The Sun.
London, England, 1861-09-24 00:00:00

was produced by neglect or improper food, or by
an insufficiency of food or clothing. He could
detect go specific disease. The child since it was
taken to the workhouse had been treated for emacia
tion, not for disease; and that treatment was one
which he himself should adopt.
Dr. Paton deposed that at the request of Mr.
Woodman, the town-clerk, and by the authority of
the Mayor, he visited the child, at the workhouse,
on the evening of the 24th of July. He found her
to be a pale, emaciated, sickly-looking child, five
years and nine months old, with a subdued expres-
sion of countenance, but intelligent enough to
understand what was said to her and to answer
simple questions correctly. Her bones were promi-
nent, the muscular system was very slightly deve-
loped ; there was scarcely any fat, and the skin
moved freely. She walked with an unsteady gait,
and weighed in his presence 201 b. He examined
carefully and minutely all the principal organs of
the body, but failed to detect any disease to account
for her emaciated condition. He saw her again on
the 26th of July, forty hours after the previous
visit, and found that in the interval she had in-
creased in weight five ounces and a half, showing
that the vital processes of assimilation and nutrition
were in an extraordinary state of activity, and that
her emaciation could not be the result of disease of
the organs upon which those vital processes de-
pended. An apparently healthy female child, aged
six years, selected by him at random, weighed 391 b.,
being nearly one-half heavier than the child in
question. With those facts before him, and know-
ing nothing professionally of her prevous history,
he could account for the emaciation in no other way
than that the child, before her .admission to the
workhouse, did not receive a sufficient supply of
food, or that its quality must have been unsuitable
for the nutrition of a child of her tender years.
Cross-examined by Mr. Swan—He could detect
no symptoms whatever of disease of the head, chest,
or bowels. Some of the glands of the neck were in
a chronic state of enlargement. A child suffering
from mesenteric disease might have disease of the
heart along with it. A child afflicted with mesen-
teric disease most decidedly would not improve to
the extent that the one in question has.
By the Court—Apart from its emaciated state it
was perfectly free from disease.
A hawker named Mary Carving, who was ac-
quainted with the prisoners, deposed to bring in
their house three or four months ago, and going to
the back yard. She saw the child in questin sit-
ting in a corner in the yard; it appeared cold, and
she took it into the house to have it warmed. The
female prisoner put it out of the house again, and
shut the door. About six weeks afterwards witness
called at the house. The back door was half open,
and she saw the child sitting in the same place in
the yard. On another occasion, after the interfer-
ence of the magistrates, witness was in the house
again, and during a conversation the female prisoner,
who seemed much annoyed, said she had no sin in
her head about the child, that it was not a thriving
child, and thitt she wished it was in hell, for caus-
ing her and her husband to be so scandalised.

Mary Ann Cowens, a single woman, who also
knew the prisoners, spoke to being in their house
when they lived in another part of the town, about
two years ago. She then saw the child standing by
the door. The female prisoner knocked it down with
her hand, and kicked it twice ; the second time
under the table. Witness asked her to whom the
child belonged. She replied, " Oh, -- it; it is my
sister's." On a subsequent occasion witness was in
the house, and saw the child under the table, cry-
ing. The female prisoner shook her " kneif" (fist)
at it, and spoke harshly, upon which it immediately
ceased crying. It was then very shabbily dressed
in an old jacket, without stockings or shoes, and
was nothing like her own child. Witness, in cross-
examination, said the child appeared healthy at
that time, that it was in the same room with
the other children, and that it was a common thing
for some women to hold up their hands and scold a
child when crying.
Margaret Potts said that on Wednesday, the 10th
of July, she called at the prisoners' house in passing,
as it was raining, to ask for the loan of an umbrella.
A little girl answered the door ; she went into the
house, and asked the girl to show her to the water-
closet. On opening the door of the closet she saw
the child in question, sitting on the floor. It was
raining. She spoke to the child, but it did not an-
swer. She saw the female prisoner, on returning to
the house, but did not speak to her about the child.
Other witnesses were examined, but their evidence
was not material. One of them, Eleanor Wight,
who a few years before had lived next door to the
prisoners, said the child was then very dull, and
was in the habit of moving its head about as if it
had a "trouble" there. She also spoke to seeing
it getting its food with the prisoners' children
without any difference being made between them
or in their general treatment.
The child was occasionally produced in court for
identification. Its appearance produced a general
feeling of commiseration among the audience.
The defence of the prisoners, by Mr. Swan, was
in substance that the child from its birth never
throve, that it presented symptoms of a disease in
the head, that it suffered from a mesenteric com-
plaint common among children, and that its feeble
and wasted condition was due to those causes, end
not to anything like systematic cruelty or neglect
on the part of the prisoners, or either of them. He
also sought to show that there was no difference
between its treatment and that of their own chil-
dren, and that it was in the habit of resorting to
the yard and watercloset to amuse itself, and was
not driven there.

At the conclusion of the evidence, the material
portions of which are given above, the magistrates
announced their intention to commit the prisoners
for trial. On receiving the usual caution, the male
prisoner said he was not guilty. His wife replied
she had done nothing wrong, and had, therefore,
nothing to answer for ; and that they (the magis-
trates) were sinning their souls.
The Bench intimated that bail would be taken
for the prisoners, themselves in £looeach, and two
sureties of £5OO each. For want of the requisite
sureties the prisoners were conveyed to the county
prison to await their trial. They were followed there
by an indignant crowd of people. Four of their
children were afterwards taken to the workhouse;
a fifth, an infant at the breast, was allowed to accom-
pany its mother.

- The whole circumstances have since been brought
under the consideration of the Home Secretary, Sir
George Grey, by the local authorities.

COMMERCE OF NEW YORK.

The commercial letters from New York continue,
in a guarded manner, to express weariness of the
war and desponding anticipations, whatever may be
its mode of termination. The difficulty of estimat-
ing the extent of feeling favourable to a compro-
mise was undiminished, owing to the stringent
measurer, direct and indirect, for putting down all
opinions except those of the majority. The ques-
tion whether abolition is to be recognised as a main
issue for which the struggle is to be conducted was
equally without fresh light. The most influential
recent speaker (the Hon. Joseph Holt) had pro-
claimed that the war is not a war against the South,
but a war for their deliverance from a band of
military conspirators. In a subsequent passage,
however, the same orator described the conflict as
between 20,000,000 in the North, and 10,000,000
in the South. Business generally was more
active, but the existing tariff and the doubts as to
the possibility of its being permanent prevent mer-
chants from entering into any transactions that
cannot be wound up quickly. As the country can
now pay for its imports only by its supplies of grain,
a conviction is stated by some of the most expe-
rienced financiers that if the war continues all the
banks will inevitably suspend before next summer.
The rate of exchange was very firm, at 1071
to 108, and there were very few drawers.
Up to the 6th instant, although the loan of
£10,000,000 had been two or three weeks
in the market, only £BOO,OOO had been sub-
scribed by the public. During the few subsequent
days the applications are understood to have in-
creased, but the anxiety of the Government and of
the banks was considerable with regard to the pro-
bable floating of the additional £10,000,000, which
must be paid out in October, and which must be fol-
lowed by another £10,000,000 in December at the
latest.. As nothing could be published in the papers
that was not agreeable to the heads of departments
the trading community knew little of the operations
pending. It had transpired, however, that the ad-
vanced posts of the Confederates were nearer to
Washington than at the beginning of the month,
and that the Secessionists in Kentucky were likely,
in consequence of the effect produced by General
Fremont's proclamation, to succeed in carrying that
State oat of the Union. The most important inti-
mation, however, is that it is believed an expedition
is now in course of organisation to attack the port
of Savannah as soon as the weather shall become a
little cool. The practice of arresting the funds and
dividends of Southern proprietors of Federal and
State securities, and also of shares in Northern com-
panies, was calculated to put a final stop to all
chance of the negotiation of advances in Europe,
since it follows that in case of war at any future
time, the policy of confiscation, which waesupposed
to have tot ally fallen into disuetude among civilised
peoples, will be put in force. During the Crimean
war Russia with scrupulous fidelity paid all her
dividends due to English and French holders, and
Russian funds were equally respectei, on this side.
The argument that in the present case the war is
with " rebels" is not available, the terms of capitu-
lation granted to the Confederates at Hatteras hav-
ing put an end to that plea.