demanded the indignant Mr. Sykes. "Why did
you not get under the water and make an end
of it, instead of giving us all this trouble and
bother?"

Poverty, misery, and fear of the workhouse, are
the principal causes of suicide among the working
classes. " I ll drown myself before I go into the
workhouse," said Ellen Hughes Hunt, aged fifty-
two. Last Wednesday they held an inquest on
her body at Shoreditch. Her husband came from
the Islington Workhouse to testify. He had been
a cheesemonger, but failure in business and poverty
had driven him into the workhouse, whither his
wife had refused to accompany him.

She was last seen at one in the morning. Three
hours later her hat and jacket were found on the
towing path by the Regent s Canal, and later her
body was fished from the water. Verdict: Suicide
during temporary insanity.

Such verdicts are crimes against truth. The
Law is a lie, and through it men lie most shame
lessly. For instance, a disgraced woman, forsaken
and spat upon by kith and kin, doses herself and
her baby with laudanum. The baby dies; but she
pulls through after a few weeks in hospital, is
charged with murder, convicted, and sentenced to
ten years penal servitude. Recovering, the Law
holds her responsible for her actions; yet, had she

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v?