The Sun.
London, England, 1844-08-27 00:00:00

CRIMINAL COURT.-(THIS DAY.)
NEW COURT. _

(Continued from our Afternoon Edition.)
ASSAIILT.—DanieI M'Diarmid, captain of the Pro-
tomelia, was charged with assaulting Samuel John
M'Dowall, on Friday, the 5111 of July, on the high seas.
It appeared from the evidence of the prosecutor, a
most intelligent but friendless boy, that he was ordered
to clean a part of the ship. He went for a broom to do
so, and the captain seeing him with it, struck him with
his hand, pulled the broom from him, and gave him a
blow with the handle of the broom. It would appear
that the captain acted in this manner, because there was
an old broom which he might have taken. He was obliged
to lie by that night and part of the next day, when he
came to him and asked to see the boy's thigh. After
having stripped himself, the captain beat him with a rope
about an inch and a half thick. After this he refused
to do any more work till they came to London, the
assault having been committed below Dungeness. It
also appeared from the statement of the boy that on
Sunday, the ith, he violently pressed his neck, and said
if he did not work be would break his neck. When
they arrived in London the captain was brought before
a magistrate, and was committed to take his trial at this
Court. There was a witness in the case, but when called
he was not forthcoming.
Mr. DOANE said that the captain acted as he did under
the impression that the boy was feigning illness, in order
that he might not work, and the boy admitted that the
captain was very kind before the assault occurred. The
captain was willing to make him some compensation.
The RECORDER thought that would be the best way
to settle the matter. The boy had acted in a manly,
straightforward wanner in not submitting to be treated
unjustly ; but the Court was willing to believe that the
captain had acted under sa false impression. He would
direct the jury to find a verdict of guilty, and the Court
would then settle the amount of compensation.
The jury having found the prisoner Guilty,
Mr. DOANE, on his behalf, offered 101. compensation,
which was accepted as fair and liberal.

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.

GLOBE.—Are the slop-sellers of the metropolis
alike destitute of the feelings of humanity, the sense
of shame, and the consciousness of responsibility ?
The fearful results of their grinding cupidity have been
often exhibited, and their cruelty denounced. The
Press has frequently brought before the public eye the
sad scenes of privatiori, verging on starvation, caused
by the miserable wages they pay to their wretched
workwomen. The lingering death endured by
many of these poor creatures—who, faint, from hunger,
fatigue, and suffering, ply the needle through the
greater part of the night, unable to procure sus-
tenance by unintermitting toil during the day—has
been represented in the homely phrase of prose, and
in the more affecting appeals of verse. Hood's
" Song of the Shirt " will perpetuate, for it faith-
fully portrays, the sufferings of this wretched class
of the most helpless of the sex. Their weakness
and woes would appeal to the sympathies of their
employers—if they were men. If shame were
capable of moving them to virtue they would,
ere this, have convened a public meeting of
their trade and pledged themselves to each other and
to the public, that an advance upon their scandalously
low rates of wages fur the making-up of the shirts,
trousers, and other articles of dress, in the sewing to-
gether of which large numbers of females are daily
and nightly employed, should take place. And if
humanity and shame had ceased to operate, the de-
nunciations of Heaven against those who " grind
the face of the poor, and afflict the soul of the
needy," might awake those apprehensions of future
retribution against which the most obdurate
are not altogether proof. But these considera-
tions seem incapable of moving the slop-sellers.
Their poor workwomen ,are ground to the dust, and
are even pressed out of life, by the operation of
the system of competition which this class of
traders persist in carrying- on against each other.
The profits they acquire are wrung from the vi-
tality of the poor needle-women, who starve, while
they " fare sumptuously every day." Another of
these terrible examples is before us. A fine young
woman, industrious and virtuous, unable to sup-
port life upon the wages of shirtmaking, and shrink-
ing from the alternative which lures but to inflict
upon its victims a deeper depth of misery, has been
impelled to suicide. A double suicide was only pre-
vented by the timely arrival of a labouring man, who,
on his way to work, was attracted to the spot by a
shriek, and succeeded in rescuing from death a sister
of the wretched girl. They had agreed to terminate
their miserable existence together by drowning. The
survivor told the sad tale of their mutual struggles to
:sustain life by their unintermitting toils, and of the
horrid conclusion to which they came to terminate
an existence which to them was alike destitute of in-
ducement, in the shape of possession, or of promise, to
prolong it. The Coroner's inquest commenced its
inquiry into the cause of the death of the poor suicide
on Friday, and closed it yesterday. The name
of the deceased girl was Eliza Kendall—her age
nineteen—the mode of death was drowning—the place
selected for the act a ecluded spot on the Surrey Canal
The jury marked its sense of the cause which led
to the catastrophe by the verdict it returned upon the
evidence :—" That the deceased committed suicide
whilst labouring under a fit of insanity ; and the jury
cannot but deprecate the cruel practice of the slop-
sellers in London, of employing young females at
needlework at so low a rate of wages as to preclude the
possibility of a subsistence." This was, in fact, a verdict
of wilful murder against the system by which "the slop-
' sellers in London" manage their business. The manifest
tendency of this system is the destruction of life. To re-
duce the prices of shirt7making to five farthings each,is
—we will not mince the matter- -to consign the poor crea-
tures who are condemned to toil for such a pittance
to starvation. The appropriate designation of such
cruelty is murder. Rent—food—clothes—firing—
candles (for toil by night)—and all these out of sew-
ing the materials of shirts together at five farthings
each ! Those who think the thing consistent with
the sustentation of life deserve to be undeceived, by
being subjected to the experiment. Human legisla-
tion cannot prevent the horrible state of things. But
public opinion can express its sense of the enormity ;
and the public Press can, and will, utter its thunders
against it, and against those who pocket the gains de-
rived from human misery.
STANDARD.—The last telegraphic dispatch
from Morocco offers a triumphant contradiction to
the rumours so industriously circulated by the
French Opposition Press, that Marshal Bugeaud was
lying on his oars waiting for reinforcements,
which his Government were indisposed to send
; and that in the interim a junction be-
tween the troops commanded by the son of the
Emperor of Morocco, and the main body of the
Moorish army would be effected, which would
enable their united forces to overwhelm the
comparatively small army at the disposal of the
Marshal. He appears, however, to have wisely
anticipated this junction, by striking a decisive blow
at once. The affair, judging from the very meagre
account supplied by the telegraph, would seem to
have been every way worthy the military reputation
of the Marshal, and the tried gallantry of the French
troops. If, indeed, it be correct that the Marshal
I left 800 of the enemy on the field, and captured
the number of guns and the quantity of munitions
of war and baggage enumerated in his dispatch,
the moral effect of his victory cannot fail of being
considerable, both in Algeria and Morocco ; and
" far from leading, as a Contemporary suggests,
to a prolongation of the contest, will, we hope and
believe, bring it to a speedy termination. The Em-
peror has, undoubtedly, extensive means at his
command for protracting the struggle, and greatly
enhancing the natural difficulties with which
his assailants will have to contend. But cui
bond Under any circumstances, he must be
a loser to an extent greater in proportion to his
resources than any sacrifices he may force upon the
French. If the professions of the latter, that they
have no intention to occupy ultimately any part of
Morocco, be as sincere as we believe them to
be, the Emperor is fighting for a shadow, and
may well afford to accept the conditions offered to
hi:n. If we could suppose it otherwise, and believe
that it was the determination of Marshal Bugeaud
to conquer and take possession of the country, then
would there be no other prospect than that of a long,
and, to the invaders, a most harassing and un-
fruitful war—and we should consider this prelimi-
nary success as tending only to enhance their fu-
ture difficulties; for unless followed by the imme-
diate submission of the Moors, it will increase
their exasperation to the highest possible pitch,
until every foot of the soil will be disputed, and
every means within reach of a barbarous enemy
resorted to to drive them from the country;
the heat of the climate, and the impossibility of
provisioning an army, in many of the districts
through which the Marshal will have to pass, offering
of themselves the most weighty obstacles to the en-
terprise. It is possible that the conviction that the
French can proceed but little further during the pre-
sent season, may induce the Emperor to delay his
submission. The great probability, however, is, that
we shall hear of his having accepted the proposed 1
terms by the next dispatch. The fact that the son of
the Emperor had joined the Moorish camp would
lead us to infer that the troops of which he was said
to be in command had accompanied him, and if so,
the Moors will have little prospect of repairing their
disaster, and but little temptation (having been beaten
at such tremendous odds-)-to renew the contest.

RAILWAY ACCIDENT.—Friday
afternoon, as one of
the Paisley trains, drawn by the Hecate, one of the
and when aboutwtehwne•
Greenock Company's
ogines, was on its way to Glas-
mw,n milesi from Paisley, the axle
both tender and engine were
of the tender broke,
thrown off the line. None of jtef passengers or servants
zormer were slightly
were seriously hurt ; three of
soon after the injured, and were able to walketin;
acci-
dent happened. The tender, and A a third-class
carriage, were considerably damaged.' detentionte to
the
several trains took place in consequence of obstruc-
tion,
but, by about half-past three o'clock, the rails were
laid and the line clear.--Glasgow National.