The Sun.
London, England, 1863-02-18 00:00:00

SURREY SESSIONS---Feb. 17.

•
(Before J. E. Johnson, Esq., Chairman.)
ASSAULT UPON A SERVANT GIRL BY A LADY.
Mrs. Mary Langton Thomas, a widow lady, re-
siding in Linden-grove, Nunhead, Peckham, sur-
rendered this morning to take her trial for having,
on the 18th December last and four months previous,
cruelly ill-treated her servant and neglected to
supply her with food.
The complainant, Sophia Jarvis, is a poor girl
who had been brought up from her infancy in the
schools at Sutton, in Surrey, by the parish autho-
rities of St. George's, Southwark.
Mr. Sleigh, specially retained, with Mr. Thom-
son, instructed by Mr. Fitch, clerk to the guardians
of St. George's, Southwark, prosecuted; and Mr.
Robinson, with Mr. Oppenheim, defended.
Sophia Jarvis, the prosecntrix, was examined—
She was of rather diminutive size, but seemed
much improved since she, was before the ma-
gistrate at Lambeth. She said she was seventeen
last October. My fitthei died in 1855, and since
then I have been in Aho St. George's Industrial
Schools at Mitchani, belonging to the parish of St.
'George's, Southwark. In Oct., 1861, I went into the
service of Mrs. Thomas: I was in good health then,
and was to nave ls. 6d, a week to do the house work
and live in the house: No other servant was kept.
' I slept upstairs in a room by myself, and during
the first three months Mrs. Thomas behaved very
kind to me. After Mr. Cockerell, one of the reliev-
ing officers, Came in Jane last an alteration took
place. He saw me in the presence of Mrs. Thomas,
who said to me, " You have taken some postage
stamps." I said I had not seen any. She said I had
taken some tarts also. I said I had taken some as
Iliad not had sufficient food. He (Mr. Cockerell)
then left. After he left the prisoner began to ilium
me by beating me on the hands with a stick. She
did that nearly every day till I came away. She
used the rolling pin once, and the young gentle-
man's fishing rods. My hands soon became very
sore and much swollen, and sometimes they bled.
Prior to the beating my hands were well enough,
but pow they were extremely sore, and covered with
bruises (shown to the jury). The second finger of
my left hand is much hurt, and I cannot bend it. I
-left on Dec. 19, and a fortnight before that -she
struck me over the back, head, and eye with the
fishing rod. The wound bled very much from the
eye and head. The next morning it was much
,swollen, so that I could. not see out of it. Chithei
day I ran away. My- mistrees cut my hair off the
back of my head about a Month. before I left. She
said my heed was untidy. I had no comb, and had
no time to put it to rights. The first quarter I
had 2s. 4d., after Mrs. Thomas bought my clothes,l
which amounted to 15s. Bd. I have never received I
any money from her since. About a week before
I left she told me to undress. I was obliged to do
so ; and when I was undressed she ordered me into
the yard. Mrs. Thomas stood on a chair, and
ordered Master George, twelve years of age, to
fetch a pail of water. He did so, and she threw it
over me. (Sensation.) She ordered the lad to fetch
another pail of water, which she also threw over me.
Then she made me lie down on the cold stones.
This was on the 18th of December. I had then on
only my chemise. A third pail of water was thrown
over me, and I could hardly get my breath then.
She held me down while she sent her son for
another pail of water. (Renewed sensation.) That
was brought and she threw it over me, and told me
to get up and dress. I could hardly get my breath,
but she pushed me along to my room. On the fol-
lowing day I ran away. After Mr. Cockerell left
I had coffee with a little milk, hut no sugar, and
dry bread for breakfast_ Sometimes I did not have
any breakfast. Before Mr. Cockerell came I had
bread and treacle. I had for dinner boiled rice,
but no meat. I had nothing else but that for four
months. The family had roast meat, stews, and
hash; sometimes they had puddings also. I was
not allowed any. I seldom had any tea, as I was
sent to bed about six or seven in the evening. I
only went out on Sunday to church with one of
the children. I never stole any postage stamps or
wine.

Prosecutrix was cross-examined at some length,
and her evidence as to her condition on going out
to service, and her condition when she came back,
was corroborated by Mr. Cockerell, relieving officer
of Southwark parish, the master of St. George's
Industrial Schools, and by Mrs. Cuttress, of Sutton
Schools; also by Mr. J. Broad, surgeon, at Mitcham,
and Mr. T. Evans, surgeon, Trinity-square.
This closed the case for the prosecution, and the
court adjourned. On its reassembling,
Mr. Robinson addressed the jury for the defence,
and called the following witnesses :
The Rev. Mr. Carter, Hickman White, Yorkshire,
said—During the Exhibition myself and wife
stopped at Mrs. Thomas's. We arrived on the 13th
of October, and remained until the 23d. I repeat-
edly saw the servant Sophia Jervis, who attended
prayers daily. She attended us during dinner, and
at time appeared in good health, similar to what
she is now. I have known Mrs. Thomas thirty
years, during which time I knew her to be humane,
kind, and an excellent mother and mistress. During
the time I was staying with Mrs. Thomas there
was plenty of food in the house. We were merely
visitors.
The Rev. Wm. Foster Elliot, incumbent of East
Dulwich—l have; known Mrs. Thomas four or five
years, and visited during her husband's lifetime and
since; about ten days before Christmas, and while
Mr. and Mrs. Carter were staying there. I had tea
with her about the middle of October, and the ser-
vant waited on them. She was then well in health.
I know Mrs. Thomas to be a humane woman.
Mr. Arthur Sergeant, F.R.C.S., 20 years in prac-
tice, of King's-road, Peckham—l examined the girl
on the 9th of this month. She was apparently in
fair health, but rather scrofulous, and that, I think,
added to her natural weakness, might produce great
emaciation. Ho had seen her hands and fingers,
and should think the swellings were caused by scro-
fula, and not by violence. I think it was brought
on by anxiety, and, on that being removed, she
would in a few days recover her health. If I had
examined the girl, not knowing anything of the
case, I should not have attributed the state of her
hands, &c., to violence.
Dr. Richard Stokoo, of Peckham-rye—On the
9th inst. I examined Sophia Jarvis, and I perfectly
agree with the last witness. had there been star-
vation during four months, she could not have re-
covered in a week. I believe that the curve on the
back of the hand was natural, and not caused by
violence. Had such violence been used as stated by
the girl, inflammation could not have subsided yet.
Mr. John Davis, surgeon, Great George-street,
Westminster, in practice 42 years—l have known
Mrs. Thomas from her childhood. She always has
been a most humane woman, kind to her children
and her servants. He fully concurred in the evi-
dence of the other medical gentlemen.
George Humphries Thomas, a nice-looking lad,
12 years of age, was then called. He said—The
defendant is my mother, and I live with her. The
complainant had been their servant. 1 neverw
saw water thrown over her. I nevveerr
stoodsa
her washed in the yard. My mother never
o nweater from
on a chair and told me to fetch
the sink. I could not have liftedpdammplsayilmoof
never brought a drop of water,fdwaans kept in the larder,
threw any over her. thweartnere'velr
which was always The store-room was
can thiney of that. She
g she liked from
entirely boiled rice,
(complainant)
and my mother
off
the larder.
She had the same food as us ; sometimes she helped
herself, and other times my mother helped her.
Sometimes we dined in the kitchen, and then we
her sometimes, and sometimes she helped
helped
herself. I never saw my mother strike her once.
Almost the first day she came she commenced
a li a n ts)
She
du
ddu
nnTgol he: etekdkenodey.
thieving.
Langton Henry Thomas, eldest son of defendant,
clerk in the London Joint Stock Bank—l lived with
my mother when the girl Jarvis was then a servant.
I left homejt little before 8 in the morning, and re-

STAMPED ....sd.

turned about two. I have seen the girl cleaning
the steps, but she was never watched. The meat
and food were left in the larder, which the girl could
get at. I never knew or heard of my mother throw-
ing water over her. She has been accused of theft.
Samuel Bartlett Thomas, another son, 15 years of
ago, employed at an insurance broker's in Broad-
street, said he lived with his mother while the girl
Jarvis was their servant. He gave similar evidence
to his brother's, ana added that a week before she
left she had a black eye, and see told me she knocked
her eye against some wood.
Dillon Hanbury Thomas, son of the defendant, 16
years of age, clerk in a merchant's office in Cullen-
street, City, said—l have seen my mother knock her
knuckles with a stick because she was dirty. She
had been accused of theft.
Hanbury Thomas, 14 years of age, living also
with his mother, gave similar evidence. He recol-
lected the girl running away. She was hearty and
well then.
Gertrude Thomas, daughter to the defendant, 12
years of age, also said the girl was always treated
kindly, and had plenty of food.
Richard Brahan Walter, clerk in the Bank of
England—l lodged with Mrs. Thomas up to the
7th of October. On Sundays I dined with Mrs.
Thomas, and Jarvis attended on us. Mrs. Thomas
was very humane, and treated the girl kindly.
Several clergymen and other respectable gentle-
men were called, who gave the defendant one of the
best of characters.
Mr. Sleigh then replied to the whole of the evi-
dence for the defendant.
The learned Chairman summed up the evidence
in a careful manner, calling the attention of the
jury to the material points of the evidence, particu-
larly dwelling on the testimony of Mr. Cockerell
and 1)r. Broad, who clearly proved her emaciated
condition on her return to the schools on the 10th
of December. The testimony of Mr. Pitcher, the
master of the schools, also corroborated them as to
her state on her return, and it was shown she was
in good health when Mr. Cockerell called on her
in June last. He alluded to the evidence given on
behalf of the defendant, and urged upon them to
give the case their careful consideration, and return
a verdict according to the best ability.
The jury then retired, and after an absence of
twenty minutes returned into court.
Order having been restored,
The Clerk of the Peace said : Gentlemen of the
jury, do you find the prisoner guilty or not guilty ?
Foreman : AVe find her guilty.
The prisoner was then ordered into the dock,
when Mr. Sleigh said he was instructed, in con-
sideration of her family, to recommend her to mercy.
The learned Chairman observed that it was very
much to the credit of the parish officers ; but it was
a very grave offence. It was with pain that he
sentenced her to three months' hard labour at
Wandsworth.

THE SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY.

(From the 2 fines' Special Correspondent.)
CHARLESTON, Jan. 15.

The traveller who at this moment pursues his
slow and toilsome journey through the Confederate
States and endeavours to chronicle his impressions
is very liable to lay himself open to the same satire
which Smollett's last book of " Travels" provoked
from Sterne. Smollett, shortly before his death at
Leghorn, and being at the time in wretched health,
published, under the title of "Travels in Italy," a
narrative of a tour in that country. In reference to
this book Sterne remarked "that the learned Smell-
fungus did not so much describe the objects he saw
as his own miserable feelings." Great is my temp-
tation at this moment to descant upon the hardships
of a long journey in Secessia—the extreme difficulty
of obtaining a seat in the crowded railway cars,
the weariness of thus travelling night and day for
hundreds of miles at the rate of 12 miles an hour—
the occasional privilege of riding in the baggage
car in company with at least one, and sometimes
with two or three coffins ; the indifference with
which the occupants of these coffins are assessed at
the ordinary rate and pay, through their represen-
tatives, the ordinary fare of living passengers; the
miseries to which, when a link in the railroad is
missing, you are subjected in " the stage," of which,
assuming that the distance to be surmounted is 40
miles, my experience has been that you pay 8 dols.
for the privilege of walking up to your knees in
North Carolina mud 30 out of the 40. The hunger,
thirst, filth, sleeplessness, and fatigue, not to men-
tion the sights and smells inseparable from the pas-
sage by railroad of dense messes of soldiers, and
with which every traveller in A merica during these
last 20 months has become abundantly acquainted.
But if the difficulties and hardships of passing from
Richmond to Charleston are great and oppressive,
all is forgotten so soon as Charleston is reached.
One of the cleanest, most decorous, and orderly of
towns meets your view, containing none of that pec-
cant foreign element, male and female, with which
the streets of Richmond are thronged ; exhi-
biting but few soldiers in the streets, abundant as
the garrison which defends the city is represented as
being ; offering plenty of clean and cheap food and
excellent hotels, which are largely appreciated by
every sojourner who has been compelled to pass
some weeks in Richmond. The more opportunities
a stranger possesses of seeing the other States of the
Confederacy the more hopeless does the Effort to sub-
jugate such a mighty area as that of the 10 States
now in open rebellion appear, and the more intelli-
gent is his appreciation of the unparalleled sacrifices
which have been imposed upon Virginia. On the
night of my arrival here a large ball was given by
the members of General Beauregard's Staff, and it
would have been difficult for a stranger suddenly in-
troduced into the ballroom to credit the assertion
that the country which could exhibit its daughters
in such gay and brilliant dresses had been for nearly
two years shut out by blockade from Paris and
Europe. It is scarcely an extravagant statement to
assert that, even in their present so-called destitute
condition, such States as South Carolina and
Georgia possess all the necessaries and many of the
luxuries of life to an extent unsurpassed in the
richest countries of the Old World.

To assert that Charleston, in its present attitude,l
is impregnable would obviously be a ludicrous fa
lacy ; but it is none the less true that it could not
be taken without an enormous force attacking
simultaneously, by sea and land, and that the
attack, even in that case, would have to be
conducted with desperate valour before it could
be successful. At the entrance of the harbour
Fort Sumter, thoroughly repaired and mount-
ing enormous guns en barbette, frown at the
blockaders,while the neighbouring points, on Morris
Island and Sullivan's Island, from hich the
memorable attack upon the fort on the 13th of
April, 1861, was conducted, are in possession of
the Confederates and are not likely to pass out
of their hands. Behind Fort Sumter, a new fort,
which takes the name from Gen. Ripley, and is
built almost entirely of palmetto wood, enhances
the difficulty to which ships are exposed in ap-
proaching the town. In reference to the palmetto
tree—the peculiar emblem of the State of South
Carolina—it should be noticed that it possesses far
more valuable properties than strangers would be
apt to imagine. Palmetto wood is much used for
facing wharves and other works under water, as it
is never injured by the teredo. It affords excellent
material for the construction of forts, inasmuch as
cannon balls soon lose their force in its spongy sub-
stance, and while they penetrate but little
htahney;
make no extended fractures, nor do they
dangerous splinters. The top of the
intraedeer
keys an
substance resembling cabbage, which detach
a
like the heart of the
ex-
cellentvegetable, tasting m
artichoke or like vegetableu
converted into light but
chmarrow. The large
thick, fan-like leaves are
palmetto grows only on lands
durable hats. The
adjacent to the sea, and the attempt to induce it to
the seat of the State Legislature,
grow at Columbia,
has hitherto beeina'afailure.
But to return to Charleston, although for obvious
reasons Ido not feel myself at liberty to enter into
details with regard to its fortifications, it may be
stated that all that two of the most accomplished
engineer officers of the Confederacy—Generals Lee
and Beauregard—could suggest or devise has been
done to strengthen the town on its land side. Gen.
Lee, before he was moved to Virginia and assumed
his present high position, was for some time in com-
mand of Charleston, and by him the first line of
defences was planned and executed. This line has
grown and expanded at the inspiration of General
Beauregard into a perfect network of earthworks
and redoubts, reaching from the Cooper River on
the north to the Ashley River on the south. It is
not likely that so scientific an engineer as General
Beauregard would be fully satisfied with his system
of defences until he spent four or five years in per-
fecting them. Suffice it to say that in the opinion
of competent judges they are sufficiently strong to
defy a force 1U times stronger than is ever likely to
be brought against them. In addition to this;hea
very slight acquaintance with the country in
neighbourhood of Charleston satisfies the spectatort
how impossible it is for an invading army
pene-
trate such lagoons and swamps and forests as lie o be-
tween the frequent rivers which intersect the surfacel