The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1888-02-25 00:00:00

Cig „stourbribge Obzetter

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1888.
A TERROR TO EVIL-DOERS.

L11714-'OOl, has of late acquired unenviable
notoriety as the habitat of a pestilent set of
brutal ruffians, sometime i sty4el " cerner-
boys," and on other occasions spoken of as
members of the " high-rig gang." These
cowardly desperadoes are the successors of
the "garotters," who have been rendered
extinct within these isles by the nine-tailed
" eat." A liberal aeelication of that drastic
cerrective to the back of every rascal con-
victed of robbery with violence will be found
very effective, and more useful as a deter-
rent than any other penalty which could be
inflicted. The chastening with the lash
with which a rough's sentence of six months'
imprisonment was directed to be7enlivened
by the judge presiding at Liverpool Assizes
on Monday %Ail!, it is to be hoped, make the
desired impression upon the culprit and
others of his worthless class, not only in the
great Lancashire port, but wherever else the
story of his forty lashes is told; and intelli-
gence of the merited 'sentence will speedily
find its way, we may be sure, into every
" dossAiouse" and casual ward in the king-
dom. Of this there is now even greater cer-
tainty because Justice Grantham later on
maintained the attitude of sternness he struck
on the occasion referred to by decreeing that
others of the beater sert should be flogged for
incorrigible criminality. Those who are so
often shocked at reading the record of brutal
offences in many of our biegest towns and
cities will be glad to learn that one of her
Majesty's judges has gone out of tbemrdinary
Froove in his endeavour to put down crime
in one of is most repulsive forms. Justice
Grantham is not alone in the deduction that
repeated doses of plank-bed and oakum-pick-
ing, accompanied .by regulat ity of living
and little physical effort, have small terror
for the hardened sinner against society. Your
habitual criminal takes his "lagging" with
a dogged submission, gives his gaoler little
trouble, and gets over his ‘`stretch" in conse-
quence without haying suffered any reel
punishment. He comes out of prison desti-
tute of any desire for reform, arising ether
out of dread of the penalty of lawlessness or
contrition for his misdeeds -Convict life fails
to make the slightest impression on him; his
existence is an interchange of imprisonment
and of watchfulness for new opportunities of
breaking the law. But experience has proved
over and over again that to those debesed
humans who are always affording nce-upation
to the polies there is nething so distasteful
as corporal pnnishment. They are absolat&y
regardlees ot: the suffering they inflict upon
any persons of inferior strength who come
between themselves and their selfish ends;
but once hurt the least vulnerable pert len of
their wretched carcaees, and they will how!
like an injured dog. To -touch to the quick a
man whose finer feelings ale all "dead - with-
in," you must deal with him as you would
wieli a brute. Such is Justice Grantham's
maiiin, and hi 3 ability to put it into Practice
will make him a terror, indeed, to ovil-doers.
We are far front desiring the revival of such
barbarous tortures as were meted out in the
days when punishment by peine forte et dure
was still an accompaniment of criminal law,
and the application of
.any of them to even.
the most unfeeling and violent of offenders ,
but we do think the only sentence that has
aught of fear in it for the callous and cow-
ardly wretches capable of eneh a detestable
act tie garotting in any form is one which
includes a whipping of suff.cient Bevel ity to
be remembered. At one time the lash was far
too freely used as a punishment in cases
where its infliction was cruel and unneces-
sary; but reform has spared henceforth the
backs of all guilty of first offences and 'minor
crimes. Neither in the British army or in any
of her Majesty's gaols will men ever be un-
feelingly flogged and made to writhe in
agony under. a punishment out of all prepor-
tion to their misdeeds again. Yet there will
be few to cavil at Mr. Justice Grantham's
exercise of powers vested in him for having
habitual criminals of the sturdy and incor-
rigible soq whipped. If other judges followed
suit, we fed Sure that many an evil disposed
-ersou would hold•los hand in dread of fh,.
lash at times when the fear of prison would
have no deterrent effect upon his criminal
propensitv. It is so long no since the "cat.'
was laid across the backs of any but brutally
violent felons, that the hardened burglar and
the old gaol bird who were before his loi
ship
-
ship for forgery and embezzlemeet at Lii er-
pool on Tuesday, were both aehast e hen
Justice Grantham gave them the lash, in
addition to imprisonment with hard labour.
But the judge (lid not exceed the poweis
vested in him by a statute of George IV.,
which is generally overlooked at assizes, al-
though its provisions wee • in forme
before penal servitude was known.
This stringent law enables a judge to order
habitual criminals to be flogged either
publicly or in private; and two Liverpool
thieves who had each been several times pre-
viously convicted found themselves con-
demned to receive thi, ty and forty lashes
with the cat respectively, though in neither
oases was there evidence of brutal violence,
the first offender having confessed to stealing
from and breaking into offices and forging a
cheque, while the second prisoner pleaded
guilty to two indictments of embezzlement
and forgery. Another young Liverpool
labuteee get six Jeweils mid tarty lashes on
the ee e.. l • f r a toW-e•re of a pocket-knife
sie -ieeieee a k tee: e trout the per soli Orelieary
eennerieed the teamed judge,
wowed. tce, LAY 6 CaCc.:ll Qua guar uL Alma

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prisoners, so he elected to make them feel
that going to prison was not going there
merely to be well fed, clothed, and cared for,
but to receive a punishment not usually
..arded. From this time focth the name of
Justice Grar.tharn will be a terror to evil-
doers.

Since the above was in type, Mr. Justice
Grantham, in a letter to
.the Attorney-
General, despatched from biverpoo!, justifies
the change lie made, ot the. sentences fram
the lash with six monihs to five years • re-
ferred to in Parliament pu Wednesday, on
the ground that, as the other four habitual
criminals subsecinently tried could not from
age hear the lash, he co,isidered it would be
doing an injustice to the two first sentenc- d
”s above. In thus acting, he contends, he
Int 3 done no good to the pi-isoners, while the
country is put :o ten tunes the expense. Ile
holds tnat short sentences with the lash have
md.rvelloasly cleared the streets and gaols of
men addicted to robbery with violence.