The Sun.
London, England, 1840-07-13 00:00:00

A TALE OF MISERY.

The following distressing case has been brought
under our notice during the last week, and we relate
it, partly hoping that some charitable persons may be
induced to relieve the sufferers, partly to show to those
who so strenuously assert that the poor are well off,
what is the real condition of many of them. We
believe this to be by no means an extraordinary
case. On one of the coldest and wettest days of
last winter, we saw, by the side of the Cheddon-
road, a little girl, about eleven years of age, cracking
stones. Oa inquiring, we found that the child had been
put to this most ungenial employment by its parents,
who were on tine verge of starvation. The father had
lost a finger, had been laid up by rheumatism, occa-
sioned by exposure to wet, and then by inflammation
of the eyes, produced by poor living ; the mother was
on the eve of confinement ; a little boy and anothcr
younger child composed the family ; their parish allow-
ance was miserably small, searce enough to keep body
sod soul together ; they all slept in one moat, the
children pigging in one corner, covered only by a
single blanket and having no night-dress. They could
not afford to buy clothes, however necessary, and the
only washing was when occasionally, after they were
abed, the mother would wash the ria they wore, and
by a Light's toil cobble them together for the next
morning's wear. Their food consisted of bread and
water for breakfast, potatoes for cFnner, and a crust
for sapper. Of this coarse fare they could not be per-
mitted to eat their fid, and the mother was obliged to
allowance them, starving herself to stay their hungry
clamour. Animal food they never tasted. The children's

growth was stunted for want of sufficient nourish-
ment.. Shortly before we found them, the eldest child,
girl, had died, evidently from the effects of starva-
tion ; for though direct starvation is rarely a cause of
bath in this country, it is so indirectly, thousands

d)ing,- every car from diseases produced want of
proper and sufficient food. Well, to shorten the
miserable tale, by assistance timely given they were'
enabled to weather the pressing distress of the moment ;
two children obtained Ivork, and an infant was born,
and clothed by charitable aid. We beard - nothing
more of them until, a few days ago, the mother came
to us, wasted to a :kelek,n. It appears that the man I
is unable to obtain but scanty wages, and to such
extravagant prices have all the necessaries of life lately
ad+anccd, bread, potatoes, sugar, tea—that the wages
c..lr..ed were wholly inadequate to supply food, and
tLe union will not relieve thc able-bodied, bo;cover
small their er.rnings. First, bread bad been placed
11,yond their reach ; then, potatoes were at such a
I price that they could not buy even trough of them,
and as a last resource the poor creatures Lad ben
living upon—what do cur readers suppose ?—liore
be:ns boiled. To complete their mkery, the child who

worked at the factory was taken ifl in the measles : in
such an atmosphere, and in such a state of body as
Ruch food must produce, the disease took a fatal turn ;
for three nights the mother had had no sleep --she had
not one of the comforts required to minister to sick-
ness ;—her own miserable tare had produced wounds in
her person that almost prevented her from moving, and
At the moment we write, such is the condition of ail
honest hard-working man and his family in boastful
England. Who does not feel that there must be
something wrong in the laws of a country where such
things can be—where a man cannot I y his labour ma►in-
ta:n his family in comfort ?—Country Paper.

COMMERCIAL BANK OF ENGLAND.—The
business of this bank is to be resumed on Wednesday next.

Viscount Palmerston has appointed the Hon.
Henry Elliot, son of Lord Minto, the Precis writer, at the
Foreign Office, in the place of Hon. Edward Bouverie.
SINGULAR ACCIDENT IN HYDE PARK.—
On Friday afternoon, as Daniel Sutton, Esq., a County Ma-
gistrate residing at Kensington, was driving in his phaeton
through Hyde Park, when in that part of the road opposite the
great gates of the Cavalry Barracks at Knightsbridge, a por-
tion of the road suddenly sank under the horses' feet, burs ing
one of the animals a depth of full three feet. The earria,,e
most providentially was not overturned, nor any person hurt, but
the hose, which was got out with great difficulty, was found
to be so seriously injured that it was deemed necessary to kill
it. It was a fine animal worth 70 guineas. The accident it
was discovered bad been caused by the sinking of the crown of
an old well, the existence of which was not before known.

PROSPECTS OF THE HARVEST IN IRELAND.
—The present is a most important and critical period, in re-
gard to the prospective harvest. From personal observation,
we are enabled to report very favourably of the promising
state of the crops in the counties of Antrim, Derry, Donegal,
Fermanagh, Sligo, Cavan, Monaghan, Tyrone, Armagh, and
Dawn. 'The wheat crop is said to be short in the straw; but
it appeared to us healthy, and is generally in ear, without any
lodgment. The oats are most luxuriant, perhaps too much so,
should dry weather not immediately succeed ; generally, this is
the best prospective crop we have; indeed, in many districts,
farmers are cropping off the heads, with shears, to relieve the
plants. Rye and barley are excellent, and both in ear. A
greater breadth of potatoes has been planted
this year than hao
hitherto been known; and they are put into the ground in a
more scientific manner than we have before seen. Drilling has
become almost universal ;
and the wildest districts of bog and
mountain have been, this season,
i converted into potatoe plan-
tations. The failure talked of s very partial. Flax,
par-
ticularly Donegal, promises uncommonly well. Nothing is
Wanting but dry and warm weather to ,secure almost an abun-
dant harvest; but that is wanting.—Aortliern Whrg.
C
Coroner's in NERu'SestiwNaQsUtaEkSenT.b—efoOren3r
Sia.tßuradkeary, a4ttehrenocOanp.,
a
Cap-
tain Cooke, Marqman-street Commercial-road, on view of the
body of William George Lake, aged thirty-two, a pork-butcher,
who died under the following' woeful circumstances :—Martha
Lake, No. 1, North-street, Commercial-road, said that the
deceased was her husband. He had been poorly for some time
past. He was formerly a hard drinker, but turned a teetotaller
a few months ago, when he joined the East London Society in
connexion with the British and Foreign Temperance Society.
Since then his health declined, and he eventually took to his bed.
On Thursday last he appeared much better
' •
but on Friday morn-
ing, about six o'clock, witness heard him moaning from pain,
' s n
which he felt between his shoulders. Witness sent for a surgeon,
who came in a few minutes, but by that time he ehad ceasedsrgeo tno,
livseti.mulntßayt.he
He wasCorone a hi
r...lar,think
nheis healthr years, and was
dnfromwian the
want of
a
habit of drinking seven glasses of gin before breakfast. Mr.
M. Garratt, surgeon, New-toad, said that he was called.
to the deceased, who was dead. He had opened the body, and
found the lungs adhering to the surface of the ribs. The ause
of death arose from an unusual quantity of fluid in the cavity of
the hea-t. Witness has no doubt but that the deceased has
been sinking since lie abstained from stimulants. Deceased
was also averse to medical advice, which, if he had taken, there
is no doubt that he would have been still alive. Verdict
" Nat urat Death." The foreman, after the verdict was re'
turned, stated that the deceased had taken the house at North..
street, but that since he had been there, he had scarcely sold
anything, and he had been obliged to part with all his furniture
A subscription of nearly 21. was raised, of which the Comet
gave