The Sun.
London, England, 1851-08-26 00:00:00

THE SUN,

Irswicx—Wind N.W.—fine.
DERBY—Wind W.—fine.
N orrrscaam—W ind N.N.E.—very fine.
Lnicoui—Wind E.—fine.
HOLYHRAD--Wind W., gentle breeze—partially cloudy.
Cazgrae.--Wind S.W.— cloudy.
SHEFFIELD--Wind W.—cloudy.
LrvaarooL—Wind N.W.—fine.
BlexcassyEa—Wind W.—cloudy.
HULL—Wind W.N.W.—fine.
LazDs—Wind N.—fine.
YORK—Wind W.—fine.
LANCASTER—NV ind S. W., gentle breeze—heavy rain.
SCARBOROUGH —Wind W.—fine.
array—Wind N., strong breeze— cloudless.
DARLINGTON—Wind N.N.W., strong breeze—fine.
SHAT—Wind N.W., strong breeze—partially cloudy.
NEWCASTLI—Wind W.—fine.
Baarrock—Wind N.W., gentle breeze--partially cloudy.
BERWICX—Wind E cloudy.
GLASGOW—Wind S.W.—very fine.
EDLNBURGH—Wind W.— fine.
The returns from the following places indicate the state of
the wind and weather on Saturday morning at nine
o'clock :

POOLR —Wind S.W., calm—overcast.
Lzicarrox—Wind S.W., strong breeze—rain.

THE WEATHER.—SIIN AUGUST 26.
THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE,
68—highest since noon yesterday.
48—lowest this morning and during the night.
63—this day, at noon.
BAROMETER, 3012.
WIleD W.—strong breeze and cloudy, with occasional
showers.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.
No communication can be attended to unless authen-
ticated by the name and address of the writer.
Rejf-cted communications cannot be returned.

6-Vod= Ant
LONDON, TUESDAY, AUGUST 26, 1851

LONDON,

excellent in theory, but which is found
to work admirably in practice; whilst every nation on
the continent of Europe has been during the same
period of time engaged in endeavouring to solve this
same problem of constitutional government without
success ? The proper consideration of this question
would require a volume, and we throw it out for the
consideration of the political philosopher as ose
worthy of his most attentive study, contenting our-
selves with observing that, whilst the nations who
have failed to solve this question have all had an es-
tablished church, rich in worldly go ods, acting in
conjunction with a corrupt Executive, an insolvent
and privileged aristocracy, a large standing army
and a class monopoly of the learned professions, the
Sandwich Islanders have had none of these things,
but have had instead, as is proved by the educational sta-
tistics, a general and equal diffusion of education among
all classes of the community. In the states in which the
experiment of self-government has failed, the churches
far outnumber the schools; in the Sandwich Islands,
on the contrary, there are more schools than
churches. These facts form important elements in the
consideration of the very difficult but undoubtedly
most importantquestion which we have proposed.

We had hoped that the universal execration, to say
nothing of the legal penalties, which was consequent
on the exposure of the revolting circumstances con-
nected with the notorious SLOANE case, would have
operated as a wholesome check on the tyrannical pro-
pensities of those unfeeling persons who appear to
consider their domestic servants as less deserving of
humane treatment than slaves or even beasts of burden.

Even in the slave states of America the negro is
well fed and cared for. Although he may be regarded
as a creature of an inferior species, yet his master
is prompted by motives of selfish consideration, at all
events, to see that hie physical requirements are not
unattended to—that he has wherewithal to eat
and where to lay his head in comparative
comfort. The horse is tolerably certain of good
treatment at his owner's hands, for the sake of getting
the required amount of service out of his limbs; but
we find in this free country individuals, actuated by
some spirit of villanous perversity, sacrificing the
principles of both humanity and self-interest, and
rendering themselves permanent objects of universal
detestation in the very wantonness of an evil nature.
We wish not, nor is it the proviuce of the public
j ournalist, to prejudge any caae precipitately, but the
public reports of yesterday furnish a painful instance
of the ill-treatment of a servant, which it is impossi-
ble to peruse without sentiments of profound indig-
nation.

It appears that a girl of seventeen years of
age, named MARY ANNE TARGET, was brought up
yesterday, at Guildhall, on remand, having been
charged with stealing a piece of bread of the value
of twopence sterling, the property of a policeman, and
on this occasion a series of ill-treatment on the part of
her employers transpired which has succeeded in ac-
quiring for them a most unenviable notoriety. The
policeman, far from being an indirect abettor of the
sufferings of the poor girl, brought forward the
charge for the purpose of having her condition in-
vestigated, not of having the petty theft judicially
punished; for he felt convinced that the scraps of food
which he had occasionally found missing could
have been purloined solely through the crav-
ings of the first necessity the want of food.
It accordingly came to light from the sworn
testimony of the girl TARGET that an inge-
nious system of semi-starvation was put into practice
upon her, the animus of which may be judged of from
one portion of her evidence. After stating the insuf-
ficiency of her general supply of food, she proceeded
to say, "Oa Wednesday last when I took up some
baked meet for dinner, my master pointed to it and
said, Do you see that ?' I said, Yes, sir;' and he
then said, That is all you will have,' meaning that
the sight of it was sufficient for me. I had no dinner
at all that day." Not content with thus ingeniously
incapacitating her from the due discharge of her la-
bours; savage corporal punishment was called into re-
quisition by the amiable couple of Great Carter-lane
The mistress discharged the minor office of frequently
boxing her ears. The master, who chivalrously lett
it to his helpmate to meet the charge at the Guild-
hall, is stated to have indulged in a more energetic
species of castigation. He beat the girl on the back and
Inoulders with a cane—bad enough, but worse remains
oehind. On one occasion he kicked her on the hip
for not taking the ashes clean enough from under the
fire-grate. On another be struck her on the side with
his fist (we only wish Bax COUNT had five minutes
" remonstrance " with the cowardly caitiff). Sunday
appeared a favourite day for those gentle operations.
Of the reality of the ill-treatment there can be no
doubt from the evidence of the matron of the Gilt-
spur-street Compter, who deposed that on examining
the person of the servant girl she discovered bruises
on her right side apparently produced by blows from
a stick ; a bruise on her left hip, others on her back
and shoulders, and one on her left temple. The latter
was, according to her statement, the effect of her
mistress's handiwork, the mark on the hip the
result of a kick from the gentleman of the
establishment, who had probably been inspired with a
desire to try his prowess in exercising the " Savate"
upon her. From the appearance of her hands she had
worked exceedingly hard. The knuckles were
swollen, and "the joint in the first finger of the left
hand nearly worn off" Whatever may have been the
girl's demerits as a servant—whether she were given
or not to laziness, lying, or any other imperfection—
nothing can justify such brutal treatment on the part
of her employers. If, as was stated by Mrs. FELLS, she
had been frequently guilty of theft, why not have adopted
either of two out of the three alternatives which were
stated by that lady to have been offered on the occa-
sion of detection, namely, " to send her home to her
mother, or to give her in charge ?" Why retain a thief
in service on the condition of inflicting " a good
beating ?" This vile system of personal violence, as
well as that of inflicting famine on servants, pupils, or
apprentices, must he put an end to, and whenever the
guilt can be brought home of the neglect of providing
proper food, or of unlawful and malicious assault, to
the danger of the servant's health or life, we sincerely
trust that the penalty provided by the recent Act
passed to meet cases of the SLOANE nature may be
strictly carried out. The treadmill and oakum-pick-
ing are the fittest occupations for persons of such
brutish propensities, now that such retaliatory punish-
ment as the cart's-tail and the pillory are gone out of
fashion. If misconduct exists on the part of the
employed, it affords no justification to the
employer " to take the law into his own hands,"
as the saying is, and to wreak a savage vengeance.
But if the cruelties inflicted arise out of sheer love
of inflicting pain, without a shadow of palliating cir-
cumstances for their perpetration, it renders the
despotic task-master utterly unfit to continue a
member of society in a civilized country.

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