THE RECENT MURDER AT ROAD.-A crime has just THE RECEST tuRDEEa AT ROAD.-A crime has just been committed whlch for mystery, complication of proba. bilitles, and hideous wickedness is without parallel in our criminal records. A family retires to bed at night with the usual sense of peace and secarity, yet before the time for rising next morning one of the children has been seized and murdered, and not a soul in the place can give the slightest evidence on the subject. The house, It is said, was locked and secured as usual by the housemaid, but it was found in the morning opened; and a way had evidently been taken through the drawing-room. The murderer or murderess had certainly stolen into the nurse's bedroom, where the child slept in a little cot, had taken off the coverlet and folded it tidily down, had then taken the brlght little creature, scarcely four years old, wrapped him in the under blanket, carried him downstairs through the drawing-room on to the lawn, through the back premises, where a watch-dog was running loose, to the water-closet, there cut his throat to the very vertebrae, and then thrust him down head first. The act is so dreadful that we would spare our readers the recital of it if we could, but It is not for the press to pass over these atrocities in silence. Wo must speak, anddo our part In inquirlng who is guilty of thls foul deed. Every effort, say the local papers has been made to detect the murderer, but hitherto without effect. Perhaps so; but we are of oDinlon that many efforts yet untried may be made, and thatin due time the murderer will be brought to justice. Without intending any dlsrespect to the coroner or his jury, we take the liberty of saying that the circumstances demand a much more searching investigation than they havereceived at the hands of these functionaries. The Secretary of State must take it up, and the case must be sifted by a commis- sion under his authority. As far as we can understand the story, it seems that the house was thoroughly closedi up on the night preceding the murder. In the morning the house was partly open; but It does not appear to have been opened by violence from without. Therefore the inference is plain that the secret liesviith some one who was withln. This seems so plain that we do not hesitate for an instant to say thaBt, however painful such a proceeding may be, and howv- ever for a while the innocent may seem to suffer with the guilty, yet it must be held that the persons who composed the household must collectively be responsible for this mys- terious and dreadful event. Not one of them ought to be at large till the whole mystery is cleared up., Let a cordon. judiciare be drawn round the house, and let parents and nurse, master and servants, he confined within it untill the truth is found. We cannot divest ourselves of the belief that the child suffered death at the hands of some one belonging to the house. We beg to askc what was the antecedent state of .the family circle ? It has been stated that twio of the children once ran away beccause of some famnily dis- agreement. Have there been any recent repetitious of these disagreements ? On what terms were theochildren of the first wife with those oE the second? Had there been any previous strife in whlch the murdered child was involved?7 Was the father a good father ? It is very painful to have such questions suggested, and we feel for all parties while we write them, hut no fear of hu rting anyone's feelings must be allowed to stife inquiry. Of the servants we should like to learn more. *What were their antecedents, habits, and characters? On what terms were they with one another, with the children, and with their master and mistress v Had anything occurred to provoke spite towards children or em- ployers ? Were any of them, or was anybody in the house, subject to mental delusions or violent Impulses ? Farther, what steps have been taken to trace the instrument with which the deed was done ? The extraordinary circumstances of the case require the employment by authority of the acutest d{scerners of probabilities and the most experienced of detectives. The problem is simply this :-Glven, a house- hold looked up for the night and retired to rest-a child safe at 11 o'clock, murdered before 5, and carried ont of doors, the house not broken into from without. The question is, wrho committed the murder ? From the nature of the case it must have been some one in the house; some one who could move about stealthily; some one who knew how to handle a child, whom the child itself would not feel strange with, and by whom it could be moved and carried without alarm; some one who k new how to fold bedclothes ana so leave a creo niay; some one wno knew flow to undo fastenings without noise (if, indeed, the honse was fastened as sworxi); and some one who knew the dog and was known by him. Thus much is certain, then, that tho murderer was either a man, a woman, or one of the big children. If a man, there was hut one who conld so have stolen into the room, hsndled the child, tidied the crib, and quieted the dog. If awoman, surelythe questlon is very much nar- rowed, so much so that a skilled forensia cross-examiner onghitbo get at the solution withont much difficulty. That ib shouildbe ^ child would have been incredible if Eugenla Plummer had not taught us to what lengths the wicked precocity of some children wiU extend. There are some other questions which ought to be answered. We should lWke to know why the father went to Trowbridge immediately the child was mlssed ; why he thought that It had been stolen, and how he accounted to himself for the modlus operencli of the thief; why he dld not first search the premises, raise the neighbourhood, aud caU In all con- ceivable help. We are willing to make allowances for a fathers agitation, indecision, mistakes, and confusion under such desperate circumstances, hut at the same time we should like to know how what he did that day weaves in with the context of hls temperament and habits, We should like to know whether ib is proved that the house was fastened up as It should have been, and whether the nurse was an early riser; how it was that she woke at 5 oclock on that day, and how it was that all the knives were cleaned so early thab morning; and whether the cesspool has since been emptled. It is clear to us that the solution of the question turns upon very delicate points, which, in their nicety, lle far beyond the powers and skdll of a country coroner's jury. The case must be put into higher hands, and, we repeat, the investigation must proceed upon the presumption that one (or more) of the parties in the family is guilty. This will of course be very painful to the innocenf, but in time the truth will comne out, and those who know nothing of tho crime have nothing to fear. But it is certain that the value of human life, the security of families, and the sacredness of English households demand that this matter shall never be alowed to rest til the last shadow in its dark mystery shall have been chased away by the light of unquestionable truth, whether it be by the highest moral certainty of which circumstantial evidence is capable, or by the surer evldence of testlmony en oath.-Moctnon mPost GLASGOW, July 7.-Cotton.-0 coon-market' has been very quiet during the week, and from the small de- mand it has been almost impossible to test prices, which, however, to sell, mnust be quoted * to i lower, and stiUl very irregular. Goods andYmrns.-Thequiet tone of the market which has existed for some weeks still continues, and &s pro- ducers run out of orders a sllght concession in price has to be submitted to. Iron.-The plg iron market opened flat in the beginning of this week;, and warrants were sold on I Taesday as low as 03. 6d. cash. There has sinceobeen a heavy speculative demand, and large parcels have changed hands, principally for cash. To-day as high as 53s 6d. prompt was paid, and at the Clos3 there was little or nothlng on sale- g.m.b.. 52s.; No. L Coltuess. 53s- 6a-; Gartsherrie, 595.6d.