The Sun.
London, England, 1806-08-09 00:00:00

POLICE.

, 11JANstoN-HousE.—A few diys lir4;ate exa-.
tnination had taken place, bet:ore the Loan Y
of a respeaahle Upholsterer -and his Wife; in Aldgate,
• Parish, upon ay charge of starving and otherw;se
cruelly treating three female chikdren. The'Parties
were yesterday brought up•betbre his-LordShip for a
pubic examination... . .
The parties-accused in this case were Wcl
ters, a respe(table Upholsterer, of Somei-s'th-street, ,
'Aldgate, and his Wife, an elderly; iiespeEtable-lOok-,.
ing, and apparently -well:Ad 'couple. Waiters"
has three daughters ; the eldest is,,Belta,,,aged ;32,
by his first wife; Mary-Aimed aged .28,
dith, aged 19, by his second wife. HiS present. is
his third wife, and the step-in Other of these'per-
son 9. ,

The charge exhibited against him was at the in
stance of the Parish Officers of
.Aldgate, fourided
upon the representations of several of Mr. 'Walter's
neighbours, that his children had been, for a consi--
dcrable length ,of time,' treated with cruelty, and
stinted of their food. by him and his wife, and par-
ticularly the eldest, who was stated to have been
confined in a garret in his house for eight years
past; and to have been invisible to any person in
the neighbourhood: for the last three years, until
about six weeks since, when she, at different times,
from that to the time of this-charge being brought,
forward, contrived. to escape from her confinement
to the habitations of some of the neighbours, ‘vhere
she complained Of being alMoSt farnisheerWith bun-.
ger, having had no sustenance but a scanty allow-
ance of potatoes and Water, and implored for food,
tyhich, having obtained;she devoured with ravenous
voracity.. One of those excursions was made at.'
three o'clock in the morning, from the window of, a
room where she slept.. to the next'house, raising. up
the window, and getting into the apartment of a-
Mrs. Swayne, to whom . she described her misery,
and asked for. food. At a subsequent time, she pere.
forked the brick wallwhich separated her own room
.
from Mrs. Swayne's;
,and begged for fo,od through'
the hole.. •A third andfourth petition:were made to
the wife of-an industrious working shoe-maker, her
father's tenant, and 'lodging, in 'the next house.--
Those parties, who had humanely administered to
hpr. relief; judged it tight to complain to the Parish
Officers, in consequence of whica this inquiry was
brought forward. , .
The first examination of the parties was on the
29th ult. and privately, befbre the Chief Magi-
strate, with a Very laifdabie: and considenite atten-
fiat) to the private feeling?; and 'eharaCiers of per-
sons in so reputable a line of life as the parents in
this case, in order that nothing on the subject
might transpire, nor the parties be . placed in 'so
odious a point of view, with 'their fellow-citizens
as even the mere iMputation• of, such' a charge
must occasion, until a fair' and minute examina-
tion of the testimony upon which elie charge .was
sustained should spew. how far it was right to tint
them publicly on their defence. Beside, 'as the very
emaciated state in 'which. Bella Walter and her
,
sisters appeared on the tinnier- day, was one of
the points of_ proof relied on in support of. the
charge of starvation, the Loan MAYOR had pur-
posely deferred the seetnelexamination, in eider to
try if kind treatment and a plentiful allowance of
food, in the interiin, under the special care' of the.
Parish Officers, Would so far 'improve that appear-
ance as to iustify the suspicien that it bad been, tile
consequence of famine. Time other two sisters)*
included in the first charge, \were withdrawn, on this
occasion, as they had denied having received any
cruay- or
.ill,ti-eattnent fmin their parents. These
were the general facts of the case.

The wife of aMr. Swayne, and also, of the shoe-
Maker, attended this day, -and their former
,
osi-
tions being'read over, they corrobbrated them upon
oath. • The unfortunate'girl, Bella Walters, as well
as she could be made to understand the questions
put to her, for she.sernecl to be quite, in a state of
mental imbecility, supported- Iter tormer statement
of being starved -but,acknowiedged, upon a cross-
examinatirm from- the Solicitor for the :defence,
Mr. FriI4DERSON, flint she had breakfast Of tea,
dinner of meat, 'tea' in the evening, and supper at

71.1 e Nurse, of Aldgate Work-house -attended to
give an account of the girl's condat since her be-
mg placed under. her charge; and :stated, that she
had eaten very heartily, more than a pound of meat
at her dinner every day, besides her other meals.

A Medical. Gentleman, named Johnson, who at-
tended \this girl in -the Work-house, 'on being in-
terrogated respecting the girl's situation, said, that
his mind had certainly been prepossessed by the
Story of the girl's ill treatment) before he was called
to attend her, but still it appeared, to the best of his
jadgment, that. her emaciated state of body, and-the
voracity of her appetite, 'arose •tioom her .having been
stinted in her food for some considerable time':
Cross-El-will:led by Mt.':FigrintitsoN.—,He adf
mitted, that ,sometimes voracity of appetite and ema-
ciatiOn of body, might- be the result of epilepsy, or
other morbid causes. • But no such cause appeared
to him in .the present case.
• Mr. HENTARSON Oen `, addtessod the CUM,
MAGISTRATE, and expressed' his hope;' that not-
,withstanding the strong appeamnces of; culpability
in this case on the part of the parents—notwith-
'standing the situation of the unfOrtunate girl who
was, the objet of this-charge, and v.hith, from her
own 'statement, in part seemed to corroborate the
aharge-7-yet he trusted his Lordship would panse be-
fore he sent his Clients to their trial:upon so heinous
an imputation; without allowing, him to examine
some evidence in their vindication, a host of which,
he was prepar&l to adduce •• -
The Loan Maros, who, upon' occasion,'
evinced the most humane and rdispassionate wish to
elicit the truth on both sides; gaxe his-consent to
'examine evidence:for the detente. • ''•

The first Witness exaMined by 'Mr. fIENDER'SON
was Mary Anne Walters. She appeared wretchedly
emaciated; and; in .a miserable
.state. of health.
'She gave her 'testimony at considerable length,.
but in a voice scarcely audible ; the substance of
her evidence.-was,• however, that her sister Bella'
-had been treated in. all respects by her parents as
Well as herself and her other sister, and. had ass-1
much food allowed_ to her as they had, at break,
fast, dinner, and supper, with a pint of 'porter be-
.t‘keen all three, 'at rach of the two lattei• '4.
They always alit their moils togethor in the

, L .
hnd bar sit Bella; «lio wZ3 always very b.:4 to
satisfy, and -ate a year deal,• said she had enough.
Being, asked tO de.,Scrihe the quantity of Bread al-
loWed ,to -each at their reSpeaive, meals, she :said,
half n round. of, the loaf :with butter. Three
miserable Morsels of bread . were . now produced
to her,: being those cat frc.;rn a loaf at the Work-
house. by- Bella, as samples of her usual allowance
at these meals ; and certainly a healthy infant of to o
years-old would have eaten: the whole at a single
meal. `llary aelinowledgeW those were the
ktbd of-Pieces- allowed at each meal to her and her.
,sisters. The; w4iole ti2uurt, :on this exhibition, was
tilled with •thurnmrs ; and the.-poor OH who was
giving !lc? te-it.:non;:, Agitated by feelingsof ‘tre-
muloas and agonizi:tg' s,.nsibility, burst into tears,
and said; that it her sister had no more the fault was
I)e.r'S, and she begged she herself might be punish •-
ed,-but that the lives of her father arid mother
might not be,_taken away. The. Loan MAyoa,
with great hurniiuity, ordered the unhappy girl to
be taken care Of, out of Court, as,- from her agita-
tion, -she seemed - unable to say, any thing further
coherently.• •

Judith, Walters was next examined, and gave
nearly the samt:. account as her sisters. She said,
her•mother treated them-alLtenderly, and never,had
beaten Bella., She allowed, however,- that last
Tue-sday: se'nnight her mother had called Bella a
thrty bunter, i,N:ihich put the girl into a great fright :
that she_ had-Hien that eveding•into.a fit, and cat
her head,. and, 1-hat her father •had said to her
mother, " you will kill the girl at last;---now you
'have (lane She did not see
,the mother strike
B6lla at the time.

The- Lott p ittA7:o tt then 'proceeded to interrogate
8e114,, as to the care which bad been taken of :her
education and 'Moral lostruaion
,; but to the
cr'"estibUi which his Lordship. put to her touching
t
her kno‘,,:lerlge of good and evil,' the' existence of a'
ON, the consequence of virtue and vice, or the be-
lief of a futurity, no intelligent answer could be drawn
from he?, only that she had
,been once at Church
about ten years ago ; that she told no lies, and had
no wickedness to answer for. She appeare to be in
a state of idiotic iin.hecility.
The ,Loltn NAY6B, upon duly considering the
stibjea, found that there was.no :positive eVidepce
which, upon trial, could' be,deemed, from such a
witness as Bella, sufficient to Sustain the charge,
aud, therethre, as the best award he could make in
the case, ordered, that the unhappy girl.should be
taken' into the care of the Psarish. Cutters 'in the
Workhouse, ,and her father to pay for her mainte-
nance. ,

The poor creature, understanding she was .to be
sent back,to her father's house, fell into. strong agi.-
tation, until she was set right as tosthe fd; when
she became instantly trancuillized:
The Load .MAYox, then-Addressing himself to the
mother, expatiated hi a forcible manner upOn the
enortnity of the charge now exhibited against her
charge in which his • Lordship Was' convinced.
there was unfortunately too much -of obvious and
palpable truth ; and he. assured het"-, it was not
from the, slightest doubt of the Lila of her. cruel
and uMathral..treatment to, this,
,poor young wo-:
manjesting on hisown mind, that he did .not•now
corritnit her for trial, and recotrinA nd to the Parish
°Boers to ii)ll6w uri :the proseattiOn ri-
gour'; but. that,..from the very. imbecile state. of
her daughter's mind and body, the obvious conse-
quences of the ill-treatment she had received, she,'
who must be the prineipal,witnesst in the case, Was
'incompetent to be examined. lie ~emphatically
,warhed -her, hiltveVer, to flake care for the future,
lind'alter;her.b.:haviour towards her other children,
if she wished to escape the just severity due to such
tondua as was this day alled,ged;against her,