The Sun.
London, England, 1846-09-03 00:00:00

GREENTVICIL

A person, fashionably attired, about 25 years of age,
and six feet high, with the address and appearance of a
gentleman, and described in the police-sheet as Henry
Nicholson, of 14, Gray's Inn, barrister, was placed at
the bar, charged with indecent conduct towards a little
girl, aged 10 years, on the previous day iu Greenwich-
park. _ _ _

The prisoner had been locked up all night at the sta-
tion-house, bail having been refused in consequence of
his giving a fictitious ua►ne and address.
Ou his taking his position at the bar, Mr. TRAILL
asked hi :n if the name he had given was the proper one?
—The prisoner said it was not quite the proper one.
His real name was Nichol. He then suggested that all
women should leave the Court.

The. Court having been cleared,
Elizabeth Garlick, the mother of the child in question,
was called to the witness box, and stated that her
daughter was born in Feburary, 1836. She was sent
into the park on the previous day about two o'clock, and
about four the witness went to seek her ; saw her
daughter on the lawn near one of the gates, with a
troop of children ; the prisoner was lying on the grass
near them. Witness was remarking to a neighbour on
what she considered improper conduct of the prisoner,
and was proceeding towards him when the child got up
and ran towards her, and said the gentleman had offered
her a shilling to go with him for five minutes, and asked
if she had ever been with gentlemen before. Prisoner
must have heard this. He then got up and went away.
Witness followed, and asked him what he meant by
offering her daughter a shilling ? He was a genntleman
in appearance, but not in manners. He said he did not
know what witness meant.

Mr. TRAILL asked the prisoner if' he wished to put
any questions to the witness ?—The prisoner replied
that he was certainly talking to some little children
whilst lying on the grass smoking a cigar, and the
nearest approach to the charge was that he certainly had
offered a shilling to buy cakes and fruit, as he had done
on other occasions.

Mrs. Garlick, reexamined by Mr. TRAlLL—Believed
the prisoner handled her child improperly.
The prisoner said he did not run away, but walked off,
and had no idea of any impure motive. There were
two young women near them.

Susannah Mather, of Holdsworth's Rents, Deptford,
deposed. that she was in the park at the time. The pri-
soner was lying on the lawn smiking a cigar. There
were two maid-servants with children; he made up to
them. They refused to have anything to say to him and
ran off. There were some young children on the grass.
The little girl, daughter of the witness Garlick, was one
of them, close to the prisoner. Witness heard prisoner
say, as he lay on the grass, to the child, " Don't you
know what I mean?" The child was sitting within reach
of him, and he was lying down. Saw him lay hold of
her hand, and pull her frock towards him. The child
got away and moved off.
The prisoner here remarked that he took hold of the
hands of mw,t children there.

Hannah Cavannah, of New Town, Deptford, confirmed
part of the last witness's evidence.
Frances Jane Garlick, the complainant, was then
called, and in reply to Mr. Trail as to her knowledge of
the sanctity of an oath, stated that she had not been to
church for two years, had nEver learned a catechism,
was only imperfectly acquainted with the Lord's Prayer,
had ritv2r heard God spoken of, and had no idea of a
future state.

The child's mother said she had a family of seven
children, and did the best she could for all of them. The
child had been to school and church also, but not
regularly.
Mr. TRAILL said, it anpearerl as though her parents had
done nothing more with her than send her out to grass.
It was very horrible in a Christian country to see a
child ten years of age who had not heard of God. He
could not think of receiving her evidence, but thought
that sufficient had been stated to justify him in remand-
ing the case for further inquiry.
The prisoner, who repeatedly declared his innocence,
was then informed that he would be required to appear
again that day week, but as he admitted that he had not
given his proper name and address at first he must do so
then. He accordingly retired into the clerk's office for
the purpose, but neither his name nor address was suf,
fered to transpire. An officer was sent by the magis-
trate with the prisoner to test his statement, and he was
liberated on such condition, and entering into his own
recognizances of 40/. to appear on Wednesday next.

POTATO FAILURE IN DORSET

SHIRE.

YEOVIL, AUG. 26.—Our inquiry into this alarming
disease brought us to Yeovil, a large and important
place of business, with a considerable market twice each
week. Here we found the potatoes for sale full three-
fourths infected, some of the early ones even more; the
country growers around bringing them in for sale in
prodigious quantities, many not half grown nor ripe,
selling them for what they can get, rather than take
them home again. The only potatoes apparently sound
are the round reds, many of which are grown in this
county, yet such is the fear of the cottagers that they
are digging them up before they are half grown, fearing
the disease will also spread to those; no where can be
seen a plot but what has all the leaves dead, and the
stalks dying fast, leaving the most abominable stench.
The turnips along here are also much diseased, and
drily spreading, the tops pierced with innumerable punc-
tures or holes, then turning of a sickly yellow, after
which the root becomes rotten through. The carrots
and parsnips are also much diseased, the tops dying
away, and the lower part of the roots rotting. The
onions, of which there are many acres growing here, are
also more than half destroyed; we proceeded on to
SHERBORNE, five miles from Yeovil, and through se-
veral villages right and left leading thereto, where we
heard the general complaint, " that all their potatoes
were diseased; that in a month or two, if the disease
continued to spread as rapidly as it has done for the
last month, they will not have a sound potato to eat."
Here we found several plots of rough reds not at all in-
fected, which we heard the growers had been strongly
advised to let remain in the ground, and to preserve
them with great care, which they (it is said) have pro-
mised to do. The kidneys called " Wimborne," are
dreadfully infected, to the extent of more than two-
thirds, though fine in size, yet rotten to the core or
heart ; the red-nosed kidneys are also much diseased,
though not yet fit to dig. The chief dependence for
the poor's subsistence during the winter around this part
is on the potato, and those this year are nearly all de-
stroyed. The poor agricultural labourers and their fami-
lies are almost frantic with despair and grief; exclaiming
" What shall we do this next winter?" as many farmers
around here last winter were not giving more than 7s.
per week, and they have expressed their determination
already to give no more this. Some asserting that only
6s. will be their price after harvest—that they will not
be enabled to give more. If so, famine must be the re-
sult, and that in its most dreadful fn.'s:), as many, no
doubt, will be driven to eat this poisonous diseased escu-
lent, which the medical gentlemen pronounce as likely
to produce fever of the most malignant nature. At
STURMINSTER, twelve miles from Yeovil, and four or
five villages on the way, we are informed also of the
direful effects of this pestilential disease, and the dread-
ful effects likely to follow the fast decaying and the
principal food here of the poor. Already sickness sits
upon the now half-fami"hed labourers and their families.
What must follow the total destruction of their winter's
food no one can foretel, and many shrink here from con-
templating or discussing this heart-rending topic.
Gardens most of the poor have; but what are they
now to them (the occupiers), covered with disease, in-
stead of yielding sustenance, as in other years, such as
to carry them through the long and dreary approaching
winter? It is not only that their potatoes are rotting,
but their carrots, onions, apples, &c., are also fast de-
caying, and also the greens are scarce, from the long
hot weather destroying many early planted. The tur-
nips, too, of which so many were allowed to gather and
partly live thereon last winter, are this year also
tainted to a great extent in this county. We here saw
several pieces of the rough reds still sound, though the
haums were dying prematurely this summer, full two
months before this time. At

STALBRIDGE, twelve miles also from Sherborne, and
through other hamlets, the complaints were not quite so
general, though the tops were found dying. There ap-
pears to be another hardy potato similar to the rough
red grown here, through the skin of which the disease
has not as yet penetrated ; many are pulling up the tops
and leaving the roots in the ground, which appears in
some instances to stop the spreading of this direful
plague. It appears difficult to make the country people
believe it as being wiser to let the potatoes remain in the
ground than to dig them up now. There is a chance
for the potato when covered over with the earth they
grow in, and none when they become exposed to atmos-
pheric influence. At
REDBRICK. four miles from Sturminster, many hardy
rough reds and others are grown, which as yet have not
much suffered from this distemper. The white shaws
and yellow lemons, with the early walnut and ash leaf,
are more touched than the later sorts, about one third
having been found unfit for human food. The poor
about here will not give them even to their pigs, as se-
veral have found that
.their swine became sick and
wasted away after their eating them for a week or two,
One farmer had three pigs died, which he attributes to
their having been fed with diseased potatoes. At

(ERNE ABBAs, and within a few miles around, the
disease has, within the last three weeks, extended most
alarmingly ; it is with the greatest difficulty sound po-
tatoes can be purchased at any price. 'We heard of 6s.
per bushel having been given by the master of a gentle-
men's boarding-school here, and the half of those were
not fit for food in three days. We were shown a five-
acre field of potatoes, that three weeks previously pro-
mised to be the best crop around—now, upon digging
three rows, each twelve yards in length,' one gallon of
sound ones would not be picked out. We were shown
plums, much diseased, just picked from the trees ; sear-
lot runners not fit for food, onions three parts rotten ;
turnips dying away in the fields more than one-half
daily increased in putridity ; apples, the very few there
are, decaying within a few days after they are gathered.
At

MILBURN PORT the very atmosphere is impregnated
with impurity and disease ; the air there breathed ope-
rating injuriously on the human frame—every field and
garden being in a state of putrescency—no vegetables