The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-26 00:00:00

A IFrench Prince—not unworthy of the name
—hi 3 cannot help showing himself to be,
alw; 3ys and under every imaginable cir-
cum E tance. But, on Wednesday last, at Eves-
ham,, he was evidently bent upon appearing in
the light in which he mainly dicl appear, there, in
his capacity as Chairman at the banquet of the
Agricultural Society in that part of Worcestershire
.--n amely, as a genial, kindly, enlightened, elcquent
En:glish Country Gentleman.

Another of those melancholy cases which occa-
sionally thrust themselves upon public attention,
and testify to the hardships attendant on the
rigorous execution cf our poor law, has recently
come before us. It occurred in a locality whose
ir very name has become synonymous with poverty in
its lowest and most squalid forms; for the famous
Beggar of Bethnal-green, in the old ballad, has
' many inheritors of his name and position, though
few with his goodly show of savings. The poor
rates doubtless are high in such a district, and
press heavily on a population ill-fitted to bear them.
We must, therefore, make some allowance for the
natural anxiety of the guardians to keep them
down. Still there is too much ground to fear that
the case before us represents many others ; and it is
urgently necessary that some change should be
made in the manner in which relief is administered
to the suffering poor before winter lays his icy hand
upon them. It appears that a cooper, living in
Bethnal-green, me'c with a serious accident some
two years ago, which has ever since incapacitated
him from work. He applied to the parish for as-
sistance for himself and his wife. They were told
to come into the house. This last resource of the
desperate, however, the poor man shrunk from with
invincible disgust ; and, certainly, from what we
have heard of the condition of the sick and infirm
in workhouse infirmaries, he had some grounds for
his aversion. However, all help was denied him,
except on this condition, and so he and his wife
had to fight on their way alone. The wife sold
matches, from which she gained enough to supply
them sometimes with one, sometimes with two,
meals of dry bread per diem. And so the struggle
went on until the poor man died, according to
the verdict of the doctor, from disease accelerated
by the want of proper and sufficient food. Even
this climax, however, did not move the adamant
resolve of the guardians, who left the poor match-
seller unaided until the coroner's jury had censured
their negligence. It is likely that in the crowd of
poor who throng that neighbourhood, the very
existence of the poor cooper and his wile had been
forgotten; but what excuse can be made for leaving
them under the circumstances ;.n which they first
applied for relief without any help or care? Here
was a case of absolute and unavoidable distress
brought on by no vice or folly, simulated by no
ingenious hypocrisy. The guardians or other ad-
ministrators of the poor law might judge for them-
selves how far the earnings of a matchseller in such
a place were likely to supply a living for two
people ? The test of entrance into the workhouse,
supposed to be so trustworthy, is often entirely the
reverse. The idle, thriftless, and vagabond may
not shrink from a few weeks' residence, but the
more respectable poor shrink from entirely break-
ing up their little homes, and the consequent dis-
persion of families and the bad company they are
thrown among. The feelings of self-respect and
independence, which are so thoroughly English,
are against such a proceeding, and these sentiments
surely deserve encouragement rather than revres-
sion. So long as the appeals of our honest poor in
times of extreme and undeserved misfortune meet
with such responses, there will be an obstacle in
the way of the reclamation of our criminals greater ,
and more formidable than any raised by their own
tendencies. 1

The recent haymaking case at Leigh has occa-
sioned so much controversy, and excited so much
indignation, that it has been thought desirable to
put forward a statement of the affair as it appeared
to the magistrates. Mr. RICHARD MARSH, clerk to
the magistrates of Leigh and Atherton, has addressed
a letter to our contemporary, in which he strenu-
ously defends his chiefs from the charges of harsh-
ness and prejudice brought against them, and en-
deavours to prove that they acted not only with
strict legality, but with moderation and justice.
Reaffirms that Sunday haymaking had for sometime
become frequent in the neighbourhood of Leigh and
Atherton, and that owing to the custom of paying
the men in meat end drink for that day's work in-
stead of money, scenes of drunkenness and disorder
were common. A clergyman in the vicinity com-
plained of the disturbance occasioned by these riot-
ous haymakers, and a policeman in open court as-
sured the magistrates that Sunday haymaking was
on the increase, and was the fruitful source of riot
and disorder. Under these circumstance., the police
were despatched to the fields of the defendants in
this now famous case, where they found a number
of men at work, some sober and some otherwise,
while the fineness of the weather in the opinion of
the prosecutors deprived the offenders of the plea
of necessity. The further particulars of the case,
given by Mr. MARSH, we need not repeat, as in
substance it differs very little from what has been
said before. From this statement Mr. MARSH
draws his own inferences. The Atherton magis.
trates, he says, deserve the thanks of the working
people of the neighbourhood for thus protecting
their interests against their grasping employers,
who would deprive them of their day's rest. The
occupants of the Bench only desire, he affirms, " to
repel the imputation of partial and oppressive
administration of justice. They are not responsible
for the policy, be it good or bad, of any piece of
legislation on which it is their duty to act." That
is true, but at the same time all magistrates are in-
vested with a wide discretion of power, and the
question is not so much whether they have out-
stepped the law, as whether they have not outrun
the bounds of good sense and discretion. It is pos-
sible, nay probable, that the magistrates had some
grounds for their decision, as the prosecutors had,
in all likelihood, Some foundation for the prosecu-
tion. But, was their object to obtain a temporary
triumph over two or three particular individuals, or
to increase the popular respect and regard for the
Sunday in the neighbourhood ? If it was the
former, they had the gratification of a questionable
and short-lived success; if the latter, they must
themselves admit they have miserably failed. In
the first place, the evils of which they complained
could be but very temporary in their nature, and
must have pretty well run their course before the
interference of these sapient expounders of the law.
In the second place, the necessities of harvest appeal
so forcibly to the common sense and right feeling
of every man, that the Sebbatarians could scarcely
find a more Unfortunate subject of contention. In
this changeable and uncertain climate, where it is
next to impossible to reckon confidently on the
long continuance of steady and settled fair wea-
ther, every indulgence :s liberally accorded by
public opinion to those whose business it is to
garner in the fruits of the earth for the general
good. Even in this glorious summer, whose golden
products we are all rejoicing over, how sudden a
change came over the beginning of the autumn
months! What a long spell of dark, rainy, and
unsettled weather followed closely ou tho long