1801.] 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
S$ the public attention has lately been 
A called to a dreadful abufe of that 
power with which the law entrufts, and. 
mutt neceffarily entruft, the mafters of pa- 
rifh apprentices, in the cafe of Francis 
Jeveaux, of Greenwich, who was tried in 
‘the Court of King’s Bench, on Friday the 
22d of May, before Lord Kenyon, may I 
make afew obfervations on this method 
of difpofing of poor orphan-children, and 
more efpecially of girls ? | 
It appeared on the trial that this man 
had no lefs than feventeen miferable girls 
dt one time inhis power ; that the two who 
had at length made their efcape, were 
dreadfully emaciated by, want of food, 
and other cruel treatment ; and that five 
had actually fallen vittims. to, his bru- 
tality. . 
Lord Kenyon very humanely obferved 
how much it was to be lamented that pa- 
rifh-officers, or even higher perfons, did 
not look into thefe. horrid abufes more 
than they did—that it wasan employment 
worthy of the higheft charaéters: and 
Mr. Juftice Grofe, on the 23d inftant, in 
pronouncing the fentence of the law, very 
juflly reprehends the parifh-overfeers, 
and even the magiftrates, who figned their 
indentures, as partakers in the cuilt, for 
never having given themfelves the trouble 
to inquire what became of the unhappy 
victims whom they had thus confioned 
over to hopelefs mifery, and toan untimely 
grave. 
The fubjeét, it feems, excited, as it 
furely ought, the juft indignation of the 
whole Court; and it has fince been ad- 
verted to in many of the public papers, 
in‘which feveral humane propofals have 
been thrown out as hints for preventing 
fuch abufes in future; and Mr. Juftice 
Grofe expreffes his fatisfaction that ‘¢thefe 
points and topics have attracted the atten- 
tion of the magiftrates of that county 
(Kent), who have made an order, which if 
purfued may in future in fome refpetts re- 
medy the evil complained of :” but he 
does not ftate to the Court, (or at deaft the 
Sun, in which I read the account, does not 
‘mention the ftdatement), what that order 
may be. 
Every friend to humanity, Mr. Editor, 
mult rejoice that this dreadful inftance of 
abufed power has excited fuch general 
attention, and fome of the_plans propofed 
to prevent fuch horrors in future are un- 
doubtedly good, as palliatives. For 
On Parifo Apprentices... : 4 
inftance, it would be well that the names. 
of all poor parifh-apprentices thould not 
only be regiftered, but that thefe regifters 
fhould from time to time be infpected by 
the clergyman, church- wardens, and other 
humane inhabitants of their refpective pa- 
rifhes ; that their regular attendance: at 
church fhould be enforced, and that they: 
fhould fometimes be perfonally vifited. 
But are thefe propofals any thing more 
than palliatives ? Do they ftrike at the 
root of the evil? Is there not fomething inf 
the very nature of the contraét itfelf, 
which by giving the power of exercifing 
them with impunity, calls forth into ac- 
tion the very worit paflions-of the human 
frame ? 
It is not at all probable. that Francis 
Jeveaux, of whatever atrocities he may 
fince have been guilty, fhould have fet out 
at firft with the intention of treating thefe 
unhappy children in the manner he has 
done. That he mut always have beenan 
unprincipled’ charaéter, we will readily 
admit, but it does not hence by any means 
follow that he was naturally cruel, much 
lefs that he was fuch a monfter of cruelty 
as to have taken thefe unfortunate victims 
for'the purpofe of deftroying them. His: 
motive, in all probability, was fimply the 
defire of gain from the produce of their 
labour ; and although any view to their 
benefit can hardly be fuppofed, yet he may 
have perfuaded himfelf, and would proba- 
bly have replied to others, as many an 
Egyptian and Weft Indian tafk-mafter 
has done before him, that there could not» 
be any fear of his ill-treating the children 
committed to his care, as.it would coune 
terast the very end he had in: view, to- 
wards which the, prefervation of their 
life and health was effentially requifite.*: 
Tt is even poffible that at firft his very 
nature would have revolted at the bare 
mention of fuch cruelty, and that with 
Hazael, when forewarned by the prophet 
of the effect on his mind which temptation » 
and power would hereafter produce, he 
would have exclaimed, ‘* Is thy fer- 
* To fuppofe of his previous character — 
worfe than is here ftated, would indeed be 
to implicate the parifh-oflicers, and even the — 
magiftrates, in an equal fhare of guilt; for to 
what lefs would their having placed unpro- 
teéted children with fuch a monfter have a= 
mounted, than configning them to deftruc~ . 
tion of the moft dreadful kind, merely ta 
get rid of the expence of fupporting them: 
till ‘they fhould be able! to maintain them- 
iglves ? . 
yant 
