Englishmen do not often take much interest in Irish trials,
unless they are agrarian ; but a recent charge of cruelty to children has produced unusual excitement in society. Mrs. Montagu, wife of Mr. R. A. C. Montagu, of Coleraine—a son of the well-known Lord Robert Montagu—was on Thurs- day week committed by the local Magistrates for trial upon two charges, one of " feloniously killing " her daughter Mary Helen, aged three years, and one of cruelty towards her three sons, all under nine years. The little girl was, according to the evidence, so tied up in a windowless, dark room with a locked door, that in her efforts to get free, the stockings with which she was tied strangled her, and when the door was opened, she was found dead. The defence, apparently, is want of any inten- tion to injure the child, and a severe view taken by Mrs. Montagu of the necessity of teaching obedience early. With regard to the other children, Mrs. Montagu is accused of habitually beating them with undue severity, and of locking them in the dark room, which, according to one witness, had rings in it for tying things to. Also of tying one child, Walter, aged four, to a tree for a long time, and of dragging another, Austin, aged seven, by the feet along a corridor and up a, flight of stairs. The evidence, which is given by governesses and servants, created such excitement in Coleraine, that special precautions had to be taken to guard the Court and the prisoner. There has been no thorough sifting of the evidence yet, and the only fact understood to be admitted is the tying of the little girl in the dark room ; but the feeling for children_ now so strong everywhere, has been keenly aroused.
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