The Sun.
London, England, 1850-10-21 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON,

E i MAJEST Y'S ATPe E. I first expressed some sympathy for the wretched
TIIF. GRAND NATION. t CONCEItTS. family, although in the true magisterial spirit he
Committee, Directors, and Managers of "The
-4;ralcel Ftitetionntiavle Concerts" have the honour to anTninca the leclared that "her distress was no palliation or jUSIi•
SIXTH CO`CCERT cf the eertsr SERIES, THIS EVENING.
PiiOGRAMME, fication in law fur making away with other people's
Rant I. property." He was yet unwilling to send the
miserable creature to prison, and to deprive her un-
employed husband and helpless children of their only
support. He accordingly adjourned the case for a
week, in order that the husband might try
to make up the sum borrowed, Bs. 6d. It
was undoubtedly a work of some difficulty
to maintain a family and put by Bs. 6d. out of
2s. 9.1., requiring the skill of that celebrated military
financier,
" Who spent half-a-crown out of sixpence a day."
But it was possible he might obtain employment
in the interval, and thus be enabled to save the wife
of his bosom, to vi him he was so deeply indebted,
who had so patiently laboured on his behalf, from
the degradation of a prison. He might, also, obtain
assistance from his neighbours, for even in the very
humblest breasts there is a fund of charity that might
put some of our wealthiests aristocrats, our most im-
maculate justices to the blush. At all events the ad-
journment was hailed as a boon, and Rossea HER-
BERT was liberated on her own recogoiz inces, and
returned to her miserable room—to
" Stitch, stitch, stitch,
In poverty, hunger, and dirt,
And still in a voice of dolorous pitch,
To sing the song of a shirt."
There was, however, assistance coming from other
quarters which she had not ventured to anticipate.
The story of the unhappy sempstress was wafted on
the wings of the press throughout the length and
breadth of the land, and the public sympathy was
painfully excited on behalf of one whose uuwearying
toil and bitter privations had driven to crime, over the
entry of which " the recording angel might have
dropped a tear, and blotted it out for ever"—that is
to say, if he had no magisterial experience, and had
not presidei on the bench of justice at the Thames
Police-court.
But the active benevolence of Englishmen and
(GoD bless them) of Englishwomen is seldom limited
to barren sympathy, when they can afford more sub-
stantial assistance. At the sitting of the Court on the
following morning a police-sergeant waited on the
sitting magistrate and informed him that " he had
been directed by a gentleman named FROST, residing in
the vicinity of the court, to pay the amount advanced
by the pawnbroker on the seven shirts." Mr.
YARDLEY, who, in the absence of his colleague, pre-
sided, declared that "he had read the report, and,
being assured that it was a correct one, he had no ob-
jection to receive the money, and apply it to the use
intended by Mr. FROST." Various other sums spee-
dily flowed in, and Mr. YARDLEY became virtuously
indignant at the large amount obtained for the person
who " had yielded to temptation." o,n Monday a
gentleman tendered ten shillings for the poor woman,
but Mr. YARDLEY, having made a long oration, to
the effect "that more than enough bad been already
received to relieve the woman of her difficulties," and
that " the honest and virtuous, who did not yield to
temptation, should be encouraged and rewarded, and
not those who committed offences," &c., &c., the be-
nevolent donor was induced to change its destination,
and bestow the money on the poor-box.
It was manifest that his Worship thought
his observations, which were duly published,
would have arrested the charitable stream
that was flowing towards ROSINA HERBERT.
It would have been well for her, poor miser-
able creature, had it done so ; for then, possibly, she
might have received the sums previously paid for her
use, which, in the aggregate, amounted to upwards of
201., and she might have been discharged on payment
of a nominal fine. But the mighty man was for once
mistaken ; he found to his astonishment that he was
not infallible, and she, poor creature, was the sufferer.
An antidote appeared in the shape of a letter from a
humane individual who had visited her wretched ha-
bitation, and who described plainly and forcibly the
miserable condition of the distressed family. Despite
the awful censure, various contributions were still
forwarded, which were received by the Justice, with
an ominous intimation that " that they would be re-
served for the disposal of his colleague."
At length the day pregnant with the fate of ROSINA
HERBERT arrived. On Friday last the trembling
woman appeared to receive her sentence, to endure
the terrors of the magisterial frown and the thunders
of the magisterial el' quence ; she was to suffer for
the contumacy of her sympathisers, who dared still
to forward money fir her use despite the warnings of
the impeccable YARDLEY. On being placed in the
dock, Mr. RUTIIYEN, who described himself as fore-
man to Messrs. FAVELL and BOUSFIELD, wholesale
slopsellers and outfitters, in Houndsditch and St.
Mary Axe, deposed that the prisoner had formerly
been employed by the firm as a trousersmaker until ,
August, 1849, when she was given into custody on a
charge of illegally pawning three coatees, convicted by
Mr. YARDLEY, and in default of paying a fine, sen-
tenzed to fourteen days' imprisonment. Mr. RUTII-
YEN, who declared that he had been directed by
his employers to "disabuse the public mind
respecting the prisoner," added that "she was paid a
fair price for the work she executed for Messrs.
FAVELL and Bouseieep, and obtained a good living
until she pawned the property entrusted to her •
go
that since then no slopseller would employ her, ,
and she obtained needlework through the hands of '
second or third persons, as in this case." It is much
to be regretted that the volunteer witness, who made
a lively statement respecting shirts belonging to his
employers, which had been pawned by another wo-
man totally unconnected with the prisoner, and which,
therefore, had nothing whatsoever to say to the case,
and should not have been listened to by the judge,
did not condesc end to say what was the amount paid
by his employers, or how much the prisoner had
usually earned. The public could then have
judged for itself as to whether she had
received "a fair price for the work she
executed for Messrs. FAVELL and BOUSFIELD,"
or " obtained a good living." Opinions may differ
widely on these points, and we should be sorry to pin
our faith on the conclusions arrived at by a slop-
seller's foreman as to the proper remuneration of a
starving sempstress, or what was a "good living" for
four persons.
Mr. INGRAM was, however, contented. He launched
out into a diatribe expressive of his horror at the
offenee, during which the prisoner, who "carried a
sickly child in her arms, and was sobbing loudly, fell
down in hysterics," and the proceedings were neces-
sarily suspended for some time. This painful scene
did not, however, influence the decision. On her
recovery she was again placed in the dock, and the
sentence was completed. We have neither time nor
inclination to notice the admirable lecture delivered
by the magistrate on the enormity of the
crime. Suffice it to say, that she was or-
dered to pay Bs. 6d., the value of the goods,
and a fine of 103., or in default to suffer twenty-one
days' imprisonment in the House of Correction ; that
she was also informed that more than 431. bad been
sent " with a request that the magistrate should apply
it for her benefit, and for her relief," but that he
would not apply " one single farthing of it for any
such purpose:' Mr. INGRAM also declared that
" that money sent for her relief would be applied to
other purposes, but if the persons who had sent the
various donations wished to reclaim it they could do
so ; but if not demanded within a month it would
be put in the poor- box, and applied to the relief of
any distressed persons not guilty of any crime whom
the magistrates may select." He announced at the
same time the joint determination of Mr. YARDLEY
and himself that they would "never receive a single
farthing for the relief cf any particular individual, in
future, unless it was stipulated that the donation
should be applied at their discretion to deserving
persons."

Symphonic in C minor ••
Aria Buffa, Herr Jules Stockhausen,

.. .. Beethoven,
" Largo al _

.. Rossini.

Factotum," Il Barbiere
Fantasia on National Airs, Violin, Herr Mo/igne
(his second appearance) .. •• • • Moligne.
Aria, Mdlle. Amu', "Di placer," La Gazza Ladra Rosinl.
New Valse, " La Douce Pensee," (composed ex-
pressly for these Concerts) •• Carter.
Solo, Cornet-a-Pistons, M. Arban, "The Swiss
Boy," . • . .
Overture, Zanetta

.. Arban.
.. Auber.

It is right that this determination should be gene-
rally known. Persons about to forward money to
the Thames Police-court should be clearly informed
of the conditions on which they send it. We doubt
if, when the decision in ROSINA HERBERT'S case is
announced, other almoners may not be selected, who
may regard human errors with greater indulgence
than these magistrates. We know not how those
who regarded with so much severity the backsliding
of RosINA HERBERT, in misapplying property en-
trusted to her charge, can reconcile to their own
consciences the application of the money they have
received to a purpose different from that indicated by
the donors. Mr. YARDLEY expressly declared that
"he would apply the money sent by Mr. FROST to'