Matilda Griggs, labourer's daughter, was stabbed by her lover, to
whom she had borne a child, in thirteen places, and nearly died from loss of blood. She tried to protect him, and fled, but the would-be murderer was sentenced, on other evidence, to twenty
years' penal servitude. Matilda, however, had, in the effort to shield him, forfeited her recognizances, and was arrested at the suit of the Crown for 401., lodged in Chelmsford Gaol, and refused protection by the Bankruptcy Court because she was not a trader. In other words, she was sentenced to imprisonment for having been nearly put to death. The Telegraph took up the case strongly, Mr. Ruskin, who, by his own account, " disbelieves liberty and detests equality," but who seems to like the justice which secures both, at once remitted the money for the fine. Another gentleman sent a similar sum, and the Governor of Chelmsford Gaol was so moved by the story that he actually let her out on a mere telegram stating that his sheriff's officer had received the cheque,—quite an unofficial proceeding. The end is satisfactory enough, only in healthy States the duty of protecting the innocent is not left to irresponsible Editors.
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