The Sun.
London, England, 1865-04-21 00:00:00

THE SUN', LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, APRIL 21, 1865.

and have caught the fever and died. How are their deaths
entered ?
Mr. Bennett replied, " Death from fever."
Mr. FAR ALL asked if any patients had so caught the
fever and died, and received an answer in the affirmative ;
but the number of persons who had so died the witness
could not tell.
M'Gee—l wish to draw your attention, Mr. Parnell, to
the fact which has been shown, that Dr. Craig, though
attending on Gibson from day to day, as he says, did not
know that the man had had any gin until after death had
taken place, and that he did not order him any beef tea or
wine, or any other stimulant to sustain him.
Mr. FARNALL—I have taken a note of that. Do you know
how much gin was given to Gibson—was the cup full ?
M'Gee—Ah, that I cannot tell. I don't know about the
cup being full ; you see, they are very fond of it them-
selves. (A laugh.) To Mr. Bennett—Did you not express
indignation when you saw the shirt of the man Gibson the
day before his death ?—I did.
M'Gee—l know you did, and 1 give you credit for it.
Did you not indignantly ask the nurses why they hadn't
changed it ?—I did ; I was quite taken by surprise.
M‘Gee—You say you didn't see vermin, but when you
came in they had nearly done washing him—was it not so ?
—Well, he was very dirty when I saw him. Some dirt
might have been removed from his person.
M'Gee—Did you not say that the corner where his bed
was stunk like the Black Hole of Calcutta?—l do not re-
member saying that, but I was very much annoyed at find-
ing the man in such a state. .
M‘Gee—Did you see any vermin on Gibson when he was
removed to No. 42 ?—No ; but there might have been
vermin on him.
M'Gee—Perhaps you will tell Mr. Parnell whether you
did not discharge a nurse from 42 ward on my proving
that she had been cruel to a patient there ?—Well, I have
an impression on my mind that I did so.
Mr. FARNALL—Now, MGee, let me ask you a question.
You saw the state of Gibson from day to day, and you have
told us that the nurses smoothed down his bed when the
master came—why did you not complain earlier?—Dr. Craig
answered you yesterday, sir. He told you that when a
complaint was being made to him he said he would not
have one patient speak about another.
Mr. FARNALL—But why did you not speak to the master ;
you seemed to have had confidence in his humanity?—
Well, sir, we were all afraid, and then I thought that the
whole of the infirmary was under the doctor, like in a mili-
tary hospital. I should not have written to Sir Thomas
Henry if Dr. Craig had taken notice of me when I reported
the nurse for taking a patient's beef-tea and giving it to
another. I should have told him instead of writing.
e_ Taupe" naLuca Morris, who (hiring Gibson's illness
slept in No. 47 ward, next to M`Gee, was then called. His
evidence in chief substantiated all that had been advanced
by M'Gee as to the want of attention on the part of Dr.
Craig and the nurses, and he went so far as to say that he
did not see Gibson's bed made for a fortnight together. He
stated that Gibson frequently and bitterly complained of his
treatment, and that he never saw tho leg of deceased dressed
by any of the nurses, but that it used to be done by M'Gee,
who used also to wash the man.
Tho witness, in cross-examination by M'Gee, stated—On
the Sunday night before Gibson died I remember the nurse
coming in tipsy and giving Gibson gin. Ido not remember
that she said, "Here, Gibson, old fellow, you shall have
some gin though there are spies here," but I saw her give
him the gin. I know that you were once sick after washing
him. I remember your coming to 47 from 42 ward, and
that two boys had to be put into one bed so as to make
room for you. Ido not remember the nurse saying that
there had been "something very unpleasant in ward 42,"
thereby referring to your having got a nurse dismissed for
cruelty; but I know that the nurses of 47 said something
like, " We must look out, we've got a spy among us."
M'Gee—l am going to ask a question, Mr. Farnall : I do
not know whether you will take it (to witness). Do you
think on the Monday morning, when you called Dr. Craig's
attention to Gibson being delirious, that if there had been
a chump of wood in the bed and a nightcap upon it, instead
of the man, that Dr. Craig would have seen that Gibson
was not there P—Well, Dr. Craig mostly passed by.
M'Gee wanted then to cross-examine the witnesss to show
that Gibson was a good-natured man and of a jocular turn,
and that, though he used a low expression habitually in his
conversation, that he was not a blackguard.

Mr. FARNALL, however, urged that it was unnecessary,
and expressed his deep regret that Gibson's state had not
been reported earlier, and before he got into the state in
which it was proved he had. He (Mr. Farnall) hoped that
inmates would write to some authorities, as M‘Gee had done,
if they saw anything wrong, but that they would write
earlier.

A pauper named Gregory, a printer, was then called, and
his evidence was to the effect that he was an inmate of 47
ward when Gibson was there, and that he was convinced
Gibson received every care, attention, and nourishment—
that, in fact, he was a favoured, or "good" patient, and
had more attention than the others. The witness also
stated that Gibson was a swearing man and irritable, and
a man that he did not at all like, and that the food was
plentiful and quite sufficient for any man.
M`Gee proceeded to cross-examine the witness, who be-
. . _ _

came very irritable and excited himself, and had to be called

to order by the Commissioner. He said the statements he
had made he should "stick to." The following colloquy
then ensued :
Ai Gee—ls your wife a nurse in the married ward ?—Yes,
she is.

M'Geo—When you were in 47 ward, did not your wife
bring you every night a good jug of tea and a plentiful
supply of bread and meat ?—Certainly not.
M'Gee—Please and just make a mark there, Mr. Farnall,
and I will call some one to prove that she used.

The witness hero got into a passion, and said that M`Gee
wanted to catch him. In answer to Mr. Farnall, he ad-
mitted that his wife used of an evening to bring him a
" drop of soup and a bit of bread," which she had saved
from her dinner.

M'Gee—And some meat ?—Well, there might have been
some in the soup.

ITGee—And you don't know how much? (Laughter.)
—Well, there were some bits?

3I Gee—And did you ask her where she got it from ?
Not very likely. I supposed she saved it from her dinner.
. _

M`Gee—And did you not think it improper to take the
food from a woman when you had had plenty, as you told
us just now ?

The witness again became excited, and would not answer,
but said, " You want to get at me ;" to which the reply was
given, "And I will, too."

APdee then tried to elicit that the witness had tried "to
keep in with" the nurses in order that he might not be
sent out of the infirmary until the season when his trade as
a printer became busy, when he could go out altogether, and
not into the body of the house. The witness gave evasive
answers, and allowed that he might have smoked a pipe in
the nurse's room after the inquest, but he did not remember
telling them that he had not let out anything "concerning
the house," and he did not remember the nurses voting him
a good fellow for keeping back his evidence.

I.l‘Gee pronounced the man a " mallingerer"—i.e., ono
who came into the house in the slack seasons, and schemed

;o get into the infirmary.

Mr. Farnall here said the evidence, with respect to the
neglect of Gibson was very clear, and that nothing could be
clearer, so that it was not needful to prolong the inquiry.
He should report to the Poor Law Board, and would let the
guardians know his decision.

M Gee wanted to have another witness called to show how
Mrs. Elsom let the pauper nurses do as they liked in return
for favours which they did for her, but

Mr. Farnall said he had seen and heard quite enough.

The inquiry then closed.
In reply to Mr. Farnall, M'Gee, who was always racked
with a terrible cough, and presented the appearance of a
man in the last stage of decline, said that he should be glad
to get into St. Bartholomew's Hospital, for which institu-

tion the Commissioner had been promised a ticket for tho

man by some charitable lady. lie also said that he had been

well treated in the workhouse since Gibson's death, and had
had meat every day.

HORSEWHIPPING A CLERGYMAN.—At the Leices-
ter county court, on Wednesday, the Rev. Mr.
Roberts, officiating minister of Frowlesworth, sought to
recover from Mr. J. Spencer, of the firm of Messrs. J. and
T. Spencer, bookseller; Leicester, the sum of ..£5O, as
damages for a horsewhipping inflicted on the plaintiff by
the defendant at the Leicester railway station, on Saturday
evening, the 18th of February last. The defendant, in
reply to the action, put in the plea, "served him right."
It appeared that the plaintiff, a clergyman of the Church
of England, is the author of some pamphlets reflecting
upon the public and private character of several Leicester-
shire gentlemen, one being entitled "Lutterwort, an Un-
fortunate Village in a Fortunate Age," and the other
"Frowlesworth, a Dark Village in an Enlightened Age,"
which were compiled from a diary of the plaintiff's while
he was curate in the latter village. In the latter appeared
a paragraph reflecting on the conduct of the defendant and
his brothers, and their "filthy, low, vulgar, and imperti-
nent language," &c., On the evening of the 18th Febru-
ary the defendant met the plaintiff at the railway station ;
asked whether he was the author of the pamphlet which
he held in his hand ; called him a villain, a slanderer, a
vagabond, &c. ; and then gave him a horsewhipping. The
learned judge, in putting the case to the jury before whom
it was tried, remarked that an anonymous letter had been
sent to him to prejudice his mind in reference to the mat-
ter. He promised to commit the author to prison for con-
tempt of court if he should be found ; regretted that the
plaintiff did not devote his time better than to the prepa-
ration of such pamphlets, and suggested to him the pro-
priety of discontinuing them for the future. The jury,
after a few minutes' deliberation out of court, returned a
verdict for the plaintiff—damages £5.
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