The Sun.
London, England, 1855-10-25 00:00:00

[PRICE 4D. STAMPED SD•

reducing our doses of soldiers by a process of tri-
turation until they become impalpable. ' We are
not animated by any spirit of national vanity or
jealousy. We fully appreciate the importance
of lan undivided command in military operations,
and would offer no objection to the recognition
of ; a French Generalissimo, or Commander-in-
Chief of the Allied forces in the East. There
would be no more shame in an English army stand-
ing in this relation to a French chief, than there
wa in a Dutch army being placed under Marl-
botough, or a Spanish army under Wellington. All
eti4er qualifications among the competitors for the
chief command being equal, there appears to be a
natural propriety in selecting the generalissimo
from that nation which has most men in the field.
But, if the combined armies of England, France,
Satdinia, and Turkey are to be placed under ono
supreme chief, let this be done openly and avow-
ed, not by distributing and frittering away our
reinvents until they run a risk of disappearing ea-
ter ly. England has, or will soon have, in the
fie a numerous corps d'armee, raised and main-
tai ed at no trifling cost. In addition to our Eng-
lisl regiments we have a Foreign Legion and a
Tu kish Contingent, receiving English pay, march-
ing under the English banner, comaionded in a
great measure by English officers, subjected to
English discipline and English laws of war. This
force, which from these circumstances dezives a
certain unity of character, will be much more avail-
able if kept together en masse, than if mixed up in
driblets with an army of a widely different organi •
sation. Though our English army, with its multi-
farious ingredients, may be destined to be placed
un er the supreme command of a French general,
F. will derive 'more effective service from it by
all wing it to act en masse. If such an -arrange-
me t is in contemplation let it be avowed, and let
Ministers appeal to the common sense of the Eng-
lish people for their approbation, instead of seeking
to effect their purposes by indirect means, which
may impair the spirit and diminish the utility of
ours army. But there is reason to fear that the
hesitation and delay in nominating a successor to
Gehei al Simpson has its origin from a less respect-
a'de cause. When that otlicer was appointed to
succeed Lord Raglan, it was currently reported
that protestions of a determination not to serve
under him had been heard from various quarters ;
anm .the return of at least one general officer to this
country is still attributed by many to soreness on
account of his having been passed over. The
reluctance of Ministers to declare upon whom they
intkend to confer the supreme command of our army
in the East appears to have its source in a weak and
unworthy reluctance to run the risk of giving simi-
lar umbrage in any quarter on the present occasion.
The army appears to be in imminent danger of
being frittered away because Ministers have not the
moral courage to place the right man at its head,
regardless of what exasperation and murmurs may
be provoked among those who think mere seniority
a title before which all others must give way ; or
because they have not the discrimination to choose
among the various candidates. To allow such con-
siderations to hamper them or give them pause,
betrays, on the part of our rulers, a lukewarmness
as to the issue of the great struggle in which we are
engaged. Promptitude and energy are required at
their hands in a crisis like the present ; and to
leavy our army for one moment without a recog-
nised head—to allow it to be broken up into a
number of independent corps, and scattered over
the face of the earth—is totally irreconcilable with
the possession of such qualities. It is to incur the
risk of allowing the war to die out, instead of urging
it on until some definite and tangible good has been
attained.

(From the Times of this day.)
In our police report of yesterday there was an
account of a most distressingcaso which was brought
under the notice of Mr. Jardine, the sitting magis-
trate at Bow-street. The circumstances, if we look

to the magistrates' decision, may not justify any
very strong animadversion upon the conduct of any

person, aitliongh we cannot agree with Mr. Jar-
cline's remark that the behaviour of the defendant

appears " to have been reasonably humane and pro-
per." Large allowances must, no doubt, be made
for the blunted feelings and pinching difficulties of
a woman who had throughout her life been con-
tending with poverty in its ghastliest forms • still,
if we, as men, understand anything of the en btions
by winch women are actuated, we should have
thought that if there was a circumstance which at
all times would have enlisted the sympathies of
one woman in the behalf of another, it would be
the sight of a wretched creature struggling into a 4
bare room, without assistance and without a friend,
to give birth to an infant. If the sufferings of the
mother touched no diviner chord, surely the cry
of the new-born child, or, still more, the sight of
its little lifeless body, might have suggested some-
thing else than a desire to get rid of a momentary
difficulty. We pass at once to the facts of the ease
as stated by the complainant, Elizabeth Joyce, a
girl of about 20 years of age :—On the 6th of Osto-
her last, at about 10 o'clock at night, she, then ex-
pecting every moment to be confined, applied for
admission at St. Giles's Workhouse. The porters
sent for the midwife, and this person summarily
declared that Elizabeth Joyce was not iu the state
in which she supposed herself to be. Another
woman was called to council, and they both agreed
in the opinion that it was entirely a mistake, and
that the best thing the wretched girl could do was
to go to a hospital and get cured. She was then
" put out" of the workhouse. We ask of the ladies
of England who may honour us by casting their
eyes over our columns to consider the situation of
this unfortunate creature. We care not what her
faults may have been, but can anything more en-
tirely and hopelessly wretched be conceived than
the position of this young woman, in all the dire
agonies and apprehensions of approaching shild-
birth, as about midnight, on the 6th of Oct. last,
she leant against the walls of St. Giles'sWorkhouse,
from which she had been just expelled ?—and in
what a situation ! The poor creature, in some
fashion or another, contrived to reel down Drury-
lane, and there, as she says, she met a young man
with whom she had been acquainted, and he said
that he would pay for her night's lodging. By him
she was taken to a lodging-house in Eagle-court,
near Red Lion-square. She undressed and went
to bed, but shortly afterwards was taken with the
pains of labour, and delivered of a dead child. The
landlady, aroused by her cries—stifled as they may
have been—came in and asked what was amiss.
As soon as she saw the real state of affairs she said,
" Dress yourself immediately, or ,--svill give you
into the custody of a policeman for 'wining into a
strange house for such a purpose." Elizabeth
Joyce did as she was ordered ; the body of the child
was wrapped in an old shawl, and she and the
landlady went out together.
As soon as they came into Red Lion-square the
defendant, Isabella Ward, told her to sit down on
the stones, and said to her, " Now, mind, you are
not to contradict what I say. I will leave you in
the square while I go and fetch a policeman ; and
I will tell him that I was passing by, when I acci-
dentally saw you and went to your assistance." If
Elizabeth Joyce would nut agree to this, she was
informed by her companion that she should be left
to her fate. She agreed, of course. In a short
while Isabella Ward reappeared with a policeman,
who seems to have acted with very praiseworthy
decision and humanity. After a few natural r
ques-
tions, he procured for her some brandy and
from a neighbouring public-house, putherozittan
1,
water
cab, and conveyed her to King's College
where she received every necessary as_
A _it is righ t
s'stance. The
police-constable, William Smith, 34
that his name should be honourablyfar
0
mentioned—
confirmedhis share in
the girl's account "
to corroborate her
the transaction enabled him
girl, Eliza
statement. There was another Simpson,
companions, who was also
one of Elizabeth Joyce's
her side. This young wo-
pro(luced as evidence on
man told Mr. Jardine
that about 8 o'clock on the
t ' h
went gilt wit her friend to
night in question sh.e. a
who ga h
veer some medi-
a doctor's in DsurPlan /
en to the workhouse. When
medi-
cine, and sent her the
girlsaid
they arrived there that the porters
spoke very , sharply tothem, and one of them added,
‘, oh ! there s nothing, the matter with you. You
are not in labour.' It appears she ought to have
brought a certificate before the fact could be recog-
nised by the parochial authorities. When repulsed
from the workhouse the two young women went
to the station in Bow-street,
but there the inspec-
tor told them that he could not compel the people
at the workhouse to admit the applicant, and re-
commended them to try again. This, • however,
they felt to be useless, and so went wandering
about until they met a good Samaritan in the per-
son of Henry Baker, who paid for the night's lodg-
ing. We now come to the statement made by Isa-
bella Ward, the defendant, a middle-aged woman.
From the report it does not precisely appear whe-
ther or not she was the keeper of thelod ginghouse;
her own account is that she works for her father,
who keeps the house in Eagle-court. This point,
however, is not very important ; she certainly
.actedin
authority
as one who was possessed of competent
,_ ,
the house. When the . young woman calleg out,