The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 33: what you’re looking at

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18 THE MYSTERIES. workhouse come at last,—and your end is either death on a dunghill, or death in an Union with the blessed certainty of a common deal coffin and a pauper’s grave,—while your children are left upon the world to go through all that you have suffered meet the same experiences — pass through the game miseries, privations, woes, and heart-breaking afflictions—and perish in the same way at last! Yes — Working Men of England! this is your doom— this is your fate! Yo who make silken textures for the indolent wealthy, are shivering in rags your- selves: ye who raise all the choicest fruits of the earth for the pampered, insolent, overbearing aris- tocrat, are starving yourselves ! By the living God! all this is intolerable! It is enough to make ye atheists—infidels— unbelievers; —and it assuredly is far more than sufficient to make ye Chartists, Republicaos, and Communists ! The appalling misery and the monsérous oppression which exist in this eountry try your faith in God's mercy to the very uttermest;—aad if any oae were to preach the doctrine Ghat the world was paught save a huge pitiless machine, uncared for by the Almighty but abandoned to the caprices aud iniquities of Satan, ye would not be blaused if, |- yielding to the influence of your own bitter ex- perience, ye believed therein ! But, no!—the Working Men of England require not sophistry—much less metaphysics to account for the evils which they endure. Tho causes are too palpable — too gilaring--4o0 apperent ;—and those causes we ourselves have prociaimed and de- nowneed a thousand times—~aad shall contiane to proclaim and denousee so.leag as there remains the smallest particle of misery in these makns! For the eauses thas alladed to ext ia our vitiated institutions,—and ghiefly oar aristocracy, With ite hereditary titles and its law of usurpation of all the governmental and admumstra- tive powers of the State—its heartless and its cold-blonded avarice—its voluptacusmens and luxury, maintained a&$ the expense of starving millions and wideespread injustice—iés -dinmbolieal despotisin and its insatiable rapacity ! But wo had almost forgotten that poor Mantily whom we have just seen turned oat into the atrects —turned out to beg, or starve { Carriages—splendid equipages—rolled by ;.and the poor woman said to herself in the blackness of her despair, “ What have the children of that lady 1 done that they should ride in so fine a coach, while { mine are shivering and starving here |” “Mother,” whispered the eldest boy—and he pointed to his little sister, who had sunk down ex- hausted upon the cold pavement. “QO God! that we were all dead—that we were all dead!” murmured Mrs. Melmoth, in a low tone, bat with a concentrated bitterness such as she had never experienced nor displayed before: and, giving the babe to the eldest boy, she took up the little girl— pressed the poor child to her bosom—and covered | her wan, thin face with kisses. Oh! that was indeed a scene of misery—misery —misery{ And here must we leave for the present the unfurtunate woman with her starving children, —yes—leave them there—in the open street— houseless, penniless, foodless—as so many, many thousands of the British Working | Men's families are at all times houseleas, penniless, foodless ! CHAPTER CXXVL WHO IS THE CULPBI®2?P Puncruau.y at four o’clock on this day of many and startling incidents, the case of Rose Foster was called on again at the Police-Office in Bow Street; and the young girl once more entered the dock with a firm step. Her countenance was com- posed, though very pale: but a slight tint of the rose appeared softly oa that colourless purity of the lily, as she received an encouraging look from Counsellor Sharply as he entered the little box or pew on the right hand side of the magistrate. For in that rapid and only just perceptible glance, the orphan read a certain satisfaction on the part of the barrister which convinced her that ke enter- tained a good opiaton of her case; and thus to a soul already fortified by conscious innocence was the anodgne of hope imparted—that hope which resembles the dew that falle so gently, so silently, and yet so refreshingly upon the withering, half- blighted flower ° The look-which Rose threw timidiy round the court, showed her that it-was as densely crowded as in the eestier pert of the day: bat two circum- stances instantaneously struck her as significant ,— for in sach-a situation the veriest trifle assumes an importanee which on ordimary occasions would be totdily overlooked. The first was that Arthur Eaton no longer enjoyed the distinction of oocapy- iug a seat near the magistrate, but was placed in the body of-the evart, between the dock and the bench ;— aad the -other circumstance above al- luded to was that neither Mr. Peter Gramley nor his factotarn Mobbs were present. “What course ere you now about to pursue, Mr. Sharply?” iaquired the magisteute, by way of re- opening the proceedings. “I purpose to hegin by asking the Hon. Mr. Eaton a few questions,” said the kearned gen- tieman, rising from his seat and drawing his gown ever his shoulders. “Da you wie. me to enter the witness-box, sir ?” demanded Arthur, whose manner was marked by & peculiarity which failed not to strike every one ‘present: for there was a restless glitter in his eyes accompanied by a nervous quivering of the lips and an agitation of the entire being, which, coupled with the mysterious turn that the proceedings had appeared to take at the first examination, began to excite strange and startling suspicious in the minds of the spectators. “No, sir—I do noé wish you to enter this box,” said Counsellor Sharply, with that significancy, or rather semi-sarcasm aod covert irony in which barristers are so prone to indulge: “you oan se- main where youare—at least for the present,” added the learned géatieman, with a deeper meaning, as he glanced encouragingly at Rose Foster. But it was almost with.a feeling of alarm that the young girl caught this look and comprehended its purport: for, when considered in connexion with she mysterious observations in which the Counsellor had been indulging, it appeared as if he meant to | intimate the probability that Mr. . Eaton would speedily change places with herself And Bene.was alarmed, becanse although she was deeply, deeply anxious that her own innocence should transpixe, she a_i ees : | Ue 7 ) C) COLIMIG DOO (CO