The Sun.
London, England, 1830-05-11 00:00:00

let of Mile-end Old-town, charged with being
drunk and disorderly in the workhouse of the above
hamlet.
Mr. Palmer, the keeper of the workhouse, said
that the woman had been in the workhouse for a
great many years. She had continually been in the
habit whenever she went out, of conking horn. in a
beastly state of intoxication. About three weeks
since she went out, and came home as usual very
drunk, and some suspicion having been excited, her
clothes were searched, and 9s. 6d. were found upon
her. Nothing was said of this, but soon after her
trunks were searched, and a pension warrant was
found, which, together with other circumstances,
proved that during the whole time she and her hits-
band had been in the workhouse, she had actually
been in the receipt of a sufficient pension to support
them, without troubling the parish at all.
The woman said she was willing to go and live
out of the workhouse, if her pension-warrant were
returned to her.
Mr. Palmer said, that the overseers thought, that
as she was able to support herself and husband with
her pension she had no right to be any longer kept
in the workhouse.

The Magistrates said, certainly not ; and the
woman and her husband were accordingly ordered
to be turned out, to provide for themselves.

UNION-HALL.

Towards the close of the business of the day, a
female of extremely respectable appearance, was
brought to the office by one of the inspectors of
letter L division, who described that she was ob-
served that morning between the hours of five and
six o'clock, pacing with an air of melancholy on the
banks of the Surrey canal ; and the individual who
first saw her, believing that she contemplated self-
destruction, called a policeman, who, perceiving that
she was a good deal agitated, prevailed on her at
length to accompany him to the station near the
spot. The inspector said that he was in attendance
at the station when the lady was brought in that
morning ; that her clothes were drenched with rain,
and her feet soaked with wet, as if she had been
wandering about the whole of the night. She
seemed to be unhappy, and expressed a desire to be
set at liberty, but refused to disclose who or what
she was, or where she resided. In her possession
was found a gold watch, chain, and seals, together
with a purse, containing a quantity of silver.
Mr. CHAMBERS and Mr. HONE both endeavoured
to extract from her some account of herself, but she
refused to disclose any thing relative to her family,
than merely that she was the wife of a gentleman,
and the mother of ten children. After a great deal
of entreaty on the part of the Magistrates, who
seemed to take deep interest in the fate of the un-
fortunate lady, she admitted that she had escaped
on Sunday out of a lunatic asylum, where she had
been confined for some time past, and that the very
apprehension of her being taken back to the place
from whence she had got away, terrified her to that
degree, that she had made up her mind to destroy
herself rather than be again subjected to what she
had already experienced.
The Magistrate asked her to disclose the asylum
from which she had escaped, telling her at the same
time that she need be under no apprehension, for she
should not be taken there again, unless she wished
to go. This, however, she refused to disclose, un-
der the dread of being again locked up in the asylum.
The Magistrates were at a loss how to act under
the circumstances ; they, however, agreed, that until
further inquiries were made relative to the case, it
would be improper to permit her to go at large,
and she was accordingly conveyed to a house called
the "Bell," in this neighbourhood, with directions
to the landlord, that every care should be taken of
her, until her friends were informed of the circum-
stances under which she was found that morning.
During the time she was at this office, she spoke
in a perfectly rational manner, and exhibited no
symptoms of insanity.