The Sun. — 1865-08-23 (London, England)

USTR ALIA.  REUTER'S TJELEGRAM.  PLYMOUTH, Aug. 23. The Swiftsure, from M,elbourne, passed up Channel late last night. She Lengs 70,000 oz. of gold and 265 passengers.  On the 6th ult. ahe spoke the steamship St. Thom, from Liverp,col, bound to St. Thomas.  FRIGHTPUI4 MURDER OP THREE CHILDP;EN BY THEIR MOTHER,  This Day. Anal' .er sad case of wholesale murders was added this 'wining to the already fearful catalogue of crime'. In this instance the scene of the tragedy was, in a narrow alley known as Skin Market-place, BlAnkside, Southwark, and the perpetrator is a f'anale named Esther Lack, aged 41 years, the wife of John Lack, who is employed as a night watchman in the service of Messrs. Pegg, coal merchants, carrying on business in the same locality. It appears that the accused, with her husband, her son-in-law and his wife, together with three children, named respectively Christopher Lack, aged nine, Eliza Lack, aged five, and Esther Lack, aged one year and eleven months, resided at No. 10, Skin Market-alley, and with the exception of the husband, who had gone out to discharge his night duties, all retiied to rest as usual, the accused seeming in her customary health and spirits. At three o'clock this morning the husband came home, after being relieved from duty at the coal wharf, and then he found his wife and the three children comfortably in bed. He went out again as was his practice, to call up several workmen and tradesmen in the neighbourhood, and after an absence of threequarters of an hour he returned and again let him self into the house. On entering his wife (the accused) called out to him, " Mate, is that you ?" on which he responded, " Yes, all right." The accused I called out in reply, " I have done it ; I have killed them at l oa swati wife ' e' of Theth standinghu s eldesteb oaonl ldcyh urn rushed he eubpinoysa,tnateir s, lyinghaenoirnd, thefoundan d f ltoh oehri bsin a tpaalloanot three alarm, oinafecreme with oiblood,rthm and theirarhn. his sE son-in-law, Edward oriotherndat. ll;a wib ,cut.btwoße r di e childrenhGusardb anninedr,bgwedaine h Theodf. Union-street, Borough, who promptly attended, and pronounced the three children to be dead. The husband called in the aid of police-constable Henry Pope, 54 M, who at once entered the apartment, when the wretched woman, on seeing him, at once voluntarily declared, " I did it with a razor," and on searching the room the constable discovered a razor covered with blood on the mantel-shelf. The constable took the accused into custody and conveyed her to the Stones-end police station, where the charge of wilful murder was recorded by Acting Inspector Thos. Gardner. On being searched there were found upon the prisoner two other razors, a purse, five duplicates, a reel of cotton, two letters, and several religious tracts. The charge having been read over to her by Acting Inspector Gardner, and after she had been duly cautioned, the prisoner unhesitatingly said she had done the deed—that her husband was a very industrious man, who worked night and day for very little money, not enough to keep the children, who wanted shoes to their feet ; that she herself was about to go to the hospital to be treated for a bad leg ; and that she had killed the children in order that they might not die of starvation. The truth of this allegation was denied by the prisoner's son-in-law, who declared that the prisoner never received less than £1 per week from her husband, and that from other sources the family was in tolerably comfortable circumstances. After the charge had been entered the prisoner was removed to a cell, and placed under the charge of constables. She was seen lying on the bench, quietly and calmly sleeping.  The prisoner was examined before Mr. Burcham, at the Southwark Police-court, this day, when the above facts were given in evidence against the prisoner, and she was fully committed for trial.