The Sun.
London, England, 1860-08-23 00:00:00

THE MURDER AT STEPNEY.

Yesterday Mr. Rose, the solicitor of Mrs. Emsley,
and of the trustees -under the marriage settlement,
had an interview with Mr. Erskine at the Home-
office, in the absence of Mr. Clive, the Under-Secre-
tary of State, with the view to urge upon the
Government the propriety of offering a substantial
reward for the apprehension of the murderer of the
unfortunate woman. Mr. Humphreys, the coroner,
is also understood to have addressed a communica-
tion to Sir George Lewis with a similar object, and
it is believed that he will not hesitate to adopt a
suggestion calculated, it may be, to promote the
ends of justice in this painful matter. At all events,
in the course of yesterday, Mr. Faith and Mr.
Whittaker, who each married
the mardered woman, expressed their
stepdaughter of
their intention to
offer a reward between them
of £2OO. The
Home Secretary can scarcely do less ;
and pro-
bably to-day or to-morrow—the more speedily
the better in the interests of justice—a reward
will be offered by the Government and the relatives
together of not less than £5OO for the discovery
and conviction of the murderer. In the case of
the Home-office, to render the reward still more
effective, it will probably be
accompanied by
the offer of a free pardon by the Crown to any one
privy to the murder short of the actual assassin.
Mr. Rose also, in an interview
he had yesterday
with th 4 Solicitor to the Treasury informed that
gentleman that in all probability the whole of
the property belonging to the deceased will revert
to the Crown for want of
kindred, assuming
she has died intestate,
which there is every reason
to believe, since a very careful search among her
papers for any testamentary
now been w holly fruitless. A document has until
poor shoemaker named
Williams, living at Camden-town who states that
lie is the eldest son of a brother (now dead) of Mrs.
Emsley, has applied to be recognised as her next of
kin, mild a younger brother of
his, a soldier, came
from Portsmouth yesterday to
prefer a similar
claim ; but so far they have been unable to produce
the register of marriage of their father and mother,
which the elder brother says took place in Lambeth
church, but where an unsuccessful search has been
made in the registry; so, for the present, their pre-
tensions to relationship with the deceased fail in a
cardinal point. It has been said she has a niece
living, but that also is doubtful, and therefore it is
not improbable that the whole
of the property left
behind her, which is very considerable, may go to
augment the revenues of the Crown. Since the death
of a sister, about four years ago, whose legitimacy
was questioned, she herself is said to have denied
the existence of a single blood relation, and the in-
tention she expressed of disposing of her wealth to
found an almshouse after her. death gives colour to
the notion that she regarded herself as friendless.
It appears to be assumed as indisputable by the
police authorities engaged in the effort to discover
the murderer that he entered the house by the front
door, that she herself admitted him, and—what is
more remarkable—that the murder was committed
in daylight, for there was no Candle found in the
room, nor any appearance of any. Assuming that
the murder took plan under those circumstances,
its audacity almost exceeds its barbarity, for Grove-
road, in which the deceased's house was situate, is
not only itself an open thoroughfare in which there
is very considerable traffic, but immediately abuts
upon the Bow-road—one of the greatest arteries in
the metropolis. There is a little flower garden in
front of the house, which the murderer would have
to cross before he could reach the front door,
and again on leaving the premises, in sight,
possibly, of some of her neighbours, so that
the hypothesis that the foul deed was done in
the light of day seems inevitable. The small-
ness of the booty, probably from £5O to £lOO, with
which the murderer was able to make away rather
lessens the chance of detection, for, supposing the
plunder to have been considerable, and that the
assassin had accomplices with whom he shared it,
the difficulty of keeping such a fearful secret would
have been great. More than one or two persons on
whom suspicion alights are being watched at pre-
sent, but up to ten o'clock last night no one had
been arrested. The detectives, abandoning for the
time their first suspicions, are said to be now on a
new scent, which holds out some chance of success.
By some it is thought for the moment that the
murderer is one of a gang who are well known,
and if that be so, the speedy offer of a large reward,
accompanied by a free pardon, to any accomplice
whose hand did not actually deal the fatal blow may
be expected to result in the assassin being rendered•
up to justice. It is rather apprehended, however,
that a statement on one point, blurted out at the
inquest by more than one of the divisional police,
and to which it is not at present desirable to do
more than allude,may have tended to impair the
intrinsic value an important piece of evidence,