The Sun. — 1841-12-06 (London, England)

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1841.  no doubt that the afflicted fellow-creature who thus brought herself and child to an untimely end, was an industrious hard-working woman, was greatly attached to her children, and made every exertion to keep herself and them out of the workhouse. She struggled on, day after day, sometimes by washing, and at other times by weaving, making out 2s. 9d. a week to support herself and three children ; but finding all hopes of bettering her condition vain, and worn out with hunger, suffering, and sorrow, she yielded at last to " outrageous fortune," and in a fit of despair put an end to her child, whom she dearly loved—and then hanged herself in the miserable abode, so long the scene of her sufferings. The following brief account by one of the witnesses, examined on the first day, will enable the reader to jndge whether this picture is exaggerated :  On Saturday night week she had half-a-crown, and bought some coals and potatoes for the ensuing week. She earned Bd. in a house where she had been washing ; and she got 3d. from me. On Thursday night she burrowed 6d , with which she bought 3d. worth of coals, and 3(1. worth of jannock bread. On Saturday night she came in to pay me the 6d., but I would not take it from her, although lam very poor myself. This was all the money she had to support herself and three children fir the last week. She was a very hard-working clean woman, and remarkably so according to her situation in life. She had seldom more to live on, as far as I could learn, than 2s. 6d. a week. James Smith, of Chuwbent, is the landlord of the cellar, and he sent bailiffs there twice for the rent ; but, seeing her destitute condition, they could not find it in their hearts to sell the few articles of furniture she possessed.—[A gentleman present stated that, on one occasion, the bailiff was so much touched with her destitute condition, that he gave her half-a-crown.] The deceased had three children by Wood, the eldest of whom is a boy, seven years of age, and the next a girl, about eighteen months old, and the child that was drowned, who was eight months old. For the rest of the evidence we refer to the report in another part of the Paper, and on reading it we can come to no other conclusion than that the unfortunate woman and her child fell victims to the severity of the Poor-law. The cruelty of the bastardy clause, and the unfair advantage given by it to a heartless seducer, we took every opportunity of pressing upon the notice of the public when the Bill was before Parliament; yet the original clause was agreed to with little modification, and this sad catastrophe is one of the results. The relieving officer at Leigh put this beyond doubt. " There is," said he, "a general unwillingness on the part of -Unions to affiliate, on account of the expense and difficulty of getting the money from the fathers. They laugh at our attaching their wages." The poor woman, no doubt knew this well, she knew she could not compel the father to maintain the children, and she submitted to her fate. The Jury we consider guilty of gross neglect of duty, in not pointing out the real cause of this lamentable event, and pressing it on the attention of the Home Secretary. They make no allusion to it  in their verdict, though the Foreman commented in strong terms on the conduct of the father " for not lending the mother and children assistance." Out of evil, however, coinedi good, and, when the Act comes before Parliament for revision, this sad scene will not be forgotten. It is a scene disgraceful to the age. While the land abounds with wealth, while Bishops and Peers and, pensioners contrive to wring vast sums from the hard-earned wages of the working classes, while Parliament levies from them yearly enormous sums to put into the pockets of a favoured class, a poor deserted creature, of the same sex as our beloved SOVEREIGN, with three young children, and anxious to work for their maintenance, is doomed to live on five-pence a-day, and even, that pittance failing, is driven to commit murder and suicide in the hope of finding relief in that place "where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest." The severe laws of the Church forbid her Christian burial, but will she and her innocent offspring sleep the less soundly, or will her merciful CREATOR view as a crime the deed which stern necessity and the cruel laws of man forced her in an evil hour to commit ?  The Paris Journals contain no pOlitical news of the slightest interest. The organs of the Court including, of course, the Presse .and the Journal des Debats, repudiate the proposal to replace, M. SAUZET by M. DE LAMARTINF, as President of the Chamber of Deputies. Both are Ministerial men, and the attempt to place them in opposition to each other, the Journals denounce as a trick of the Opposition—clever, certainly, but which will be unsuccessful. A letter from Bou!ges, in the France, states that the consort of Don Carlos is entirely recovered from her indisposition.—Gatignani's Messenger, Dec, 2, Pants,