The Daily Times. — 1860-07-18 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

THE CHILD MURDER AT ROAD.  Sir G. C. Lewis, Home Secretary, has despatched Inspector Whicher, of the metropolitan detective police, to Road, for the purpose of endeavouring to dissipate the mvstery'whih still hangs over the murder of the child of Mr. Kent.  The inspector reached Trowbridge from London on Sunday evening, and proceeded ou Monday morning to Road, where he had an interview with the magistrates by whom the inquiry has been conducted. In the course of the conference Elizabeth Gough, the nursemaid, was brought before the Bench and was liberated. After sitting for about two hours with closed doors, the representatives of the press were admitted. The Rev. R. Crawley said the magistrates had little to communicate beyond the fact that Inspector Whither had been sent down from London, and that the investigation was now placed in his hands. A reward would be immediately offered—Xloo by the Government and £lOO on the part of Mr. Kent, to any person giving such information as should lead to the conviction of the perpetrator Af the crime, together with a free pardon to any accomplice not being the actual murderer. The nursemaid had been discharged, and had been informed that she was at liberty to go where she liked, and she had stated her intention of returning to the discharge of hor duties at Mr. Kent's house.  It was then announced that the inquiry would be adjourned till Friday next, and in reply to an inquiry whether the proceedings on that day would be public it was stated that in the event of any evidence being then takers on oath the public and the reporters would be admitted, but that at present the magistrates were unable to say what course would be pursued. Mr. Lopez, magistrate, wished it to be known that the house had been re-examined and re-searched in every possible way ; and that every inmate, except the infant, had been called on to state what they knew in reference to the matter. The best superintendents of the force had been engaged in the investigation, and it was only an act of justice to the police and to the magistrates to state that they had used their utmost exertions in endeavouring to trace out the.guilty party. The two servants mentioned by Mr. gent as having formerly lived in his .employ, and as being parties likely to have had au against him, had both been found out by the police, and It was proved that they were many miles distant from the scene of the murder on the night of its occurrence. He (Mr. Lopez) was only sorry that the magistrates had no more information to communicate to the press in reference to this extraordinary case. At the conclusion of the sitting Inspector Whicher, accompanied by Superintendents Foley, Woolfe, and others of the county constabulary, proceeded to Mr. Kent's residence, and made a further inspection and search of the premises.  The practicability of removing a child about the age of the deceased from its bed without waking it, or disturbing the persons sleeping in the same and adjoining rooms has been tested by the police, and has been accomplished in three instances.  Mrs Ross, the mother of the champion rifleman, is daughter of the late Colin M'Cree, Esq., of Cornhill, Perth, who was a large planter in Demerara and South America. She is a lady of comparatively short stature, but many of her feats with gun and rod are recorded along the banks of Tay and on the moors and rivers in Aberdeenshire, and many a heavy salmon has she landed, and brought down not ir few moorfowl. One of her shots is well known among the tenantry on the estate of Aboyne, where in 1849 or 1850 Mrs. Ross killed a grouse with a single rifle bullet at a distance of a hundred yards.