The Sun.
London, England, 1870-06-29 00:00:00

THE WHOLESALE BABY FARMING CASE
AT BRIXTON.
Yesterday afternoon, the prisoners Margaret Waters, 35,
with the aliases of Willis, Hurley, Walters, Ellis,
Oliver, Blackburn, Ford, &c., and Mary Ellis, 29,
her sister, underwent a further examination at
the Lambeth Police-court, before Mr. Elliott. The former
prisoner was originally charged with neglecting to provide
proper food and nourishment for the illegitimate male
child of Jeannette Tassy Cowen, thus endangering its
life, and the child since the last examination has
died. The prisoners together were also charged
with having other infants in their possession, and
endangering their lives by not providing proper food and
nourishment. The interest in the case has very much in-
creased, as no less than three of the children found have
since expired. The Court and its approaches were

crowded.
Mr. Poland again appeared to prosecute, on behalf of
the Treasury, and the prisoners were defended by Mr.
Mayo.
Mr. Poland said he very much regretted to inform his
worship that since the case was last before the court
three of the children had died. One died on Thurs-
day, at the workhouse. Miss Cowen's child died on
Friday, and another male child died on Sunday last. The
post mortem examination was made only yesterday, and
what he proposed to do was togo as far as he could with the
case to-day, and then to ask for a further adjournment.
At present he had not been able to trace out the mothers
of the children who had been found, but he should sbew
beyond doubt that some of the clothes which they had
been wrapped up in, were clothes which came from the
prisoner's house. Hef hoped further information would be
forthcoming, owing to the publicity the case had natu-
rally received
The first witness called was Robert Tassey Cowen, who
gave evidence respecting the birth of his daughter's child,
and his enthisting it to the care of the prisoner sithilar to
that he had already given at the inquest.
Mr. Poland then read the following letter, signed M.
Willis, and received from the prisoner in reply to one
which had been sent :
" Dear Sir,—In reply to your letter we wish to say, as
a reason for not giving you our address, that, in taking a
child, we wish to do so entirely, never to be claimed.
We have been married many years and are without
family; and we have determined on bringing a little one
up as our own. My constant care shall be for the child,
and every thing which shall be for the child's comfort shall
be constantly considered. If you should think any more of
this, and will write where and when I can see you, and
how I shall know you, we shall feel very much obliged.
We have had several letters and so are anxious to decide
whose child we shall adopt.
Cross-examined : The child seemed to be getting better
until three or four days before its death, and lie
thought it would survive. He had no wish
to get rid of the child entirely, and should not
have done so had it not been for the assertion
the prisoner made. He could not identify the child he
saw, as his daughter's. It might, for aught he knew, belong
to some one else. He did not offer to give more than £4,
and he expected the child to be brought up respectably.
He considered the refusal to receive money shewed
Waters was fond of children. She said when she
had got the child that her husband was very much pleased
with it.
Re-examined : If he had known Waters had ten chil-
dren in her house he certainly should not have let her
take his daughter's ' child. But for her statements he
should not have parted with it at all.
Mrs. Caroline Guera, with whom Mr. Robert Cowen
lodged, and who was present when his daughter's child
was given to Mrs. Waters, repeated the evidence she had
given at the inquest.
Ann Rowland, wet nurse, Elizabeth Curnow and Caro-
line Bellamy, workhouse nurses, deposed to the wretched
condition of the children entrusted to their care.
Dr. Puckle, the medical officer of the district, said on
Saturday, June 11, Sergeant Relf requested him to ac-
company him to the prisoners house. In the front room
downstairs he saw the two prisoners and several babies.
There were five of them lying in a row, three on the sofa
and two in a crib adjoining. Waters brought Miss
Cowen's child to him, and he examined it. It was in an
extremely emaciated state, veryjethargic, the eyes closed,
the limbs were relaxed, and the child did not
appear to move when taken up. The limbs
hung down. The pupils of the eyes were contracted,
which was a sign of oppression of the brain. He tried to
rouse it and ascertain if it was the result of sleep. He
could only partially rouse it. It partly opened its eyes,
and then again relapsed. The administration of a narcotic
would produce such a state as he had described. He asked
Waters what she had given the child. She replied,
" Nothing except what Dr. Harris has ordered." He
inquired if she had given it any sleeping or composing
stuff, or any soothing syrup. She said she had not. In
a bottle on the table, the cork of which was out, he dis-
covered about three drops of fluid which smelt like
laudanum. He pressed the prisoner Waters as to
whether she had given the child anything,
and she adhered to her statement that she had
not done so, and she had done all she could for
the child, which had been suffering from diarrhoea. She
also said the children had plenty of food, and she told him
what she gave them. He approved of Mrs. Rowland as a
wet nurse, and he attended the child of Mrs. Cowen up to
its death, visiting it every day. He had since examined the
bottle, and was satisfied it had contained laudanum. After
the child had been removed it very-much improved, and took•
the breast readily. The lethargic state went off, and
led him to the opinion that it had been produced by a
narcotic, and was not a natural state. The child was
afterwards seized with diarrhoea, and then gradually
sank. During the two days last before its
death it was unable to take the breast from
weakness, but everything was done for it that
was possible. Before it expired it was taken with con-
vulsive fits. He made a post-mortem examination, and
found that death was the result of atrophy, extreme
wasting with thrush, and congestion of the brain.
Giving a child of that age a narcotic would
tend to produce congestion of the brain—would
interfere with digestion, and increase the atrophy.
from which the child was suffering. The other children
were very quiet, and this struck him as being very re-
markable. The child that died in the workhouse on Fri-
day died chiefly from congestion of the brain, though
there were appearances of atrophy. A narcotic adminis-
tered to it would have tended to produce death.
Further evidence was given, and the case was again
adjourned.

THE WAR DEPARTMENT.—Copies of orders in
Council, relating to the War Department, have been pre-
sented to Parliament by command of the Queen. The
orders define the limit of power to be extended in future
to the Field-Marshal, commanding the forces in the
United Kingdom, to the Surveyor-General of the
Ordnance, and to the Financial Secretary of the War
Office, all of whom are, however, to submit, in their
government of the army, to the superior authority and
prerogative of the Secretary of State for War.
A NOTABLE BANKRUPT.—In the Court of Bank-
ruptcy there was a sitting for examination and discharge,
in the case of D. R. Goodlake, described as a diredtor of
an insurance company, of the Cannon-street and Charing-
cross Hotels, late trading as a tobacco broker at Dublin.
The amount of his liabilities is enormous, not less than
£436,196. Of this amount £375,000 is in respect of calls
on shares, made and in prospect, in the United Ports and
General Insurance Company. He is also liable on shares
in the Bristol Marine Insurance Company, the Foreign
Trading Company, and the Amicable Life Insurance
Company. The assets are returned at £1,193; property
held as security, £15,478. The bankrupt had been re-
quired to amend his accounts, and having done so and
accounted for his deficiency, the assignees did not object
to his passing.
THREE PERSONS BURNT TO DEATII.—On Mon-
day an inquest was held at the Town-hall, Herne Bay,
before Mr. T. T. Delassaux, coroner, on the bodies of
Susannah Wanstall, aged 71, Ethel Day, aged 6, and
William Busby, aged 3, who were burnt to death in a
cottage on Saturday night. It appears that Susannah
Wanstall and her daughter, Susannah Day, carried on a
laundry at a cottage in King-street, and were engaged in
ironing clothes till nearly twelve o'clock at night, shortly
after which they retired to bed. At half-past twelve the
house was discovered in flames. Susannah Day, in an
excited state, without waiting for a ladder which was
being fetched, jumped through the window, and fell on
the' pavement below. She was speedily removed to a
house opposite, where she remains without hope of re-
covery. Her mother; Mrs. Wanstall, had evidently not
been apprised of the fire, and she and the two children
were consumed. The bodies presented a ghastly appear-
ance, being literally burnt to a cinder. The cottage was
completely gutted, and the adjoining property was saved
only by dmt of great exertion. After hearing the evi-
dence the jury returned a verdict of accidental death, and
expressed their surprise that no means whatever exist in
Herne Bay to extinguish a fire.
THE IRISH AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.—A. deputa-
tion consisting of Irish Peers and members of Parliament
representing Irish constituencies, was to have waited on
the Prince of Wales on Monday, to convey to his Royal
Highness and to the Princess an invitation to visit
Ballinasloe, during the first week in August, the date
fixed for the Annual Show of the Royal Agricultural
Society in Ireland. On Saturday, however, it was
intimated by General Knollys to Major D'Arcy
(the representative of the committee) that the Prince
would be unable to accept the invitation, for the
reason contained in the following letter, addressed
to Major D'Arcy by General Knolls :—" I have had the
honour of laying the request contained in your letter of
this day before the Prince of Wales, to the effect that
their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess would
honour the Agricultural Exhibition, to be held at Balli-
nasloe in the 'first week of August, with their presence ;
and I am directed by his Royal Highness to request you,
in reply, to convey to the committee, as their chairman,
his great regret that, owing to the absence of the Prim'
cess and himself from England at that.,ipAii4.lt,,will
not be in their power to avail thepp9iyie§okap inAta#on
which would have afforded thein`S'o'hificiligtMffeatiiiilto
have accepted."