The Sun.
London, England, 1870-09-22 00:00:00

THE BRIXTON BABY-FARMING 'CASE.

Chief Baron Kelly presided in the Central Criminal
Court, Lond,,n, yesterday, for the purpose of trying
Margaret Waters, 35, and Sarah Ellis, 28, who had been
remanded from last sessions on indictments charging them
with a series of murders of little children entrusted to
their care. The first count was for the murder of an
infant named John Walter Cowen, on the 24th of June
last ; and they were further charged with the murders
of one male and three female children unknown.
Other counts charged them with neglecting to provide
food for the children, and obtaining money by false pre-
tences from the parents of the children. Serjeant Ballan-
tine, Mr. Poland, and. Mr. Beasley appeared for the pro-
secution ; Mr. Ribton and Mr. Pater for the prisoners.
The prisoners had lost all the levity which marked their
early examinations, and seemed to feel their position
acutely.
Mr. Serjeant Ballantine opened the case for the prose-
cution, having been instructed by the Attorney-General
on behalf of the Crown. He said the jury were to con-
sider first the case of one child, Cowen, and try whether
it died in consequence of the misconduct of one or either
of the prisoners at the bar. At the same time he should
have to draw their attention to circumstances connected
with the deaths of other children, in order to shew that
death arose out of a system carried on -by the prisoners,
resulting naturally or probably as the result of that sys-
tem. As that case was of a novel character, he should
state the proposition arrived at by the law officers of the
Crown, subject to his lordship's ruling on that point of
law when he should sum up the case to the jury.
According to their view, the object of the prisoners
was to obtain money, and as a means of doing
so, they obtained possession of children under
pretence of taking care of them and bringing them up
properly. Their real object was to get rid of the children
as speedily as possible ; and they used means by which
death was either caused or accelerated. The prosecution
alleged that this unfortunate child fell -a victim to that
system. If so, the prisoners were guilty of the most
grievous crimes for which a person could answer in an
English court of Justice. From December, 1869,
down to the early part of June last, there appeared
in two weekly newspapers a series of advertisements, every
one of which emanated from one or other of the prisoners,
who were acting together. The professed object in all
was that a married couple desired to take charge of a
child, to bring it up as their own, and give it motherly
care. The suggestion in each case was that a
couple wanted to adopt a single child, to bring
it up properly. One of the prisoners had been married ' •
but neither had a husband living with her at the time of
their apprehension ; and except by this traffic, they had
no ostensible means of livelihood. The mother of the
child in question was little more than a child
herself, being not more than 16 years old, and her
father was bandmaster in some regiment. She had been
seduced, and was anxious to conceal her shame. Her
father, therefore, arranged for her to stay with
a midwife until after her delivery. His eye then fell on
one of the prisoner's advertisements, which stated that a
premium of £4 would be required for the adoption of a
child. In answer to his inquiries, the advertiser declined
to give any address. In taking a child, they wished "to
do so entirely—never to be claimed." The letter stated
the couple had been married many years, and had
no children. They had several letters, and
were anxious to decide whose child they should
take. This letter stated matters which were utterly
false. If only one child had been got possession of, it
might be that their motive was correctly stated ; but
when several were obtained, by means of false statements,
it was a matter for Serious consideration. They must
consider the question of the motive in asking a sum like
£4 for taking an infant. £4 could scarcely remunerate
them for bringing up an infant. Counsel then entered
into the evidence against the prisoners at some length.
The particulars were of the same purport exactly as have
already been published, and need not therefore be re-
peated.
Robert Tassio Cowen, 1, Langholm Villas, Lough-
borough-road, Brixton, was then examined, and gave
evidence bearing out in part the opening statement of
Sergeant Ballantine.
John Brassett, a clerk in the office of Lloyd's Weekly
Newspaper, proved that the prisoners brought to the office
the advertisements produced. He saw them there several
times—sometimes together and sometimes separately—
They brought 37 advertisements altogether, for which they
paid ss. each insertion.
Cross-examined : We have inserted advertisements of a
similar kind for years from other people. I saw one of the
prisoners regularly every week for some time. That I
will positively swear.
Police-sergeant Richard Relph identified the advertise-
ments as being in the handwriting of Waters. He also
recapitulated the evidence given before the Magistrates,
and which has been already published.
Mrs. Castle, the midwife, described the child as a very
fine boy. It was fed on milk and water and loaf-sugar,
until it was taken away. That appeared to nourish
it, and was well digested. It was registered before
leaving.
In cross-examination, Mr. Ribton wished to ask
whether, during her five years' practice, other children
had been taken away in the same manner.
His Lordship refused to allow the question to be put,
Mr. Ribton asked that a note be taken of that question
having been tendered. Also whether witness had not
received sums of £6O and £lOO from persons anxious to
adopt children.
Cross-examination resumed : I saw Waters about six
years ago, when she lived in Abingdon-street. I
called on behalf of one of my patients with reference to
an advertisement in the Telegraph. The child was not
placed with her. That was the only transaction. We
did no business together. (Laughter.) She did not de-
cline to take the child. I think my patient would not
agree to her terms.
The trial was then adjourned, the jury being conveyed
to the City Terminus Hotel

THE CHARGE OF LIBEL AGAINST A

BARRISTER.

Mr. Justice Lush gave his decision yesterday in
Chambers on an application made on behalf of the
defendant in the case of Forwood v. Walford. Mr. Wal-
ford was committed at the Mansion House on the 2nd
inst. upon a charge of maliciously writing and publishing
a defamatory libel concerning the prosecutor and one
J. R. Ross, knowing the same to be false, bail being
taken for his appearance, himself in £5OO and two
sureties of £250 each. The alleged libel was contained in
an article which appeared in the Insurance Times, a paper
edited by the defendant. His lordship was of opinion
that a sufficient case had not been made out for a writ of
certiorari, and refused the application. The trial will
take place, therefore, at the Old Baily, during the present
sitting.

The third son of the Emperor of Russia has
arrived at Copenhagen from the White Sea, to be mar-
ried, says the correspondent of the Manchester Examiner,
with Thyra, the daughter of the King of Denmark.
It is proposed to restore the nave of Dunblane
Cathedral. Dunblane (says the Edinburgh Courant) is
—or rather was—in its way as exquisite specimen of
Gothic architecture as any cathedral in Scotland.
A RELIGIOUS SERVICE IN THE ROYAL EXCHANGE.
—During the past summer months a service has been
conducted in front of the Royal Exchange every Sabbath
afternoon. It has been under the superintendence of Mr
Walker, the well-known City missionary. Ministers and
laymen of all Evangelical denominations have taken part
in these services. The attendance has been encouraging
to those who take an interest in open-air services, even
when the weather has been unfavourable. On Sunday
last nearly the whole of the area under the west portico
was occupied with attentive hearers, when the Rev. Dr.
Hewlett delivered an address. The.audience shewed the
utmost attention.

A case of interest to the railway-travelling public
was decided by Sheriff Bell in the Glasgow Sheriff Court
on Monday. A guard on the North British Railway had
neglected to keep the off-side door of a carriage locked,
in consequence of which a passenger fell out on the rails.
The principal defence set up was that the guard was not
responsible for the locking of the doors at the interme-
diate stations. The Sheriff, however, held that the com-
pany's own regulations distinctly read differently, and he
fined the defendant £5, with the alternative of ten days'
imprisonment.

FATHER IGNATIUS.—The monastery founded by
the Rev. Mr. Lyne (Father Ignatius) is now in course of
erection, and the exterior walls are already raised many
feet in height. It is situated in a most remote spot at the
top of the secluded vale of Ewilas, among spurs of the
Brecknockshire " Black Mountains," called the Batterel
Hills, at a place called Capel-y-fin—the " Chapel of the
Boundary " of three counties, Brecon, Hereford, and
Monmouth. There is a small church at this place, and a
road to it by way of the ruins of Llanthony Abbey. The
site of the new monastery is four miles from Llanthony
Abbey by a bad road, which stops at Capel-y-fin. .The
materials for the building—stone--are supplied on the
spot.

Her Majesty the Queen has, through Major-
General Sir Thomas Biddulph, K.C.8., just presented a
donation of 1.12 to William and Elizabeth Cuttriss, of New
Barnes-road, in the city of Ely, who will have completed
the 70th year of their married life in the June of next
year. The man is 90 years of age, and the woman two
years younger.

THE Loss OF THE CAPTAIN.—A few of the sad
scenes caused by the loss of the aboie-named ship have
been supplied to a contemporary by Major Justice, of
Devonport. The bereavement which has occurred in one
house alone in that neighbourhood exhibits a sad picture :
First House : A young widow, with three children, the eldest
four years of age; a 'widow, with five children and an
old mother-in-law to support ; a widow, with five children;
summary, three widows, thirteen orphans. In another
house an equally sad scene presented itself. A woman,
hearing the loss of the Captain, in which her husband was
serving, became dangerously ill and was prematurely con-
fined ; the doctor hardly thought that she would live, yet,
still there was a chance, when in this state the list of survi-
vors arrired, and her husband's name was among the saved.
The doctor begged the people who were about her to keep
the intelligence, but, unfortunateiy, they allowed their
eagerness to communicate the news to overcome the
doctor's admonitions, and told her what they in their
sympathy could not conceal. The sudden revulsion from
grief to joy was too much, and the shock killed her.
The husband returned the following day, and found his six
children, including the recently born babe, that still lives,
orphans."

NAVAL AND MILITARY INTELLIGENCE'
The Lord Warden, flag-ship Of Admiral Sir Alexander
Milne, the late Commander-in-Chief of the Mediter-
ranean; and the Bellerophon, which arrived "with
ber, were so short of coal that the latter had to toge
the former in tow. This happy state of affairs wi,e4.
(Globe) are informed by a correspondent was broug'"
about by the parsimony of Mr. W. E. Baxter, Secretary
of the Admiralty, who is now luxuriating " over the
Border.',
Two young Greeks were among those who perished /0
the Captain, viz., Mr. D. Sachtouris, son of an aide- of
camp to the King of the Hellenes, and Mr. P. Epps'
a Swell-known family of Athens.
Such has been the demand during the past two montbs
for breech-loaders that at the present moment the!'°
is scarcely a gun of any pattern to be purchased 10
Birmingham. The Franco-German war has been quite
godsend to the gun trade, as it has brought purchasers
from all quarters for whole lots of arms left rusting 19
warehouses and cellars, under the -belief that they had
long since been superseded by other inventions. T,
Small Arms Company are busy making Sniders
Government, and it will take a considerable time before
the orders on band are completed.—Birmingham
Gazette.ln view of the importance of the Suez Canal t°
British interests, the Admiralty have decided that our
ships in the East Indies bhall again be placed under the
command of a flag officer, and have selected for that Past
Rear-Admiral J. H. Cockburn, who leaves England on
the Ist proximo.
Rear-Admiral Henry Chad's command as junior ac w"-
ral of the Channel Squadron terminates at the end of the
present month, and we believe he is to be succeeded by
Rear-Admiral A. P. Eardley-Wilmot.

SHREWSBURY ELECTION.
The polling at Shrewsbury began yesterday naoruhl7,
eight o'clock, the nomination having taken place the 4,3,j
before. Mr. Straight (Conservative) and Mr. C°:-A
(Liberal) were nominated, and severally addressed
electors. The show of hands was in favour of the Lib'
candidate.