MOTHERLY LOVE

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1612, 21 January 1903, Page 73 (Supplement)

MOTHERLY LOVE

THE END OF A CAUSE CELEBES. (F roan Our Special Correspondent.) LONDON. November 28. Very seldom indeed Has the sentence passed by a judge of the English bench excited so much adverse comment as has been passed upon the decision of Mr Justice Bigham in the cause celenre, known as the “Wiltshire Cruelty Case. Mrs Penruddocke. a manned woman of good .family and ample means, was convicted by the jury of systematically ill-treating, neglecting, and assaulting her little girl, and Mr Justice Bigham inflicted a fine of £SO ! This monstrous travesty of justice, which lias caused indignation throughout the country, and particularly among that section of the community where the inbred notion is that there is “one law for the rich and another for the poor.” The case was tried in London instead of at the Wiltshire Assizes in order to> give the defendant the benefit of a jury unbiassed by local gossip, and when, after a long and exhaustive trial, the jury’s verdict was adverse to' her. it certainly appears closely akin to a mockery of justice to let her off with a fine that would he equivalent to mulcting the wife of a labourer in “five shillings-and costs.” The queer point about the case is that save to her daughter Connie, Mrs Penruddocke appears to have been a kindly if not indulgent mother, but her treatment of that little girl can only be described as hideously cruel. The only reason for the strange animus she displayed toward the girl that the evidence disclosed was that a physical weakness induced objectionable habits in the little thing. To overcome the child’s infirmity, which would probably have required a long term of careful medical treatment to Mrs Penruddocke resorted to systematic brutality, which Avas more likely to’ send the banless little creature to an early grave than to effect a cure. Among her little “pleasantries” at Connie’s expense was making the youngster, for hours together and in all sorts of weather, lightly clad, stand in the fork of a tree, making the child run up and down from the hall to the lodge gates —a distance of half a mile——for hours on end, answering the little girl’s request for a piece of cake with a raisin, filled with mustard, making her sleep in an attic without a sufficiency of clothing, “dieting” the child to such an extent that Connie had recourse to the dish of oddments set aside for the dog. blistering her with nettles, putting a wasp (happily it was dead) down the child’s neck, and striking her with a bunch of keys. Whippings were fre- . quently Connie’s portion, and the “love” Mrs Penruddocke bore for- the poor little creature found verbal expression j in such epithets as “beast,” “wretch,” I and “ruffian,”, pious wishes that tlxe ! child might catch chicken pox and be , “finished off,”. Tall down and break her neck, or partake of poisonous berries. The net result of 'Mrs Penruddocke s x icious treatment ,was that the girl became thin to emaciation, was a of bruises and weals, and weighed w T nen nearly seven only 401 b. The jury very properly severely censured the father for countenancing the gross ill-treatment of the child, who, but for the intervention of two servants who communicated with the S.P.C.C. would probably have succumbed to Mrs Penruddbcke’s peculiar maternal methods. The child as she appeared in Court did not seem to be much the worse for her treatment, but, of course, she has not been under her 'mother’s

care for some time. The fact that Connie’s health had not been entirely ruined by her mother weighed. heavily with the judge, who also took iff to account the fact that the Penruddockes had been put to a very heavy expense in connection with the trial, and that the woman herself was not in the best of health. But making due allowance for tiles© things and for the social ostracism which will probably be the Penruddocke’s lot, a mere fine of £SO seems an absurdly inadequate punishment for Mrs Penruddocke’s wickedness.

To the suspicious all things are suspicious, and the very unusual courtesy extended to the defendant at the Old Bailey during her trial is doubtless responsible in some measure for the loudly voiced opinion that social influence mitigated Mrs Penruddocke’s punishment. Not only was she supplied with a maroon-coloured cushioned leather armchair from the Aldermen’s room., but by the courtesy of Mr Under-Sheriff Doulton she was invited to> luncheon each day in his room, and retired there, it was understood, for tea after her conviction. A cushioned arm-chair for the accommodation of an accused had never been seen in the dock at the Old Bailey before, and few, if any, accused persons* have had the privilege of leaving the docks eacli day for luncheon in the Un-der-Sheriff’s room. The Penruddockes of Compton. Chamberlayne are an old stock, which derives, on the maternal side, from an ancestor of the Lowthers, now Earls of Lonsdale. The family branched by and by into Penruddocke of Hale in Hants, and Penruddocke of Compton Cliamberlayne in Wilts. The Hants branch became extinct, bub the Wilts, branch has been more enduring. Charles Penruddocke, born in 1828, married a daughter of the date Walter Long, M. P., and became the father of the Charles Penruddocke of Compton Park, Wilts, and Bretton St. Maur, Somerset, J.P. for both counties. He married the daughter' of the Rev. William Speke of Sheldon Court, Devon, and is the head of a rather numerous . family, including “Connie.”