The Sun.
London, England, 1860-08-06 00:00:00

WESTMINSTER BRIDGE, &c

Mr. HANKEY moved for returns shoWing the amount
expended year by year on Westminster Bridge and the
approaches, since the report of the committee of
1856. when it was stated that £50,000 had been expended;
the expenditure en the bridge and on the approaches to be
stated separately; stating from what funds such expendi-
ture has been defrayed, stating separately all grants by Par-
liament ; copy of the latest report from the engineer or clerk
of the works, as to the progress of the works ; returns of the
further estimated expenditure for completion, and to what
extent it will be necessary to apply for parliamentary grants;
stating when it is expected that the bridge and approaches
will be completed, and of the name of the engineerand also
of the contractor, and the width of the bridge between the
side parapets.—Oriered.
THE SUBMARINE LINE TO AMERICA.
Mr. BERKELEY asked the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer whether, in consequence of the failure of the At-
lento Telegraph Company in their attempt to lay down a
submarine line to America, the agreement entered into

After some conversation it was agreed that the substance
of the letters should be taken from the copies, and that the
originals should be put in. The originals, however, were
not in the witness's possession, and they had to be sent for,
which, of course, caused great unnecessary delay. Up-
wards of 40 minutes were needlessly thrown away by the
Coroner thinking necessary to make a full copy of the
letters for his notes of evidence.

The Coroner having concluded his self-imposed task, the
evidence was continued by
Inspector Dunn reading one of the letters written to the
deceased by the accused, in which he urged her very ear-
nestly to come up to town and insure her life, which it ap-
peared from another part of -the letter she had some objec-
tion, as it went on to say that in the event of her not doing
so it would prove that she (deceased) possessed more love
for her friends and relations than she did for him. Two
letters, each dated 16th of July, were read, one of which
contained some instructions as to the mode of
effecting life assurance. Another, supposed to be
dated on the 18th of the same month, also con-
tained a strong persuasion to assure. One dated July
19, from the accused to the deceased, requested her to
bring all her letters and property to London; and the last
letter, not sent through the post-office, but by the railway,
dated the 28th of July, directed the deceased to burn all her
letters previous to her leaving home for London.
Mr. Thomas Tanner, a clerk in the Argus Life Assur-
ance Office, 39, Throgmorton-street, City, said—l produce
a policy of insurance effected in our office by William God-
frey Youngman for £lOO on the life of Mary Wells Streeter.
I also pit in the forms of application. I saw the accused
and the deceased on July 24 at the office. On the 19th, when
the accused came to make inquiries, he filled up the usual
forms and gave his address 16, Manor-place, Walworth.
The signatures and the general writing of the several
letters put into my hand, correspond with that of the
office forms filled up by the accused.
Samuel Streeter, the father of the deceased, was recalled,
and informed the Court that he gave the letters produced
to Inspector Dunn, from the writing desk of his deceased
daughter.

The Coroner, to Inspector Dunn—Have you any other
evidence.

Inspector Dunn—l can produce a witness to prove that
the accused had represented himself to possess independent
property. That will show a design.
Coroner—l don't think that material to the present in-
quiry. I cannot therefore receive it.

Mr. Boddy, surgeon, said—On the morning of the mur-
der I was called a little before six to the premises, 16,
Manor-place. Inspector Dunn showed me four dead
persons. Three were lying on the landing, and one, a
little boy, on the bed in the front room. The bodies were
warm. [The witness here described the position of the
bodies.] Life was quite extinct. I did not see the bodies
of the deceased persons again until I saw them the next
day at the dead house of the workhouse. I have made
a minute cyrunination of tho wounds on each, and a post
mortem examination of the body of the little boy, The
internal viscera of the child was perfectly healthy. I
examined the wounds in the body of Mary Ann Streeter.
I found she had sustained a stab over the left break just
above the region of the heart. The instrument had entered
right into the cavity of the chest about an inch. I should
think the injuries were inflicted by a sharp pointed instru-
ment. She had also received three deep cuts in the throat.
Some of the cuts were eight or nine inches in length. They
appeared to be backhanded cuts, about an inch or an inch
and a-half in depth. They had completely divided the
jugular vein and carotid artery. The cuts were, I appre-
hend, made from right to left. The wounds were mortal,
and no person receiving such injuries would have power of ut-
terance. I should think death must have been instantaneous.
I think had the stab wound been made first she would have
had power to scream out. I noticed her hands; they had
not been injured in the slightest degree. I next examined
the mother. I found three stab wounds, one before over
the stomach, two stabs behind over the left blade bone, and
a deep cut or stab at the left side of the neck dividing the
jugular vein and the carotid artery, and extending down to
the vital vertibrae, which no doubt was attempted to be
cut through or divided. This wound was six or seven
Inches in length, and appeared to have been caused by cuts
or plunges by a sharp instrument. It was quite impossible for
the deceased to have inflicted the wounds herself. lam of
opinion that the woman must have been lying on her
stomach when the wound was inflicted. I did not notice
any blood on her hands. I next examined the youngest
boy. He had received some flesh wounds on the inside of
the left arm. There was a stab over the left side of the
chest, but it had not penetrated it. There was a deep
plunging cut right through the back of the neck, entirely
dividing the carotid artery, cutting through the spinal
column. The wound was about four or five inches in length
and was of a mortal character, and appeared to have been
inflicted by one sweep of the arm. Last he had examined
the elder boy Thomas. Ho had received a cut right down
the lip. He had also received a cut round tho throat.
There were five or six stabs about the body. One over the
left breast, one between the second and third rib, another
on the left breast just below the former, but a little more to
the left side. There were three stabs to the left side, over
the third, fourth, and fifth ribs. The three first fingers of
the right hand were deeply cut inside to the bone. The
third finger of the left hand was cut inside to a similar
extent, as if the hands had made a grasp at a sharp cutting
instrument, which had been pulled through them. The
post mortem examination showed that the first stab entered
the cavity of the chest, and then appeared to have been
withdrawn, and again plunged forward, entering the lunge,

THE ROAD CHILD MURDER.

Advantage was taken of a private visit of Mr.
Edin, barrister, to the family of Mr. Kent, on Fri-
day last, to hold a conference with him and Mr.
Dunn, solicitor, and Mr. Parsons, surgeon, the
latter of whom, it will be remembered, was called in
within an hour after the discovery of the murdered
body of Francis Saville Kent. Superintendents
Foley, of Trowbridge, 'Woolf, of Devizes, and Sum-
mers, of Promo, were in attendance, and were pre-
sent during part of the interview of the profes-
sional gentlemen. Some inquiries were pursued
and suggestions made which it is thought may
possibly lead to the discovery of further and im-
portant information. Some of the local papers
have fallen into an error in stating thb.t Mrs. Kent
was delivered of a still-born child within a few
hours of the release of Miss Constance Kent, and
that she is very ill, the fact being that although
she gave premature birth to a son on the 29th ult.,
both the mother and child are at present doing
well: There have also been conjectures thrown out
in articles in some London and provincial journals
as to the means by which Hester Holly, the laun-
dress, became acquainted with a rumour on the day
of the murder that a nightdress was missing from
the house of Miss Kent. The explanation is this :
On searching the linen of the inmates on the morn-
ing of the murder a nightdress was found having
marks apparently of a suspicious nature upon it.
Mr. Parsons, surgeon, however, informed the
police that the appearances were to be accounted
for from natural causes; but in the exercise of
their discretion the police thought it proper to take
the garment from the house and submit it to the
inspection of another medical man, who confirmed
the opinion that had been expressed by Mr. Par-
sons. The fact of the nightdress in question hav-
ing been taken possession of and removed from the
house by the police became bruited abroad in the vil-
lage, with the additions usually made by rumour in
such cases, and in due course reaching the ears of the
laundress, the old woman expressed her determina-
tion to satisfy herself of its truth as soon as she
received the clothes from Mr. Kent's house on the
following Monday. Hence on that day, as soon as
she reached home with the two baskets of linen,
she at once searched and found confirmation of the
report which had been circulated by missing a
nightdress belonging to Miss Constance Kent. On
the police making inquiries of her on the Monday,
she told them that the linen was " all right accord-
ing to the book,"—i; s., that the usual number of
articles were duly entered; but she withheld the
information that there was a nightdress of Miss
Constance's missing, believing, as she says, that it
had been kept back for the purpose of repairs, as
had sometimes happened, or that it was already in
the possession of the police. It has not yet been
publicly stated that on the morning the murder was
discovered Mr. Parsons, surgeon, made a casual
examination of all the knives in the house (none of
which were missing), and subsequently submitted
them to a microscopic inspection, but could discover
no traces of blood on any of them. Mr. Parsons is
also stated to have expressed an opinion that the
severe wounds found on the body of the deceased,
inflicted both before and after death, could not have
been caused by any of the knives found in the
house. The absence of the weapon with which the
murder was committed and the mysterious disap-
pearance of the nightdress of Miss Constance Kent
have hitherto baffled the researches of the police.
Mr. Inspector Whicher and Sergeant Williamson
have returned to London to await further instruc-
tions from the Home Secretary, who, it is hoped,
will take some immediate action in this painful mat-
ter. It has been suggested that the investigation
should be commenced de novo, and that, in addition
to the employment of metropolitan detectives and
the county constabulary, a London solicitor of expe-
rience in the conduct of criminal investigations,
with a stipendiary magistrate to assist the local
justices as their assessor, should be employed in the
endeavour to fathom this mysteryof iniquity. It may
be added that the two pieces of newspaper which
were found stained with blood, and in which it is
supposed that the knife or weapon with which the
murder was perpetrated was wiped after the crime
had been completed, have been proved to be por-
tions of Ihe Times of the 9th of June. They were
stated at the inquest to be parts of a paper which
was not taken in by Mr. Kent or any other person
resident in the house, and from that circumstance
the possibility of some person having secreted him-
self on the premises was suggested. As these frag-
ments, however, are proved to be portions of the
journal which was regularly supplied to Mr. Kent,
the theory, which amounts to almost absolute cer-
tainty, that the murder was committed by some in-
mate of the house is so far additionally confirmed,