“It is proposed to erect a memorial church at Oxford to the late Archbishop Longley. The cost is estimated at from £15,000 to £20,000. The subscriptions promised already amount to upwards of £2,000, and in the list are the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Bishops of Oxford, St. Asaph, and Chester.”
“An inquest was held in the Isle of Dogs by Mr. Humphreys, [[290]]the coroner, respecting the death of a woman named Catherine Spence, aged thirty-four, and her infant. She was the wife of a labourer, who had been almost without employment for two years and a half. They had pledged all their clothes to buy food, and some time since part of the furniture had been seized by the brokers for rent. The house in which they lived was occupied by six families, who paid the landlord 5s. 9d. for rent. One of the witnesses stated that ‘all the persons in the house were ill off for food, and the deceased never wanted it more than they did.’ The jury on going to view the bodies found that the bed on which the woman and child had died was composed of rags, and there were no bed-clothes upon it. A small box placed upon a broken chair had served as a table. Upon it lay a tract entitled ‘The Goodness of God.’ The windows were broken, and an old iron tray had been fastened up against one and a board up against another. Two days after his wife’s death the poor man went mad, and he was taken to the workhouse. He was not taken to the asylum, for there was no room for him in it—it was crowded with mad people. Another juror said it was of no use to return a verdict of death from starvation. It would only cause the distress in the island to be talked about in newspapers. The jury returned a verdict that the deceased woman died from exhaustion, privation, and want of food.”
“The Rev. James Nugent, the Roman Catholic chaplain of the Liverpool borough gaol, reported to the magistrates that crime is increasing among young women in Liverpool; and he despairs of amendment until effective steps are taken to check the open display of vice which may now be witnessed nightly, and even daily, in the thoroughfares of the town. Mr. Raffles, the stipendiary magistrate, confesses that he is at a loss what to do in order to deter women of the class referred to from offending against the law, as even committal to the sessions and a long term of imprisonment [[291]]fail to produce beneficial effects. Father Nugent also despairs of doing much good with this class; but he thinks that if they were subjected to stricter control, and prevented from parading in our thoroughfares, many girls would be deterred from falling into evil ways.”
“At the Liverpool borough gaol sessions Mr. Robertson Gladstone closely interrogated the chaplain (the Rev. Thomas Carter) respecting his visitation of the prisoners. Mr. Gladstone is of opinion that sufficient means to make the prisoners impressionable to religious teaching are not used; whilst the chaplain asserts that the system which he pursues is based upon a long experience, extending over twenty-eight years, at the gaol. Mr. Gladstone, who does not share the chaplain’s belief that the prisoners are ‘generally unimpressionable,’ hinted that some active steps in the matter would probably be taken.”
“Mr. Fowler, the stipendiary magistrate of Manchester, referring to Mr. Ernest Jones’ death yesterday, in the course of the proceedings at the City police-court, said: ‘I wish to say one word, which I intended to have said yesterday morning, in reference to the taking from amongst us of a face which has been so familiar in this court; but I wished to have some other magistrates present in order that I might, on the part of the bench, and not only as an individual, express our regret at the unexpected removal from our midst of a man whose life has been a very remarkable one, whose name will always be associated in this country in connection with the half-century he lived in it, and who, whatever his faults—and who amongst us is free?—possessed the great virtues of undoubted integrity and honour, and of being thoroughly consistent, never flinching from that course which he believed to be right, though at times at the cost of fortune and of freedom.’ ”
“A Chester tradesman named Meacock, an ex-town councillor, [[292]]has been arrested in that city on a charge of forging conveyances of property upon which he subsequently obtained a mortgage of £2,200. The lady who owns the property appeared before the magistrates, and declared that her signature to the conveyance was a forgery. The prisoner was remanded, and was sent to prison in default of obtaining the bail which was required.”
“Mr. Hughes, a Liverpool merchant, was summoned before the local bench for having sent to the London Dock a case, containing hydrochloric acid, without a distinct label or mark denoting that the goods were dangerous. A penalty of £10 was imposed.”
“A woman, named Daley, came before the Leeds magistrates, with her son, a boy six years old, whom she wished to be sent to a reformatory, as she was unable to control him. She said that one evening last week he went home, carrying a piece of rope, and said that he was going to hang himself with it. He added that he had already attempted to hang himself ‘in the Crown Court, but a little lass loosed the rope for him, and he fell into a tub of water.’ It turned out that the mother was living with a man by whom she had two children, and it was thought by some in court that her object was merely to relieve herself of the cost and care of the boy; but the magistrates, thinking that the boy would be better away from the contaminating influence of the street and of his home, committed him to the Certified Industrial Schools until he arrives at sixteen years of age, and ordered his mother to contribute one shilling per week towards his maintenance.”—Pall Mall Gazette, January 29, 1869.
[[293]]
Subscriptions to St. George’s Fund
TO CLOSE OF YEAR 1874.
(The Subscribers each know his or her number in this List.)
| £ | s. | d. | ||
| 1. | Annual, £4 0 0 (1871, ’72, ’73, ’74) | 16 | 0 | 0 |
| 2. | Annual, £20 0 0 (1871, ’72, ’73, ’74) | 80 | 0 | 0 |
| 3. | Gift | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| 4. | Gifts (1871), £30 0 0; (1873), £20 0 0 | 50 | 0 | 0 |
| 5. | Gift (1872) | 20 | 0 | 0 |
| 6. | Annual, £1 1 0 (1872, ’73, ’74) | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| 7. | Gift (1872) | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| 8. | Annual, £20 0 0 (1872, ’73, ’74) | 60 | 0 | 0 |
| 9. | Gift (1872) | 25 | 0 | 0 |
| 10. | Annual, £5 0 0 (1872, ’73) | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| 11. | Annual, £1 1 0 (1873, ’74) | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| 12. | Gift (1873) | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| 13. | Annual, £3 0 0 (1873, ’74) | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| 14. | Gift (1873) | 13 | 10 | 0 |
| 15. | Gift (1873) | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| 16. | Gift (1874) | 25 | 0 | 0 |
| 17. | Gift,, (1874),, | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 18. | Gift,, (1874),, | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| 19. | Gift,, (1874),, | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| 20. | Gift,, (1874),, | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 21. | Gift,, (1874),, | 10 | 10 | 0 |
| 22. | Gift,, (1874),, | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 23. | Gift,, (1874),, | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| 24. | Gift,, (1874),, | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| £370 | 7 | 0 |
One or two more subscriptions have come in since this list was drawn [[294]]up; these will be acknowledged in the January number, and the subjoined letter from Mr. Cowper-Temple gives the state of the Fund in general terms.
Broadlands, Romsey,
December 9, 1874.Dear Ruskin,
The St. George’s Fund, of which Sir Thomas Acland and I are Trustees, consists at present of £7,000[1] Consolidated Stock, and of £923 standing to the credit of our joint account at the Union Bank of London, Chancery Lane Branch. Contributions to this fund are received by the Bank and placed to the credit of our joint account.
Yours faithfully,
W. Cowper-Temple.
[[1]]