The Sun.
London, England, 1836-08-04 00:00:00

The accompanying- picture, frightfully true to nature,
appears in an article on the " Domestic Arrangements of
Working Classes," in the last London and Westminster
Review, and may be called a genuine Hogarth in print.
The lesson which it holds out, is riot addressed however,
to time who supply its subject matter, for they are invo-
luntary victims to a wretched fate ; but to all who have
the influence, and should have the heart to ameliorate the
condition of the poor :
" The child was one of nine, the eldest of whom had
.been born on the ground floor of a house situated in a row
in a long dark alley, whore the sun was never seen save at
mid-day, and then only occasionally, during the summer's
heat. The father had originally been a decent mechanic,
earning from twenty-five to thirty shillings per week ; and
when his first child was born, there were few men in his
station so happy as he, for all his wants were well supplied.
His wife was an industrious, cheerful partner ; and the
gloominess of their abode was unheeded, relieved as it was
by their weekly walk in the green fields. Still more
prosperous times came ; and the earnings of the hus-
band being increased, he was enabled to occupy both
the rooms of the first floor. Three more children were
born ; and the necessity for a larger supply of food obliged
them to encroach on their rent. The fist floor was ex-
changed for the second ;—the family was increased by two
other members, and all removed to the garrets. For some
years the weekly walk in the fields had been discontinued
by the woman ; and the garments of the husband having
become unsightly, he also had ceased to seek the fresh air ;
the whole of his time was taken up with providing the food
necessary for his children, and his wife was wholly occupied
in looking after them, and contriving to keep together the
rags which covered them. Two more children were born ;
and all were confined to a single back garret, where the
wages of the husband being insufficient to appease their
hunger, the -wife endeavoured to eke them out by washing
for their neighbours, some of whom were not quite so poor
as themselves. It was a scene of misery, from which the
elder children were glad to escape, and play upon the stair-
case, or in the court before the house, becoming early
inured to disputes and quarrels among themselves and with
other children, every room in the house being occupied by
a separate family. In the midst of this, the man's wages
happened to be reduced ; and after long bearing up against
misery, he at last yielded to the habit of intoxication, partly
to appease the cravings of unsatisfied hunger, and partly to
get rid of thought. His wife still struggled and worked harder,
but only to procure food, for all other considerations were
now disregarded. In this condition her ninth child was
born ; and charity alone—the charity of misery to still greater
misery—saved them from starving. But the woman was
changed ; she had become reckless through suffering, and
the sight of her youngest child only served to remind her
that an additional weight of misery had fallen on her. She
also took to intoxication as a refuge from pain : the coin
which was inadequate to supply food was yet sufficient to
produoe a temporary oblivion of the want of it. The fre-
quent hunger and pain which the child experienced were al-
leviated in the same manner ;—none smiled on its young
eyes when they were opened, and almost the qnly sensation
of pleasure it could experience was in gazing vacantly on the
rays of sunlight tthieb at some few intervals penetrated the
apartment. Mother rind father were now frequently away
from home for hours, and sometimes days together ; and
remarkable in a sickly infant was the tenacity of life, which
would not suffer it to perish. How the other children
lived, was a mystery to all but those in a similar condi-
tion ; they had no daily meals, nor even sat down to food.
Like dogs nr wolves, they had a great capacity for endurance ;
having no labour to perform, they could exist for days on
the smallest possible quantity of food, and they were ever
on the alert to beg, snatch, or steal. One feeling alone
was uppermost in their minds, which gave room to no other
—the pain of unsatisfied hunger. Their dreams, during
the scanty time of sleep, Wero of eating ; and when they
awakened, it was to seek the means of eating. The elder
children took by force from the younger any scraps of food
they found with them ; and the younger resorted to cunning
to devour them in private. If chance threw in their way
a larger booty than ordinary, it was devoured in haste,
and in quantity, which left them in the condition of the
torpid boa—a prey to the pangs and helplessness of over-
repletion.
" Gloomy was the daily scene on which the young child
gazed when his faculties began to awaken.. During the
summer he would crawl towards the miserable casement,
and look upwards through the interstices of surrotznding
stacks of chimnies, to maze upon the light; but when win-
ter came, he shrunk shivering, huddled up in his rags,
towards the fire-place, which rarely contained a fire ; and
when by chance it did, -volumes of smoke filled the apart-
ment, and clouded over the wretched fragments called fur-
niture, which only remained unsold by the parents be-
cause they were worth no one's purchase. Ere the child
was old enough to descend the stairs, to follow the pur-
suits of his brothers and sisters, the whole family were
ejected from their miserable abode, to one still more
wretched—they were driven to the cellar. It was in
the autumn, and the damp of the place soon made a
fearful change. Ere they had been a week in it, the
whole of them were laid prostrate by typhus fever. The
father, the two eldest boys, and the youngest, alone sur-
vived to endure farther suffering. They might even then
have become worthy members of society, had the father
retained strength of purpose or moral feeling, for the dispo-
sition of the eldest boy was naturally kind and benevolent,
ere it had been hardened by want and misery. But it was
now too late ; and the intellect of the boy only served to
make him a skilful thief. The whole family were main-
tained by the provisions which he, and his brother under his
directions, contrived to pilfer. Occasionally they were com-
mitted to prison, to pursue the same course when again en-
larged. The Magistrates lectured them, and warned them
to change their course, knowing at the same time that if
they ceased to steal they must starve, or go on the parish,
for they knew no other means of earning a living ; they
lived in the belief that thieving was their proper trade, and
those who punished them for it, tyrants, whose only right was
might. The heart of the eldest boy which yearned for affec-
tion, expanded towards the young child, who was accustomed
to look for his return home as his only source of pleasure,
and when the father died of disease and debauchery, he took
him for his protige, and removed to a more healthy abode.
The other brother disappear ed, no one knew whither ; and
when the youngest attained the age of seven years, his only
friend, his only protector, the only being who loved him, was
taken from him by a sentence of transportation. Left alone in
the world, he became a thief at that early age, and ere he
attained eight years, he became acquainted with the interior of
a prison. Harshly treated by all, he grew fierce and reckless ;
and as his intellect expanded, he became a fearful spoiler
of his kind. He loved no one, and trusted no one—
sensual excitement was his only pleasure, his only wish,
and he revelled in every kind of debauchery. His na-
tural energy was divided between the pursuits of rob-
bery, and the dissipation of the gains acquired by it.
His intelligence succeeded in putting off to a distant pe-
riod the retribution with which he knew society would
sooner or later visit him ; and he had attained twenty-three
years of age ere he was convicted of felony, and transported
to a penal colony. His career was then short. On the
voyage he planned a mutiny, which failed ?fosnuciceds! by the
treachery of an intended accomplice ; d
aknind which would
the
punishment inflicted on him was of a. c would
have destroyed every spark of humanity in_ him, had any
remained. He escaped, and became a
leader of bush-
rangers ; his hands were made familiar with human blood ;
and after going through scenes of the most disgusting hor-
rors, he was shot, like a wild beast, in his lair, by those
who feared to approach him from terror of his untamable
ferocity. Yet this being was once a gentle infant, smiling
ocence."