THE STRANGE STORY OF AN ADOPTED CHILD.

Hawke's Bay Weekly Times, Volume 2, Issue 63, 16 March 1868, Page 68

THE STRANGE STORY OF AN ADOPTED CHILD.

(From the Daily News, 12th December.) That thoughtful pastor of Carolina who feared to' emancipate Sella Martin’s sister lest she should fall a victim to. “free society/’ but was .ultimately persuaded to hand her over to her own brother for a hundred poUads sterling, might possiblyfeel inclined, tp'preach us^;sermon over the dead body' of that poor child, of name and birth 4nknpwn, upon whom Coroner Biohards held an inquest last Tuesday. If that ‘ fine boy of two years old” had lived “down South”, ten years ago, his chattel value would have ensured him an amount of attention that might Have preserved, him through (he commons perils of childhood. At any rate ifc would have given somebody an interest In keeping him alive after he had been abandoned by his. parents. We'want a name for that inverted system of trade' in human flesh and blood which has sprung up among us, and in which money is paid, not for, but with a child, on condition that its parents shall never see it again. There are few days on which those who knew, where to look for it may not find amo'bg advertisements of a “ Billiard-table to be disposed of,” or advice “To AH in, Debt or Difficulties,” or “ Nine Houses for a Shilling each,” an announcement that “A Respectable Couple, not blessed with offsipring, wish to adopt a Child.” Such an advertisement appeared ‘last March in a London: paper, having beeniinserted by Mr William James Cooper, of 10, Nelson-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 "fall particulars concerning ‘ the pre-. mucin and other matters. Mrs Cooper, who replied, dealt with her correspondent in a very busines9-like'maimer. 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 upthe parents were on no pretence to acknowledge it at any fu ture time; in 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. The cake of many children would be * desperate indeed if there existed ho 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 gbod 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 an'd unconscious subject of the bargain. No time'was lost in the process, arid on- the 23rd of March last a. oab 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 his dostinies, 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 tins spectral visitor was, where she came, from, whither she was going, the Coopers declare’ they know not. Arid 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 ? Enough;that there the child was, and/aboveall, 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 inore of this “ pleasant, healthy, good child ” for six months. How he fared at the hands of strangers/ during .that period when he should have been .Fretted by sallies of his mother's -kisses, ' i ■With light upon him from his father’s eyes,; we know not. On Saturdaylast, however, Mr Chambers, a practitioner in attendance upon Mrs Cooper, was about 'to leave her house, when/he'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, abouttwo years of'age, described as very beautiful, but with.-;a “ blueTiikrk o ver*tHe lips,” and sorhri other sigris ’Which havftilly accompany d/ath from suffocation. A eordrier’s inquest was of course held, when 1 the 1 facts we'have riarrated were given in evidence. Cooperiwas very reluctant to state 'the circumstances under which the child came* under his care* He denied that in for’a child anything had been said about money ; but the letters which he most unwillingly, produced ’shdwed -that from'the first money was the main consideration. - The actual cause of death remains to be investigated, the inquest' having been 1 adj ourned for that purposeit would therefore be premature to offer an opinion on the subject. The Coopers .driolare that the was found dead early on Saturday morning, lying <iii his back in bed, having had nothing the matter with him blit a cough', and 'the disturbance incident ih teething. An attempt is. to be made to find out, the parents otthe ohiid, and very prioperiy, for lt is'tinie tb ascertain. whether natural responsibilities can thus be shuffled offfora small money payment,'arid ‘with’an assurance that whatever Happens no questions shall be* asked.' If thia be permitted by. law, it is high-time the law.was amended.' ; ; -