The Sun.
London, England, 1864-11-02 00:00:00

Miss Coutts in Spitalfields.

If we go from the house to the little hcmes
of the poor whom it comforts, we may the more
clearly see the worth of its work. Here are some
cases frcm the experience of one of the district clergy :
A man, 85 years old, has been married for more than
half a century to the wife who, now Lthat the
grown-up children have left the nest, is his only
companion. They want food and even clothing ;
they have sold their bed to pay their rent, and they
owe rent. Brawn's-lane knows that they have done
their share of labour in this world, an I are entitled
now to sympathy and solace, and Brown's-lane gave
them all last winter what was necessary to their
health and comfort. Old people in seasons of dis-
tress are thus saved from the workhouse, the scraps
of furniture, of which the oldest may have in their
little household the most sacred memories—the
sernpler worked by tha girl who is their child-
daughter in heaven, the little chair in which she
sat, the patchwork quilt that grainy made when
she was young, and grandfather was courting her
—these things are saved to them, and their own
lives also are sustained. The mortality among the
9 gcd in the one parish, of which records are before us,
was last winter lessened so considerably that only
two of the number died, A whole family was fever-
stricken; the father and two children were taken to
the workhouse, the mother and two children were
left in the poor and dirty home, From Number
Seven, Brown's-lane, meat, and wine, and whitewash
came; the father returned convalescent. Meat and
wine were still supplied ; every life was saved, and
the family is now well and earning without help its
own scanty living, A poor weaver, with a wife and
five children, failed in eyesight ; meat and wine
gave him his sight again, and to the help given
while he was unable to work was added the find-
ing for him of work more suited to his physical
condition. He has now begun the world afresh,
and prospers. Here again, says the record, sus-
tained help is brought to an aged couple, whose
united earnings are 5s a week. The old man has
been run over, and is deaf. Here again help is given
to a widowed grandmother, who lives with a wi-
dowed daughter, both trying in vain to get bread,
shelter, and clothing, as waeherwomen. Here it is
help to a poor old widow, who is dependent on a
sickly son. And here again the help is to a wife
with a bad husband, who has left her and her
family to starve, or to a wife and children where
the breadewinner is lately dead,or lamed by an azcie
dent. A man who could find no work was set to the
repair of bedsteads, and other necessary articles:that
he found broken and useless, and in this way
were restored comfort and tidiness to the homes
of twenty families, at a total cost of £2 12s. lid.
for labour and material. If we leave the teat of
the four shepherds, and, still on the Delectable
Mountain, travel homeward by way of Columbia-
square, built by Miss Coutts to provide cheap,
wholesome, and comfortable homes for 200 families,
we may glance also at the market which the same
lady is causing to rise by its side, for bringing into
the district—with which she has no tie but that of
human sympathy—plenty of good food at the
fairest market prices. We might turn aside, also,
to look at the Ragged School that stands near by
to feed the starved minds of the children. But it
is more than an afternoon's work to see all that a
wise head and munificent hand, prompted by a
warm and sympathising heart, has been for months
ind years maturing for the wretchedest end of
London.—Dickens's " All the Year Bound."

ABUSING A BANKER.—At the Leeds Town Hall
on Saturday, Mr Martin Tobin, cloth merchant, of
Albion street, Leeds, appeared before the magistrates to
answer the charge of using insulting language to Mr Vita.
Beckett Denison, of the firm of Messrs Beckett and Co.,
bankers. Mr Denison thus deposed :—On the 26th of Oct.
I was travelling from Apperley Bridge to Leeds, by rail. At
the Kirkstall Station Mr Tobin got into the carriage, Ile
had formerly had a banking account with us, and I had
been obliged to speak to him about it. Mr John Yewdall
was in the same carriage. As soon as Mr Tobin got in he
said, " Oh you are here, are you, Mr Denison ? I have been
looking for an opportunity of catching you for some
time." I said, " Now, Mr Tobin, Ido not wish to have
any communication with you, and I give you warning
that if you use any cffensive language towards me I shall
apply for a warrant on my arrival at Leeds." Notwith•
standing that warning ho continued from that moment in-
cessantly until I reached Leeds to use all sorts of oppro-
brious language towards me, calling me a liar, a dishonour-
able fellow, a low fellow, an ass; that he had only been
restrained by his solicitor from coming to tho bank and
laying a horsewhip across my shoulders, and all sorts
of disgraceful, abominable, and untrue insinuations,
this being continued for a quarter of an hour. :Mr
Yewdall said to him—" Now, Ur Tobin, I recommend you
to be quiet; you have been in trouble once before, and bad
much better calm yourself." Mr Tobin admitted having
said to Mr Denison, on getting into the carriage at
Kirkstall, "You aro here, you contemptible ass," upon
which the magistrates said that they considered the
case proved against the defendant, Mr Tobin, however,
went on to say that Mr Denison had used insulting
language towards him, and that the bad feeling had
arisen out of a lawsuit between thrm about the banking
account, 'I he Court thus pronounced t heir decision :—We
consider the language you have used is most unjustifiable,
ind particularly to a gentleman placed in the almost public
position in which Mr Denison occupies. We shall require
you to enter into your own recognisances of £lOO to keep
he peace towards Mr Denison and all her Majesty's sub-
jects for six months, and to find two sureties of £5O each,
Mr Tobin produced the necessary sureties, and the parties
then lett tto coot —Mane/weer Examiner.