nition by Ayres, and his production of the under-jaw bone of the unfortunate Maria Marten, which, her frame being decayed and features quite obliterated, it was thought necessary to exhibit, in order to the positive ascertainment of her being the person with whose murder he was accused. The examination, as we have said, was brief, but yet not uninteresting. The magistrate, Mr. Wyatt, was quite shocked with the barbarity of the crime; and expressed an opinion that scarce any human being, diabolical as might be his disposition, and murderous his propensities, would be guilty of so incredible an atrocity. He asked Ayres, what the hone he exhibited had to do with the horrible transaction? And Ayres replied, that it was the principal means they possessed of proving that the body, discovered in the Red Barn, was that of Maria Marten, with whose assassination the prisoner was, on the strongest grounds, charged. It would hereafter appear, that the murdered girl had lost two teeth, one of them the eye tooth, in that part of the jaw where these were missing. "The clothes," he added, "could be sworn to, that remained undecayed, and which were found where the body was interred; and had it not been, fortunately, for this discovery, it would, from the reduced condition of the corpse, and it being literally a skeleton, have been impossible to identify it as that of Maria Marten." On this examination nothing more transpired; and, in obedience to the orders of Mr. Wyatt, Corder was, for the night, detained in the watch-house, and directed to be again placed at the bar on the following day, prior to his transmission to Polstead. While at the bar, on this occasion, he seemed perfectly at ease, and displayed a self-possession which could hardly be expected from even those who had the strong support of conscious innocence to sustain them while subject to so serious and disgraceful an accusation. He was dressed in a gentlemanly suit of black, over which was thrown a military Spanish roquelaure; and he leant negligently, and in an indifferent and lounging manner, on the front rail of the dock. For the Tuesday night he remained at the parochial watch-house; and at an early hour (eleven o'clock) on the next morning he was again brought before Mr. Wyatt, when the following disclosures and proceedings, which in this stage of the inquiry are momentously explanatory, took place. By them will be perceived the recklessness of hardened guilt, and from them we may clearly deduce that "foolish are the wise in their own imagination;" and that in the boldness of guilt,-a boldness originating in a temporary impunity,the criminal will, with a heedless confidence, overlook even the most ordinary precautions, and preserve, with what may be designated a retributive fatuity, such unconsidered trifles as will ultimately lead to the discovery of his guilt, and render him subject to the laws, the injunctions of which he has broken. The account of the 29th of April, and that which we have spoken of as having heightened the before aroused excitement of the public, is as fellows; we give it from the person who wrote it, and was a witness of what he describes : On the night of Tuesday, the 22d of April, William Corder was brought to the Whitechapel Police Office, under the charge of Lea, an officer of the establishment, and a Suffolk constable named Ayres. He was then briefly examined by M. Wyatt, Esq.; and the crime with which he was accused, was the perpetration of the foulest murder that has heretofore wounded the feelings of society. The merciless offence was committed near a year since; and on the morning of the day referred to, far from the scene of his iniquitous offence, and while in satisfied but imaginary security, the culprit was seized, and made accountable to that justice, the sanctuary of which he had so cruelly and so wantonly invaded. The monster's sacrifice was a fond and confiding female, in "the spring of life," who had borne him a child; whom he had pledged himself to marry; and who, previous to her deplorable fate, lived in peace and tran quillity at her father's cottage. It was at an inconsiderable distance from her murderer's house, and thus afforded him a facility of intercourse, which, did it but exist, the deluded girl might have been still living. She was young and beautiful, and in the very "bloom of existence.' Frail she might have been; but that frailty arose not from any predisposition towards vice, but was the consequence of constant importunity, and the unremitting solicitations which a rustic beauty, and "the flower of the village," expects and demands. Her fall was natural, and its penalty most severe; it was enforced by the friend of her bosom, and she expired by the hand of a ruffian, whom "She lov'd not wisely, but too well." For the interests of society, immorality deserves its chastisement; but yet its executioner, though it may add to its bitterness, should not be the author of the crime he punishes; and, in the present melancholy instance, the expiation has been more than proportionate to the deviation from the straight and narrow paths of chastity. The unfortunate victim of an overweening vanity was Maria Marten, and the only accountable motive for the annihilation of a life which its destroyer had declared he would "support and cherish," seems to be a fear of her disclosing a former very aggravated and felonious delinquency of which he had been guilty. It was his surreptitiously obtaining a letter sent to Maria by Mr. M. (the son of the Lady of the Manor), and abstracting from it a note of some amount, which he had transmitted for the maintenance of his illegitimate child. Of this theft she was aware; and, apprehensive that she would disclose it, he committed the inhuman crime, which he must expiate at the gallows. On Wednesday he was brought up for a short interrogation, anterior to his being transmitted to Polstead, the theatre of his deep dyed guilt. Judging from his appearance, though there is a cat-like ferocity about the eyes, and a somewhat sinister expression of countenance, we should not infer that he had been so cold-blooded a murderer. His age does not exceed twenty-four years, and his complexion is lightly florid-but this, while under examination, varied momentarily, and changed from the most deadly pale to a high coloured crimson; his dress was fashionable, and appeared to be somewhat studied; and when taken into custody, he, in conjunction with his wife and a Mrs. Engleton and her daughters, kept a female boarding-school, of some estimation, at the Grove-house in Ealing-lane, Middlesex. Here it may be proper to give some account of the manner in which he became acquainted with Miss Moore, now Mrs. Corder. On the 25th of November, after the murder of Maria Marten, he inserted the following Advertisement in "The Sunday Times." "MATRIMONY.-A Private Gentleman, aged twenty-four, entirely independent, whose disposition is not to be exceeded, has lately lost chief of his family by the hand of Providence, which bas occasioned discord amongst the remainder, under circumstances most.disagreeable to relate. To any female of respectability, who would study for domestic comforts, and willing to confide her future happiness to cne in every way qualified to render the marriage state desirable, as the Advertiser is in affluence. Many very happy marriages have taken place through means similar to this now resorted to; and it is hoped no one will answer this through impertinent curiosity; but should this meet the eye of any agreeable Lady who feels desirous of meeting with a sociable, tender, kind, and sympathising companion, they will find this Advertisement worthy of notice. Honour and secresy may be relied on. As some little security against idle applications, it is requisite that letters may be addressed (post paid) A. Z., care of Mr. Foster, stationer, 68, Leadenhall-street, with real name and address, which will meet with most respectful attention." This Advertisement was not lost sight of by the ladies who sigh in single blessedness; more than fifty answers were received to it, and amongst them one from Miss Moore, with whom an interview took place at the pastry-cook and confectioner's shop nearest the Temple, in Fleetstreet, which shortly afterwards resulted in a marriage with Corder. Many rumours are afloat relative to his offence, but the only particulars that can be depended on as far as they have yet transpired, are as follows: For some years past, Corder, who was a person of some property, and who, at the time of the committal of the murder, was resident at Polstead, kept company with Maria Marten, the daughter of a person in humble eu cumstances in the village. An illicit intercourse ensued from their acquaintance, and a child was the fruit of their commerce. This, it is rumoured, was murdered by the prisoner; and the mother being aware of the horrible fact, as well as of his having obtained Mr. M.'s letter an plundering it of its contents, she made use of it as a threat, and received from Corder a distinct promise of marriage. On the 18th of last May he called at her father's cottage, and there expressed his willingness, and indeed anxiety, to have the ceremony performed; but in order that it might be private, and as much concealed as possible, he said he was desirous of having it celebrated by licence, and not by banns; for that the latter would occasion an unnecessary notoriety. The following day was that appointed for the discharge of his longpledged vow. At Ipswich it was to have been fulfilled; but still, apparently, wishing for an almost impenetrable privacy, he urged the luckless young woman to dress herself in his apparel, and accompany him to a part of his premises called the Red Barn. There, he observed, she could exchange them for her own; and there, he assured ber, he would have a gig in waiting, to convey her, on the ensuing morning, to the church at Ipswich. Yielding to his representations, and wishing to heal her character, which was then suffering by the malicious scandal of a country village, she complied with his request. Both, on his persuasion, then left the cottage-Maria by the baek-door, and Corder by the front; it being, at the same time, arranged that some of the clothes of poor Maria should be sent back to her father's. |