The Sun.
London, England, 1864-11-16 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDOW, WEDNESDAY EVtiNIN

POLICE INTEL LIGENCE,--This day.

MARLBOROUGH• STREET.

CUTTING AND WOUNDING WITH A KNIFE. - Amelia
Reynolds was charged before Mr Tyrwhitt with unlawfully
cutting and wounding James Norton, a bootoloser, of 2,
Leicester-buildings, Leicester-square.
sergeant Horsey, 6 C, said that at a quarter to ten last
night he was called to 2, Leicester-buildings, and in a room
on the first floor he saw a man with the right side of his
shirt saturated with blood. The man, whose name was
Norton, said "Look here," at the same time pointing to his
shirt. lie (Horsey) asked Norton who had done it, and he
said " That woman," meaning the prisoner. He asked him
what she had done it with, and he said 'with a sharp knife.'
The prisoner then said," I did it, and will serve him a -
sight worse." The prisoner afterwards gave him a knife
(a sharp ro'nted shoemaker's knife), at the same time say-
ing, that's the knife I did it with." Norton then said he
felt very weak from the loss of blood, and a constable, by
his directions, took him to the Charing cross Hospital.
Norton said ha would attend the Court that morning, but
had not done so. Tho surgeon at the hospital last night
said he could not tell the result of the wound.

Mr Tyrwhitt asked what Norton was, and the sergeant
said he was a boot-closer. He only knew the prisoner as a
prostitute. He believed she lived with Norton.
The prisoner said she was using the knife to cut her sup
per, when Norton came in the worse for liquor and knocked
bar down. A sci.fil .3 took place between them, and some-
how Norton got wounded in the side. Norton was con-
stantly ill-using her or knocking her about.
Sergeant Horsey handed Mr Tyrwhitt the following cer-

tificate which he received from the hospital.—
" James Norton was brought here with a stab in his
right Ioin,—JAMES G. MACYZINLAY, house surgeon, Char-
ing-cross Hospital, Nov. 16."

Mr Tyrwhitt said he should remand the prisoner till
Monday next, but if Norton came she could be brought be-
fore him again. _ _

The prisoner was then remanded.

WESTMINSTER.

Dennis Harrington, a labourer of Herculean proportions,
was charged with a most disgraceful outrage.
Ellen Sullivan, a very aged and infirm person, said she
lived at 2. Bull's-head-court, Orchard-street, Westminster,
and the prisoner was her son-in-law, who lived with her,
Yesterday afternoon he came home and beat her, and
dragged her about and kicked her. He came home under
the influence of liquor, and asked her for some fish. She
reminded him that be had before eaten it, and he then com-
menced his ill treatment. He seized her by the hair of tho
head, struck her several times, and then kicked her.

Mr Arnold—How old are you ?
Prosecutor—Four score and two.
Mr Arnold—lt is a great age. What was done after this ?
The police—She was taken to the hospital, and he was
afterwards apprehendad.
Prisoner—l never touched her. She fell down and hurt
herself. I asked for something to eat, and she said she had
not got anything, and that's how it happened. I never
touched her. _

Mr Arnold—Let the persons in the house, if any are here,
stand forward,

A woman was sworn who:evidently endeavoured to screen
he accused, and pretended she knew nothing about it.
The police said that this woman had declared to them
that she had heard the old woman's cries for help.
Witness admitted having heard her cries of murder.

• .
A seoond woman was put into the witness box, and al-
though not so unwilling to give evidence as the other, there
was some reservation. She heard the old woman cry
" Murder" two or three times, and also heard the prisoner
use violent threats to her. There was a great noise in their
room at the time she cried out.
Police constable Edward Arnold, 247 B, said he was
called to Buckshead-court, and found prosecutrix bleeding
—blood was streaming down her face from one of her eyes.
Prisoner then got away, but was taken in the course of the
afternoon, when he used violent threats to the old woman
declaring what he would do to her when he got at liberty.
Mr Arnold—This brutal assault is very clearly proved,
although there is a marked desire on the part of the wit-
nesses to conceal the facts. Nothing can be more disgrace-
ful than a powerful man like you assaulting this aged wo-
man. You are committed for six months to hard labour is
the House of Correction, and must find bail for your good
behaviour six months longer.

Public Works in the Manufacturing

Districts.

That the operation of the Public Works Acts in the
manufacturing districts should be watched with a solicitude
akin to suspicion is no more than natural. In other countries
the expedient is common enough, but not so with ourselves.
We consider that such an employment of public money is
necessarily open to serious abuse, and if the emergency had
not been extreme, the occasion unparalleled, and the obli-
gation overruling, the Act would never have been passed.
However, while Lancashire did its own part in the relief of
the distress produced by the Cotton Famine, and while the
public at large did the same, the contribution of the State

itself to the work Gi charity was represented by an advance
of nearly two millions sterling
for the creation of arti-
ficial employment in the districts all cted. By the aid of
this money, furnishel on easy teams, each township or cor-
poration might undertake public works which would not
have been undertaken otherwise, so that the demand for
labour thus produced might provide with fresh earnings
those operatives whose ordinary wages had ceased with
the stoppage of the cotton mills. There was little or no
restriction attached to the proposed expenditure. save that
the works undertaken should be of public utility, bat it
was an obvious condition of the bargain that the money
thus furnished should be applied as far as possible
in promotion of its immediate object—the employ-
ment of the factory operatives thrown out of work.
Of course as these operatives brought no avail-
able skill to their new labour it was inevitable that skilled
workmen from other trades should be employed to guide
them, but it was understood that in the selection and exe-
cution of the works to be undertaken preference should be
given to such designs as would employ unskilled labour in
the greatest proportion. _

We can now lay betoro the public two pieces of authen.
tic information on this subject. We can tell them exactly
what has been done in the aggregate, and we can let them
see in detail what was actually going on in the last week
of last month. The total amount of money set apart

for the purposes in question was £1,850,000, and
of this as much as £1,796,642 has been already ap-
propriated, although the greater portion of it remains
still to be advanced by future instalments. The un-
appropriated balance, therefore, is but little over £50,000,
and applications more than sufficient to absorb this sum
have teen made. Altogether, of the £1,850,000 originally
available, rather less than the £850,000 has been already
expended, and rather more than the £1,000,000, though it
is all bespoken, remains for expenditure still. Now, what
was this fund doing for us in the week taken at hazard,
and how did it contribute to the mitigation of Lancashire
distress F Well, we are told that, including the pro-
ceedings in some eighty different places, it provided
4,002 factory operatives with wages, and most readers
will probably be surprised at the smallness of the pro-
duct. In fact, the product certainly is small, though a
good deal has to be added in the way of explanation.
To begin with, these figures must not be measured with
those which per:odically indicate the recipients of relief.
When we report that 150,000 persons were relieved in a
particular week the number represents all the men, women,
and children of their several families; when we say that
4,000 factory operatives found employment under the Public
Works Act we speak of able-bodied men alone, each one
of whom supports by the wages of this employment the
remainder of the family. Thus adopting the usual
principle of computation, these works provided 16,000
persons with the means of living. Then, there were
supposed to be 2,000 more employed in getting stone
and other materials for the works in progress, which
would add 8,000 to the former numbers, Lastly, there
were 2,422 skilled labourers employed in the direction and
instruction of the others, which would give 8,000 more, so
that between 30,000 and 40,000 persons were finding sup-
port through this advance of public money. It is true that
the engagement of skilled labourers would not directly
diminish the pressure on the factory operatives, but still
their earnings were spent in the district to the advantage
of the small shopkeepers and the general benefit of the
neighbourhood. One other circumstance, too, should be
mentioned. Mr Itawlinson, the superintendent engineer,
informs us that in some places, and especially in Black-
burn, the factory operatives who had taken service in
these works, and acquired a knowledge of their new em-
ployment. made a point of returning themselves as " skilled
labourers," being unwilling to lose the benefit derivable
from the capacity which they had gained.
Nevertheless, it will doubtless be considered that all this
money should have employed a greater number of tho dis-
tressed operatives, and that conclusion will be confirmed by
a comparison of the proceedings and results at different
points of the distressed districts. We subjoin, for example,
the total amounts borrowed according to this return in the
seven instances where the demands upon the fund have
been greatest, and the numbers of factory operatives em-
ployed respectively at the places in question during the last
week in October :

Number
L Employed
Ashton-under-Lyne 125,032 .. 150
Blackburn
Bolton
Manchester
Oidham
Stalybridge
Prestoa
- - •

With these figures lot us now contrast the fol.
lowing :
Number
Employed.
Bury „r 45,259 .. 237
Glossop 36,401 .. 392
Hurst
S. ockport
Wigan
Now, if these figures are added up, it will be seen that
seven towns, with funds amounting to £842,518. were em-
ploying only 1,14) factory operatives, whereas five others,
with only £173,106 between them, were keeping 1,140
operatives at work. The ease of Manchester in particular
is remarkable, all the more so, indeed, as that city has
actually received for expenditure the greater part of its very
large share of money, whereas in other cases, though the
loan obtained may have been considerable, the sum hitherto
applied has been comparatively small,
The contrasts above presented arise, no doubt, from a
great variety of circumstances. In the first instance, the
nature of the works undertaken probably governed the'
demand for labour, skilled and ueskilled, and it is easy to
understand that the selection of these works was not
always entirely at the discretion of the authorities.
It was stipulated that they should bo in all cases of public
utility, or, in other words, that they should be wanted for
the use and benefit, of the people, and if, therefore, certain
works were not re quirel,
they could not be undertaken,
whatever promise of employment the prospect might offer.
We.infex, however, from Mr Rawlinson's report that some
local authorities have, "in their selection of works, thought
as much as sanitary improvement as of the amount of em-
ployment uhich would be afbrded to indigent factory ope-
ratives," for that gentleman distinctly says that if they
have done so "it can hardly be deemed a matter of regret."
We feel by no means certain of that conclusion. The first
object of the public grant was certainly the relief of Lanca-
shire distress by the artificial employment of Lancashire
operatives, and this, We think should have had precedence
of all other objects, however' desirable they may have
appeared in themselves. Manchester, it seems,has applied
upwards of £lOO,OOO to the water suPPIY
of the town—its
expenditure, indeed, having been almost exclusively de-
voted to that purpose. The purpose in itself may be un•
exceptionable, but if it has not contributed to the relief of
the unemployed cotton hands, we think the money might
have been better invested, and that Manchester should
either have done more or borrowed less. It will be little
satisfaction to reflect on the million of money still available
for the relief of the distressed districts during the impending
winter unless we can believe the classes distressed will get
the benefit of the expenditure. We trust this will be the
asasfsaurraaenepracticable
; but we should be glad of some
e can derive, on the whole, from
from tht return before u.s.—Thnes.
better case,