The Sun.
London, England, 1857-05-14 00:00:00

two vessels daily of 2,500 tons each passing through
this canal ?

Mr. LANGE—I think there can be very little
doubt of it. In our estimates we have taken creJit
only for the annual increlso in foreign shipping at
the rate of 101,000 tons per annum, whereas the
Ist account shows that it is at the rate of 300,000
tons per annum. All this does not go to the East
certainly, but a considerable portion of it does.
A Member inquired what might Le the expense
per ton of the transit through the canal.
Mr. LANGEreplied that the charge for the entire
distance, including tugs, would be 10f. per ton.
M. DE LESSEPS here observed, in French, that
this was the maximum rate allowed by the conces-
sion ; it was possible that the charges might even
be lower.

Mr. LANGE wont on to say the tugs would ba re-
quired for sailing vessels. With respect to the capital
of 8,000,0001., it had been reserved in portions for
the various countries of Europe. Egypt and Tur-
key had contributed two millions ; the northern
parts of Europ one million ; Holland and Belgium
one million ; Spain, the United States of America,
and Portugal one million ; France, 1,500,0001. ;
leaving over for Great Britain, in case it should
choose to avail i,self of this undertaking in a finan-
cial point of view, 1,500,0001. The present object
of M. de Lesseps was to ascertain whether England
and Ireland would be disposed to admit the utility
of the undertaking, and to embark financially in it.
If such should not be the case, and that England
and Ireland should consider that the Suez Canal
-was not necessary to them, the undertaking would,
notwithstanding, progress, because there was no
difficulty in raising the amount. It was a perfectly
Imercantile speculation, and had nothing to do with
Government.

The PRESIDENT—In case of war, how would you
preserve neutrality ?

Mr. LANGE—By each nation having an interest
at stake. It is one of the articles in the concession
that it shall be a neutral passage—and that no
country shall be excluded. M. de°Lesseps has not
asked the protection of any Government—it is
simply a commercial speculation, with which Go-
vernments have nothing to do.
Mr. PARKER-But you must be aware that the
fact of British merchants having stock in an under-
taking of this kind by no means obliges the Govern-
ment to neutrality, or to look upon it as a neutral
canal in case of war.

M. de LESSEPS remarked that it was only the
proprietor of the country who could oppose the
passage ; and as he had given his consent, and was
anxious even for the perfect neutrality of the com-
pany, there could be no difficulty in the matter.
Mr. LANGE said no one was more anxious than
the Viceroy himself in reference to the matter ; he
was particularly anxious that no one nation should
enjoy the advantage, bat that it should have the
protection of all.
The PRESIDENT—He wishes it to be neutral, and
it remains for all the other Governments to agree
that it shall be so. You cannot push it further
than that.

After some further observations, M. de Lesseps
and the gentlemen by whom he was accompanied
withdrew, the council undertaking to give the sub-
ject every consideration, and to furnish them with
their opinions with as little delay as possible.

CENTRAL CRIMINAL COUBT.—May 13.

THE WALWORTH MURDERS.

OLD COURT.

TRIAL OF BACON AND HIS WIFE.

(Before Lord Campbell, Mr. Justice Creswell, and Mr.
Baron Bramwell.)
[A portion of the following appeared in our impression
of yesterday :—]
This morning Thomas Fuller Bacon and Martha Bacon
were indicted for the murder of their two children,
Edwin Fuller Bacon and Martha Bacon.
Mr. Bodkin and Mr. Clerk appeared for the prosecu-
tion. Mr. Sleigh and Mr. Poland defended Mrs.
Bacon, and Messrs. Metcalfe and Lawrence appeared for
Bacon.

Mr. Bodkin, in opening the case for the prosecution,
said, placed in the position in which he then stood it
would be his duty to lay before the jury facts and cir-
cumstances to bring hooka to the prisoners at the bar the
charge of murder. The case was one of the most extra-
ordinary kind that had occurred for some time ; and the
fact that the prisoners were man and wife, and the
victims their children, added to the heinousness of the
crime. The learned gentleman then proceeded to detail
the facts of the case, which have already appeared in the
columns of The Sun, and, in the course of his
observations, said it was his duty to inform the
jury that. the female prisoner had been confined in
a lunatic asylum, and that she only quitted that
asylum two months before the commission of the murder,
bnt the version she had given of the affair, namely,
that a man had entered the window and killed her chil-
dren and attempted to cut her throat, was irrational,
absurd, and unworthy of belief, for the police had
examined the place and found the windows fastened in-
side, and that the dust and ground about the place had
not been disturbed in the slightest manner. Having al-
luded to Bacon's version of the murder, he said he should
also lay before them evidence to prove its entire falsity,
and he would prove tbat ho neither lost a watch, note,
nor clothes, on the occasion, and that the whole story
about the robbery was a fabrication, and was only in-
vented to draw off from him the suspicion that attached
to him respecting the murder. With respect to blood
found on the trousers of the male prisoner, he accounted
for it by saying that he cut his finger at dinner on the
Sunday previous to the discovery of the murder. That
also was untrue. On the Sunday in question, he should
prove that he wore black trousers, and that being the
case, if be had cut his finger on that occasion the
blood would have been found on the black trousers
and not on those worn every day by the prisoner. The
jury would take into their consideration the circum-
stance that the female prisoner had been subject to aber-
rations of mind; but in order to acquit her on account of
the state of her mind, it must be shown that she was in

such a state of mind as to be unable to distinguishbe
tween right and wrong. The learned gentleman con-
cluded his remarks by hoping that an all-wise Providence
would guide them to a right conclusion.

The first witness called was Harriet Monroe. She
said—l am cou.in to the male prisoner. On Sunday,
the 23th of December, the female prisoner came to my
house and asked me if I would earns and stay with her
while her husband stopped at Reigate. I said I would
do so, and it was arranged that I should go to their
house in Four-acre-street, Walworth, between the hours
of 4 and son the following' Monday. On the same
Sunday evening I saw both prisoners together at her
brother-in-law's house. I did not observe his hands that
evening. On the Monday when I went to Bacon's house
in Four-acre-street, I knocked repeatedly at the door but
could get no answer. I listened and waited at the dour
for about three hours, not getting any answer I returned
home, but went to Bacon's house again that evening
about half-past 10. On the Tuesday morning, about 1
o'clock, my mother and myself met Mrs. Bacon in Four-
acre-street, she had a rent book and half a sovereign in her
hand. My mother asked her where she had been, and
she said she had been in the house all night. She then
said a man bad got in at the window during the night
and had murdered her two children and cut her throat-
She said she was going to pay her rent and tell her land
lord of the shocking affair. Mrs. Bacon, my mother,
and myself, returned to the house in Fouracre-street,
and, on going into the back room on the ground floor,
I saw the little boy sitting in a chair by the side of the
fireplace with his throat cut. There was a quantity of
blood all round the place, and his face was resting on the
table. Mrs. Bacon made no other observation while
they were in the room but that "somebody came in at
the window and done it." On leaving the house I
went to the male prisoner's brother Mr. Edward Bacon's,
my mother and Mrs. Bacon (the prisoner), went
on to the police-station. I next saw Mr. Bacon after
he was brought up from Reigate on the Wednesday
morning, but I did not notice how he was dressed. I
some days after saw the male prisoner in a pair of
fustian trousers, but o❑ the Friday the day of the
funeral, he did not wear them. I saw the fustian on
the day of the funeral at Four-Acre-street, he took them
off shortly before the funeral, and I then saw some
spots of blood on the legs of the trousers. Two or
three days after the murder I saw the spots of blood,
and told Bacon of it, but he said the blood came from a
cut on his finger.
Lord Campbell—What day did you first see the blood
on the trousers

Witness—On the Tuesday after he returned from
Reigate.
Examination oontinued—Bacon told me he had cut
his finger on the Sunday.
Lord Campbell—Did he say on what Sunday
Witness—On Sundry after Christmas day. He said
he did it at carving the dinner. A. day or two after he
said he cut his fi.,ger while cutting some wood to light
a fire with. Ho made this remark during a conversa-
tion that was going on at my mothers. He said the.
knife slipped and it cut his finger. The first time I saw
the cut on his hand was the Friday after the
murder, the 2d of January. He did not have
a rag on his hand. On the Thursday, as
the funeral was on the Friday, Mrs. Hyde
showed In a shirt of Bacon's upon which
there were stains of blood. She was just going to put
it into the tub to wa-h when she showed me two or
t very small Fout3 of bond. Ong et the spots was
on the e,,,lar, en if he hmi cut hirasef whdo shavii:g
t ovver:J otl the wrliitbaed. I have remarked
severs! pieces of cord aad twine throwing about in the
back kitchen and front room in the house in Four-acre.
street. I recollect seeing a piece of cold thrown upon
the fire with the ashes after the police had left the house.