The Sun. — 1869-04-08 (London, England)

THE NORWICH MURDER.  The circumstances concerning the Norwich murder grow more bewildering than ever ; so bewildering that the Home Secretary has sent to make inquiries about it. The second letter received by the authorities is a most extraordinary one. It is dated April 6, signed " One of the Prolessors of Rhetoric for Gresham College, 1863," and runs as follows :—" I would not unjustly prejudice or condemn any man, but as an injudicious use has been made of the name of a certain gentleman—a use exceeding professional license, a, ' calculated to injure uly6ell nt:.l. family—l beg leave to say that the gentleman in question died on the Christmas Eve of 1848, he having for many years up to that period lived with his wife, who had died two years previously. It is true that be had for at least fifteen years, and that to the pecuniary ruin of his family, kept Martha Francis in a state of affluence, and distributed gifts with a prodigal hand upon anybody but his affectionate wife and family. I had from six years of age (with the exception of eighteen months when I was at school) not lost sight of the said gentleman; on the contrary, I, for the last ten years of his age, at the utmost stretch of my exertions, assisted him, for he bad wasted an ample fortune. I deny, therefore, as a base slander, that ho had ever been transported for any crime whatever. lie was formerly a builder, and might have done well but for his immorality. Martha Francis was a handsome woman, and if she has been murdered (which I doubt not) I am truly grieved. Such an one might look well at sixty, for, as Euripides says: _  ' The very autumn of a form once lair Retains its beauties'— a sentiment which Plutarch says does not universally hold good. If the horribly mutilated remains be those of Martha Francis, I would say that the medical gentlemen might well hesitate as to her age, for the textures and tissues of such a lady, even at GO, might deceive an anatomist. lam almost unnerved ! Pray let there be no more misrepresentations, for if you do death will not, after all my sacrifices and sufferings, be unacceptable to me. If the prisoner have committed the foul murder, let him evince a redeeming quality, which, if a Christian, he cannot do otherwise. This letter is no hoax, and I have no objection to its being published, for, as an Englishman, I hate anything that is underhanded ; but 1 do not wish my name to be made public." A postscript follows this letter :—" Should the prisoner have made a confession, I implore you not to insert this letter. But of course you may inform the gentlemen of the press the year that Mr. W. died, and that he had never been transported. lam ready to drop. But what have Ito do with the horrible matter?" It is remarked upon this letter that it states only one important point, viz., that Worseltine died in December 1848, while the theory sought to be set up for the defence has been that Mrs. Sheward left her husband in June 1851, for the purpose of rejoining her old love. A memorial, praying for a commutation of the convict's sentence, has been signed in Norwich by 200 respectable citizens, the list including many of the leading inhabitants. The memorialists urge that the matter had for months before the trial caused such sensation and discussion in Norwich, and that the jurors who tried and convicted Sheward were of the class liable to be much influenced by such discussion and sensation. Mr. Stanley, the prisoner's solicitor, is also making inquiries as to the disappearance of a young woman who was a servant in Norwich, and who is said to have disappeared very mysteriously in 1851. The friends of this young woman reside at Fakenham, Norfolk.