The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-01-09 00:00:00

JUVENILE MEND! CANCY IN LIVERPOOL•

We detest, as cordially as need be, that cold-blooded
philosophy which would close the hearts and the hands of
Englishmen to the appeals of suffering humanity, and which
teaches that the extent of a man's charitable contributions
to the supplying of the wants of his fellow-man should be
the amount of his poor's rate. We are not prepared tO
say the provisions of the law, as regards mendicancPt
should be strained so tightly that the authorities who ad'
minister it should resemble, in their harsh watchfulness,
the paid officials of " mendicity associations," and repress
entirely the supplications of casual want to the ready nand
and the open purse of those who are willing to obey the
divine injunctions to remember the poor and the afflicted,
But there is a limit to the extent to which we would calif
the forbearance of the law, and classes of objects to whom
we would apply its strictest provisions. The sturdy beg'
gars, who pester every passer by for money to lavish is
low debauchery • the impostors who offend our eyes by the
exhibition of self-caused deformity or pretended bodili,
affliction ; these should be swept from our streets, and
would be so swept from them, if our police would do their
duty, and must be, unless access is to be denied (to peace•
able and timid people) to our markets and our public
thoroughfares, in which they abound to such an extent 0
to constitute an intolerable nuisance.
There is one kind of mendicancy, however, which WO
are bound to suppress rigorously, if we would be just and
humane to the wretched objects by whom it is pursued,
We allude to juvenile mendicancy—to infant mendicancl.
Let the reader, on any evening, between dusk and mid'
night, and in any weather, visit some of our leading tho'
roughfares, and especially the neighbou?hoods of the prin.,
cipal theatres and other places of amusement, and, unless
accustomed to the sight, he must be shocked by the num'
ber and wretchedness of the tattered children, who dog
the steps of the passers by, to importune them for contri-
butions. Or let him watch the same description of
children in their nightly rounds, from tavern to tavern, tO
pick up a few halfpence, by singing and other acquire-
ments suited to the tastes of frequenters of tap-rooms, and
then let him ask himsc.,,ll—is it real charity, or even hu-
manity, towards these children to encourage the vagabond
life which they lead Who are the parties who drive
them to these demoralizing practices ? Is it by their own
choice, or for their own emolument, that infants- of tender
years, half clad and half starved, brave the extremity of
the winter's cold and the midnight storni—shiver in the
most exposed localities, or ran barefoot upon the hard
pavements ? For a solatiOn of these questions, folios"
home the little outcasts to' the wretched dens, where a
brutalized father, or a half starved and wholly dissolute
mother, waits to receive the scanty rewards of their raid"
night wanderings. There is-the' source from which ems.,
nates the stream of pollution.' which defiles our streets.;
and which provides for the law to punish, a race of pick'
pockets ar d depredators, of every kind and every degree
of crime.

1 A. striking instance of the horrible. effects of this kind
of mendicancy has been mentioned to us by a friend, as' having come under his observation, during the past week.,
A half idiotic little boy was observed; by him at a corner
of a, street bargaining earnestly with, tier' parties for a
hati)enny,, and he was induced to ask the particulars of
his occupatioiss and his parentage. The wretched little
being'had acquired—at some of the Fow theatres and con-
cert rooms, no doubt, with which our town lateßy abound-
ed—tlit'Words, the tunes, and the necessary grimaces, for
singiorg, what are known by the name of "nigger melo-
dies,' which he' doled out at the rate of three far a half-
penny.. For this purpose, he was nightly turned lotto the
streets br his mother, and generally remained out of doors
until two off* th'rer o'clock in themorning A's the'elimax
of the cruelty, thus practised upon him, he was proided
with a B'/011 box T from which he took plentifiil. perches
from time to time, as he described it, " to keep, him, from
sleeping?' What, we ask, must be the sufferings of such
a life ? What must be the horrible depravity', or priva-
tion, or both; which could lead a mother thus to devote to
certain ruins her wretched cffspr b ?
This species of mendicancy ought promptly to-be pat
down; and we'appeal to the Watch Committee to de their
duty by its suppression. We ask for no punishment of
the poor chil&ett themselves, but rather for their ptiblee;-•
lion from the profligate parents who devote them to de,
sr ruction ; and, this a strict prevention of the practice; and
the making of a few examples, will effect.

We are requested to caution• the public against a serof:
nsen who are going-about the streets in the evening :and.
stripping children of their clothes.

We understand that Dr. R.. Hibbert Taylor, Percy-
street, has been appointed one- of the medical officers of
the school for the Deaf and Dumb, in the room of Mr.
Neill resigned.

SURGEON TO TIZB WORKHOURE.—At the last meeting.,
of the select vestry, ,Afi•. Nightingall, who had retired'
fi-owv this office, but subsequently,had expressed a wish td`
be reinstated, was reappointed by the board, in compli-•
anew with the request of-the poor-law commissioners.

- -
The Observer states that, up to 'a late hour on Saturday, -
no final determination hid been come to at the Home
Office; on the case of, the unhappy men now under
sentence of death for the murder of Lord Derby's game-
keeper.

Sr.. Luis's CHURCH..--The Rev. William Mulleneux,
Who has fora short time held the curacy of Bebbington,
has been appointed incumbent of St.. Luke's Church,
Liverpool, on the presentation of the patron, Sir Joshua
Wa I mirky.
(lb AD,RILLE PARTIZS.—In another column will be
found an advertisement of Mr. Parker's band. At this
season, when balls are so numerous,. it would he_well for
:nose "'no neve tneir management; as•welt as private par-
ties, ttp secure Mr. Parker's services,. as the celebrity and
talent he is known to possess arc such as cannot fail to
:lye the highest satisfaction.
STREDT THEFT.—A youth-. named George Dudson,
was, on Saturday, charged before Mr. Rushton with
having, on the previous-day, stolen a chair from a cart-
!end of furniture, at the door of Mr. Morgan's, Imperial
Hotel,.St. John's-lane. He was seen to take it, in broad
day,' and- walk away with. it down by the wall of St. John's
ChOreb-yard. He was committed for triaL
A SSAX.LT AND CUTTING CASE.—Three men, Michael
Corkin, John Kenna, and Patrick Gilligan,. were, yester-
day, charged, by a keeperof a disorderly house in John-
son-street, with fnrcibly entering his cellar on Saturday
night, demanding drink, and severely; assaulting him ;
one of them with a clasp=knife having, cut off the tip of
his, nose, and inflicted twa other wounds on his face.
The case was proved, and they were committed for trial
at sessions.