that the Roman question
cannot be solved except by two means acting simul-
taneously—the moral and the diplomatic. As to
the former, it is necessary to establish in the
Catholic world the opinion that the temporalpower
is not requisite to ,religion ; that when the Church
shall be relieved from worldly cares and interests,
religion can only gain by it ; and it is very pleasing
to me to point out a great progress in the opinion
of believers on that point. When the question of
the fall of the temporal power was first raised two
years ago, many persons felt alarmed, and
thought that religion might be ruined; at present
those persons have become tranquillised. They
comprehend that there is no necessity for the Church
to be united to a temporal power, and I am glad to
say that this change has principally taken place in
France. It sufficed to have observed the public
mind in that clever and generous nation; to see
that while there was at first a kind of estrangement
from the Italian cause, because a fear was enter-
tained that the temporal power, and consequently
religious interests, might be compromised, but now
opinion has changed, and the number of Catholics
who entertain no alarnrof the kind has consider-
ably increased. I have only topoint out to you the
discussions in the first body of the empire—
the Senate. If you compare the debate on the
affairs of Rome which took place last year with that
of the present one, you will see that opinions have
changed, and that those who were before the most
strongly opposed to any change connected with the
pontifical states, now entertain more moderate opi-
nions, lam pleased to say that for this change we
are in part indebted to the words of the prince who
uses his eloquence and his high position to favour
Italian interest on every occasion. (Loud applause.)
Moral truths, gentlemen, frequently meet with
great contradictions before they are admitted ; in-
terest which are opposed to the truth frequently
obscure it by a factitious cloud, but in the end the
sun shines through that cloud, and moral victory
belongs to the truth. By the side of moral means
diplomatic ones must be employed. On that point
also you have traced out the road, and we are re-
solved to follow it. You have said that it is neces-
sary to go to Rome in accord with France. Such is
our motto. We will solve the question in accord
with France, for she has a great interest in doing
it in the sense of Italian unity. If we do not go in
accord with her, and should wish to act alone, or,
what is still worse, in spite of her, we shall injure
ourselves and depart from the object in view. You
may therefore be assured that we shall follow the
programme traced out by you. But the question of
alliances, of independence, of Rome and of Venice,
depend above all on internal organisation. I repeat,
that when we shall present to Europe the spectacle
of a nation who, after having accomplished a great
revolution in so few years, has known how to
constitute itself, and unify its laws, I think that
our voice will be better heard in the Cabinets of
Europe. (Hear, hear.)
The remainder of the speech was devoted to
the subject of the internal organisation of the
kingdom.