The Sun. — 1844-08-28 (London, England)

PUBLIC JOURNALS. FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF YESTERDAY. GLOBE.—Are the slop-sellers of the metropolis I 'like destitute of the feelings of humanity, the sense • shame, and the consciousness of responsibility ? '1- he fearftil results of their grinding cupidity have been oti ten exhibited, and their cruelty denounced. The • -ess has frequently brought before the public eye the • d scenes of privation, verging on starvation, caused b f the miserable wages they pay to their wretched orkwomen. The lingering death endured by riuiny of these poor creatures—who, faint, from hunger, Vtigue, and suffering, ply the needle through the g; eater part of the night, unable to procure sust nance by unintermitting toil during the day—has ben represented in the homely phrase of prose, and ,in the more affecting appeals of verse. Hood's 4, Song of the Shirt ' will perpetuate, for it faithilly portrays, the sufferings of this wretched class the most helpless of the sex. Their weakness • .d woes would appeal to the sympathies of their • iployers—if they were men. If shame were eavable of moving them to virtue they would, 'Le this, have convened a public meeting of I oeir trade, and pledged themselves to each other and 0.) the public, that an advance upon their scandalously I,w rates of wages for the making-up of the shirts, t c-users, and other articles of dress, in the sewing tos_ :then of which large numbers of females are daily a,d nightly employed, should take place. And if la_ inanity and shame had ceased to operate, the detaluciations of Heaven against those who " grind. tne face of the poor, and afflict the soul of the sieecly," might awake those apprehensions of future retribution against which the most obdurate 3:"R not altogether proof. But these considerations seem incapable of moving the slop-sellers. Their poor work women are ground to the dust, and a i-e even pressed out of life, by the operation of the system of competition which this class of traders persist in carrying on against each other. 'll, he profits they acquire are wrung from the vitality of the poor needle-women, who starve, while tiley " fare sumptuously every day." Another of these terrible examples is before us. A fine young woman, industrious and virtuous, unable to supFart life upon the wages of shirtmaking, and shrinkig from the alternative which lures but to inflict won its victims a deeper depth of misery, has been impelled to suicide. A double suicide was only prevented by the timely arrival of a labouring man, who, gm his way to work, was attracted to the spot by a ) ariek, and succeeded in rescuing from death a sister a the wretched girl. They had agreed to terminate t heir miserable existence together by drowning. The vurvivor told the sad tale of their mutual struggles to aastain life by.their unintermitting toils, and of the horrid conclusion to which they came to terminate Ati existence which to them was alike destitute of inriucement, in the shape of possession, or of promise, to prolong it. The Coroner's inquest commenced its inquiry into the cause of the death of the poor suicide on Friday, and glosed it yesterday. The name of the deceased girl was Eliza Kendall—her age ilineteen—the mode of death was drowning—the place selected for the act a secluded spot on the Surrey Canal • jury marked its sense of the cause which led t,) the catastrophe by the verdict it returned upon the widence :—" That the deceased committed suicide /Mist labouring under a fit of insanity ; and the jury Annot but deprecate the cruel practice of the slop7•Alers in London, of employing young females at .3.,,edlework at so low a rate of wages as to preclude the fossibility of a subsistence." This was, in fact, a verdict ..f wilful murder against the system by which "the slop: tillers in London" manage their business. The manifest tendency of this system is the destruction of life. To reuce the prices of shirt-making to five farthings each, is • —we will not mince the matter--to consign the poor creatures who are condemned to toil for such a pittance t./ starvation. The appropriate designation of such cruelty is murder. Rent—food—clothes—firing— candles (for toil by night)—and all these out of sewfig the materials of shirts together at five farthings ieh ! Those who think the thing consistent with t te sustentation of life deserve to be undeceived, by 11~..ing subjected to the experiment. Human legislavon cannot prevent the horrible state of things. But T, iblic opinion can express its sense of the enormity ; :Ind the public Press can, and will, utter its thunders 4ainst it, and against those who pocket the gains de) ved from human misery.