- One of the most frightful, if not the most
frightful, murder of our time was committed at Alton, in Hampshire, on Saturday. If the statements as yet published are correct, it would appear that a man named Baker, a solicitor's clerk, who had frequently spoken of his wish to be a butcher, decoyed away a little girl of eight named Fanny Adams into a hop field, where he cut off her head, severed each limb from the trunk, cut out the heart, and divided the trunk crossways. He then went home and wrote in his diary, " Saturday.—Killed a young girl. It was fine and hot." This is the statement, true or false, And the police deduce from it that Baker violated the child and cut her up to escape detection. We suspect they are wrong, and believe, supposing Baker to be the guilty person, that he is a maniac mad with conceit of his own capacities as a butcher ; that he cut up 'the child exactly as he would a sheep, as a trial of his own powers, and then registered the act just as butchers do in their account-books. His demeanour is quiet and collected, but so has been that of some of the most bloodthirsty maniacs on record.
