The Sun.
London, England, 1839-04-08 00:00:00

WORSHIP-STREET.

SUSPECTED INFANTICIDE.—On Saturday Sergeant
Dubois, 14 N, applied to Mr. Broughton, the sitting
Magistrate, stating the suspicious disappearance of a
child, to which a young woman, named Elizabeth
Col-
lison, had given birth.
The following were stated to be the facts of the case :
_ _

The young woman WAS servant to Mr. Morris, a cabi-
net maker in the Curtain-road, at whose house the child
was born on the night of Wednesday week. In the
morning she got up to her work as usual, but her mis-
tress, entertaing some suspicion of what had taken
place, charged her with it, but she positively denied it.
Her mother was sent for, and she then, after some fur-
ther denial, acknowledged the fact, but said that the
child was dead, and that she had locked it in her box.
Her mistress immediately dismissed her from the place,
and she went home to her mother's, in Brett's build-
ings, Long-alley, Worship-street, where she has since
remained confined to her bed. Some neighbours who
had heard of the birth, and the disappearance of the child
suspected that it had been destroyed, and they gave
information to the police.
Sergeant Dubois now said he had ascertained -from
Mrs. Morris that when she dismissed the servant she
had not seen the child, and did not look into the
box in which it was said to have been deposited, and
an apprentice was sent with the servant and her
mother to carry the box to Brett's-buildings. The
young woman told the sergeant that her late master,
Mr. Morris, was the father of the child which, she
believed was dead when she gave birth to it. She
and her mother said that it had been buried, a
woman named Pratt having taken it away for that
purpose ; but they bad no certificate from the regis-
trar, without which it could not have been legally
enterred, and they could not tell the place of burial,
and their statements were so confused on the subject
that the sergeant had no doubt the body had been dis-
posed of in some other way.
Mr. BROUGHTON desired him to pursue his inquiries,
and to keep the young woman in custody at her own
lodging at present.
In the evening the sergeant appeared before the
Magistrate again, and stated that he had, in the mean-
time discovered that the body had never been buried at
all, but was then in the possession of Mr. Anderson, a
surgeon, in Clifton-street, and he had requested that
gentleman to accompany him to the office to explain
what he knew of the matter.

Mr. Anderson's explanation was to the effect that
the night before last he was sent for to Brett's-build-
ings to attend a young woman who had recently been
delivered of a child, which he was told was dead. He
attended her for some days, and then saw the body
there in a small coffin ; but on Thursday last it was
brought to him in a basket, by a woman named Pratt,
in order that he might dissect or preserve it in spirits.
In reply to the Magistrate's quei,tions, he said that.
he gave nothing for the body. He began to operas'
upon it the same night, but had not yet examined it suf-
ficiently to speak decidedly as to its birth.

Mr. BROUGHTON told him that he had better deliver
it up to the sergeant, which he readily assented to.
Sergeant Dubois accordingly received the body from
Mr. Anderson, and conveyed it to Mr. Coward, police
surgeon of the N division at Hoxton ; but when the
latter came to examine it, he discovered that it was
minus the left leg ; and on searching for the lungs, for
the purpose of subjecting them to the hydrostatic test,
to ascertain whether the child had been born alive or
not, he found that they also had disappeared. Mr. An-
derson being questioned on the subject, said he could
not tell what had become of the lungs, but that a cat
had gnawed off the leg while the body was lying in the
basket. The other surgeon, however, observed that the
leg had been taken off at the joint, and did not appear
to have been gnawed off. The infant was a fine female,
and had arrived at maturity.
Information of what had occurred was forwarded to
Mr. Baker, the Coroner, in order that he may hold an
inquest on the body ; and a policeman was placed in
charge of Elizabeth Collison, at her own lodging, until
she .can be removed in a fit state for examination at
this office.

Our readers will hear, with some surprise, that
a Church-rate was agreed to, in the parish vestry, on
Thursday last. We had hoped that the fate of Church-
rates in this town was sealed, since the determination to
appeal to the rate-payers in vestry assembled. What,
then, was our surprise to find only two Liberals present at
the meeting on Thursday, Alderman Higgin and the Mayor,
and one of them the proposer of the rate, while the other
stood by, consenting thereto, by his silenco ?--Lancaster
Guardian.

SUNDAY TRADING.—In Bethnal-green parish,
itinerant vendors of goods are not allowed to cry the arti-
cles they have for sale, and shop-keepers, who transact
business on Sundays, are mulcted in the highest penalty.
At St. Mary's, Whitechapel, the authorities have divided
the parish into seven sections, but they have not as yet had
recourse to coercive measures, and endeavour, by persua-
sion, to induce the tradesmen to close their shops. Yester-
day morning a sergeant and a private of the K division
were engaged in Clare-market in removing from it all
hawkers.