The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1871-12-23 00:00:00

FIVE YEARS' PENAL SERVITUDE.

Mary Ann I/ewes, aged 30, has been indicted at the
Carlisle assizes, for the wilful murder of John Milburn Dees,
her infant step son, at ilesket, on the 19th of July last.

It appeared that the child an to whose death the
present charge was nmile was an infant 10 months old
when it died on the 10th of July last. Its mother had
died of consumption when it was only three weeks old,
and its father had a short time afterwards married the
prisoner, who was a %ridi ov with One child about two
years ell I he. deceAsed child, of which its father
was fond, appeared to lx, a child it Average health
and strength up to the time of the primmer's marriage
with its father. The care of it then devolved upon
her, and the child was soon after observed to be looking
delicate and ill. The prisoner's csnduct to the child
had been observed by the neighbours, and had got
• talked of, and thebvitm ss's stats 4 that she would often
not give it food till the day was far gone. The child
had beep seen crying and looking ill, and on being
taken up by the neighbours and fed had eaten greedily
the bread and milk given to it. The prisoner was ac-
customed to place the child in its little chair fastened
in, and keep it there no long without a cushion to sit
on that its buttocks were blistered and its legs stiff.
On one occasion in February on s cold frosty after-
noon she had placed it in its chair outside the cottage
door, and a neighbour hearing it cry hail found it sit-
ting there without any clothing over its head or neck
and without shoes or stockings on, and its legs quite
blue with the cold. On several occasions the prisoner
had been seen to feed the child while lying with its head
downwards on her lap, and its legs against her breast,
with a large spoon and cold milk. She was told if she fed
it in that way she would choke the child. She
answered "I wish it was choked." When told she WM
not treating it like a Christian, she said she did not know
whether it was a Christian --it stank. She was told she
ought to keep it clean and sweet. She replied 'People
talked a good deal about it, but she would use it worse
than she had done." She sometimes left it in the
house for hours alone, without food, when she had to
go for coals. Sometimes she left it with a neighbour,

but without food, and the neighbour fed it. It had
got scalded in the feet by some accident, and she re-
fused to dress its feet, and the husband got a
neighbour woman to dress it. He was much put about,
and quarrelled with the prisoner about the way in
which she treated the child. She took the child to the
doctor to be vaccinated, when the doctor found it to be
so ill and emaciated that he refused to vaccinate it,
and told her to take it home and feed it frequently
with milk and beef tea. It died next day from diar-
rhosi and congestion f the lungs, from a cold caught
the day before. A post-mortem examination showed it
to be in a state of great emaciation. A child of that
age ought to weigh about ISIb. It weighed only 91b.
The state in which it was would render it liable to
both diarrliwa and congestion of the lungs.
For the prosecution it was contended that the child
had been systematically underfed, badly treated, and
neglected, and that from such conduct malice might be
implied; and if the child hail died in conssquence of
the malicious omission of the prisiner to perform the
duty which was cast upon her of properly nourishing;
and caring for it, that was murder. If, on the con-
trary, the jury thought that the prisoner had been
only careless and reckless and negligent, but not
systematically cruel to the child, and it bad died in
consequence or such reckless negligence, that was man-
slaughter.

For the defence it was contended that the death of
the child had arisen from delicate lungs, inherited from
its mother. That the prisoner had been overworked
and put upon and ilbused by her husband, and had
done the best she could for the child. be had fed it
awkwardly perhaps, but that hail done the child no
harm, and several of the witnesses hat said when she
did feed it she gave it plenty. The film," of the child
arose Iran its natural delicate tendency, and it, death
was attributable to that and het ti any fault of the
prisoner.

His Lordship having summed up the ease to the
jury and pointed out the law as applicable to it,
• - •

_
The jury found the prisoner eitafty of manslaughter,
but recommended her to mercy.
His Lordship sentenced her to five years' penal ser-
vitude.

THE NATIONALITY OF COPERNICUS.
The approaching four hundredth anniversary id' the
birth of Coverliens has resisted a contest of long
standing between Poland and 0 iermany, each of '.s loch
claims the great astronomer as a son. The Germans
argue that he was A German because he watt liorn in
Thorn, which at the time of his birth was under Ger-
man rule; to which the Poles reply that Thorn was
then really a Polish town, has lug been separated front
Poland only seven years before; that his father and
mother were Poles ; that when he studied at Padua
he enrolled himself among the students of the Polish
nationality; and that throughout his life he gave
constant proofs of his attachment to Poland and
her king. Poland has always honoured Copernicus
as one of her greatest men. A statue of him
was erected by national mut weription many years ago at
Warsaw, and there are two others at Cracow, besides
which numerous Polish medals and books have been
issued in celebration ,d his memory. The anniversary
above mentioned will be celebrated on the 19th of
February, 1573, anti great preparations are already
being made at Posen for the occasion. The "society
of the friends of learning "in the (Ad Polish city held a
meeting the other day, at which it AMA decided, on the
motion of a Polish clergyman, Canon Polkowski, to
offer a prize for the best life of Copernicus, comprising
the results of the latest investigations on the subject,
and to publish it in the Polish, French, and German
languages.