The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-02-09 00:00:00

DEATH OF AN INFANT FROM STARVATION.—DEPLO-
RABLE DESTITUTION. —Another of those cases of ex-
treme misery and destitution with which the public have
recently been so familiar, came out in the course of an
inquiry before the coroner, touching the death of John
Cawley, a poor Irishman, living in Dolling-street. From
the evidence of Mr. Tompkins, one of the relieving
officers of Toxteth-park, it appeared that Cawley applied
for relief on Tuesday morning, and immediately after-
wards he went to visit the cellar which Cawley occupied ;
he found the wife of the poor man in bed with (as he
supposed) one child ; but after asking her a few questions
relative to her condition, he saw what appeared to be a
bundle of rags, but which, on closer inspection, proved to
be the body of a child. Cawley had not alluded to the
death of his infant when he applied for relief; nor did his
wife draw the attention of the relieving officer to the body
when he spoke to her. Mr. Gilmour, a surgeon, made a
post mortern examination of the body, and declared the
cause of death to be a general wasting of the system from
want of sufficient nourishment. Cawley stated that he
arrived in Liverpool about two months since, when he
had a pound in his pocket, on which he had supported
himself since. His wife only came over on Sunday week
last. The coroner, addressing the jury said, that unless
something were immediately done for the relief of the
family the parents would follow their child. The coroner
asked Mr. Gilmour what he intended to do in the case of the
wretched woman ? He_ replied that she had not been
given to him as a patient, and therefore he could not in-
terfere. The coroner' immediately gave Mr. Gilmour to
understand that if death ensued he should take the most
prompt steps, and concluded by giving the surgeon legal
notice of the case, upon which Mr. Gilmour expressed his
determination to give his best attention to the case. The
verdict was, died from starvation. _

ALLEGED DEATH OF A PAUPER LUNATIC FROM VIO-
LENCE.-On Thursday an investigation took place into
the circumstances connected with the death of John My-
ers, whose death was stated to have resulted limn vio-
lence inflicted upon him by one of the keepers of the lu-
natic ward in the Liverpool Workhouse. The evidence
of Daniel Morrey was to the effect that he was a pauper in
the Workhouse, and had been appointed one of the under
keepers to the Lunatic Asylum. He was an inmate of
the asylum, but his conduct was not violent. A man
named Hugh Evans, one of the under keepers, used to hit
deceased on the head with a strap, because he dirtied the
bed clothes, and on the 21st he took him by the neck and
pushed him out of the dry house, and at the time it was
snowing heavily. The unfortunate deceased fell to the
ground with great force, but did not complain afterwards
of being hurt. Subsequently he (Morrey) had seen Evans
strike the deceased with his open hand on the forehead,
and also with a strap, and there were marks of violence
which appeared to have been produced by such means.
The deceased was taken ill shortly afterwards, and conti-
nued in a debilitated state until Saturday last, when he
died. On being questioned Morrey stated that he had
never made any complaint to the governor, the head
keeper, or the surgeon, as to violence having been used
towards the deceased. It appeared, also, that Morrey
had been sent to the mill, by order of the governor, and
had been convicted of felony. The governor stated that
no complaint whatever had been made to him ; and the
evidence of Mr. T. F. Grimsdale, surgeon to the house,
went to show that deceased had died of general debility,
connected with the state of mind. Mr. Grimsdale added
that he had frequently visited deceased, but no complaints
were ever made of ill-usage, and the keepers were not al-
lowed to inflict any description of punishment, or even to
use any kind of re 3traiut, without his orders. This state-
ment was corroborated by Mr. John Timmon, one of the
honorary physicians, who 'had frequently seen the de-
ceased. The jury returned a verdict in accordance with
the surgical testimony.