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very praisewortbuy brought up her family of four girls hitherto without reproach , and it was therefore no wonder that she should severely feel the injury which had been inflicted upon her children by the prisoner . The family removed to Heywood last September b ^ t one , and the four daughters went to work at Roach MilL—The prisoner was a married man and had professed great interest in the welfare of Mrs . Jackson and her daughters , at ¦ whose bouse he had be « n a frequent visitor , and the mother had placed great reliance upon his protection . His brother Joseph had also professed paying attention to her eldest daughter Susannah . The charges against the prisoner would have to be supported by the uncorroborated testimony of the girls , and the magistrates
would have to say , after they had heard the testimony , and after they had been cross-examined by his friend Mr . Grundy , if they believed their statement . There was another circumstance which doubtless would be relied upon by the defence , and that was that the offences were committed so far back as the 6 th . and 14 th of November last , and that no communication was made by either of them , until Thursday morning last . The explanation that he had to give was this—that there were four girls entirely dependent upon employment at the prisoner ' s mill , and that this circumstance , and a sense of shame , doubtless operated on the minds of the girls in concealing the outrage ; but from the testimony . of the mother and other parties , it would he shown that from
the period the offence was committed to the present time , the girl Mary Ann bad been continually fretting , and very low-spirited 5 scarcely eating any food ; absenting herself from a place of worship where she had been a regular attendant ; and . in fact had become quite " an . altered person ; and that her mother had repeatedly endeavoured t 5 ascertain from her the cause of her grief , and it was only on Thursday morning last that she was enabled , with threats , to obtain any information from her . On that morning the girl came to breakfast , but eafe nothing , and returned to her work , and the mother then ascertained , from her eldest daughter , that her sister had been again fretting . She sent for her from her work , and after a good deal of trouble , she got to know what the prisoner
had done . Then it "was that her sister Elizabeth also communicated the attempt which the prisoner had made upon her on the 6 th , and warrants were forthwith taken out against the prisoner . —Mary Ann Davenport , a goodlooking young woman , who showed evident signs of suffering , and her sister Elizabeth , then deposed to the assault committed ujon them , which is totally unfit for publication . After hearing their mother ' s testimony , and Mr . Grundy on behalf of-the prisoner , Mr . Openshaw , the magistrate , addressed the prisoner as follows : " Thomas Ellerbeck , after a long and painful hearing of the charges preferred , against you , we have come to the conclusion that the more serious charge of rape must be dismissed ; l # t such an opinion do we entertain , on the subject , that we must say , if the young woman had complained to her mother at an earlier period , or had her
cries been heard by anyone , our decision would have been a very different cne . The second charge preferred against you we consider has been fully established , and considering you in the character of a master and the fa ~ ther of a family , your conduct has been most scandalous and disgraceful , and we shall mark our sense of the enormity of the offence by inflicting upon you the highest penalty the law allows us to do , which is that you be fined in the sum of 5 / . including costs , and in default of payment , you stand committed to the House of Correction for two montha . Nor can we allow this painful inquiry to conclude -without expressing our disapprobation of the conduct of you , Joseph Ellerbeck : the manner in which you have conducted yourself and the levity displayed by you during this inquiry have been such aa to merit our severest censure , and we censure you accordingly . "^—The iine was paid and the prisoner liberated .
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AN INJURED ANGEL . The St . Petersburg Court Journal is by no means behind its contemporaries of that capital in lamenting the European opinion of Russia ' s angelic policy : " Russia raised her voice in the political world entirely in a religious , moral , and philanthropic sonso ¦ when she remindod the Porto of earlier treaties , whereby the latter waa bound to protect the Christian population of the , Turkish empire , and especially those of the orthodox profes . sion of faith . Nevertheless Turkey acted in violation of all treaties purchased with Kiissian blood , « nd in its breaalv of faith oppressed all orthodox Christians . Conscience and sound reason , induced rational men throughout Europe (?) to liolievo that all European
Christian States would support the di « intorest ; cd (!) demunds of Kueaui . Uufc the rcvorao was the ciiso . The party which thirsts for the destructive overthrow of Europe has excited the war ngainnt Ilussia , under the pretext that European civilisation in menaced . 'Huh is nothing more nor loss than pitiful and ridiculous . Tho protectorate over Christiana in tho East hu » boon thrown in by Russia ' s auumioH n » dan ^ u rous to European civilisation . Such indecency could scarcely luivo been liazarded in a theatrical farce , and yet , it hau found an culio in tho political world . And England , it i * added , utaiulu at the head of thin Iniao < : o » JH |> iraoy ; and its journals , oppicd by thoao of Franco and ( Jronnauy , arc tho truiunctu of th « s « and other venomous onlumnioa . "
THE NEW METROPOLITAN COMMISSION OF SEWERS—MR . F . O . WARD'S STATEMENT . After the despatch of the ordinary business at last Tuesday ' s Court , Mr . F . O . Ward ( one of the new members appointed by the Home-office ) rose , pursuant to notice , " to call the attention of the Commission to the general policy of the Commission with respect to House drainage , District drainage , Main intercepting drainage , and the Utilisation of sewage for agriculture ; also to submit to the consideration of the Court recent inventions calculated greatly to facilitate drainage operations . "
Mr . F . O . Ward , in a speech of u pwards of an hour ' s duration , reviewed the existing policy of the Commission in all its above branches , and set forth the new policy , which , in his judgment , ought to be substituted for the old in each class of operations , in order to avoid the imperfect results of the half measures which have covered previous Commissions with unpopularity , and in order to bring about that complete purification of the London houses , and streets , and river , which can alone give satisfaction to the public , attended as such reform would be with an immediate reduction of existing charges , and diminution of sickness and mortality , and with a prospective revenue of annually increasing amount , derivable from the application of the sewage manure 6 n a constantly widening tract of land .
"With respect to Private house drainage , Mr . F . O . Ward said he took it first , because its actual condition presented the largest mass of urgent practical evil , and that which , happily-j we could most rapidly and completely relieve , while other questions ( such as main drainage and outfall ) were under discussion . Of three tons of filth , one under a man ' s house , another in the open street , the third diffused through the vast body of the Thames , there could be 110 doubt that the first was the most horrible
and deleterious nuisance , and that which pressed most urgently for abatement . Now , though there were above one thousand miles of main sewers in London , two-thirds at least ( in many districts ninetenths ) of the houses , past which those sewers ran , had cesspools under them ; the old policy having been to run sewers through districts , without at the same time abolishing the cesspools , and extending branch drains to the houses on either side . The new policy , Mr . Ward said , should be forthwith to remove the excrement now buried , to the amount of a million tons at least , under the houses within reach
of existing sewers , to fill up those horrible pits of filth , and to replace the open privies by water-closets draining into the sewers . This should be done with money borrowed on , the security of a private improvement rate , of such amount as to distribute the cost over a term of thirty years . Such a rate would be very light ( about 2 d . per house per week on tho average ) , and as it could be fairly apportioned between occupier and owner , and would put an end moreover to existing charges for cesspool-cleansing , &c , of greater amount than the rate itself , it would bo willingly paid for the great benefit secured . Their
Act contained powers enabling them to carry out such a policy , though those powers had hitherto been suffered to lie comparatively dormant , probably from attention not having been sufficiently called to tho advantages which would ensuo from their exercise . In illustration of thoso advantages , Mr . Ward cited tho case of Lambeth-square , a square of thirtjy-four small houses , situated near the Waterloo Railway Station , in a low , unhealthy neighbourhood , with imperfect main drainage by tide » lockcd sowers ; u square inhabited by 5 Q 0 persons of tho artisan class , and which had been visited by cholera in 1849 , and
most fearfully ravaged by typhus in 18 ) 2 , while cesspools and open privies were retained ; but which , having in the autumn of 1852 been fitted with waterclosota , draining to tho sower through 4-inch pipes , and tho cesspools having been abolished , had not since produced a single case of typhus j while lust summer ' s cholera , though it had ravaged tho surrounding streets , had left Lambeth-squaro entirely untouched . Mr . Ward exhibited n map o ( ' tho square , and of tlio streets adjaoont ; thoso latter blackened with dots , indicative of tho number of deaths by this year ' s cholera , whilo Lamboth-square itself stood out , a wl » ito spot iit tho midst , not oaa man , woman ,
or child , having died of cholera in any of these properly drained houses . The cost of the improvement had only been about 6 / . per house , © r about 2001 . in all ; and the agent for the property had informed Mr . Ward , that each house brought 28 / . a year rent now , more readily than 2 G / . a year before the improvement , besides which the tenants , instead of being frequently ill and unable to pay their rent , paid regularly ; and instead of the hous es standing frequently vacant as before , some times seven or eight empty at once , there were always now more applicants than houses to let ; so that , on the whole
the property produced from 100 / . to 120 / . per annum more than before the improvement . Such improvements , Mr . Ward said , might be extended within twelve months to extensive districts of the metropolis , comprising probably from 100 , 000 to 150 , 000 houses . The expenditure of from half a million to a million sterling in this way , would do more direct and immediate good than any other measure he knew of . And they should do this at once , beginning with those houses , or groups of houses , which the late epidemic had marked out as Cholera-death-houses , most urgently requiring fortification against future
invasions of disease . From 10 , 000 to 20 , 000 deathhouses should , at all events , be thus dealt -with before the next hot season ; and . such an operation would effect a large reduction in the next year ' s mortality returns . To illustrate further the pecuniary benefit which would result from this policy to the rate-payers and to society at large , Mr . Ward computed the pressure weighing on the rates and on the general resources of the community , in consequence of preventible sickness and death , and showed how heavy that pressure was , even if the funerals in excess were only taken at 4 / . each on an
average , thecases of illness at It . each ( a low estimate ) , and the value of the labour lost at 10 s . per week on the males laid up , and 5 s . per week on the females . Applying these figures to the preventible sickness and mortality of London , Mr . Ward showed that the pressure on the means of the community ranged from 30 s , to 40 s . per head per annum , causing avast aggregate loss , which might be rapidly diminished and ultimately saved by extending , as proposed , to London at large , the simple and cheap improvements that had worked so admirably in Lambeth-square . IProm private house drainage , Mr . E . O . Ward proceeded to street or main drainage , and thence to the
grand schemeof intercepting drainage , whichled to the question of sewerage utilisation , by irrigating pipes , precipitating processes , &c . On each of these topics in succession , he examined the old policy of previous Sewer Commissioners , and set forth with great clearness the new policy he would recommend for adoption , describing as lie went on several new inventions adapted to meet special difficulties ( amongst others , a mode of making jointless pipe-drains in continuous lengths of indefinite extent ) , and sketching out a series of practical measures , which we regret our inability , through the pressure on our columns , to insert this week . Mr . F . O . Ward was Tutcned to
throughout with the deepest attention by tlie Court , every member of which was present ; and on his concluding , Sir John Shelley rose , and in the name of his colleagues thanked him for tho luminous and comprehensive statement which they had j ust heard , and which ho trusted they would have in print . There appeared , indeed , to be n very general concurrence in Mr , Ward ' s views , to which , as they refer to matters of deep and permanent interest , we shall revert ; making each branch of his argument , nnd each of his main conclusions , the subject of a separate reports -, and in tho mean time warmly supporting tho plain and practical suggestion with which ho concluded this first portion of his address : —
" That measures of private house improvement , such as havo worked well in Lambeth-squaro , preventing cholera , diminishing tlio tenants' expenses , and increasing the landlord ' s profit , should bo immediately extended throughout London along the linen of the existing sowers , precedence bo . ng given to tlio Cholera-doath-houscjH ; rtind the requisite capital being raised by loan , and repaid by improvement ratOH , so as to apruarf tho cost over thirty yenrp , tluiH obviating undue pressure on individual resources , and coupling tho sanitary benefit conferred with an immediate reduction of existing charges , "
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1208 THE LEADER . [ Satubday ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 23, 1854, page 1208, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2070/page/8/
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