The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-04 00:00:00

the French engineer who reported with him
against the scheme, and is of opinion that the work
can be completed and kept in repair for a sum not
very much more tiv.n that originally estimated.
That this may he a correct opinion we sincerely
hope, for a Suez Canal, if even it did not bring the
trade with Eastern Asia back to its mediaeval
channel, would undoubtedly do much to civilise
the regions which border the Red Sea.

POST.—It has been well said by a great observer
of men and things that no one should attempt to
write a history of England without having carefully
read the 35 volumes of the " State Trials ;" and it
may as truly be observed that no one should attempt
to describe the social state of our country in 1863
without having carefully examined the reports of
our assize courts. The accounts now in course of
publication from the different summer circuits pre-
sent a fairer epitome of the moral and social condi-
tion of our country than can be obtained from any
other source. There are, doubtless, fewer crimes of
violence and robbery, and fewer deeds of blood, than
were recorded in the older time ; but, on the other
hand, crimes of covin, fraud, and deceit are more
prevalent, and forgery, false pretences, and seduc-
tion figure more than ever in the accounts of our
circuits. Fifty or sixty years ago cases of seduc-
tion were rarely brought into court unless the de
fendant was really a person of condition and sub-
stance, occupying a certain position in society, but
of late years, owing to the improvements in our
system of law and judicature, humbler delinquents
offending in this respect are " dragged into day,"
and are made to pay, as they ought to pay, the
penalty of their crimes and amours either in purse
or in person. The seducer of the sensation novel,
which in nine cases out of ten is an inexact and
untrue portraiture of real life, is frequently described
as a young lord of ancient descent, immense wealth,
and great expectations ; or a young baronet, a cap-
tain in the Life Guards, cool, self-possessed, and
diabolically heartless, the owner of a castellated
mansion and park in a northern county. But if we
descend from the ideal to the real, and examine life
as it really exists—as Feydeau or Henri Murger
would paint it—we shall find that seducers are to be
found among the lowly as well as amongst the titled
and high-born—among shopkeepers and petty
dealers as well es amongst earls, viscounts, and
barons de la vielle roche. Previous to the institu-
tion of the Divorce Court an idea prevailed among
the ill-informed that infractions of the married vow
were more common among the higher than the

lower and middle classes. But the records and re-
ports of the late lamented Sir Cresswell Cresswell's
court abundantly prove the utter falsity of this as-
sumption. Possibly, if judicial statistics were care-
fully conned, and every case of seduction, no matter
who the defendant, were brought into court, it
would be found that the higher classes in England
have been unjustly charged with crimes to which
they are no more prone than their humbler fellow-
men. There are, if the truth were known, gay Lo-
tharios amid all ranks, and we learn from the last
report of the Midland Circuit that they are even
foand among footmen. We are not among the num-
ber of those who would run down domestic servants
as a class. In no country in the world are there
better or more faithful domestic servants than in
England; but in a body so numerous as this, num-
bering several hundreds of thousands, there must
necessarily be many black sheep, and some particu-
larly unprincipled and heartless scamps. In this
latter category was the defendant in the case of
Shaw v. Baum. From the name of the miscreant,
we cling to the hope that the fellow is not of Eng.
lish cut, as his name imports a German origin. The
circumstances of the case are briefly told. The

plaintiff in the action was a person named Shaw, a
tenant farmer and a timber dealer, who occupied a
large firm under Lord Stamford, at Burton Lin-
ford. Mr. Shaw had a family of three daughters
and a son. The eldest of the daughters was Eliza-
beth Shaw. This girl was courted by Baum, the.
defendant, who was in the habit of walking out
with her unknown to her parents. But as the
father of Baum was a gamekeeper of the Earl of
Stamford, and lived close to theplaintiff, the parties
bad known each other long, and the families were
on familiar terms. In December, 1861, Baum the
younger became the footman of the earl, and about
this period he effected the poor girl's ruin. In
March he proceeded to London with his master, but
he returned to the country in May. Elizabeth,
finding she was likely to become a mother, sought
him on his return to Bradgate, and said she had
something particular to tell him. He hurried away,
saying he could not stay, but that he would meet
her in the evening. This appointment he did not
keep, and she wrote to him saying she wished to
see him " very, very particular." His answer was
as follows :

",Dear Elizabeth—i have been very buisey this week as
we are without a footman i have not been away from the
house yet i will come down one day next week—from
yours, " W. B."

He never kept his promise, and finally returned to
London without seeing her. She then wrote him
the following touching letter sorrowfully and sadly,
though not harshly toned :
" Charley Mill Farm, August, 1862.
" Dear William,—l write to you once again to tell you
in writing what you would not come down to Newton to
hear. Lit.le did I think the time would come when I
should have to ask you to come to see me, after the many
times you came down last winter, and after what passed
between us. I would give all the world, if it was mine, to
recall the past. I now write to you, dear William, to ask
you if you will make me a wife before I am a mother and
you a father. However humble the home, I care not.
If ever you loved me, as your words and ways made me
think in the winter you did, I ask you now to prove it,
not only for your sake and mine, but for your family
and mine, for I cannot hide it from the world much
longer."
To this no answer was returned by Baum. In
the gaieties of London he forgot the poor creature
he had left behind him, who was the victim of his
heartlessness and deceit, who addressed him in her
anguish with no angry upbraidings, but with an
ardent hope that he would perform his promise.
She, however, addressed this stolid, stupid, lump
of gold lace and hair-powder in vain. In October,
1862, the poor deceived creature, who wrote to her
seducer with such artless and natural pathos, was
confined, and her father was obliged to seek a
remedy for the loss of services of his daughter in
the Assize Court at Dez by. A young woman who
could express herself with so much propriety and
feeling in writing to the man who had so deeply
wronged her, as this creature did, was doubtless the
delight, the pride, and the solace of her parents, and
possibly looked to as one on whom an aged mother,
anguished by sickness or sorrow, could repose.
Thejury clearly appears to have thought so, for,
though the counsel for the defendant contended it
was not a case for heavy damages, they gave a ver-
dict for the plaintiff, with £125 damages. This
will consume four or five years of the wages of Mr.
Baum, and, with the costs, will eat considerably
into, if not exhaust, his capital. An obdurate and
heartless fellow, like this Lothario of low life, can
only be reached by the pocket ; and it is plain the
jury thought so, for £125 of damages against a foot-
man is equivalent to a sum of £5,000 against a gen-
tleman. There was one statement made by the
counsel for the plaintiff in which we should hope—
indeed, in which we believe—there must be a mis-
take. It was said by tt e learned advocate that after
the poor girl's confinement an agent of Lord Stam-
ford's informed the plaintiff unless he turned his
daughter out of his roof, and sent her away from his
home, he would be turned out of his farm. A state-
ment of this kind we deem to be incredible, and we
should think somebody on Lord Stamford's behalf
will take an early opportunity of correcting it. It
is added that when this threat was held out to the
father, he replied that when Baum was dismissed
from the great house he would think of turning out
his daughter. But Baum, if we are to believe the
report, has not been dismissed, though the plaintiff
has been dispossessed of a farm which his ancestors
occupied for two centuries. We repeat we cannot
credit this statement—at least, so far as the cause
assigned for the dispossession is given. That a
tenant may be ejected by a landlord for twenty
good and valid reasons we freely admit, but we
never can believe that a kind-hearted and indulgent
landlord like Lord Stamford would turn out a tenant
because he gave the protection of his name and roof
to a daughter who had been betrayed, who had lost
her honour and good name by the artifices of the
liveried lackey. of his landlord. The thing, we re-
peat, is impossible, and the counsel must have been
misunderstood. Had any counsel seriously made
such a statement in the presence of a judge, there
is no British magistrate who would not comment
on a circumstance not merely repugnant to ideas of
humanity, but to all our notions of natural justice.

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