The Sun.
London, England, 1844-10-19 00:00:00

ALLEGED
_ILL-TREATMENT OF

TWO BOYS IN A UNION WORKHOUSE.

Thursday, at the Uxbridge Petty Sessions, a woman,
who was accompanied by two boys, stated that her name
was Ann Church, and that she was an inmate of the
Uxbridge union workhouse, at Hillingdon, as were also
the two boys, her sons, twins, 12 years of age. She
had to complain of ill-usage to her two sons by the
schoolmasters at the workhouse, who had flogged the
boys in a cruel manner. They had been beaten with a
birch rod until the blood flowed. The flogging took
place on last Friday week, but the marks were still
risible.

Mr. CLARK reminded the applicant tkat the Scriptures
said, " Whoso spareth the rod spoileth the child."
The applicant said she was aware of that ; but chil-
dren were, notwithstanding that, not to be beaten too
severely, as hers had been.
Mr. Woodbridge (the magistrates' clerk) asked Mrs.
Church if she did not know that her boys had behaved
very badly, and that the board had ordered them to
receive six stripes each ?—The applicant replied that
she did know that their conduct had been bad, and that
the flogging was ordered by the board, but eight stripes
had been inflicted, until the blood flowed.

Sir W. S. WISEMAN said every nobleman's son was
flogged with the birch on their bare - in the public
schools.

The applicant said—But not until the blood-ran.
S:r W. S. WISEMAN replied—Oh, yes I hare been
myself flogged so.
Mr. Woodbridge said, that the board of guardians had
already inquired into the case, and it had been proved
before them, by the evidence of the schoolmaster and the
master of the workhouse, that six stripes only had been
inflicted. _ _ _

The applicant said, the board had behaved very shame-
fully towards her : when she complained to them, they
laughed at her, and told her, when she said she had gone
into the room to see that the boys were not too severely
puni:hed, that she ought not to have done so—that it
was very indelicate.
Sir W. S. WISE (AN said he really did not see any
necessity for issuing a summons in such a case.
Mr. Woodbridge inquired if four boys had not been
flogged, and no complaint made on the part of the other
two boys ?
The applicant replied, that the mother of one was not
an inmate of the workhouse, and the other boy had no
mother.

Mr. DaoNALL said he thought, as the charge had been
publicly made, it would be better to issue a summons
against the schoolmaster, in order that a full inquiry
might be made into the matter.

Messrs. Cox and Clark concurring in that opinion, a
summons was directed to be issued, and the hearing was
appointed for the next bench day.

RENTAL OF THE COUNTY OF

MIDDLESEX.

The official returns of the overseers, &e., of the va-
rious parishes of the county of Middlesex, of the rentals
of their several districts, have been wade to the ma-
gistrates of the county, to enable them to fix the
amount of th.• county-rata fear the ensuing year. The
amount or those returns is much greater than on
any former occasion, and which may be attributed 0,
the following circumstance:—On the returns of last year
being presented, the Curt was surprised to find the
difference in the amount of the parochial returns and
those which were made by individuals under the Pro-
perty-tax Act, and the attention of the parish officers
callPd to the subject, and an explanation required
of the difference between the two returns. In order to
show the extent of the difference, the magistrates had a
statement prepared, showing the difference- in these re-
turns as regarded the several parishes, hundreds, &c., in
the county. Of the extent of those differences some
idea may be formed by an extract fro& this document,
from which it appears that in the year 1843, the
rental of the parish of St. George, Hanover-square, was
returned by the overseers as amounting to '600,7961.,
while the return under the Property-tax Act, of the an-
nual value of the same. property, was 909,5681., a dif-
ference of 308,7721. In the parish of St. Pancras, the
return of the parish officers was 566,3201., while that
under the Property-tax Act was 1,251,7371., making
a difference of 685,4171. In the parish of Marylebone,
the parish return was 816,572 L, that under the Pro-
perty-tax Act was 1,132,3241., a difference of 315,752!.
There were also the following differences between the
two returns :—Paddington, 392,9551.; Clerkenwell,
127,7361.; St. Luke's, 61,963/., Shoreditch. 147,1541. ; St.
George's, Bloomsbury, 69,4961., &c. When asked to
explain these enormous differences, the parish officers
stated that the returns, under the Property-tax Act
were made by the occupying tenants, and set
forth the rents they actually paid, without any
deduction for repairs and land- tax, for which se-
veral charges and allowances had been made
by the parish officers, and which had been fully
explained in the last return made by the officers of St.
Pancras parish, particularly as regarded the London
and Birmingham Railway. The overseers of St.
George's-in-the-East attributed the decrease in the
amount of their returns to the falling off of the business
in the sugar houses and other large establishments in
that district, which had gone to such an extent that
many of them were now closed altogether; in addition
to which, owing to the number of workmen who had
thereby been thrown out of employ, a great number of
small houses, formerly occupied by them, were now
untenanted.

Mr. Jarford wished to know if that was one of the
parishes in which a great number of inferior houses had
lately been erected, with the most astonishing rapidity,
and evidently for the purpose of getting them finished
before the Metropolitan Buildings' Act came into opera-
tion. P
tion. He feared the erection of such houses would prove
a great evil to the parish.
The overseer replied in the affirmative, and said that
many of them, after having been occupied a short time
were deserted, and the parish thereby compelled to
pay a county-rate upon a parcel of empty houses. The
parish officers were anxious that the attention of
the magistrates should be directed to this subject, and
they hoped that they would not be called on to pay the
county-rate upon a rental which was never received.
The officers of St-
Ann, Westminster, attributed the de-
ficiency in their rental to the pulling down of several
houses in Cranbourne-alley and the adjoining courts,
to make way for the recent improvements in that neigh-
bourhood. . -
variety of other explanations were given by various
parish officers,but the returns, in general are far greater
than those of-farmer years.