Page 183 - Reading Mercury

WOKINGHAM ASSOCIATION FOR THE DETECTION AND PROSECUTION
OF FELONS
Notice is hereby given, that the ANNUAL MEETING for the general purposes of
this Association will be held at the Roe Buck Inn, Wokingham, on THURSDAY the
twelfth day of May instant, at two o’clock in the afternoon; and that a DINNER will
be provided as usual at three o’clock.
Any persons wishing to become Members of this Association are requested to
signify the same to the Meeting.
John L. Roberts, Solicitor to the Association
nd
Wokingham, 2 May, 1842.

th
Sat 14 May
DREADFUL STATE OF THE COLLIERIES
The Bishop of Norwich called the attention of the House of Lords last week to the
terrible state of the children employed in the collieries in Lancashire, Cheshire, and
York. His Lordship presented petitions signed by upwards of 800 females, which
deposed the following:-- In some parts of those collieries the “seams” in which the
coals were worked were not more than 18 to 20 inches in height, and through these
the young females and boys were obliged to work in mud and water, and with chains
around their bodies, by which chains they dragged the coal along in the baskets to the
shaft or body of the pits. In this laborious and degrading employment they were kept
from an early hour in the morning to a late time at night. This early association of
such young persons was productive of habits of gross profligacy, so that their moral
was much greater than even their physical degradation, and engendered habits of
loathsome and disgusting demonality. The petitions stated that the lives of thousands
and tens of thousands of children were sacrificed by this mode of employment. They
prayed that some legislative enactment might be passed which should limit the labour
of children to 10 hours each day.

th
Sat 4 June
BRANDING DESERTERS
A circular has been issued from the Horse Guards, recommending that the marking
of deserters shall hereafter be conducted on an uniform system throughout the army,
and directing attention to an instrument recently invented. This instrument, which is
of brass, is shaped at the end into the form of the letter D from the outline of which is
protruded, by means of a spring, a series of needle points, which are regulated by a
screw at the end, and by turning which their length may be increased or diminished.
By pulling back this nut, after the points are regulated, they recede into the box, when
the instrument may be considered charged. A slight pressure on a small brass lever
delivers the needle points, inflicting a puncture on the skin the exact shape of the
instrument. These punctures on being rubbed with a marking fluid composed of a
quarter of a pound of pulverised indigo, two sticks of Indian ink, and enough water to
render it liquid, leave an indelible D upon the arm or hand of the deserter. This
punishment is only to be administered on parade in the presence of the men; in the
cavalry by the trumpet-major, and in the infantry by the bugle-major, who are to be
instructed by the medical officer how to apply the instrument. It is moreover only to
be inflicted in the presence of the surgeon. If marking deserters is considered
indispensable, there is no possible means by which it can be accomplished with less
pain and more certainty.—United Service Gazette

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