The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-12-13 00:00:00

INQUESTS YESTERDAY.

THE following inquests were held, yesterday, before P
F. Curry, Esq., coroner :—On the body of Helen Roberts;
a child of three months old, illegitimate daughter of He.

len Roberts, who resides as a servant in Qu
street. The mother stated that she had placed the infant
out to nurse with Mary Gow, wife of Gow, boots at a
hotel in Dale-street ; that she was in the habit of seeing
the child every night. Witness paid 4s. a week for the
maintenance of the child.--Mrs. Gow said she had re-
ceived the infant to nurse, aud, for the purpose of attend-
ing to it, weaned her own child, which was a little older.
She was induced to do this for the purpose of aiding in
bringing up her family, as her husband was occasionally
out of work. On Saturday night she took the child with
her to bed as usual, laid it on her bosom, and fell asleep.
When she awoke in the morning she found the child still in
the same position, but quite dead. The jury returned a
verdict that deceased had "died by being accidentally
overlain." The Coroner admonished Mrs. Gow as to the
extreme danger of allowing an infant to be so placed while
the nurse went to sleep, stating that, in such a case, the
slightest motion on the part of the nurse'was likely to
result, as in the present case, in the death of the child.
On the body of John Costigan, aged two months. De-
ceased was the illegitimate son of Ann Costigan, and was
born in the workhouse ; he resided along with witness in
the lodging-house of Alice Grundy, in No. 1 Court, Shaw-
hill-street. On Friday night last witness was much in-
toxicated, and went to bed about eleven o'clock, taking
decease with her. She gave the child the breast at the
time, and fell asleep. In about half an hour the child
awoke witness with its screams, when she again gave it
the breast, and being heavy with drink, fell asleep. On
awaking at daylight she found the child quite dead. In
the room in which she slept there were three beds, one of
which was occupied by a man and a woman ; one by two
unmarried men, and the third by witness and the child.
Alice Grundy corroborated the general statements of the
preceding witness. She is landlady of the house, which is
not a licensed lodging-house. She takes in lodgers at three-
pence each per night, but does not take in men and women
indiscriminately. There are three beds in the apartment
occupied by the preceding witness,'and it is tenanted, as
she described it. Witness has kept the house for twenty-
four years. She never had applied to have a license for
it. The coroner's constable stated the house kept by
Grundy to be one of a very bad character, and gave inti-
mation as to the very promiscuous kind of lodgers by
which it was frequented. The Coroner directed the at-
tention of the Lodging-house Inspector to this den, as one
deserving of immediate surveillance. It was not licensed,
and, from the statements made, there could be but little
doubt as to the character which it deserved. He then
adverted, briefly, to the facts narrated, commenting on the
disgraceful statement of the first witness, that she was
much intoxicated at the time of going to bed ; and was
"heavy with drink" when she last saw her child alive.
Under the circumstances, he thought the jury had
better return an open verdict that the deceased had , died
by suffocation," which they accordingly did.
On the body of a newly-born infant, which had
been found in Disby-street. Thomas Cosgrove is a lad who
works with his uncle, a chairmaker, in Disley-street, off
Gloucester-street. On Saturday last, as he was going down
the shop ladder, he found the dead body of a female infant
thrust between the steps under the ladder. He gave
intimation of the fact to a policeman, and the body was
conveyed to the dead-house. Mr. George Kemp, surgeon,
made a post mortem examination of the body, and stated
that the child was a full-grown female infant, and had
been born alive. Its death was caused by exposure to the
cold. In this case the jury returned a verdict of " Wilful
murder against some person or persons unknown."
The Coroner, before dismissing the jury, took the oppor-
tunity of remarking on the frequent and melancholy con-
nexion between violent or unnatural deaths, and drink.
In one, at least, of the instances they had been iwquiring
into, its connexion with drink was obvious. As they had
been unable to say who the unnatural mother was
in the last case, there was some difficulty in stating
whether in that instance drink had led to the crime or not,
but he did not think it was an undue latitude in him to
assume that before a woman could be so abandoned as so
far to forget the natural instincts and feelings of a mother,
she must have been addicted to such stimulants to excite-
ment as drink. He might, he said, be permitted to remark
that a good many years ago he had been applied to by
Colonel Williams, a great advocate for the promotion of
temperance among the working classes, to ascertain from
him (the coroner) the number of deaths into which in-
quiry had been made, and which had been directly or in-
directly connected with drinking. On making the neces-
sary investigation, he had ascertained that the number at
that time on which he had been engaged was about one in
fifty. He had no doubt he should startle the by what
his experience now warranted him in saying : belief
was, that of the inquests he was now called preside
over, the number of deaths connected directly o indirectly
with drink, would amount to one in seven. Drinking,
observed,ed Produced carelessness of cons ences as well
, and these contri din no small
degree
to occasion deaths under circum tances demanding
heas(eprav
inquiry.

.Anne

INQUESTS.—There were two inquisitions before the
Borough coroner on Saturday. One on the body of Ann
Berry, aged seventy-nine, whose husband lives in Tynwald-
street. On the previous Saturday she fell down stairs, and
sustained injuries which caused her death on Wednesday.
The other was on the body of Bridget Callaghan, aged
sixty, living with her son-in-law in No. 10 Court, Dryden-
street. She had for some time been troubled with a
distressing cough. On Thursday, while coughing, she
burst a blood-vessel, which caused almost instantaneous
death. - -

TEARS AND LA.IIGHTER.—God made both tears and
laughter, and both for kind purposes ; for as laughter
enables mirth and surprise to breathe freely, so tears
enable sorrow to vent itself patiently. Tears hinder
sorrow from becoming despair and madness ; and laughter
is one of the very privileges of reason, being confined to
the human species.—Leigh Hunt.