The Sun.
London, England, 1860-11-06 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 6, 1860,

LO NDON AND COUNTY BANKING
COMPANY.
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN, That the Directors of this
Company have this day Opened a BRANCH BANK at their
temporary premises, No. 79, Shoreditch.
By order.
WM. M'KEWAN, General Manager.
London, Oct. 31, 1860.

ROYAL NATIONAL LIFEBOAT INSTITU-
TION.—The AID of the public is earnestly solicited
to enable the Institution to meet the present pressing de-
mands on its new Lifeboat Establishments.

Bankers—Messrs. Willis and Co., Coutts and Co., Herries
and Co.

ness with Mr. Anderson, superintendent of the
Royal gun factory.
It was announced in military circles at Chat-
ham yesterday that Lieut.-Col. E. Stanton, C. 8.,
R.E., the Assistant Adjutant-General will proceed
to Warsaw on a Government mission, relieving
Col. J. L. A. Simmons, C. 8., R.E., who has re-
ceived an appointment at Aldershott Camp. Lieut.-
Col. Iv. 0. Lennox, V.C., will succeed Col. Stanton
as Assistant Adjutant-General of the Royal

Engineers.
Yesterday, on the receipt of a Government tele-
gram at Chatham (garrison) announcing the ter-
mination of hostilities with China, a salute was
fired from the Cornwallis battery, and the Royal
standard hoisted at Fort Amherst.

Yesterday a party of Sappers, consisting of a
number of the most skilful mechanics, left the head-
quarters of the Royal Engineer establishment,
Chatham, for Woolwich, to join the sth Company
of Royal Engineers employed on the engineering
works in progress at that garrison.

and it was taken upstairs. It appears to me (con-
tinued the witness) that the old lady wishes to
make it out that the nurse was shy of coming into
the room where the child was.
Mrs. Silcox—l did not say that she .was.
Superintendent Foley—As far as I recollect, the
nurse kissed the child every time she came into the
room while I had charge of it. I left Heritage and
Urch in charge of the house when I left on Satur-
day night; they are the two men who were locked
in on that night. Mr. Foley went on to describe
his exhaustion on the evening in question, and
something bordering on the ludicrous ensued, Mr.
SaunderS imagining that Mr. Foley had alluded to
the fact of his being eating and drinking while the
inquiry was proceeding. Mr. Foley begged to
state that he made no reference to the manner in
which the worthy magistrate was employing him-
self, and after some further irrelevant inquiries,
Mr. Saunders asked whether Mr. Wolfe wished
to make any observations on the evidence of Mrs.
Silcox, either in confirmation or contradiction.
Mr. Superintendent Wolfe declined to say any-
thing.
Mr. Groser, a local reporter, made a statement to
the effect that Mr. Summers, late Superintendent
of Police at Frome, had told him that on the Sun.
day after the murder he saw in the passage of Road-
hill-house one or two spots or smears of blood by
the front door. He said he had not mentioned it to
any one, and gave a reason why he had not done so.
He had since removed from Frome ; had been a
police-inspector at Beaconfield, Bucks, but had now
removed from there.

Mr. Saunders thought this highly important.
Mr. Groser continued that on the Monday-after
the murder he was at Road-hill house while the
inquest was proceeding, and saw a young lady com-
ing down stairs. On seeing him she went back.
This trivial fact might be of consequence, as about
this time Miss Constance Kent was sending the
housemaid for some water ; it might have been that
she was going for the water herself, and on seeing
him she returned. Saw the nurse on the Saturday
the murder was discovered, and she appeared more
agitated than any of the other servants.
Mr. Superintendent Wolfe said he had seen Mr.
Groser scores of times since the murder was dis-
covered, but he had never mentioned anything to
him about the smears of blood.

Mr. Groser, in reply to Mr. Saunders, said he
had been on the premises several times since Sum-
mers made the statement to him, but he had never
looked for these marks of blood. Summers did not
make the statement to him till a fortnight after the
murder was discovered. Witness suggested that it
should be publicly stated who emptied the clothes-
basket en its coming from the washerwoman on the
night previous to the murder, and whether there
was a clean night-dress belonging to Miss Con
stance Kent then in it.

Mr. Superintendent Wolfe said the matter had
been fully inquired into before, and it was found
that the basket was emptied by the two elder
Misses Kent, by the first marriage.
Mr. Superintendent Foley stated that he had
minutely inspected the premises on the morning
after the murder, but could find no trace of blood ;
had he done so, he should have formed the conclu-
sion that the child's throat was cut in the house.

Mr. Superintendent Wolfe regretted that Mr.
Summers, as an officer of the force, did not know
his duty better than not to communicate the state-
ment he had made to the proper quarter instead of
to Mr. Groser, and he (Mr. Wolfe) had Mr. Groser's
authority for saying that he placed no reliance
whatever on his statement.
Mr. Groser corroborated Mr. Wolfe's statement.

A desultory comversation ensued between Mr.
Saunders and some of the police officials, and the
inquiry was again adjourned.

(From the Times.)

The inquiries into the Road murder have gradu-
ally assumed so singular a complexion that they
are now almost as unexampled in character as the
crime itself. The first stage in the proceedings
was constituted, of course, by the coroner's inquest,
but that investigation failed to establish the pro-
bable guilt of any person, and Elizabeth Gough,
the nursemaid, on whom suspicion had naturally
fallen, was left at large. In the next instance the
case was committed to the detective police, and
an experienced metropolitan officer decided, as the
result of his inquiries, to accuse Miss Constance
Kent of the crime. But that proceeding also
tell unsustained to the ground, and the young lady
was discharged. An investigation was then set on
foot of a private and peculiar nature, in which a
solicitor of Bath conducted a laborious inquiry
on the authority, as afterwards appeared, of the
Attorney-General, and the issue of which was
that Elizabeth Gough was definitely brought
before the magistrates of the county on the fearful
charge. Again, however, was the charge aban-
doned, and the nursemaid was released from custody.
Here justice appeared at fault, and it seemed, in-
deed, as if no further means of detection remained
to be tried. Still the affair was not permitted to
rest, and at the Quarter Sessions which followed
the last investigation Mr. Saunders, one of the
magistrates, proposed that a special committee
should be appointed to examine into the report
upon all the circumstances connected with the crime,
and with the proceedings of the police in the mat- '
ter. This proposal was not seconded, but it called
forth some remarks from Mr. Sotheron Estceurt in
defence of the local authorities, who, he said, had
failed in their endeavours to discover the offender,
not from want of energy, but for lack of a clue.
Mr. Saunders had suggested that the case should
be brought under the cognisance of a new set of
magistrates—that fresh eyes, in short, should be
brought to bear upon the mystery, and that the in-
quiry should be resumed with greater care and more
comprehensive research. Mr. Estcourt's view of
the matter was that the magistrates had done as
much as any magistrates could do; that they had
simply failed for lack of evidence, and that any
others in similar straits would fail also. With these
observations the subject dropped for the time, but
since then Mr. Saunders, who was always of opi-
nion that more evidence was obtainable, has opened
an inquiry, apparently on his own private accoant,
has invited the public to assist, and has received
new depositions touching the occurrence. As far
as we can understand this proceeding from the
published reports, Mr. Saunders appears, after
the failure of his motion at the Marlborough
Quarter Sessions, to have conferred with his brother
magistrates on the Bradford bench, to have ob-
tained their concurrence in the undertaking he
proposed, and then to have appeared in the Tem-
perance-hall at Road in a private, rather than a
magisterial capacity, and to have held, as it were,
a public conference on the inscrutable mystery.
What kind of evidence he succeeded in procuring
has already been seen, but at this moment it is
further reported that an atteiopt will be presently
made to commence the whole inquiry afresh from
the very beginning, and to hold, in short, a second
coroner's inquest on tie body of the murdered
child.

These proceedings, we conceive, are without
parallel, though we are far from asserting that they
are without warrant. They have arisen in a feeling
of dissatisfaction and uneasiness shared by the
whole country. The excitement on the subject has
rather increased than abated, and it extends, as the
Chief Constable stated, even to foreign nations. It
represents, however, something beyond a mere sen-
sation. Combined with the feelings of horror and
curiosity, there prevails a general conviction not
only that the murder ought to be discovered, but
that it might probably have been discovered at first
had measures been better concerted, and could per-
haps be discovered now by more judicious procedure.
The consequence is that people are restless and un-
quiet, chafing at the failure of justice, and indis-
posed to put up with the baulk. They believe that
a narrow circle of a dozen persons comprises the
criminal, and they are indignant at thinking that
the formalities of law or the mismanagement of
officials should enable this criminal to evade retri-
bution. We have seen repeated expressions of this
sentiment. It appeared in the memorial addressed_;
to the Home Secretary by-the inhabitants of Bath;
it is visible in these proceedings of Mr. Saundersh ;
inquest;
and may be traced in the scheme of a fresh nrheiseti;
and it pervades the copious correspondence
that
i t i
we receive on the subject. People think
both scandalous to leave such a undetected,crime
and easy, or at least possible, to detect
cannot endure to leave the matter where it is, and
it. They
are ready to suggest or welcome e
any proceedings,
retrieve the failures
of more regular Courts.
however informal, which may r
kis
quarrel, but we must
v however extremethat it
to
With feelings so naetunrtaulrewteo
rceamar nnot possibly
never desirable in any case,.
violate
principles, or offend against
We should rejoice to hear
the
doctrinesconstitutional
ef justice.
for more effectual inquiry that the authorities. had
ye seaeindncitntoigo
stnhewidsi
laatbnreye
efiostucyhn, scheme
ddth t e a any new
much avail, we doubt if
vestigation
and r re gwuel aarrep
pr
ersua
should be as solemn and as authoritative
possible. It will be remembered that complaints
as
were made en the last occasion of the obscurity
which hung about Mr. Slack's authority, and that