THE STRANGE STORY OF AN ADOPTED CHILD.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume XIII, Issue 560, 16 March 1868, Page 3

THE STRANGE STORY OF AN ADOPTED CHILD.

(IRoin tUc Daily News, 12tli December.) That 11:oux|lit Elj! pastor of Carolina who feared to emancipate Sella Martin’s sister lest she should fail a victim to “free society/’ but was ultimately persuaded to hand nor over to her own brother for a hundred pounds sterling, might possibly feel inclined to preach us a sermon over the dead body oi that poor child, of name and birth unknown, upon MMom C oroner Richards held an inquest last Tuesday. If that “fine bov of two years old ” had lived “ down South’’ ten years ago, his chattel value would iiava ensured him an amount of attention that might have preserved him through tho commons perils of childhood. At any rata it would have given somebody an interest in keeping him alive after he had beeu abandoned by his parents. We want a name for that inverted system of trade iu human llesh and blood which has sprung up among us, and iu which money is paid, :uot for, but with a child, on condition that jits pareu’s shall never see it again. There ;ara few days on which those who knew j where to look for it may not find among iadvertisements of a “Billiard-table to by | disposed of,” or advice “To All in Debt !nr Difficulties,” or “Nine Houses for a jSliilling each,” an announcement that “A Respectable Couple, not blessed with offspring, wish to adopt a Child.” Such an advertisement appeared last March in a London paper, having been inserted by Mr William James Cooper, of 10, Nelsou-st., Bethnal Green, and • elicited a response from a writer who had a “ little boy fourteen months old ” whom she “ wished to have adopted,” and desired to be furnished with full particulars concerning the premium and other matters. Mrs Cooper, who replied, dealt with her correspondent in a very business-like manner. As to the premium, she wrote—" We have decided £2O if under six months, or £ls if over.” The child, it was further stipulated, was to be “ entirely given up the parents were on no pretence to acknowledge it at any future time ; iu short, as Mrs Cooper put it, “ it is to be to all intents and purposes our child.” No pains, it will be seen, were spared to strip the child of the last chance it might have of aid from its natural protectors, or to exclude the advantage it might possibly receive from a revival of tender feeling on the part of either of its parents. Tho case of many children would be desperate indeed if there existed no power ready to defend the rights of children thus abandoned by their proper guardians. The child’s mother could only give £lO premium, but she enlarged upon his good qualities ; “He is now getting very pleasant; he is a very healthy and a very good child, and of good birth. I would give him up entirely.”

These terms were accepted, and it only remained to deliver possession of the helpless and unconscious subject of the bargain. No time was lost in the process, and on the 23rd of March last a cab drove up to the Coopers’ door, and a young lady of about three and twenty stepped out with the child in her arms and £lO in her hand. Her words, as she handed over her boy, with all lus destinies, to persons she had never seen before, were few, and to the point : —“ This is my illegitimate child ; it has not been baptized, and it has no name.” What a description—a string of negations ! A stranger in a wor d which has no place for him, he can only be described by his want of all he ought to have. Who this spectral visitor was, where she came from, whither she was going, the Coopers declare they know not. And why should they want to know, when the child’s short history up to that day was thenceforward to be a blank for itself and all the world P Enough that there the child was, and, above all, there was the £lO. If the money were good and lawful, the guest might vanish and return into the mystery from which she came.

We hear no more of this "pleasant, hcakhy, good chile’. ” for six months. How he fared at the hands of strangers during that period when he should have been

Fretted by sallies of Ills mother’s kisses, With light u.'oa him from his father’s eyes.

we know not. On Saturday last, however, { Air Chambers, a practitioner in attendance upon Mrs Cooper, was about to leave her house, when ho was abruptly called by her husband to the fact that a child was dead ■in the house. Stepping into an adjoining room he saw a boy, about two years of age, described as very beautiful, but with a “ b.ue mirk over the lips,” and some other sums which usually accompany d.-ath from snilbeatiou. A coroner’s inquest was of course held, when the facts vvc.have narrated were given in evidence. Cooper was very reluctant to stale the circumstances under which iho child came under his care. He denied that in the advertisement for a child anything had been said about money; I but the letters which he most unwillingly j produced showed ihat from the first moI ney was the main consideration. The actual cause of death remains to be investigated, the inquest having been adjourned for that purpose ; it woul J therefore be premature to offer an opinion on the subject. The Coopers declare that the child was found dead early on Saturday morning, lying on his back in bed, having had nothing the matter with him but a cough, and the disturbance incident to teething. An attempt is to be made to find out the parents ot the child, and very properly, for it is time to ascertain whether natural responsibilities can thus be shuffled off for a small money payment, and with an assurance that whatever happens no questions shall be asked. If this be permitted by law, it is high time the law was amended.