The Sun.
London, England, 1847-10-18 00:00:00

WORSHIP-STREET.

George John HCWSO7I, an elderly man, described as
a silversmith, and Matilda Hewson, his daughter,
were placed at the bar before Mr. Hammill, for final
examination, charged with concealing the birth of a
newly-born male infant, their alleged offspring, but
the case, it will be seen by the evidence now adduced,
resolved itself into a charge of much more serious
character.

The first examination took place about a month
since, at which time the male prisoner alone was
charged, his daughter being placed under nominal
custody in the infirmary of the Whitechapel union
until her recovery, and when the facts shortly deposed
to were, that on the preceding Saturday, about eight
o'clock in the morning, on a labouring man named
Patrick Curtin going to the water-closet of. his Wait,
in Rosetta-place, Sandys-row, Bishopsgate, he was
astonished at finding the body of an infant partly im-
mersed in the soil, head downwards, and the limbs
that were exposed to view distinctly quivering with a
convulsive action of the muscles. He instantly raised
an alarm, and the body having been removed was placed
by some of the neighbours in a pan of water for the
purpose of cleansing it, but life was then found lo be en-
tirely extinct. Sergeant Price, of the H division,
shortly after received information of the discovery,
and happening to recollect that he had seen the
female prisoner in an advanced stage of pregnancy
about a fortnight before, concluded from that and
other circumstances that had come to his knowledge,
that she was one of the parties implicated in the
transaction, and having found out the -house in which
she resided, and the back of which overlooked the
yard of that in which the body sas found, though in
another street, walked directly up stairs, and after
some preliminary conversation, taxed her with it.
She at first denied the accusation, but on a surgeon
being sent for, and expressing a decided conviction
of its truth, she tacitly assented to it, and having been
removedallk
ton
othwelewdogrek hnofusteh,et the male
matter, and was stoutly
eprisoner, who de-
niedseconded in this denial by the daughter, was conveyed
to the station-house.
Police-constable Davis, 36 H, now stated that he
had known the two prisoners for the last three or four
years, and that while conveying the woman to the
workhouse she anxiously appealed to him to ascer-
tain wharf had been done with her father. Witness
told her that he was in custody for concealing the
birth of the child, and she immediately exclaimed,
" That's totally false, for he was out at the time the
child was born, and also when I dropped it down the
water-closet." The prisoner was very much agitated
when she made this acknowledgment, and witness
having mentioned the suspicions that were entertained
that the child was alive when placed where it was
found, she declared that that was false likewise, that
the infant had been born three days, and that it was
dead when she had so placed it there.
In opposition to this Curtin and his wife, Bridget
Curtin, were called, and both positively swore to the
fact of the limbs of the child moving at the time they
saw it in the soil, and before the removal and dis-
covery of its death by the neighbours.
A married woman, named Mary Macdonald, vlso
child
e -c l oomsf e
must
the
iet t washpaa
vret s quite
beenthat
washedobvioush a d
not
beforeht been
her,en
immersed,
it
mwfromears
thrown e an n,
that
deposed, that on the body being recovered from the
in-
spectiontwh water-closet
t
into the soil.

Mrs. Elizabeth Nathan, the landlady of the house
where the prisoner lived, stated that they had lodged
there for nearly two years, and that during the whole
of that time they had only occupied one apartmera
on the first floor. The witness then repeated the
statement she made at the former hearing, that for
nearly two hours before the discovery had been made
she had been disturbed by a confused noise and hur-
rying about overhead, succe?ded by the repeated
ascents and descents of the mate prisoner up and
down stairs, on one occasion with a pail filled with
something, which he carried into the yard through
the length of which and all up the stairs she after-
wards traced stains of blood ; and added, that on
another occasion she distinctly heard him leave the
house by the front entrance, which he would be com-
pelled to do to go to the rear of the house in Rosetta-
place, and that he remained absent about the time
necessary to reach there.
Amelia Levy, living opposite the house in which
the prisoners resided, deposed, that while standing at
her door on the morning in question, she saw the
male prisoner stealthily open his street door with
something in his hand he was endeavouring to con-
ceal, and that upon observing he was noticed he has-
tily withdrew and closed the door.
Mr. Meares, the divisional surgeon, deposed to ex-
amining the female prisoner, who he found had been
recently delivered; and that on performing a post
mortern examination of the infant's body, he found
that it was a full grown male child, and apparently
healthy. There were no external marks of violence
to account for its death, but much extravasation be-
neath the scalp, and from this circumstance, combined
with the facts that a considerable quantity of nzuco-
nium had been voided, and that the whole of the
lungs floated, though minutely divided and carefully
expressed, which he was convinced could not have

been the case unless the infant had lived, and the lungs
been perfectly inflated, he could come to no other
conclusion than that the child had been born alive,
and the circumstances indicated that it had died from
suffocation.

The prisoners expressed their intention to reserve
their defence, and were both fully committed to New-
gate for trial upon the charge of wilful murder.

MEETING OF CATHOLICS.

A meeting of the Catholics of the northern vicinity
of London was held on Wednesday evening at
Lawson's Rooms, No. 3, Gower• street, New-road,
for the purpose of expressing their sympathy for
Pope Pius IX., and to take into consideration the
propriety of convening a meeting at a convenient
time with the view of raising a Statue in his honour.
The chair was taken at a quarter past seven o'clock
by the Rev. Hardinge Ivers, incumbent at St. Alexis,
Kentish Town.

The Rev. GENTLEMAN, in opening the business of
the evening, briefly referred to the new chapel at
Kentish Town, under the invocation of St. Alexis,
and the particular protection of the Holy See. He
proved, in most eloquent terms and by convincing
arguments, that the Catholic religion is the mother
and nurse of freedom, and, alluding to a previous
meeting, expressed his surprise that he, in this land
of liberty, should be deemed too liberal, since he had
been the preceptor of the sons of Don Carlos, the
supposed representative of absolute power, and had
incidcated into the minds of his august pupils the
same liberal sentiments which he himself professed.
He proved that in this country, in particular, liberty
owed her origin to Catholicism, and quoted some of
the highest authorities in his Church, who teach that
all lawful power must come from God, it is true, but
be conferred by the people, or at least be sanctioned
by them. St. Thomas d'Aquinas, in quiust. cv. of
" Primo Secundo," requires two things to be con-
sidered in the formation of a government—that the
people should share in the sovereignty, whatever be
its form, and that the form to be chosen should be
that which is most conducive to the welfare of the
people. St. Thomas, adopting the opinion of certain
Greek philosophers, the fragments of whose works
are still extant, and of the great Roman orator and
statesmen, Cicero, pronounces the mixed, or what is
commonly called the constitutional form, to be the
most perfect, and ventures even to declare that this
form had received the special sanction of the
Almighty ; that Moses and his successors were, as it
were, the expression of the regal principle, the elders
formed the aristocracy, and the democratic principle
was carried out in the election of the elders, who
were chosen by the people, and from the body of the
people. He showed that the clergy had been ever
zealous to maintain this form of government, as the
most conducive to the happiness of man, and that
such had been especially the conduct of the English
Catholic clergy; that they were ever anxious to keep
present to the minds of our Catholic kings
this fundamental maxim that. they had re-
ceived their power through the medium of the
people. He quoted many eminent Protestant au-
thorities, amongst others the constitutional historian
Hallam, with a view to show that the Catholic Church
in England had been the parent and nurse:of English
liberties, and that the divine right of kings and abso-
lute power had never been mentioned in England till
after the Reformation, and that under Elizabeth,
James, and even Charles, that doctrine was preached
from the pulpit, and propounded from the bench. He
compared this subserviency of the Church of England
with the zeal and patriotism of the Catholic Church
in the cause of liberty ; referring to the ancient
charters obtained through the medium of the clergy,
Ito the excommunications pronounced against those
who should infringe the liberties of Englishmen,
which excommunications formed part of the
canon law of England by a provincial constitution
of Archbishop Peckom (A. D. 1281), and were read
twice a year in all the cathedrals—he alluded to the
ancient custom which to this day exists, and by which
the kings were compelled to solicit at the time of their
coronation the consent of the people. He said that
this spirit of the Catholic Church was the spirit which
animated in a more special manner the breast of Pius
IX. He was the greatest reformer. of the age, the
liberal head of a liberal Church—that he was endea-
vouring to give to the three great Powers which form
a constitutional Government, their adequate and legi-
timate expression. He therefore called upon the
meeting to sympathise with him, and to support him.
The Rev. Gentleman sat down amidst loud and en-
thusiastic cheering.
The following resolutions were unanimously car-
ried, after having been preceded by many eloquent
and interesting discourses.
The Rev. Mr. DYNE, of Lincoln's Inn-fields, pro-
posed the first resolution :—" That as Catholics we
willingly seize this public opportunity of testifying
our constant attachment and devotedness to the Holy
See, and that we consider the temporal sovereignty of
the Pope, as it has existed for ages, to be conducive
to the wise government of the Church, and essential
to its peace and independence," which was received
with loud and long protracted cheering.
Mr. EDWARD MOORE briefly seconded the same.
MILES GERALD LEON, E•q., after a most bril-
liant speech, moved the second resolution—" That as
sincere Catholics we are naturally friends to liberty,
and to all mankind without distinction of creed or of
country, and therefore hail with joy and exultation
the presence in the chair of St. Peter of so good and
great a man as Pope Pius 1X.," which was seconded
by BENJAMIN MARCUS, Esq., an Israelite of Russian
Poland.

The third resolution—" That we are necessarily
fired with indignation at the unprovoked and sacri-
legious attack of the Austrian Government on the
patrimony of Peter, on the sovereign rights of
Pius IX., and on the renascent liberties of Italy"—
was most eloquently proposed by J. COOK, Esq., and
seconded by G. FULLER, Esq.

Mr. J. NEWBURY moved the fourth resolution :
" That in order more effectually to testify our
zeal for the cause of religion and liberty,
and to enable Pius IX. to resist his domestic
and foreign enemies, a subscription be entered
into forthwith ; that the Rev. Hardinge Ivers be
appointed treasurer to receive the same, and that
an address expressive of the sentiments of this meet-
ing be presented to his Holines3 ; that the Rev.
Chairman be appointed to draw up the same, and
that he be required to convene, at a convenient time,
a meeting a the Catholics and admirers of Pius IX.,
for the purpose of raising a statue to his honour."
Mr. J. S. HARRIS seconded the same with great
zeal.

The fifth resolution was moved D. HAZAD, Esq.,
and seconded by Mr. J. CAROVAN :-" That the moral
support so wisely afforded by her Majesty's present
Government, by the more enlightened Princes of the
Italian Peninsula, and by the free and independent
press of Great Britain, deserves our unqualified ap-
probation and applause."
A liberal collection having been made, a vote of
thanks was given to the Rev. Chairman, and the
meeting dispersed.