30 AUGUST 1873, Page 20

Sick and in Prison. (Boll and Daldy.)—This is a little

book about workhouses, by one who has spent much time and strength in making herself acquainted with them, and the poor creatures who live in them. There are some frightful stories in it of the cruelty and rapacity of the pauper nurses. The stories rest, as of course they must rest, on the evidence of the sufferers or complainants; but the writer evidently has no little bolief in them, strengthened, in some cases, by knowledge of the witness's character. Here, again, is a tale from the collieries. The case of husbands in the working-class being lost is, says the author, of frequent occurrence, but she has known but ono case of a man con- triving to lose his wife. She was paralysed, and the brute sent her away in the charge of his brother, and had her deserted. He had taken from her her wedding-ring, hut ho was not utterly without feeling, for she had with her a bundle of clothes and a small sum of money. Her best bonnet he prudently retained. The fellow trusted, only too rightly as it turned out, that her paralysed tongue would never tell the name of the place whence she had come. The book is necessarily a sad one, but it is well worth reading.