The Sun.
London, England, 1866-09-24 00:00:00

Massacre of the Innocents.

The following lamentable details are vouched for
by the Paris correspondent of the Morning Star :
" A subject of deep interest is now being discussed
at the Academy of Medicine to which I have already
alluded—namely, the frightful mortality among
French children according to the fashion of this
country put out to nurse. Every year 20,000 babies
are sent out of Paris under the care of peasant
nurses, and of that number 5,000 on an average arc
returned to their mothers, the other 15,000 having
died of cold, starvation, and bad treatment. Since
1846 it has been calculated that in the neighbour-
hood of Paris alone 300,000 of these nurslings have
died in the hands of their foster mothers. Why
should such barbarous murder be allowed to depo-
pulate the country? It is entirely owing to the bad
management of the bureaux de nourrices over which
Government has not till now exercised a proper
amount of surveillance. These offices receive i ndis-
criminately every woman who applies at them for
employment. A frightful trade is carried on by
speculators of the lowest class, denominated
meneurs, who enrol countrywomen in their pay,
convey them to Paris in carts justly
called " purgatories," obtain for them babies
whose mothers have applied at the offices for a
nurse for their child, and convey them and the chil-
dren back to the country. The horrors that take
place during the journey to Paris and back in the
vehicle of the meneur are of so startling a nature
that one could hardly believe Viem to be true were
it not for the undoubted proofs which have been
laid before the Academy of Medicine. Thus the
countrywomen make no scruple in exchanging the
babies entrusted to them, and several among them
undertake to nurse two or three children at a time.
' I have seen,' exclaimed M. Chevalier, addressing
the Academy, ' one woman professing to nurse seven
infants, and yet she herself had neither milk nor a
cow.' Fed with bad broth, exposed to every species
of dirt and neglect, the miserable infant sickens and
dies. The nurse, however, writes to its mother that
her baby is prospering, that it had grown. out of its
clothes, and required a fresh supply. The mother
naturally spends her month's wages in supplying
her child's wants, and goes on paying its board for
months after it has been lying in the village ceme-
tery. A considerable number of nurses come an-
nually to Paris and carry back a supply of children,
and not one has ever • been known to bring
a child back to the capital. In their charge
the children simply appear and disappear. Dr.
Brochard cited in his speech to the Academy
two communes of the Eure et Loire Depart-
ment where the nurslings invariablydie. It appears
there are women among the nurses whose reputation
is well known, and, horresco referens, these nurses
are specially sought for by certain ill-famed houses.
Entrusting a new-born infant to one of them is tan-
tamount to infanticide. Dr. Brochard read several
copies of the lying letters written by nurses to the
children's parents, describing in pathetic language
the rosy cheeks and increasing charms of their in-
fants, dead weeks before the epistle was indited.
These horrible facts are highly discreditable to the
mayors of the various villages where these infants
are nursed. Naturally, if M. le Maire, instead of
cultivating his apricots and peaches, and gaining
prizes at agricultural shows for his fat pigs, was to
look sharp after the extraordinary number of little
graves in his village cemetery, and insist on medical
reports as to the cause thereof being laid before him,
infant mortality would rapidly diminish. Messieurs
les Makes will probably read this opinion from the
pens of theirrespective prefects, expressed in a some-
what startling form, as once the French Govern-
ment takes up a subject it does not trifle with it,
and undoubtedly possesses the rare gift of making
tself obeyed.

SUFFERINGS OF EMIGRANTS.—NOBLE CONDUCT
OF A CATHOLIC PRIEST.—The Pall-Mall Gazette
recently remarked as follows :—" Those who calculated on
getting their voyages over before the equinoctial gales
began must this year be grievously disappointed. The
worst of it is that at sea cold weather seems no protection
against cholera, while the prostration and fear caused by
much sea-sickness predispose people to an attack. Thus
the England, starting from Liverpool on the 28th of last
March, and meeting very rough and cold weather, lost 40C
out of the 1,200 Irish and Germans whom she had on board.
The Roman Catholic priest who buried most of these
poor creatures, and who caught thR cholera himself, gives
a very sad account of the voyage ; eight, ten, fifteen dying
a day, and slid over the gunwale amid the shrieks of the
survivors. At Halifax they were put under tents on an
island a mile out. Hero the dead used to be found lying
about with crows far too busy over them. The snow, too,
was still deep ; and many of those who had escaped cholera
got terribly frost-bitten. Ono Danish girl, who had lost
father, mother, three sisters and two brothers, became a
cripple for life. The only relieving feature in the sad
story. is the self-devotion of this young priest, Father
Martin. Officers and passengers joined in signing an
address to him, testifying their ' deep appreciation of the
way in which he had risked his life when cholera raged as
a plague on board,,striking almost all with panic,' while
they were in Quarantine Bay, New York, the Virgini
came in, having lost 250 on the voyage. They had no
priest on board, so Mr. Martin divided his services between
the two ships, and went on working till the quarantine
was over, when the reaction came, and he had to go sick
into the hospital. Altogether, it is such a tale of suffer-
ing and noble self-devotion as has rarely been put on
record."

THE MURDER IN SL. GlLES'S.—Jeffreys, who was
found guilty on Thursday of the murder of his child,
immediately after being sentenced to death admitted the
crime, and he has since made full confession of all the
circumstances connected with the horrible offence. He had
before the month of July intended to destroy the life of his
child, thinking that it would be the means of relieving him
froth the miserable feeling he entertained as to its paternity,
and he took him away from his grandmother on the night
of the 29th of July. He was well acquainted with the cellar
in Neale's-passage, knowing its loneliness, and that access
could be had to it at any hour of the night. Ho had made
all the arrangements in his own mind how to obtain
the child from the custody of his grandmother, and
he resolved upon going to the house of his sister. eirectly
after ho left his sister's house he proceeded to the cellar. It
was then the dead at the night, between 2 and 3 o'clock.
The poor child was very much frightened, and while he
was looking for a fit place to carry out his horrible design
the child fainted and became perfectly insensible, and as he
was in that condition he placed the rope, which he had
taken with him for the purpose, round the child's neck and
hung him up to the post of the cistern. This statement of
the prisoner confirms the evidence of Mr. Hervey, the sur-
geon, who made a postmortem examination of the deceased,
and who expressed an opinion that, although the death of
the deceased was attributable to suffocation by hanging, he
was in a state of insensibility from some cause or other be-
fore he was hanged. On Saturday morning the sheriffs
informed the prisoner that the day fixed for his execution
was Tuesday, October 9. The prisoner heard the fatal
announcement with the same coolness that has characte-
rised him all along. He should be quite prepared, and was
glad that he would bo so soon out of his misery.

. _
THE ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH.—The report that
honours are about to be conferred. upon some of
those who have shared in the successful completion of the
Atlantic Telegraph is well-founded, and the interest which
her Majesty has expressed in the undertaking will be
manifested in an enduring way. The delay which is
taking place arises from an excellent reason, and wo are
sure that no one will complain of it when we say that it is
for the purpose of ascertaining to whom honour is more
particularly due. It would be a pity if the highest forms
of skill and energy brought to bear upon so grand a work
were passed by in favour of the mere capitalist, and we
have little difficulty in predicting that Mr. Canning and
Captain Anderson, as the representatives of those qualities
which should especially be associated with a mark of royal
favour, will find their &Aims regarded as they deserve.—
Sunday Colette.
THE SWIMMERS' ST. LEGER.—This event is to come
off to-night in the Lambeth swimming bath; the race being
for the captaincy of the London Swimming Club. The fa-
vourites, Henry Gurr, the Champion of England, and David
Pamplin, swam a dead heat in each of their latest races
Both swim with marvellous dexterity, the little champion's
celerity as ho bores through the water with his peculiar
screw. stroke having earned for him the sobriquet of
" The Flying Fish," while Pamplin, from the remarkable
combination of grace and swiftness in his beautiful side-
stroke, is called the " Scudding Seal." Each is very young
to have attained such pro- eminence in swimming prowess,
Gurr being but 19, while his formidable rival is even two
years younger. A few noted amateur swimmers are to con-
tend with them for mastery—Daniel J. Hose (champion o
Coventry), ‘Vm. Adams, and Henry Moore (the winner off
Sir Wm. Fraser's gold medal). There will likewise be seve-
ral prizes fur public competition, and a contest for thecap-
taincy of the new swimming club, started in connection
with the German Gymnastic Society, whose amateur band
will play a selection from the best masters. In addition to
the racing there will be adiving competition, and a display
of scientific swimming by Professor Beckwith, Mr. B.
Newlands, and several other eminent masters of natation
The sports are to commence precisely at 8 o'clock, and a•
detailed programme will be presented to each visitor.

(nary
etrtular.

HER IVIAJESTY.

'Co- --

BALMORAL, Sept. 22.
The Queen, accompanied by Princess Louise,
Princess Beatrice, and Prince Arthur, drove yes-
terday to Loch Bulig.
Prince and Princess Christian went out driving
in the afternoon.