The Sun.
London, England, 1844-11-15 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS. POLICE INTELLIGENCE.
FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF YESTERDAY. (YESTERDAY.)
GLOBE.—Considerable dissatisfaction has been cause& MANSION-HOUSE.
by the course adopted by Mr. Broughton, one of the ma- An Irish woman, named Ann Callaghan, of very
gistrates of Worship-street Police-office, in a case of hard-working appearance, was brought before the
assault which a few days since came before him. The Lord Mayor, upon the charge of having robbed her
circumstances were peculiar ; and the magistrate's de- roaster, Taverner, the owner of the Mitre pub-
cision was, in our view, a practical denial of justice to the
lie -house, Mitre-street.
complainant. The assault was committed by the school, 'She complainant stated that having missed some
mistress of Bethnal-green workhouse on a female child of
prop t
he went, on the sth instant, in the morn-
tenderll t, o the risoner's room, and, upon opening her
years, whom she had severely beaten for going P
boingx:
fo
and
apsoda-wate r bottle full of rum, a glass, a
into the scullery for water to drink with her supper
water not being allowed in the meal-room, as it had
been occasionally spilt by the children on the table and penknife, a handkerchief, and a brooch, which were
on the floor ; and the door leading to the place whence his prope;ty ; and a pencil-case, which was his son's.
the children were permitted to obtain it being locked. He called up his pot-bo7 to witness that he found
The question for the magistrate's decision did not hinge the articles in the woman s box.
upon the authority of the schoolmistress to inflict mode- The LORD MAYoß—Prisoner, do you wish to ask
rate punishment, in proper cases, upon the children your master any question ? Prisoner—Oh, then I
placed under her charge by the parish authorities ; nor do, your Honour. Do you mean to say you found
whether, for the breach of the regulations of the that glass in my box ?
house, in the present instance, a trifling punishment •
I) Com lainant—l do.
might not have been inflicted by the woman upon the Prisoner—And
do you say you found the other
child. The real question was, whether such a punish-
ment, inflicted on a mere child, as blows of the fist things imy its box ? Complainant--I do.
upon its face and back, causing bruises and discoloura- Prisoner--Oh, then my Lord—
Lion for several days, was justifiable under any circum- The LORD MAYOR—Stay. You shall make your
stances ? The parents of the child were also inmates of defence by and bye.
the workhouse. The mother appeared as complainant. Prisoner—Thank you, my Lord. Your Lordship
The violent treatment which her child had received at will hear me, and so will the Lord, too.
the hands of the woman was proved beyond contro The son of the complainant identified the pencil-
versy. Mr. Broughton himself considered the case case, but did not witness the discovery of that or of
as proved. He stated that, in his opinion, the punish- the other property.
ment was inordinately severe, and could not be justified. The LORD MAYOR (to the l • t) Y
comp ainan You say
This was, then, just such a case as called for the theexer-
discovery of this robbery
. was made by you on
cise of the magistrate's power of summary jurisdiction.
the sth instant. What is
The complainant was too poor to incur expense in pro-
secuting the defendant at the sessions, and therefore cause her to be apprehended before last night ? Corn-
had
a strong claim on the magistrate for an imme- plainant—l didn't think of that matter ; in fact, I
diate adjudication. The position of the defendant also don't understand these things. Besides, I didn't know
required that a check should be at once put upon the her address.
indulgence of those feelings which had occasioned The LORD MAYOR—And why did you cause her
her attack upon the child. Yet in this case, which de- to ba taken up last night ? The complainant—l was
manded immediate decision, the magistrate determined not aware before how to act.
on delay. He called upon the defendant to enter into The Prisoner—Please your Lordship he knows I
recognisances to meet the charge at the sessions, should
never was guilty of robbery. I made the beds and
the complainant prefer a bill, and the grand jury return
the victuals, and cleaned the house, and did
cooked ,
it found. The master of the workhouse, who attended
to assist the defendant in meeting the charge' before theeverything that day and the next, and the next after
_
magistrate, exulted at this decision; while the poor woman that, and the next after that.
who complained of the ill-treatment of her child saw in it a The LORD MAYOR—Is that the case, complainant ?
practical denial of justice. The formerremarked, "That is Complainant—She never slept in the house after I
just what we wanted, Sir 1" To be sure it was. It was discovered the robbery.
tantamount to a dismissal of the charge. It was like The LORD MAYOR—Pray what wages may you be
sending the poor complainant to a tavern, telling her that indebted to this woman who has robbed you ?
she might there obtain a delicious dinner, well know- The Prisoner—Please your Honour, he owes me
ing that she had not a penny in her pocket, and would between 41. and Si.
therefore be sent empty away. The poor woman von-
C I'n t--I never omp al an made any agreement with
tured to expostulate. She had no money ; how then her about wages but I know she committed the rob-
er , could she go to the sessions, and take the necessary
steps to indict the schoolmistress for the vie- bevy. I have got a witness here.
lent treatment of her child ? This reasonable and The LORD MAYOR—Let him be produced.
forcible appeal was thus answered :—" Surely you James Smith came forward at the desire of the
have friends who will assist you in the matter." A complainant.
pauper's friends 1 The pauper-inmates of a workhouse The LORD MATOR—WeII, what have you to say
are not precisely the kind of people who have friends Ca- about the robbery ? Smith—Nothing. All I can
pable of furnishing them with money to pay the fees of say is, that I was in Mr. Taverner's service, and he
justice. The possession of such friends would preserve -ut,
p me away because I used to have words with the
them from seeking refuge in a workhouse—that last re- woman at the bar.
fuge of the miserable. The poor woman retired from
The LORD MAYOR—Have you any other witness?
the Court, with her child, sighing, "We have no
Complainant—l have the boy who saw me take the
friends ;" and feeling that " the, world was not
their friend, nor the world's law." On re- things from her box.
turning to the workhouse, she was made to feel that to George Higler, pot-boy to the complainant, said
appeal to the law's protection against the violence of his master called him up stairs to the prisoner's
the authorities of the place, is not only useless, but room, and took the articles produced out of her box.
dangerous. Her children and herself were removed Tee LORD MAYOR—Is that all you have to say ?
from the wards they had previously occupied in Higler—lt is, my Lord.
the house, and were placed in the " approbation ward;'; The LORD MAYOR—WeII, prisoner, what have
to which the applicants for reception to the house are you got to say to this charge of robbery ?
first introduced, previously to their regular admission.
The prisoner, a very innocent
The state of personal filthiness, and frequently of disease, ner, informed his Lordship that she had entered the
in which such persons generally are when they first en-
ter a workhouse, need not be described. The mother and
service as maid of all work, and a great deal of hard
her child who had been punished with extreme severity work she had to do; but she did not think half so
by the workhouse schoolmistress, were doubtless trans- much of the hard work as she did of the dirty work,
ferred to this ward to admonish others of the consequences for her master's house proved to be a house used for
of preferring complaints. Whatever provocation to com- the purposes of double accommodation. It went to
plain may be supplied by those who have in their own her heart to wait upon the ladies and gentlemen who
hands the means of retaliating, the sufferers had better sometimes remained in the house all night, and when
patiently endure wrong, than risk the consequences of she complained, her master not only called her out
seeking redress. These poor people, unable to endure of her right name but beat her, so she was deter-
the annoyance of being placed in such a ward, discharged mined to leave the concern ; but as her master had
themselves from the house. The woman again attended 4. ,
a to pay her the wages due to her, she deter-
there use
police-office, and again complained of the treatment '
mined to summon him,
she had received, as a punishment for having com-
plained of the tyrannous and cruel treatment of her notice to that effect.
child. The magistrate had no power to interfere. The The LORD MAROR—Did you summon him after
poor creatures had no means of supporting themselves the sth instant, when he says the robbery was com-
outside the workhouse ; and said they must return mitted ? Prisoner—l came here, your Lordship, the
thither, and henceforth submit in silence to whatever other day to take advice upon the subject, and I was
treatment they might there receive. Surely there is told to summon him to the Court of Requests. Your
some mode of• redress, even for paupers, for wrongs Lordship told me to do so, and the hearing is ap-
such as we have described. If the Board of Guardians pointed for Saturday next.
of the parish be supine or indifferent, the inabitants The LORD MAYOR—And after you summoned him
should meet and require of the parish officers
am you with the robbery? Prisoner—Yes,
he char d
an investigation into the general government - -
of their workhouse, and into the circumstances of my Lord ;he doesn't want to pay me for my hard
the case we have described. If the facts really be as they work.
were sworn to, and uncontradicted, before the maps- The LORD MAYOR asked the policeman whether he
trate, the schoolmistress should be placed on her trial for knew anything of the prisoner ?—The policeman re-
the assault, before the tribunal to which the magistrate plied that she had been servant at one of the station-
needlessly, and as we think improperly, referred it. houses, where she had an excellent character, and
STANDARD.—There is a growing disposition on which she had left to go to the complainant's house.
the part of certain pseudo-philanthropists to represent The LORD MAYOR—WeII, I shall discharge the
the higher classes of society as more insensible to the prisoner. The circumstances and the mode of the
condition of the poor than they were wont to be in accusation are suspicious.
very You may, Mr. Taver-
what young Englanders are pleased to entitle, the "good
ner, indict the woman if you please ; but I shall cause
old times.' Every casualty to the poor that may happen ,
to be made into the character of your house,
to be recorded in the newspapers, is seized upon inquiry
by these modern philosophers, as a fresh illustration and perhaps you may have cause to dread next
of the correctness of their theory. One or more licensing day.—The prisoner was then discharged.
suicides have recently occurred in the humblest CLERKEIV WELL.
walks of life, arising, it is said, from extreme destitution, Mr. John Lamb, a respectable tradesman, residing
and these catastrophes are referred to, ad nauseam, in Clerkenwell, was charged with assaulting police-
as instructive evidence of the insensibility of the constable 32 G.
rich to the condition of the poor. No inference can
The constable deposed that, on the previous night,
be less warranted. The columns of the daily press
he was on duty in John-street, at twelve o'clock,
must have convinced all readers of newspapers of
the fact, that no genuine case of distress is ever when he saw the prisoner and a female passing along
recorded in their columns which does not command on the other side of the street. Saw the prisoner stop
instant and liberal relief. In the vast aggregate at a window, and soon after heard the iron bar be-
of human misery which is to be found in large towns, the longing to the window fall upon the pavement. The
most distressing cases of poverty and destitution are prisoner and the lady passed on. Witness went up to
often those which are most carefully concealed them, and, without looking at the window or the bar,
from public observation ; and men of wealth, how- asked the prisoner, who had got about forty yards
ever benevolent, most of whom are liberal con- from the window, to return to the window to see
tributors to public charitable institutions, have
what he had done. He refused, and called witness a
often neither the leisure nor means of hunting
d—d vagabond. Witness attempted to remove him
out such cases. We can affirm, however, with
• soner
which the prisoner
on utmost confidence, that there is no nation to the station-house, in doing
on the face of the earth in which more of active charity struck him twice
, • prisoner was not drunk.
is to be found than in England, nor any city whatever The prisoner said he hadbeen most grossly ill-
which exhibits so large an amount of sympathy for the suf- treated by the policeman. He was returning home
ferings of our fellow-creatures, whether they have arisen with his wife, and within a few yards of his own
from penury or disease, than this same much-reviled house, when he saw an iron bar projecting from a
City of London. Persons whose knowledge of the extent window over the footway, and which he had nearly
of public sympathy is derived froth the columns of struck his head against. Knowing that the projec-
some of our Contemporaries, must have long tinn was illegal, and fearing somebody else might
ago inferred, that there is in England, and in London in by chance
particular, a most unchristian disregard of the feelings
knock their head against what he only
bar and
and comforts of the humbler classes. Yet is there hardly avoided, he took down the left it on the pave-
a day in which meetings of its busiest inhabisants, of the ment; he had advanced about forty yards, his wife
higher and middle orders, are not convened for the leaning on his arm, when the constable came run-
purpose of forming permanent institutions for the re- ning up, and seizirg him by the collar, shook him
lief of sufferers of all denominations. There is in violently, and peremptorily demanded him to return
London alone, and we challenge contradiction to the to the window. Witness explained to him what he
fact, more money collected for the relief of the distressed had done, told him where he lived and his name, but
in one year, than is contributed for any similar objects in nothing would satisfy the constable; he called him bad
any other city in the world. There is hardly a disease names, and was most rude, and used offensive lan-
which has not given rise to some valuable public insti-
tution, where the poor, could they divest themselves of gouge..
rAi
the prejudice which, unhappily, influences them on ' COMER (to the constable)—Why did you ask
many subjects, may have the benefit of greater skill the gentleman to go back ? The constable—To ascer-
and more unceasing attention than can readily be tain what he had done.
obtained by the wealthiest member of the community at Mr. COMBE—What right had yeu to ask the gen-
home ; the combination of skill usually afforded gra- tleman to do so ? Policeman—Because he knocked
tuitously in a public institution, and the rigid sys- down the bar.
tern of attendance which is provided, being greatly The Magistrate's Clerk—But the bar, as it stood,
beyong the advantages which any private establish- was illegal, and a nuisance.
meat of moderate extent could by any possibility Policeman—lt could not be a nuisance, for it was
supply. Yet one of the most prevalent " vulgar er- five feet f
vefrom the ground.
rors " of the day is the prejudice arising from Mr. COMDE--' That exactly makes good what the
ignorance, which exists amongst the destitute poor,
against such establishments. More than one suicide in gentleman states, for that is just the
this class of society have recently been recorded by dangerous, and which would catch one's head. It
the daily newspapers, which profess to have been oc- does not answer to take a man into custody because
easioned by destitution ; the parties preferring ra- he will not comply with such a demand.
ther to fly in the face of their Maker, rather Policeman—He assaulted me.
than avail themselves of the relief which might Mr. Coslßß—You had no business to meddle with
have been afforded them in an union workhouse. the gentleman. He did not strike you until you
Nor ought it to surprise any one, that the exagge- seized him.
rated accounts of such places of refuge, which have Prisoner —I am ready to swear I never struck him.
been repeatedly supplied by an influential portion of the My wife is in 'court ; I hope you will examine her.
daily press, should have so wrought on minds de- She will prove that the constable used the worst lan-
pressed and weakened by painful personal privation.
,a
e are no admirers of union workhouses, and are gue towards me.
g
Policeman—l took him back because there have
little disposed to eulogise the New Poor-law Bill, even
in its present improved and modified form; but we been several robberies committed in the neighbourhood.
are quite satisfied that but for the factiously Mr. CoMna—Why, do you mean to say you sus-
exaggerated accounts of the treatment of the poor under pected this person of intending to commit a robbery ?
that law, which have appeared in a contemporary journal, The policeman admitted he did not.
in which the union workhouse has been typified by Mr. COMER discharged the gentleman.
Dante's Hell, and its executive represented as so many
MARLBOROUGH-STREET.
incarnate fiends, no such prejudices against it as the
Alexander White, `junior, a clerk in the Charing-
distressing casualties to which our attention has
been directed would seem to indicate, could have cross Branch of the Union Bank of London, was
existed. The conduct of a few persons connected
summoned before Mr. Hardwick, for an assault on
with the administration of the New Poor-law,—conduct Mr. Henry Nichol, tailor, No. 14, Regent-street.
which, in the particular instances, it is impossible to The case !arose out of a charge recently made
reprobate too severely-, has furnished an excuse for stie•- against Baron Vander Pforte. Mr. Nichol bad ap-
matizing the whole of its executive in terms calculated plied an opprobriousto the defendant, who
name
to excite the deepest and most painful prejudice against threw an inkstand at him.
it ; and thus the poor are content to suffer
ss..r. ai. TT ARDWICH. said he would deal with the charge
the most heart-rending privations rather than avail m
themselves of relief from such a source; nay, in some in- in a summary way, and inflict a penalty of 51.
stances, they have, we are told, committed suicide rather The defendant immediately paid the fine.
than accept of the relief it would afford them. These Mr. HAanwicx received a letter from Baron Gers-
distressing cases have been reported in a daily print in dorf, the Saxon Minister, who is at present out of
the most prominent manner, as so many fresh I town, relative to the claim 'of intimacy with him put
proofs of the frightful unpopularity of the : forward by Baron Pforte, which had reached him
New Poor-law Bill ; whereas they are more likely to through the public journals. His Excellency said in
have resulted from the exaggerated accounts which have , the note that he " regretted the unwarrantable use of
appeared from time to time in its columns of the alleged his name by Monsieur Pforte, formerly page de la
sufferings of the poor in union workouses, and its re- chambre to the late King of Saxony, and since that
pected and unfounded asseftion that a few examples of Monarch's death pensioned off with the title of ' gen til-
the misconduct of the authorities in such receptacles are 1
, homme de la chambre.' As he had been ' nominally
but the types of the entire system.
I appealed to by Monsieur Pforte, he begged, in his
I official as well as private capacity, to decline giving
any evidence in favour of Monsieur Pforte."

THE LATH RAINS.—By putting our umbrella into
the fountains at Trafalgar-square, we have ascertained
that the quantity of rain fallen last week is just one cubic
ferule. This, if poured into buckets, will make twenty-
five pails, seven cups, and three saucers. This quantity
has been drawn out, and pumped into the Artesian will
so as to form a sinking fund for the fountains when they
can no longer play in their old age.—Punck.
VISIT OF MR. SHARMAN CRAWFORD, M.P. AND MR.
JOSEPH STURGE.—It is understood that the Council of
the Complete Suffrage Union have invited these gentle-
men to visit Edinburgh, and that they bave consented to
corns in the first week of December.

MAI?YLEB 01V E.
THREATENING TO HORSEWHIP MR. RAWLINSON.--
A tall athletic man, named Robert Kingston, a re-
tired publican, was placed at the bar before Mr.
Long, charged with having threatened to horsewhip
John Rawlinson, Esq., the highly respected magis..
trate of this court.
The Court was much crowded with persons anxious
to hear the proceedings.
Mr. Randall, of Welbeck-street, attended to eon-