Julia Susannah Bellinger was last week the wife of George
Bellinger, a weaver in Bethnal Green. He earned a pound a week, but deserted her to live with another woman, and gave her no money. She therefore went to her mother, a Mrs. Clempson, with an income of 1251. a year. Mrs. Clempson gave her a dinner every Sunday, and sometimes a scrap of meat on a week day, but otherwise let her starve. At last, wishing for a holiday, Mrs. Clempson went to the sea side f or ten weeks, leaving her daughter 2d. a day for food and firing. Slie refused to give her a fire or call in a medical man, as cells, and doctors cost money, and at last Mrs. Bellinger, living in the house of a mother with 1251. a year, died literally of starvation. It would be difficult to devise a story so illustrative of the unavoidable failures of human justice. There are few murderers who would not be degraded by being compared in point of heart with Mrs. Clempeon, but she neither is nor could be liable for the starvation of a married woman whose husband was making 1/. a week.
Previous page
