The Sun.
London, England, 1861-09-26 00:00:00

after the confinement; but one thing was quite clear,
that it was the mother who, in the dead of winter,
by a late train reaching Euston-station at eleven
o'clock at night, and in the charge of a young girl
totally unfitted for such a trust, sent her first-born
child up to London—a distance of nearly 100
miles. He appealed to the honest instincts of
every mother whether it was credible that with-
out her knowledge and consent the unhappy
child could have been so consigned. A mother who
consented to part with her first-born immediately
after its birth, and who for two whole years
abstained from making any inquiry after her own
offspring, must have the strongest possible motive
for concealment—a motive sufficiently strong to
overcome the yearnings of maternal love. What the
motive was in this case he did not care to inquire
at the present moment. Whether the wife was ac-
tuated by a desire to conceal her own shame—to
hide a dishonour done to the nuptial bed—was a
question which he had no wish to discuss. If those
who represented the unhappy woman expected to
elicit from him a knowledge of the strength of the
allegations and facts upon which Mr. Hill would
rely in a charge of adultery against his wife, which
must be investigated before Sir Cresswell Cress-
well, he could tell them they were mistaken, for he
assuredly would not enter into that subject, until
he appeared before the proper tribunal. The learned
gentleman, turning to the charge before the magi-
strates, maintained that the very fact that Mr. Hill
went to the registrar long before there was any
legal obligation on him to do so showed that he had
no intention to make a false statement. No man
in his senses would perpetrate against himself in
the pages of an official record the proof of a misde-.
meanour when there was not the smallest necessity
for doing so. There could be no doubt, too, that
Mr. Hill signed the register in his genuine hand,
and with his proper name. It was true he left out
" Guinness," and gave only the initial letter of his
first Christian name; but it was well known that
three judges now on the bench, of whom Baron
Bramwell might be mentioned as one, were in the
habit of omitting some of their Christian names
when putting their signatures;to documents. There
was no proof that the inaccuracies in the entry No.
221 were attributable to Mr. Hill. The death of
Herbert, the registrar, was to be regretted. When
he was relieving officer there were defalcations and
irregularities in his accounts, and in this very re-
gister there were inaccuracies of so grave a charac-
ter that the superintendent registrar was obliged
to report him as incompetent, the result of which
was that he resigned—to use the words of Mr. Hef-
ford—" under compulsion." In short, the authen-
ticity of the register was completely destroyed, and
no criminal proceeding could be founded upon it.
He hoped the magistrates would not shrink from
the responsibility of saying that the defendant
ought not to be committed for trial. No harm
would be done, because it would still he open to the
prosecution to present a bill to a grand jury if they
pleased, while a great injustice would be avoided.
He had shown that the alleged pecuniary motive on
the part of Mr. Hill had no existence; that Mrs.
Hill herself must have been from first to last cog-
nisant of what was going on with the child, espe-
cially since the girl Parsons must have told her of
the two women whom she saw in London, and that
there was not the slightest reason for supposing
that the mistakes which appeared on the face of the
register book were the work of Mr. Hill, whose own
signature was in all respects genuine. For these
reasons.he trusted the magistrates would spare Mr.
Hill the inconvenience, anxiety, and expense which
a trial must entail upon him.
The magistrates then retired. On their return,
after the lapse of about five minutes,
The Chairman said,—The magistrates, having
considered this case, are unanimously of opinion
that the defendant should be sent to take his trial
for the offence with which he is charged. I have
also to state that bail, if offered, will be accepted,
the defendant himself in £509, and two sureties in
£5OO each.

Mr. Cooke was bound over to prosecute,

The prisoner, who began writing a letter as soon
as he heard the decision of the magistrates, was
removed by the police, in the first instance to the
station-house in Rugby, where he has hitherto been
confined, but afterwards to the county gaol.