The Sun.
London, England, 1835-03-12 00:00:00

SHOCKING DISCLOSURES RELAT
ING TO THE CASE OF THE GIRL WALLER.

On Monday evening a very numerous meeting of gentle-
men and tradesmen residing in the parish of St. George-in-
_the-East was held at the Britannia Tavern, in the Back-
road, to hear the report of a committee of parishioners ap-
pointed'at a former meeting to devise the best means to rid
the parish of persons • who trade in juvenile prostitution,
and who abound in the neighbourhood of the Commercial-
road, and to ascertain the best mode of bringing the parties
to justice who were concerned in decoying the girl Waller
from the paths of virtue into ruin, disease, and death.
Mr. Waller, the father of the unfortunate girl, was pre-
sent, and evinced great anxiety during the proceedings.
Mr. T. MORRIS, of Wellclose-square, having been called
to the chair, said that before the Report was read, he must
tell them a large call would be made on their credulity, for
the statements about to be made were so repugnazt to
their feelings as men and fathers, and so revolting to their
nature, that he was sure they would think the picture
highly coloured. He regretted, however, to say that every
iota of the statements was most lamentably true.—( Hear.)
The report, which was very long, and got up with great
care, was read by Mr. Talbot. It la egan by stating, that
much commiseration had been evinced by several indivi-
duals of rank in the metropolis for the unfortunate girl
Waller, and the inhabitants of St. George had felt deeply
on the subject. The committee had investigated that case,
and were satisfied that a more flagrant one could not be ;\
but they had reason to believe it was not a solitary one.—
(Hea...) In getting up the necessary . evidence, scenes of
the most heartless and cold-blooded depravity had been de-
veloped.—( Hear.) A meeting of the trustees of the parish
had been called, but nothing had yet been done by those au-
thorities, except that they had taken the evidence of a young
woman, and now an inmate of their workhouse, who was
lately a " dress lodger." This noor creature, who is now
worn out by disease, was one of the victims of the infamous
traders in prostitution, and her statement of the treatment
she received from her masters was such as to fill the mind
with disgust and horror. She was inveigled into a brothel,
and ruined .(Some particulars were here 'gone into, but they
were too gross for publication.) The report went on to state
that sufficient evidence had been got up for prosecuting
Lazarus and Elizabeth Barnett, who decoyed Charlotte
Waller into their den of infamy, and sacrificed her.
The principal evidence was that of Mary Anne Clarke, a
servant living with Mrs. Barnett at the time the unfortu-
nate girl was with her. It was to the following effect :
" Mrs. Barnett had two dress lodgers (who gave up their
infamous earnings to her) when I resided with her. Mrs.
Barnett used to say to them at night, Come girls, the
sooner you get out the more chances you will have.' Mrs.
Barnett had all the money they produced—if they were
backward to go out, she would threaten them, and some-
times beat them. She would call 3/. 10s. a bad week's
work ; a great number of boys under the age of fifteen
would come to the house, mostly on Sunday evenings.
They were encouraged to do so. About the latter end of
last December one of her dress lodgers left, and the same
night Mrs. Barnett told me to get my bonnet and shawl,
and accompany her and Mrs. Phillips, her aunt, who keeps
a house of the same description, over London-bridge.
Near the Town-hall we met Charlotte Waller. We
went out to look for honest girls. Mrs. Barnett said
My dear, where are you going ?' She said she was look-
ing for her father, and had travelled 112 miles, and could
not find her parent. Mrs. Barnett said she hoped she was
a good girl, that I was her servant, and that she wanted
another to nurse her children, and inquired if she would
go home with her. The girl appeared surprised, but after
a little consideration went along with us. When we
got home the girl appeared astonished at the house,
and Phillips and Barnett talked together in the He-
brew language. I was then told to take her up stairs to
bed, and by my mistress's order I brought her clothes
down, and the next morning took her up a light dress,
which she at first refused to near, as she said she was in
mourning ; but on my telling her my mistress never allowed
her servants to wear their own clothes, she consented. She
had some money about her, which I took to my mistress by
her order. The girl had a bundle when we met her, which
Barnett took, and I don't know what became of it. The girl
appeared surprised that she was not set to work. The next
night Barnett took her out, and they returned with a stout
gentleman, between whom and Mrs. Barnett some conversa-
tion took place. Liquor was sent for, and Charlotte Wal-
ler was forced to drink ; she was then sent up stairs. 4K
* * I heard a shriek and went up stairs ; the
stout man was there with Miss Waller, who said—' You
are a witness to my murder.' My mistress called me
down and scolded me, saying I had no business there. The
man went away out at the back door. After this Miss
Waller was compelled to receive the visits of some man
every night. Mr. Barnett was always watching her. I
thought if she was a virtuous girl, she was a great fool.
On the following Sunday she was ill, and could not go out.
Mrs. Barnett got her a bottle of physic, and brought home
some boys. Waller was forced to go out afterwards, but
walked with great difficulty. On Tuesday she said she
would not go out any longer, she would sit on the steps of
a door and die before she would pursue such a horrible
course of life any longer. Mrs. Barnett abused her,
and said she should not skulk there. Waller was
then compelled to go out again, although she was very ill,
and people remarked, God help the poor creature, where
did she come from ?' When she could scarcely move about,
Mrs. Barnett used to abuse her dreadfully. Waller was a
quiet inoffensive girl. I knew that Phillips and Barnett
had agreed to divide her earnings, because they were both
together when she was picked up and decoyed to Cobnrg-
street. She often lamented her situation to me, saying,
' You see how I have been deluded : take warning by me.'
She was sent to the hospital, and died there." This state-
ment had been read over three times to the witness, who
had averred every word to be the truth. Mary Ann Clarke
was only fifteen years of age ; and much younger and inno-
cent girls had been often decoyed into the dens of infamy
kept by the Jews and prize-fighters, and ruined. (The
reading of this evidence appeared to make a deep impres-
sion on the meeting.) The report, after noticing the mis-
conduct and inefficiency of the police, who, it was stated,
winked at the nuisance, and that policemen were constantly
associating and drinking with prostitutes and brothel-
keepers, proceeded to censure the tardy proceedings of the
parochial authorities, and concluded by expressing the
thanks of the Committee to the newspapers for the
publicity given to their proceedings, and their high sense of
the active exertions of Mr. Secretary Goulburn in the case
of Waller, but for which they believed the parochial autho-
rities would not have interfered at all in the matter.
Mr. KEIGHLEY read a letter from the Rev. Wm. Legge,
of Fakenham, Norfolk, in relation to the unfortunate girl
Waller. It stated that the girl had been known to him
since her childhood, and he believed was of a disposition re-
mote from profligacy, and he could not account for her
being so easily led away, except on the ground of remissness
on the part of those who should. have been her guardians.
He made inquiries, and found out that she quarrelled with
her grandmother, and left her house, and for some time slept
in barns or out-houses before she set off for London. On

the day she left Fakenham she bought a new pair of strong
shoes, and went away on foot with a man and his wife,
named Smith. He had ascertained that she wrote a letter

to her father some days before she went away, but not
knowing his right address in London, the letter no dOubt
miscarried. She had told a Mrs. Richards that she would

go to London and see her father, but she appeared inclined
to take a situation, if one had offered.

Mr. KING, a gentleman of fortune, who is one of the
trustees of Wapping parish, asked if it was true that the
unfortunate girl had been in London only five weeks ?

The CHAIRMAN said, that the evidence of the servant
girl, and the date stated by Mr. Legge, of the deceased

leaving Fakenham, left no doubt that that was the extent

of the time she was in London. Her sacrifice was soon

effected.

Mr. KING pledged his honour and his purse to pro-
secute the Barnetts, and eradicate those sinks of infamy
into which innocent girls were inveigled, and where crimes
of the blackest dye were constantly perpetrated.. —(Cheers.)
Mr. TALBOT here read a list of the brothel-keepers in
Albion street, Coburg-street, and Dock-street, from which
it appeared. that they were almost all one family ; aunts,
mothers, sisters, grandmothers, and cousins, were to be
found at every house, and all, with one exception, Jews and
Jewesses.—( Hear, hear.) Mr. Talbot, after a lengthened
speech on the crime and immorality prevailing in the parish,
which he attributed chiefly to the inefficiency of the police,
proposed that the report should be confirmed, which being
seconded, was carried unanimously.
Mr. KIRKNESS proposed that the committee be enlarged,
and that subscriptions be forthwith received to be employed
to remove the stigma which had been so long cast on the
parish, which harboured so many infamous traders in
juvenile pi ostitution. He recommended the union of
every political party, and of every religious creed, in
the object of the meeting. He trusted that it would not
be long before some legislative enactment would take
place on the subject of brothels and brothel-keepers, if
the present law was defective, and he thought it must be, or
such a flagrant case as that of the girl Waller would never
have been allowed to have passed so long unpunished.—
(Hear.) There had not been such an outrage committed
in this parish since the horrid murder of the Marr family.
He trusted by their unanimity they would make the parish
of St. George as clear of such miscreants as that of St.
Luke, where a committee of rate-payers, without the aid of
policemen, and without the assistance of a solicitor, at a
very small expense, put down the , sinks of iniquity, and
shut up many penny theatres.—(Hear.) He would wil-
lingly give his mite to forward the good cause.—(Cheers.)
Mr. BLOOMFIELD, a surgeon, denounced the conduct of
the Barnetts, and said they ought .to be prosecuted. He
produced a professional statement relating to the girl