The Sun.
London, England, 1857-01-07 00:00:00

,AMBETH.

Yesterday Mrs. Marthaßacon,the unfort' nate woman
charged with the wilful murder of her t o children—
namely, Edwin Fuller Bacon, aged two ye rs and a half,
and Sarah Ann Bacon, aged 11 months was brought
up from Ilorsemonger-lane Gaol for furthe examination
before Mr. Elliott, at the Lambeth Police ourt.
The prisoner, whose general health seemed somewhat
improved sines her last examination, was abeommodated
with a seat at the end of the solicitors' table, and front-
ing the bench. While the witnesses well giving their
evidence she kept her eyes steadily fixed n them, but
i)
did not utter a word, and even when the orribla scene
which her house exhibited when the tour era were dis-
covered, and the shocking state in which the poor little
children were found, were being described, she did not
evince the slightest emotion. Her huslia,nd, who was
seated near to her, on the contrary, seemed deeply.
affected, particularly at some portions of the evidence.
Mr. Woodward, of the firm of Messrs. 'taylor, Collin-
son, and Woodward, solicitors, of John-street, Bedford-
row, attended, and said he was present, to watch the
case at the request of the friends of Mr. Bacon, who
were respectable persons at Stamford, in Lincolnshire.
Since the last examination of the prisoner the case has
assumed a very serious as well as a tragicicharacter—in
the first place, from the fact of Mr. Bacon the prisoner's
husband's assertion that between the time of his leaving
home, at a very early hour on the morning of Monday,
to proceed to Reigate, and returning to his house on the 1
Wednesday morning, it had been robbed of a suit of
clothel, a watch, and 71. in cash ; and inithe next from
circumstances that have occurred at Stamford, and from
%bleb it appears that the poor children who have unfor-
tunately become victims to the insanity of their unhappy
mother have had a narrow escape from +destruction in
another way—that of being burnt to death. The Stam-
ford Mercury of last week, commenting on the report of
the former examination of the prisoner at the police
court, says : i
" The above melancholy case will be read with painful
interest in Stamford. The unfortunate woman is the wife
of Thos. Fuller Bacon, formerly a whitesmith in this
town. It will be remembered that some months ago
Bacon's house on Peter's-hill was burnt in the night time,
and that the poor children who have met such an awful
death were then removed from the burning premises by
a female servant, who was, with the father, apprehended
on a charge of arson, but afterwards liberated, Bacon
himself having been tried at the Lincoln assizes and
acquitted. Mrs. Bacon was at that time in a lunatic
asylum, where she remained a considerable period."
The witness Harriett Payne, examined on the former
day, was recalled, and her former deposition having been
read over to her, she was further examined by the magic
trate as to the expressions made use of by the prisoner
when she first saw her on the Tuesday morning and sub-
sequently on her way to the station-house and to this
court, but she could not recollect anything beyond her
saying that it was not she that did it, l_ut that a man