The strongest dissatisfaction is felt at the manner in which
the Road murder has been left a mystery. We have as yet no reason to believe that the mystery cannot be penetrated. On the contrary, we have many communications which indicate that a clue might easily be found, and we are unable to reject the fear that the crime is still involved in mystery, because the Government has not been sufficiently energetic in assisting the magistrates and the police. The Home Office seem to think that the subject might be left to the ordinary local machinery, as if it were a case of an ordinary kind. Let us remember what has really hap- pened. In a peaceful house an unoffending child is murdered ; there seems to be little doubt that the crime has been committed by somebody in the immediate neighbourhood, and yet the police are foiled in all their investigations. Let this ease pass, and we proclaim that our police is powerless to protect even the most in- nocent amongst us. If the crime had been committed in France, within twenty-four hours the doors of the house would have been closed, communications with strangers and friends cut off, and vigorous steps have been made to unfold the mystery. In the actual case the neighbourhood is content to discuss the probability of the mur- der; and the actual murderer or murderers are allowed to remain in a monstrous and glaring security. Obviously the occurence is one which demands a special investigation, and while it remains thus a semi- transparent mystery the whole discredit falls upon the Home Office. It is one of the thousand incidents which BO often remind us how much we need a Minister of Justice.
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