A SAD STORY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1146, 28 February 1884, Page 3

A SAD STORY.

The dead body of a girl named Lizzie Murphy was found in Lake Wendouree, near Ballarat, recently. From a letter discovered near the spot, it was evidently a case of suicide. Messrs T. Bond and G. King were walking round the lake, and on the pier of the botanical gardens observed a jacket, parasol and a pair of boots, and by the following letter : —' Here lies the body of Lizzie Murphy, who has beeu deeply wronged by (the name is giveD). They have been the ruin of ine at so early an age. tt is them who is to blame for my committing suicide. 1 write this to let the world know that when I entered under thai roof it was to be shamed. I was outraged and assaulted by William P. A poor orphan eirl, and he could not leave me alone, as I did not know the sense of what I was doing. Ho has severely wronged me, a poor and innocentgitl. Good-bye mother and brothers and all I leave behind. I cannot live to have it on my mind and bear the shame and disgrace he has caused me. I cannot ask, dear mother, for your forgiveness, as you know nothing at all about it, but may God forgive me for what I have done. For if you knew all I am a wronged and innocent girl, led astray by an inhuman wretch. His curse will fall upon him, as it has fallen upon me. Good-bye and forgive me; if you don't God will. What will my poor uncle and aunt say ? I know they .vill forgive me.—Lizzie Mtjiiphy.' Information was at once given to the police, who dragged for the body, and found it in about five feet of water, close to the pier. The girl left home in the afternoon at 5 o'clock to visit a friend, and waa not again seen alive. She had been two years in the employ of a basket maker in Main road. At the inquest no fresh facts were e'icited, and a verdict was returned that the deceased committed suicide. A juryman wished to add a rider that the Government should be urged to bring in a bill to punish seducers, but the suggestion was not adopted. The Melbourne correspondent of a southern contemporary gives the following additional particulars in reference to this sad case :—One or two very sad cases of suicide recently here brought into prominence the question of seduction. At Ballarat a poor girl named Lizzie Murphy, aged about 16, drowned herself to avoid the shame of becoming a mother. She left behind a pathetically worded letter, in which she accused her employer, a baskctmaker named Pulchard, with being the cause of her downfall. He did not deny bis relations with her, but insinuated that her character generally was anything but good. Public indignation hounded him out of th? town, and at a very large and influential meeting resolu tions were carried declaring the necessity of an alteration of the law to provide more stringent punishment for the prevention of the detestable crime of seduction. The meeting was called for married men oD ]y (l restriction which drew from the Sydney Bulletin the caustic observation that the reason was probably that they were by experience best acquainted with the subject. Some of the speakers at the meeting were impelled by indignation beyoDd the bounds of common tense. The Bishop (Dr Thornton) hinted, as if with approval, that in some countries conduct such as Pulchard's would have resulted in a resort to Judge Lynch, while a member ot Parliament declared that he would render such wretches physically incapable in future of committing such an offence. It is probable that next session will see an attempt made to render the law more strict, and possibly to make seduction a penal offence- The 1 danger of such a course lies in the open ing that would be given to designing women to extort money, and in the fact that the criminality of seduction is of a , vary varying dttgree.