The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-03-03 00:00:00

PLUNDER OF PAUPER CHILD.RE.N.

On Friday, at the meeting of the Marylebone Board of
Guardians, London, a discovery of one of the most cruel
and shameful species of robbery that can possibly be
imagined, was brought to light by Mr. Barnett, the newly
elected master of Marylebone Workhouse. It appears
that there are several Roman Catholic nurses and helpers
in Marylebone Workhouse, and that on Ash Wednesday
they obtained permission to go out and hear mass on that
day. Instead of the religious ceremonies they professed
to be anxious to take part in, proving of any benefit to
them, the majority returned back to the workhouse at
night in a state of drunkenness, and others have not been
heard of since. Several of the delinquents were brought
before the rota for their conduct, and one or two of them
attached to the infants' department, imagining that they
had been exposed by the chief nurse of the ward, who is
paid, in retaliation, and to revenge themselves, made a
revelation against the chief nursl in question, that she
was in the habit of robbing the poor helpless children of
their food, which she secreted and conveyed away by
stealth from the workhouse as occasion offered. The
depository for the purloined stores was pointed out in the
roof of the infant school dormitory ; and on being exam-
ined the most cruel and nefarious practices were brought
to light. Ribs of beef, mutton chops, several pounds of
sugar, rice, arrow root, port wine, ale, beer, and every
description of stores were found secreted, and even milk
in large quantities was made away with and the pans filled
up with water. There has been a fearful mortality in this
particular ward for some time past; it was only last week
four poor little creatures died, and the cause of their
death baffled the medical men who have from time to
time attributed the sickly state of the children to want of
proper ventilation. The shocking discovery, however,
throws a new light upon the matter, and horrible though
it be, there is the strongest ground for believing that
through the connivance and complicity of the nurses and
helpers, with the head nurse, the poor children actually
died from want of proper nourishment—in fact from star-
vation. The woman who stands charged with this atro
cious conduct towards the helpless infants entrusted to her
care is at the present moment so dangerously ill as to be
unable to be removed, but as soon as she reeovers it is
stated to be the intention of the guardians to institute
a prosecution against her..—Observer.

IMPORTANT DECISION TO THE MERCANTILE
COMM UNITY.

LEIGHTON v. PHILPOTT.—The Recorder gave judgment
in this case, which will be found to be of the utmost
importance to the mercantile public. It was an action to
recover damages for the loss of a parcel entrusted to de-
fendant as a booking office keeper, for delivery to the
Great Western R ►ilway Company, for delivery to the
plaintiff at Birmingham. Mr. Robinson argued the case
for the plaintiff, and Mr. Henry James for the defendant.
At the trial, in October last, it was proved that the defen-
dant was the proprietor of the Phcenix Booking Office, in
King William street, London Bridge, and that the follow.
ing inscription on the street wall of the defendant's office
was written :—" Phcenix General Booking Office and
Depot for all Railways, Great Western and Great
Northern, by authority ;" and although at one time the
defendant's office was the accredited booking office of the
Great Western and Great Northern Railways, it had
ceased to be so before the parcel in question was booked
at that office, and that upon enquiry being made at the
office about the parcel, defendant's clerk sell it had been
delivered to their carrier, who said he had taken it to
the Great Western Railway. It was also proved that the
parcel had never been delivered to that company. The
jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff, damages £4O, and
leave was reserved to the defendant to move to enter a
nonsuit. A rule having been granted, and subsequently
argued, the learned judge took time to consider his judg—
ment. He now decided that the above facts did not
establish any liability on the part of the defendant, as
there was not sufficient evidence to show that the alleged
misrepresentation as to :the defendant's office being the
authorised booking office of the Great Western Railway
induced the parties to book the parcel at that office, or to
show there was any contract by defendant to deliver it to
the Great Western Railway; and also that there was not
sufficient evidence of misfeasance to make the defendant
liable on the contract in trover, and therefore he directed
the rule to be made absolute to enter a nonsuit. A nonsuit
was accordingly entered.—Observer.

The court of enquiry opened by the General Command-
ing-in-Chief on the charges preferred by Colonel Shirley
againE t General Beatson, at the urgent demand of the
gallant general, has commenced proceedings at the late
offices of the Army Works Corps, in Whitehall yard.
'Fite board of officers is presided over by Lieutenant
General Sir Colin Campbell, G.C.B.
. .

The military hospital which is being erected at Netley
was to have coat £150,000, but the requirements of the
medical officers for the comfort of the patients have so
much exceeded what it has hitherto been the practice to
provide in military hospitals, that the expense of the
buildings will now amount to £26o,ooo.—United Service
Gazette.

WILLS.—The will of the Hon. Sir Edward (Baron)
Alderson was proved to be under £60,000; Sir William
Lewis Salisbury Trelawny, Bart., of Cornwall, 16,000 ;
the Dowager C)untess of Caihampton's will has just been
proved in London; Edward Croosdaile, Eq., M.D., late
of Boulogne, £35,000 ; Daniel Chambers Mackright, Ezq ,
M.D., of Jersey, 12,000; Henry ‘Vaterland Root, Esq.,
of Lincoln, £lO,OOO ; William Todd, El., of Wirosbury
Park, £2o,ooo.—lllustrated News.

LORD DERBY AND THE BISHOPS.—Lord Derby had
obviously prepared his long oration after certain models, of
which, no cloub`, he has many in his library. It was a
disappointment to him, however, when be reached his
studied peroration—an appeal to the Episcopal Beach—to
find that most of the lawn-sleeved peers had drifted away,
so that he was cmpelled to force a parenthesis of regret,
and to declare what he would have addressed to them had
they been within hearing. They had not waited to watch
the dying fires of the Parliamentary Rupert.—Leader.
BANES or Issue.—lt appears from a return just issued
that some 47 country banks ceased to issue their own notes
prior to the order in council, according to the provisions of
the Act 7th and Bth Victoria, chap. 32. The aggregate
amount of their authorised circulation was 712,6231. To
fill up the gap occasioned by the withdrawal of circulation
by banks of issue, £475,000 was issued in Bank of England
nctes on December 13, 1855, since when no further issue
has been made. Seven banks have ceased to issue notes
since the order in council, the amount of their circulation
having been 111,0201.
SUDDEN DEATHS IN PARIS.—Four cases of sudden death
occured in Paris on Friday. One was of Dr. Nicholas, of
th Rue Roquepine, who fell dead from the rupture of an
aneurism as he was descending the staircase of a house
in which he had been to prescribe for a patient ; two
others were of working men, who fell dead from apoplexy,
one in the Faubourg St. Martin, the other in the Rue St.
Paul. The fourth case occured at the Grand Opera,
where, during the performance of the first act of the
" Huguenots,' a gentleman in the pit was suddenly struck
with apoplexy. He was carried out, and a medical man sent
for, but without avail, as his death must have been almost
instantaneous.

THE WIFE MURDER AT WELLS.—Mrs. Parker, the
woman who was so horribly ill treated by her husband on
Tuesday, the 10th inst., lingered until the next Monday,
but was never able to utter a sound that was at all intelli-
gible. The prisoner, since his committal, seems to have
become perfectly sensible of the fearful tragedy of which he
has been the cause. At the coroner's inquest the prisoner
said :—" I know lam guilty. I was worked up to mad-
ness by an accessory. That accessory has murdered my
wife. We ought to be hung side by side. I don't want to
save my life ; I would not raise my finger to save it. The
man who urged me to it always heard all he could, and
published it. I was driven to it " The jury, after a few
minutes deliberation, returned a verdict of wilful murder
against Josiah Parker, and he was ordered to be committed
for trial.— Wiltshire Independent.
THE PROSPECTS OF THE MEDICAL REFORM BILL are
likely to be affected by a quiet but firm opposition from the
University of London and the Scotch Universities. It
appears, also, that the druggists are ❑ot satisfied with the
wording of the 41st clause. " Nothing in this Act con •
tained shall extend, or be construed to extend to prejudice,
or in any way to affect the lawful occupation, trade, or
business of chemists and druggists." They ask what is to
be :considered their lawful occupation ? and raise a bold
front against restrictions upon counter practice. This is
nothing more than has been antieiated, but we trust it is
not too late to disarm the opposition of the Universities.
It is too much to expect the government or the House of
Commons to pass a bill opposed by a large and influential
section of the profession. The cry still is, " Agree among
yourselves and we will listen to you."—Medical Times and
Gazette.

CAPTURE OP AN ESCAPED CONVICT.—Joseph Knight,
who was sentenced at the Liverpool assizes, held in August
1855, to four years penal s rvitude, for a robbery committed
in the neighbourhood of Bolton, and who escaped from the
convict hulk at Woolwich. on the 22nd of December last,
was captured on Friday, at midnight, in a cellar at Dole-
field, by Mr. Maybury and Inspector Buckley, of the
detective police. When the officers entered, Knight was
sitting on a chair, deliberately sharpening a knife. The
officers looked quietly round the cellar, not wishing to seem
in a hurry till the knife was sharpened and closed, and then
they made Knight their prisoner, and conveyed him to the
town hall. He denied at first that his name was Knight ;
but on the officers stripping him to look for certain marks
on his body, he said it was no use, be was the man. He
told them, also, that he had escaped in a fogralong with
two others, one of whom had been captured before ho got
four miles away. Of the fate of the other, named Wright,
he knew nothing. On Saturday, Knight was placed before
the magistrates at the City Police Court, and remanded till
Saturday next, in order that the proper authorities might
be communicated with.