Police.
The Times, 1824-01-17T00:00:00

MANsioN.HoUsE.-PoYMs BIMTRAX`rs.-Yesterday the LoRD AIAYOI anuounced in the Justice-room that the widows and children of the emigrants to Poyais, in behalf of whom a smell subscription had been raised, were sent down to their homes in Scotland, as the place where they vould meet with the greatest attention, and where they would most speedily recover from the sickress under 7hich tbey laboured The subscriptions received before thleir departure amounted to 131., of which 91. were giver to defray the expenses of their journey. In consequence of the publicity given to the transactions which brought down so much misery upon those poor people, some benevolent gentleman, wvho signed himself, " B. T. G." transmitted to him 301., to be applied to their relief, The note containing the benefaction had the wvords -" Aid thy distressed neighbours and man," and was written by one who had great experience in deeds of charity. His Lordship expressed a hope that the generosity of the public would be extend- ed to the poor' miserable adventurers who were the dupes of this barbarous speculation, and lie would take care that the contributions should be appropriated according to the urgency of the cases. The orphan child of Sergeant O'Neil being too ill to bear remnoval, re- mained in town, and was attended by two medical gentlemen, who gave their services gratuitously. An interesting girl about 19 years of age, nanied Margaret Rice, appeared to prefer a complaint aga'nst the parish officers of St. Bartholomew the Great, for not having givent her relief in her ex- treme necessity. She had, she said, been seduced by the son of her mistress, upon a promuse ofmarriage Her mistress was a Quaker lady of great respectability, and lived upon her income, which was considerable. Her seducer took lodgings for her in Kingaland-road, told hus mo- ther they wzere mariiet, and nisted her constantly. After a short time, howvever, he madc some pretext for giving up the lodging, and went ner. home to her mother, who was a widow, had seven other children, and wastoopoorto keep her. He left her in debt at her mother's but she methim subsequently, and he repeated his pro- mses to her, and promised together a permanent residence. He then took her to a house and gave her a night's lodging, but he de. serted her in the moming, and she had not scan him sice, nor re- ceivedany assistance fromhim,althoughshe Was fargonein pregnan- .v. She complained to his mother, who was deaf to her expostulatons, and refused to giveher theleast aid. But for a friend of her mother's, she must have perished; that friend had protected her, but the pa- rish officers having learned her condition, threatened to visit her kind hostess with the sevetest punishment for harbouring her, their anrehensions being that she would become burdensome to them. S,he was conse.quently obliged to apply to the parish officers of the parish in which she had gained a settlement by three years' service, for relief, but they refused to give any withQut a pass from the pa- rish in which she had last slept. From that parish she received half-a-crown, and she was sent to the parish of Bishopsgate, where she had slept one night at the lodeingprocured by her seducer. 'Ihe oicers of that parisb refused to pass her, because she had not regru- larly resided there. Driven almost to madness, she calculated upon death as the only benefactor she could meet with. Her hostess. however, thought of thc expedient of applying to the Lord Mayor. The Poor girl was so affected while she was making this statement, that her faee was bathed with tears. The female who had received the girl, and been tireatened with parish vengesnce, for having done so, told the Lord Mayor, that the applicant was sunk so deep in despair at the treatment she had re- ceived, that she actLally attempted to commit suicide. The cha- racter of the unfortunate creature had never becn touched before she fell a victim to the importunities of her seducer. The beadle of thelast parish in which the girl slept said, that now that the tliing was explained, he was quite ready to pass her to her settlement. The LOnD ALAYOR said, he was bound to make a general obser- vation upon a Rraetice pursued by almost all the parishes, and pro- ductive of misery, despair, and perhaps death. Whea a poor creature presented herself for relief,- tbough her title might be clear and her settlement undisputed, her parish would not re- ceive her, unless she waS passed accoiding to law, as it was caled, from the last parish in which she had slept. She then was ktiocked about from parish to parish, until drivein to de- spair she committed some desperate act upon herselfor others. In the presenJt instance, ought the poor girl to be sent, in her condition, eight months advanced inpregnancv, from parish to parish-perhaps to W'oolwich, where she hal been left by her seducer ? 'Whvr could. she not be received at once without the form of a pass, wvhen her set- tlement was clear? lVhat would have been theco'ditionofthose who occasioned such delay, had she effected her purpose of self-de- struction. The practice of refusing to receive the poor wthout a pass on such occasions, was base and cruel. The poor girl in the present instance had erred, as was the case in nine instances out of ten, from being of too ingenanus and tender a disposition. Her case deserved the utmost compassion, and the female Xwho received her when she was shunned and driven away by others of her sex, merited great credit. An order of removal v,was then made out to convey the poor girl to the parish of her settlement, and it was promised that steps should be takea to bring her seducer to account. POI,ICE.