The Sun.
London, England, 1860-09-27 00:00:00

Majesty's service, it is stated, at the end of the pre-
sent month. His successor is not yet nominated.
A spacious flat-roofed magazine, covered with
shingle, intended for the purpose of storing powder
and ammunition under construction during the past
twelvemonth in Woolwich Marsh, under the super-
intendence of the Army Manufacturing Department
of the Royal Arsenal, and now nearly complete,
was yesterday discovered to have suffered from the
yielding of the base to such an extent, causing a
huge cleft throughout one of the external support-
ing walls, that a considerable portion of the bui'd-
ing will have to be removed and rebuilt. The dis-
aster is accounted for from the effect of the late in-
cessant rains having carried away some of the sub-
jacent marshy stratum insufficiently prepared with
concrete and other heavy substances in forming the
foundation. It is supposed that the loss occasioned
by the disaster will be borne by the Government
and that the contractors, Messrs. Higgs, will not
be held liable in any degree for the result, as their
part of the contract has been duly carried out and
completed.
The solid indiarubber buffers, or springs, invented
by Mr. Fuller, and employed extensively during
the late Russian war, to allay the friction caused
by the travelling of the ammunition and other
waggons without springs, have been introduced by
that gentleman for the consideration of the select
committee of Woolwich Arsenal., es a counter mo-
tion to the recoil of the Armstrong gun in the altion
of firing. Nine of the above-named buffers, about
nine inches each in circumference and three inches
in thickness of substance, were yesterday affixed to
one of the &des of a gun-carriage employed at the
proof, and several rounds were fired, when the gun
was satisfactorily and effectively brought home from
,he recoil by means of the buffers, and much delay
s thereby obviated by a succession of firing.

ALLEGED MURDER OF A CHILD AT

110 MERTON.

Yesterday morning at 10 o'clock, Mr. Humphreys_
coroner for the eastern division of Middlesex, and a
jury, opened an inquest at the Spread Eagle Tavern,
Homerton, on the body of a child named Augustus
Padfield, which had been found mutilated under the
circumstances related in the evidence subjoined.
A young woman named Emma Padfield, sus-
pected of being the mother of the child, was pre-
sent during the investigation, in the custody of
Inspector Bowler, of the local divisional police.
Mr. W. T. Graves attended to watch the proceed-
ings in her behalf; and Mr. F. W. Shorter, from
the office of Mr. Ellis, clerk of the local vestry, was
present for a similar purpose in the interest of that
body.
Maria Mead, the first witness called, said, in
answer to questions by the Coroner—l reside at
rlammond's-cottages, Lea-bridge, and am the wife
of James Mead, a labourer. I had a lodger named
Padfield. The woman at the bottom of the table is
she. She was confined in my house about the latter
end of June, but I cannot exactly say on what day.
When she came to lodge with me she stated she was
a single woman. She was confined of a male child,
a very fine, healthy one. I saw the child washed
frequently. I washed it myself on the morning it
was taken away from my house.
The Coroner—Was there any mark about the
body of the child by which you could identify it ?
Witness-Yes; there was a red mark resembling
a raspberry, and like the print of a finger. The
child had recently been vaccinated on the left arm
by Mr. Brooks, a surgeon who attended her in her
confinement. On the morning it was taken away
the left arm was in a state of inflammation and dis-
charging matter. Of the body of the dead child
which I have seen I noticed that the left arm was
gone. The prisoner left my house with the child
a month last Monday. She stated, previous to going,
that her sister had been confined in the country about
the same time as she herself had, that her sister's
child was dead, and that the sister had agreed to
take her child. She said she was going to take the
child to meet her sister at the Camberwell station.
She said she had received a letter from her sister
on the Monday before, but I did not see it, and
I understood that it was in consequence of that
letter that the appointment was made with
her sister at Camberwell. She left my house a quar-
ter before 12 in the morning. I washed and dressed
the child for her -that morning while she was dress-
ing herself. I remember that its flannel petticoat
had no string, and I fastened it with black cotton.
(A child's petticoat produced.) That is the same
flannel. I know it by the black cotton with which
I sewed it. (A frock produced.) That is the frock
I put on the baby that morning, and this is the
pinafore marked B, and likewise the shoes and the
veil and the ribands. As she left the door I kissed
the baby and bid it " Good bye." She returned the
same night between 11 and 12 ; she knocked at the
door, and my husband got out of bed and let her in.
She came to my bedside and spoke to me. She had
not the child with her. She carried a basket, which
I had not seen before, and which she said her sister
had given her. It was a common flat basket. On
Wednesday morning last I discovered something in
the privy which turned out to be the body of a child.
The privy in which the body was found is in a gar-
den, and detached from the house. The prisoner
could have got to the closet on the night on which
she returned without going to the house. The river
had flowed into the closet and had made the body
float. When the prisoner returned I asked her if
she had met her sister ; she said she had, that she
(the sister) had taken the child with her, and that
she would be travelling all night, and would nut
reach home before 10 o'clock the next morning.
She said she had met her sister at half-past 5, and
I thought she had had to walk home, which ac-
counted for her being so late. The mother suckled
the child, and when it was at my house it had no
illness whatever. I have no doubt the body I have
seen is that of the child born at my house.
By. Mr. Graves—The body is much decomposed.
This is not the first time I have said there was a
mark on it.
By the Coroner—The next morning, after re-
turning to my house, the prisoner washed out the
child's frock (produced) and a shawl I had lent her,
and which I now wear. She said she would leave
the frock for' my baby. She left on the Tuesday—
that is, the next day—saying she was going to a
situation. I did not see her again until she was in
custody.
The witness then withdrew.
Mrs. Mead was recalled, and stated that the
frock produced had been washed since the prisoner
washed it.
Hannah Williams—l live in the next house to
the last witness. The prisoner is the person who
was confined there of a child. I washed and dressed
the child for more than a week. I perceived a mark
near the naval like the print of a finger. It had
that mark, I believe, from its birth. The child had
been vaccinated on its left arm shortly before it was
taken away, and the arm was inflamed, and some
little matter was being discharged from it. That I
noticed a day or two before it was taken away. I
observed when the body was taken out of the privy
that the left arm had been taken off. On the Fri-
day before she left the prisoner read a letter to me,
to the effect that she was to take the child into the
country on the following Monday to meet her sis-
ter-in-law. She said she was to meet her at the
station, but she did not say what station. She said
her sister was coming from the country to fetch it.
She added that her sister had been confined of a
child, which had died, and that her sister was going
to take her child. She had previously told me that
she was going to a situation on the Tuesday, and I
saw her on the Tuesday evening before she left for
that purpose. She had then a flat basket.
By Mr. Shorter—She said the child was going
to her sister's in the country, but she did not say
where. She had never before spoken to me about
her sister-in-law.

By the Coroner—l saw a letter which the post-
man had brought for her to my house by mistake.
She told me on opening it that it contained a Post-
office order, and that it was from Fred. She said
the father of the child was her young master, Fre-
derick Bryant, and that he lived somewhere in
Islington, I think—but I cannot remember where.
James Mead said—l live at Hammond's Cot-
tages, Lea-bridge. On this day week my wife
called my attention to something in the privy. I
took it out, and it proved to be the body of a child.
It looked very much like the child born at my
house. The privy was emptied about a week be-
fore the prisoner left, and there was about three
feet of water and soil in it when the body was
found. I have since emptied the privy, but I did
not find the missing arm, nor have I yet found it.
I saw just outside the door of the privy some marks
of blood, as I believe, on the brick work ; but I can-
not say that it was blood.
William Bowler, an inspector in the metropoli-
tan police, said,—From information I received I
apprehended the prisoner at No. 13, Lansdowne-
road, Notting-hill, where she was living in the ser-
vice of gentleman named Drakes. I found in her
box the articles which have been produced, except
the frock and several letters. She went there by
the name of Emma Patfield. She had written a
letter to Mrs. Mead requesting her not to write to
her there. I had told her I was a police-officer,
and cautioned her in the presence of her master and
mistress before I said a word to her about the
matter. I charged her with killing " her child. She
said she knew nothing about it. I said, You
were delivered of a child in June last at Lea-
bridge." She said she was. Her mistress said to
her, " What a wicked girl you have been !" She
replied, "I have been in great distress and. have
even wanted bread ; but indeed I did not do it my-
self." Afterwards, when 1 was with her in the
kitchen, as she was collecting her clothes, she said
if I had kept away all would have come ent• ral4t