The Sun.
London, England, 1860-08-16 00:00:00

TILE MYSTERIOUS MURDER AT ROAD.

FURTHER REMAND OF THE SELF-
ACCUSED MURDERER.
TROWBRIDGE, WEDNESDAY.
The prisoner, Edmund John, who is in custody
upon his own accusation, upon the charge of mur-
dering the child, Francis Saville Kent, at Road, on
the 29th of June last, and who was remanded on
Monday last, was to-day again brought up, at the
Trowbridge Police-court, before H. G. G. Ludlow
and W. Stancombe, Esqs., magistrates for the
county of Wilts.
The court was again crowded, although the
public must have become quite convinced that the
fellow could have had no hand in the dreadful
tragedy. The general feeling, indeed, now seems
to be, that lie is deserving of severe punishment, as
a fool, who has thrust himself into a position of
notoriety from which he now heartily wishes to
escape.
Shortly after his remand on Monday the pri-
soner, who, it will be remembered, refused to give
his name to the magistrates, stated to the police-
man in charge, that his name was Edmund John
Gagg, and also wrote the following statement :
"On Thursday the 28th and 29th June, i was at the
George and Draggon i well not be sure which the name is
when i went there on the Thursday being some sort of a
Grand day as all the shops in Portsmouth was shut up i
asked the Land laddy how much the Lodging was and she
said crown a wak with washing and i asked her to Let
me have a Lodging as i thought i was a going to work for
Mr. Clarke end the young men that i slpt with took me
doun to Cumber Lane Fort on Friday morning and i did
not get on but ox Friday evening the person that Lodged
up stairs dressed my boil, for she put some soap and sugar
on it, and on saturday morning I went off withowt paying
my Lodgings as I did not get work.
"it is in front of a brick field and the side of a sawyer's
pit i think in the pratten road.
"Portsea or Portsmouth and on Saturday the 30th juno
31st i Lodged at crown and anchor in Godalmin and ho
told me to go to Mr. Moon on Monday morning.
"EDMUND JOHN GADO."
The prisoner, on being placed in the dock to-day,
appeared perfectly sane, though he was evidently
anxious that such steps should be taken as would
relieve him from the charge of assassination.
Mr. Kent arrived in Trowbridge in the course of
the morning, but did not attend the examination.
His solicitor, Mr. Dunn, of Frome, was, however,
present, and took notes of the proceedings.
Mr. Clark (clerk to the magistrates), addressing
the prisoner, said—Edmund John Gagg, since the
last examination you have given that name. Is
that your correct name ?
Prisoner—Quite correct, sir.
Mr. Clark—You were remanded on the last occa-
sion for the purpose of enabling you to obtain evi-
dence that you were at Portsmouth on the 28th and
29th June. Have you any one here to-day to speak
to your having been there ?
Prisoner—l have not had the opportunity of get-
ting any one. •
Mr. Ludlow—You were remanded upon your
own statement, that you were at Portsmouth on
the 28th and 29th June, and you were told that
you were at liberty to send to any one who could
confirm that statement.
Prisoner—l have not sent ' • but if any one had
sent to the places I named, they would have found
that my statement was true.
Mr. Ludlow—lf you have not obtained evidence
we must remand you again. It is essential to the
ends of justice that your statement should be proved
to be true or false.
Prisoner—l can write, but I have no means of
bringing witnesses here.
Mr. Superintendent Foley—lf the Bench will
grant us another week's remand we shall be able,
no doubt, to produce the necessary evidence.
Mr. Ludlow—Very well. Then, prisoner, you
are remanded till this day week.
Prisoner—Thank you, gentlemen.
The prisoner was then removed from the dock.
It is scarcely necessary to say that the local
police never entertained the belief that the pri-
soner was the murderer ; but it is right to state
that the assertion which has gained publicity, that
Superintendant Foley and Inspector Woolf have
obtained a clue which is likely to lead to the solu-
tion of the mystery which surrounds this murder, is
utterly without foundation. Those officers are still
actively engaged in the inquiry ; and would be
only too happy if this hap-hazard statement were
true.

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The Eastern Question has returned at a consi-
derably less interval than most of our periodical
difficulties. At the close of the Russian war the
worst we could anticipate was a lingering remain-
der of unsettled scores, some quibbling on the part
of our late foe, much misrule and insolvency on the
pert of our Eastern ally, and the Government of
the Danubian Provinces so arranged as to do nobody
too much good. But the sick man was thought to
; have a new lease of his life, and we all began to
' put ourselves in the position of Lord Eldon, who at
last excused himself from giving advice ou the
' subject of Turkey, because he had assisted at five
successive salvations of that Empire, each time
with a worse result. The voungest of us has now
seen the salvations of that Empire, each time with
a worse result. The youngest of us has now seen
the salvation of Turkey once, and the necessity of
a second salvation is already imminent. Yes, Lord
Stratford and his Eastern correspondents assure us
that something very energetic must he done, the
most stringent measures compatible with the law of
nations must be had recourse to, or that country
will perish. Few people have had most practice
in the precise use of language than this prince of
diplomatists, and it is impossible to suppose that he
could be blind to the natural force of these terms.
What is a " country ?" What is it to " perish ?"
What is the consummation we ere once more in-
vited to avert by terrible sacrifices ? Are we all
paralyzed with terror lest that fair creation of con
quest and diplomacy, the dominion of ti.e Sultan,
should vanish away among those things which the
poets tell us, and memory tells us too, are the fairest
and the fleetest ? Lord Stafford himself irtree re
the traditions of office. It is natural in him to wish
to preserve the Turkish Empire, for should it fall
the favourite work of his life would be Undone.
But we must frankly own that we feil somewhat
more free to act like men and Christians now than
we could do five years ago. That ill-starred war,
those half-million of British, French, and Russian
men left in the Crimea, those two hundred millions
of money wasted in the worst of all ways, have dis-
charged to the last iota all the debt of Christian
Europe to Turkey. Grant that, having for many
generations patronised her, assisted her, advised
her, and taken her into our confidence, we were
bound to stand by her in the hour of her adversity,
we then did our very utmost for her, and are
quits. Never was so great an effort made for so
worthless an object, but it was made and is
done. When the fighting was over we fought
hard in the Council for her ; we gave her money,
for we guaranteed her debt ; We advised, we pressed
reforms, we urged the employment of the good men
to be found even in Turkey. All is over. In th
course of five years Turkey has forgotten every
warning, and exhibits herself at this moment as
the worst governed country in the. world, with the
exception of China and the kingdom of Dahomey.
We might now just as well hold conferences, pre-
pare armaments, and vote millions to preserve on
his throne the man who celebrates the death of his
father by digging a deep trench and filling it with
the blood of some thousand human sacrifices, as for
the maintenance of the Empire of Turkey. It is
with no small reluctance that we admit a gigantic
effort and an infinite sacrifice to have been made in
vain ; but, at any rate, we are now free.
Lord Stratford had hoped that the Convention
just made for the punishment of the Syrian atro-
cities would have given Turkey the option of her-
self repressing disorder and re-establishing peace by
the means at her own command. This done, he is
then for urging, and, indeed, compelling, upon Tur-
key the most vigorous and thorough reforms. But
the atrocities have for the present ceased by their
own triumph. The conspiracy of barbarous tribeg
andMoslem fanatics, having massacred 6,000 Chris-
tians, reduced 70,000 to beggary, and destroyed 150
towns and villages, including the whole Christian
quarter of Damascus—itself a city—has extorted
from the miserable survivors a treaty, on the terms of
oblivion for the past and no restoration of plunder.
What is there to be done that Turkey could do if
she would, or would do if she could ? Urging re-
forms to Turkey and compelling an honest and
efficient Administration, and all that sort of thing,
has become a platitude. It is simply howling to
the tempest or baying at the moon. It is pain-
fully transparent and evident throughout all the
intelligence from Syria that the Turkish authori-
ties played into the hands of the Druses and the
murderous wretches allured from the Desert on one
side, and the town population on the other. The
Turkish Governors and Commanders duped the
Christians out- of their arms, corresponded with
the Druses, allowed them to enter cities and forts,
and sent their own forces out of the way, or per-
mitted them to join the murderers and to share the
spoil. For weeks and weeks they were warned
and entreated, but did either nothing or worse.
The massacre of Damascus, the closing scene of
this iniquity, is the most dreadful deed that has
been done in the civilised world for centuries, and.
the authorities, with the fullest notice and abun-
dant means, took no step to prevent it, and let the
soldiers assist. There and everywhere else, scarce
the thinnest veil of decency was thrown over the
connivance and co-operation of the Turks. One
man, who had himself massacred 400 Christians
left in his care, was rewarded by the Turkish Go-
vernment with a post where he could repeat that
service. What, then, is the Turkish Government
now doing to clear itself from a crime which it finds
is too great even for the toleration of Europe ? It
may possibly attempt to satisfy us with illusory
executions ; but the arch offender, the man who
is deepest in the villany—Kurschid Pasha, when
last heard of, was on his way to Constantinople,
rather as a triumphant hero than as a criminal.
The present state of things is one of the utmost
encouragement to the Moslem fanatics, and of ter-
ror to the Christians. No one there suspects the
Turkish Government of any wish to punish the of-
fenders. Outbreaks are expected, not only in the
country about Smyrna, at Aleppo, Jerusalem, and
all Syria, but at Constantinople itself. Everywhere
there is the same story. Old insults and invidious
distinctions are revived, and even enforced by au-
thority, contrary to the laws of toleration. It has
somehow come to be believed that this is the only
way to keep up that barbaric creed. The experi-
ence of this century has established that, with
peace and industry, with arts and manufactisres,
the Moslem must diminish and fail, and the Chris-
tian take his place. Smyrna, and even Cceastan-
tinople, are being fast Christianised ; so it is neces-
sary once more to resort to persecution.
If we are to do anything at all, unless w e would
go much further, the most natural course 'before us
lies midway between the examples of Gl:eece and
Egypt. What is wanted in Syria is a Gc.vernreent
strong enough to deal with the barbarous tribes of
the Mountain and the Desert, and to contend with
the fanaticism which may there be said to belong
to the soil. It must now strike everybody that had
we allowed Mehemet Ali to govern 'Syria we should
not have had these horrors. There is no need, how-
ever, to undo our work in that mtVeter, small reason
as we have to congratulate ourselves upon it. But all
attempts to govern Syria through the Porte, and
to protect Chtistians there against their numerous
foes, by urging upon the Sultan the selection of
good men, must be illusory. It is the system of the
Turkish Administration for men to buy office, and
to reimburse themselves by selling everything sale-
able, from subordinate Governments to judicial
sentences, from contracts to human lives. It is the
unchangeable system of an unchangeable Govern-
ment, dealing with unchangeable races, for nothing
strikes one so much as the old familiar type of these
modern horrors, even that almost incredible crime,
the Massacre of the Innocents, having been now
re-enacted in a dozen towns of Syria. Everything
is there done as it was done two thousand years
ago. If it is necessary to preserve the tradition of
Turkish suzerainty in Syria, it must no longer be
by profligate politicians sent from Constantinople
to sack two or three years' spoils of office and give
place to others as needy and unseru pulous, but b 7
permanent Viceroys. The Europe an Powers, if
they are serious and disinterested its their zeal for
religion and humanity, will compel ,aeon the Sultan
the concession of a Government in, Syria as
like that of Egypt as circumstances •V? much
in allow. It
may contribute as much to the revenue, the strength,
and the duration of the Turkish empire Is the pre-
sent pretence of Syrian Govern-221e4it. The law of
nations, which comprehends the great interests of
humanity, permits and commands an interference
i
for this purpose, and the sooner it s explained that
we mean to go thus far and n o further, the better
for the peace of Syria, of Turk ey, and of Europe,—
Times. .

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