The Sun.
London, England, 1842-11-22 00:00:00

as soon as he cleared which, he turned and fired, fi:st
at Neal, and then at witness, who is wounded slightly
just above the left hip, the ball being stopped by
thick velveteen waistcoat. They succeeded in seeur-
ng him.
Thomas Neal, a publican at Baitsbite, gave evidence
in corroboration of Harvey's, and added that when the
prisoner fired at him he felt a pressure on his brace-
buckle, but received no injury. (
Thomas Nicholls, the porter of Christ's College,
gave evidence as to the escape of the prisoner frzan the
College. a height of 15 or 20 feet.
The prisoner then indulged in a great many accu-
sations against his uncles, whom he stated had reduced
him and his brothers and sisters to destitution, and
that committing the offence was the only thing that
would save him from immediate starvation, inasmuch
as he would be committed to prison.
This having been put on paper by the clerk to the
Magistrates, was signed by the prisoner.
The Mayor then said, "John Frederick Mortloek,
you stand committed to take your trial at the newt
Lent Assizes for felony."

MidshipmaciFrCournlpa,
DUELLING.
aNnewi•ntlerreorsktiln)gap3e,or.u)ng
Man, and
promising officer, in the Texan Navy, was shot in
duel at New Orleans, a few days since. His death,
and the circumstances attending it, seem to have pro-
duced a great sensation in that city. The following
paper was found upon his person after the duel had
taken place :
THOUGHTS BEFORE FIGHTING A D UEL.—Call any one
sit dove and cooly, and calmly think on death, with-
out a thrill vibrating every nerve ? To think that
only a few, very few moments may elapse before his
immortal soul will be winging its flight to worlds un-
known, and knows not whether it will take its
place amidst a bright throng of angels, or drag its
weary way to the dark and fiery abyss prepared for
such.as I. My God ! Such thoughts are enough
to rack the soul and make the stoutest nerves
small ? To bring the haughty and proud to their
knees and in humble penitence and supplication ask
forgiveness of the God who made them! lam mo-
rally and religiously opposed to duelling! It does
not prove that one is a gentleman or a brave man,
neither does it give satisfaction of an insult; for to re-
ceive an insult and a ball also, is very poor satisfaction
to a man of feeling and of honour. Almost any man
can raise physical courage enough to fight a duel,
but few, alas ! too few, are possessed of moral cou-
' rage sufficient to stem the tide of public scorn, and
walk erect through the myriads of hisses spit out
by those who are too low in the scale of virtue
and morality to respect it in any shape. I trust, and
pray, that the public will not condemn the course that
I have pursued. There are situations, times, and oc-
casions, when men must act with boldness and firm-
ness to command respect from those with whom they
are thrown. Into such a one lam thrown, and I sin-
ce-.-ely trust that God will forgive me for the course
that I have pursued. FIELDING It. CULP.

WORKING of the NEW POOR-LAW.
We lately had occasion to Comment upon the cruel
severity with which the " amended" laws for the
relief of the poor visited a three weeks' bandying
to and fro, from pillar to post, and post to pillar, upon
two poor little children, who were acknowledged by
all parties, the so-called relieving-officers included, to
be starving the while, and that innocently (which last
is a concession not often made by these worthies),
with cold and hunger. The particulars have now
been furnished to us of a somewhat similar case which
has just occurred in Yorkshire.
The simple facts of the case were these :—On
Friday, the 21st of October last, the wife of John
Hill, a woolcomber, resident at Harden, within
the limits of the Keighley Union, but belonging to
the township of Wilsden within the Bradford Union,
was confined of her third child. For the whole
fortnight previous to this the man had earned, from
whatever cause (whether, as it was alleged, from
any fault of his own or not, makes no difference in
the question of the destitution and consequent claim
to relief of his wife and child), only 4s. 6d. in the
whole. He consequently, and one should think with
very good reason, applied for assistance on behalf
of his wife on the day after her confinement to a
Mr. Mackley, of Wilsden, who appears to be a
guardian of the Bradford Union, and to be in the
habit of acting occasionally as relieving-officer on the
behalf of that body. This person having proof, as
he tells us, that Hill himself was " too idle to work,"
and was " a regular nuisance to the parish offs sere,"
for that reason refused to commiserate the truly
pitiable wants, not of the husband, but of the
wife and newly-born child, and for the same
very singular reason proceeded further to refer
Hill to the Assistant-Overseer, saying that he did
not know where the,relieving-officer resided. It must
be added, that this Mr. Mackley admitted that, if it
had been a fit case, be would, and he was empowered
so to do, have relieved on behalf of the Bradford
Union. He conceived, therefore, that that union was
liable, if it were a fit case. Whether it was fit or
not our readers must, of course, decide. The over-
'seer, however, referred Hill to the relieving-officer of
Wilsden, which latter functionary referred him on to
the Keighley" Board, because, as he said, the Bradford
Board would not indemnify him (ilie officer) if he
relieved; and the Keighley Board then referred the
man back to the Bradford Board ; and the Bradford
Board, in the person of Mr. Mackley aforesaid, said
that " it would be no use applying to them."
By this time the poor man had travelled nearly
thirty miles, and without effect! The condition of
his wife, in the meanwhile, is thus described .by our
informant :—" The evidence proves that the mother
of the child was found sitting in a damp house, with-
out fire or food, on the day week after the child was
born ; and that the witness, Ann Smith, the wife of a
poor woolcomber, and the mother of five children,
gave her her afternoon meal, and went without food
herself
.from nine o'clock in the morning until nine
o'clock in the following morning." Hill then applied
to Mr. Ferrand, M.P., "on the day his wife was
found by Ann Smith, apparently dying," and from
him obtained food and assistance, and also directions
how to arrive at the hitherto impenetrable Board of
the Bradford Guardians. On Monday, October 31,
only ten days after his wife's confinement, and three
days after she had been rescued from starvation by
the Christian charity of one almost as poor as herself,
the poor man succeeded in reaching Mr. Ellis, the
eonnfevcemsbl,edtoarnedl i
otshte
dmy
iinsegriesfroomf hthise wprifie-
relieving-officer, who was the party regularly bound,
iand a child,ny p er
s
vations whiCh they had suffered.. This
man, in the
words of our informant, " though he resided not
more than a mile and a half from the
either to visit the man's abode, or to relieve
him ; and
ordered him about his business." At the next meet-
ing of the Bradford Board of Guardians these facts
were proved against this Mr. Ellis, who, however, re-
fused to attend or meet the charge ; and at the fol-
lowing meeting Mr. Mackley appeared and ju.ttified
his share in the transaction, on the ground, noticed by
us already, that hill was an idle fellow, and did not
earn as much as he might. In the meantime, the
child died. A Coroner's inquest is to be held upon
the body, and we will not anticipate its verdict ; yet
we cannot but feel that it is no fault of the adminis-
trators of the Poor-law that the woman did not
die also.
• These are the facts of the case;awl they speak for
themselves. 'We proceed to eluciaate their application
to the principles of the New Poor-law. The openly
avowed principle of that law is, to compel the poor to
support themselves, by making that maintenance
which in some few certain cases, as it is allowed,
cannot be refused, as pitiful, as rarely bestowed, and
as uncomfortable to the recipient as possible. This
rule is uniform ; and the weak, the sick, and the
aged, suffer for the benefit of the idle and the strong
—suffer, in order that these last may-be driven to
maintain themselves. This is the maked principle of
the law : it now appears that not only is the treatment
of the individual himself who is to be thus driven to
work to be used thus instrumentally, but the suffer-
ings, literally the dying sufferings, of his wife and
children, of those who are utterly innocent of his
idleness and profligacy (even sup •
posing such idleness
and profligacy to exist)—these are to beadded as a
makeweight, and these guiltless ones are to be re-
fused the very necessaries of
a bare and miserable ex-
istence, in order that the husband may be goaded
into supporting himself and them ! Such is the law
of the Bradford Union.
Again, the o effects f the centralization system, of
the union .of
parishes, are here also very tolerably
well illustrated. In the late dispute between the
West London Union and the overseers of St. Mar-
garet's, the journies from overseer to relieving-officer,
and from relieving-officer to overseer, were not so
very long; the parishes were contiguous. In the
Bradford case, and the same thing would happen
in many instances in the country, the poor man who
was litigated travelled no less than thirty miles
before the point was cleared up. A dispute between
two unions may be a matter of perfect indifference
to the respective officers ; but to the poor man whose
family are starving it is, as experience proves, no
light matter. Surely, it is but a mockery of that
true almsgiving, which is ready, of itself, even to seek
out objects for its charity ; it is but a mockery of that
State provision for the poor which a Christian com-
munity should, one would think, bring home to every
poor man's door ; it is but a mockery of mercy—a
mockery of public beneficence, to remove the source
of charity to a distance—away from the home, away
from the s 3 mpathies of the recipient, and to bring
him ten, or twenty, or even thirty miles, before you
dole out to him his niggardly pittance, or condescend,
in the plentitude of your kindness, to tell him that
you dispute his claim.—Times.

The General Steam Navigation Company's vessel
the Ocean, from Rotterdam, arrived off the-Custom-
house On Sunday, with the Dutch mail.