The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-01-16 00:00:00

BA.II,NELY
I London.'

"0 ! THE ROAST BEEF."—A Foreign Noble-
man, staying in England this Christmas, and but im-
perfectly acquainted with the niceties of our languages
was horror-struck at being invited to be present at the
roasting of a "Baron."—Punch.
SOME "TALL WALKING."—The New York
Turf, Field, and Farm, of December 25, announces the
accomplishment by Mr. Edward Payson Weston of
the feat of walking 500 miles in six consecutive days-
The walking took place at the Rink, Newark, New
Jersey. Mr. Weston commenced on MondaY,
December 14, And concluded on Saturday, December
19. On the first day he walked 115, on the second 75;
on the third 80, on the fourth 80, on the fifth 75, anti
on the sixth 75 miles.
RELICS OF THE GREAT WAR.—The Army and
Navy Gazette says
The humane, just, and politic order of the 21st of Agit
1874, by which soldiers who served before 1815 were providea
with pensions, or with increased rates of pension in suitable
cases, has been, we rejoice to say, attended with most bene-
ficial results. No fewer than 371 survivors of the wars
before 1815, who had received no pension whatever for their
, services up to last year, were found out to be alive, and are
now able to learn that their countyy was ignorant, not
ungrateful. We may lament the many hundreds—aye, or
thousands—who have passed away • but it is some comfort
to know that there ut still left. to wealthy England the
occasion of providing for the worn-out soldiers who fought
her battles in the hour of need long ago. There are also
more than 850 pensioners who have received an increase to
their pensions for services done before 1815. The increaSe
in the annual charge will be not less thanXl7,ooo ; but moneY
was never better bestowed.
FATAL ACCIDENT.—An inquest has been
held in London, at Guy's Hospital, touching the death
of Thomas Henry Mes,ch, aged 37, late in the emplo9
of Messrs. Gilbey, pickle manufacturers, Rothethithe-
It appeared that on Monday, the 4th inst., the deeeased
and four other men were engaged in lowering into a
barge an enormous boiler, weighing over five tons.
The deceased was standing by the crab-handle of the
crane directing the men and watching the descent of
the boiler. Owing to the extremely greasy state Of
the chain by which it was suspended, the boiler dropped
suddenly six or seven inches down the chain. The
crab-handle, unable to stand the sudden jerk, sprang
swiftly upwards, throwing the deceased and two other
men with great violence to the ground. The deceased
sustained a frightful blow upon the head and became
insensible. The work was being done properly, with
a chain capable of carrying seven tons, but it was the
sudden drop which caused the accident. The unfortu-
nate man was taken to the hospital, but died from a
fracture of the skull on the 9th bast. 'Verdict, " Acci-
dental death."
A NEW YEAR'S GIFT.—A sum of money has
just been sent to Hans Christian Andersen from
America as a New Year's gift. It was got up by the
proprietors of the Tribune newspaper, the editor of
which received the following letter from a youthful
subscriber : " To the Tribune paper—Papa says
are getting money for Christmas present for Hans,
Andersen I like to hear his stories and I am glad
he wrot them I can't read them all alon but mama
reads them to me I wonder how he wrote so menY
nice store I want to give him something Clarence
and I get three cents every day we aare good but
we don't get it every day but I have 74 cents which
I will send and papa says he will put some more
with it so as to make a doller Please send it to
Hans Andersen Plainfield N J December 4th."
AN UNINTENTIONAL EXCHANGE .—The Court
Journal says that a lady was recently travelling in a
City-road omnibus. During the journey a flashily
-
dressed young man sat by her side, but got out before
it came to her turn for alighting. When she did alight,
her purse, containing only 125., was gone. Strangely
enough, in the place of her purse she found a massive
ring, set with what appeared to be a white crystal
-
After this proof there could be little doubt that her
flashy fellow-traveller had stolen the purse- eo the
lady had nothing for it but to ask a friend who had
accompanied her to pay both their fares, and to
resign herself to the loss. When recounting the
affair to her husband that night she produced the ring,
which was probably considered a worthless bit of Bir-
mingham ware, since thieves do not generally sport
good jewellery. Yet the stone was Wonderfully
bril-
limit, and the cutting very perfect, while the setting
appeared somewhat heavy for brass. Altoliether, they
were so struck by its appearance that they next des)'
took the gewgaw to a leading jeweller. What would
he give for it? After some inspection he effered £BO,
the stone being a remarkably fine brilliant and the
setting pure geld. Doubtless it was a delicate wayeof
the fellow-passenger of giving and taking a souvenir.
GLOVE MANUFACTU4)4,—TO give some idea of
how great an undertaking the Manufacture of kid
gloves is, the tawing or dressing of the kids prepara-
tory to dying requires twenty-four different manipala-
tions. And among the twenty-four manipulations
which constitute the dressing of the skin, there is one
which requires that it should pass through eleven
different hands; for the making it passes through fifty-
six. These facts will make the reader understand the
quantity of labour necessary for the making of tit'
delicate production, which is destined to last so 510i638
time. A skin, to be dressed, must y 'eau
throng? ui
hands ; the operation of dying requires 18 moll' !1"
tions, for cutting out 34, the sewing 17,
the putting in
packing 12. A glove from the state of
dskoinzenwiii
nnished glove Passel+
to saint
dyers and
through 219 hands. One lartof:i
openers, 40; glovers, 240 ; clerks and overseers, 30 ; un. .
manufactory in glove,
edmerptalokyortasillis4odt;7oe:hwall::3;:dn4Bo ; seaulatrreessseeerss,,42,looso;. This esta-
blishment dresses every year 00,000 kid skins, French
and foreign. It dyes 512,000 kid skins, and cuts out
900,000 pairs of kid gloves, which are sewn in different
2,500 stitches.) The dressing and the dyeing
together require 1,
departments. (The sewing of a woman's small glove
comprises
000,000 yolks of eggs. The yolk of
are
!ggs are erapkwo in dressing the skins and dyeing-
The whites used for making albumine,—Pictoria
Frorldi

V,
. I
,
i
_ ...

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CRIMES OF VIOLENCE , AND THE
PUNISHMENT OF FLOGGING.
Mr. S. Pope, Q.C., Recorder of Bolton, in address-
ing she Grand jury Gin Saturday, congratulatedf them
upon what seemed to be the improved state o )b
of
opinion in reference to the punishment f crimes
violence. The panic against which he protested at the
last Quarter Sessions seems to have subsided, and the
Public mind was now apparently willing to discuss the
question as to what means might best be taken with a
view to repress crimes of vio
lence and improve the
moral and orderly condition of our population with more
calmness than at that time one
might have ventured
to hope. There undoubtedly existed
was positively
among our
Population an amount of brutality
appalling; but whether _ there
impulsive
or been latterly such
if
an increase in it as would justify
or exceptional legislation in the matter was another
question altogether. But it seemed to him that during
the last few months, especially, perhaps, &slug
the last few days, the controversy as regarded the use
of the lash as a means of repressing crimes of violence
had gained attention in circles where they might well
leave it to be discussed. It certainly was worthy of
consideration that the Home Secretary of the late
Government had recently declared his conviction
not merely that the panic was not justifiable, but
that the popular impression that the use of the lash
had been effective in repressing crimes of violence
was not founded upon fact. He should himself,
t
perhaps, have hesitated to express that opinion o
the fullest extent, because his experience in the defence
of criminals certainly left the impression with him
that the punishment of flogging was much dreaded by
those who were in danger of convietion, and if it were
much dreaded one would have supposed that it must
have some deterrent effect. He doubted very much
Whether the man who showed reckless and brutal in-
differenee to the sufferings of others paused to consider
What the consequences would be to himself. He
doubted whether indeed a crime which resulted from
PaB4oll was largely influenced at the moment of its
commission by the thought of what the probable
Punishment would be. But the effect on others of any
sentence which might be passed must not be ignored, and
it was those effects which made him and others ex-
tremely reluctant to see an extension of our criminal code
in a retaliatory direction. The question of flogging
Was not a new one at all. Before the first year of the
reign of George IV. flogging a woman was past of our
criminal code,_ and for certain crimes was a legal
Punishment. Until the consolidation of our statute
code with regard to larceny by the 25th and 26th
ictoria, in 1860, the punishment of flogging
was a legal punishment which could have been
,administered in cases of common larceny, and
ne did not know that it had been ever expressly
repealed by any statute. Of Course, inferentially,
it had been repealed by the statute which he had
Mentioned, in which it was only permitted in certain
cases and in youths or boys under 1.6 years of age.
It had, however, existed as a punishment until that
period. but the whole course of our modern legislation
had been to remove from our criminal code all savage
mewus of punishment He confessed he had thought
that since the days of Homily it had been an
accepted axiom in criminal jurisprudence that, to
familiarise people with savage modes of punishment,
independent of its effect on the criminal him-
self, was undesirable aud injudicious, because it
brutalised the people upon whom those punish-
ments were intended to have a deterrent effect; and so
far as statistics proved anything at all, instead of the
Punishment of the lash having reduced the crime of
garroting, during the ten years subsequent to 1863 the
, committals for that class of crime increased rather than
diminished, while the committals for other classes of
crime during the same period, in which flogging was
not a part of the punishment, diminished. He, of
"Sousse, did not say that those things were conclusive;
he desired, however, to contribute to such a tone of
Public sentiment in the discussion of the question as
might at least prevent the public mind from being led to
a hurried and hasty conclusion with regard to it. There
Was nothing in his judgment so sad as to see those who
professed to guide public opinion anxious to appeal
81111PlY to exceptional remedies for exceptional
social conditions. To make his meaning clearer, it
seemed to him to be dangerous to depart from the
well
b --'recognized principles which had been justified
• y experience merely for the purpose of securing some
uhraediate or temporary advantage. All who had ad-
ministered the law, in dealing with questions of that
hind, felt of necessity under a responsibility which
did not seem to lie upon -those who discussed the
clueation out of doors. If, for instance, an extension
ssofsl2 Punishment of flogging were to be legalised it
'—‘"" be Which th necessary to define precisely the crimes to
at punishment was to be attached. Nobody
suggested that they should flog in every case of assault
or violence, and he ventmed to think that those who
uesired to see an extension of the punishment would
more ns sssl
of cleainegSV contribute to the discussion if, instead
of generalities, they would define the class
eritne to which they would desire to see the lash
applied. The mere use of violence would not
er neces-
-8841,„ involve the question of brutality. Had we
sislisted all our means of dealing with crimes
‘uat kind? Were there not other questions
esides
mere retaliatory punishment ti which
the
_public mind might well be directed? Nobody
e°lllsi doubt that drunkenness was associated in almost
every instance with crimes of that class, and the cities-
amse, ‘` Are we doing all that we can as magistrates
and citizens to deal with that social condition of things
Which results in this dreadful social disorder and
n?isecY ?" It seemed to him that those who held posi-
tions such as the one he had the honour to hold might
vsell consider whether it would not be wise to look to
prevention ratherthan to cure, especially when the cure
suggested was of a doubtful kind. uad
MlonndlirMin.g the Quarter Sessions of Birmingham, on.
lug the gran
Adams, Q.C., Recorder, cbasg-
d jury, after alluding to the cases to be
tried, said he
lately, for the 'm', ew, and knew in various walrs, that
last two years at least, a vast increase
had taken place all through the country in crimes of
vof iolence. There was a very large increase in crimes
yiolence as occurring in Birmingham, and the same
1.1?Ing had occurre
•K d through almost the whole of
ngland, especially in the northern counties. A
great many
that persons had declared as their opinion
tw the only remedy in cases of crimes of violence
„as the use of what was commonly known as the
_ cat ," and they founded their opinion apparently
271 a belief that the use of this instrument
had put aat to garotte rpbberies. He was not
uvitteovfer tfihoTiewho thought that in every case
ging
should be discontinued, bilt he had et to learn at flogging was a remedy for all crimes.
146 knew we thhad
!hninal just in days gone by a sanguinary code of
seice, and he hesitated very much in giving
slis concurrence to any steps which brought back those
01f1 and bad days. Ile did feel that some of the persons
IV/10 conimitted those outrages upon unoffending pas-
RiengerB along the streets might well deserve to be
_seated as criminals of the worst dye, but he had yet to
!earn that brutality could be justified as a punishment
ilcause there had been brutality of conduct on the part
°le persons who had to be punished. We might
.S9O at other countries as well as our own. He be-
sieved that in countries which were considered to be
not 8° civilised as or own in the East of Europe the
was very frequently used indeed, and yet he had
never been pressed than told that in Russia crime was more re-
it was here. He thought that they could
an more by passing heavier terms of imprisonment,
and that they couldthe life of a prisoner in gaol
as make
to
ssi as it might be made, so as not to reduce him
wThiluell a Point that he could not earn his livelihood
en he came out. He thought magistrates at petty
"88i°, ns, instead of giving the offenders the option of
/pug fine, should at once send them to prison, and
it were found that the terms of imprisonment in-
Incted by petty sessional justices did not produce the
xectuired effeet, he hoped that the Legislature would
give the magiatrates power to impose longer terms in
gaol. Men their trade who could earn £2, £3, or £4 weekly at
ed , it seem most ludicrous and absurd to fine
itts*,_er 208.• with the option of seven or fourteen days'
ss,...Prmonnient, for an assault. He himself had not
Ped all blame on this head; but though he fell in-
‘o a mistake with other magistrates at times, he always
Mies%
_voured to pass heavy sentences upon such cases
alluded to. His opinion was that ite would
not do to resort to flogging in all cases of violence;
tha,t it should be resorted to in the case of those who
were habitually convicted; and that it should not be
used except with great diseretion, and after ti interven-
on of the jury. He would not give magistrates sit-
. rang in small places (not, as there, in a larse public
Turt) the power of submitting any grown male to the
thuegrading punishment of flogging. He was of opinion
at crimes of violence resulted from visiting public-
us:BlBes. Men inflamed with drink became more like
!filed animals thanam what they were before, and while
Y would waste their money in going to public- ;
u°llses he was afraid these crimes of violence would I
Fssitinue. In conclusion, he pointed out that at the
neginning of the present century drunkenness was by
ts,2ss_nleans uncommon among what were called the
vqhilst at the present time it was found almost
, exclusively amongst those classes which had to work
for their hvelihood. He hoped that by education and'
ether things those classes would shortly be taught the
liegradln'' influence of drink, and see the folly of
t
Duy `
sal • --ing an enemy into their mouths to steal away
elr brasus

CRIMINAL LAW AMENDMENT.
„In London, on Monday night, a meeting was held at
rcue rooms of the Social Science .Association, Adam-
eet, for the purpose of hearing a paper read by Mr.
4,llPert Kettle, entitled suggestions "for diminishing
..Lue number of imprisonments." The object of the
Paper was to show that the present system -of Punishments had failed, and that gaol punish-
ruents bad lost their deterrent effect on the criminal
t °Pulation.. Some men now felt as little disgraced
tlr_iraprisonment as the bankrupt,--who "went
, ?ugh the court," or the labourer of a former gene- .
Otiou who`" went into the house." Another deteriora,
TIZI of the restraining influence of the gaol arose
•Canli inflicting imprisonment for trifling offences.
suleautrue Policy was to limit imprisonment to thel
nritti.est numbers, and to inflict it only on actual
inittZalB. In both these respects they had c9m-
statia„ Many errors, and a reference, to the criminal
that, "Ll' of his own county of Stafford showed
iza
n.re ' Out of 5,
87prisoners in 18704., 3,650 we
..ign...,ed for
—Oll-PYa ment of fines or penaltie.s
*ore e.°B,..ts, of which 1,607, or nearly one.half,
btoc...lllln'oted for drunkenness. The writer i then
Mc:D.—Cloned
.:7,,ith the remedies he prop° a for,
- llotii. ", in doing so, treated of imprisonment
!mkt t DaYment of fin • d costs •
'Debi." or tirn _ es an c
On e °lir Menses where securities for good
, imprison/
. kb, „could be obtai d , d juvenile offenders:
quoting t.hese head, ne 'an
of Staffortutt. the authordilated.
at length's
' case By IN and
I.'B again taken from the crimmal records
• at44,_,. s.pecifying the remedy in each
' they would Q'ng the criminal law, as he proposed,
greatly increase "rile the number of imprisonments,
' Merit: and make i' relative severity of that punish:
Pressing crime. i 33, 'zore effective as a means of re?
Wollld carry with
°Pin.ioll in making imrm,e'l'a
ti'Lowing out the late cases they
relativelv..nae ore sevez-r—e.s° the full force of pulalie
follow 4
interesting discussion
tinent positively as well as
jection
1:a810- rrnenakciling of the Paper, &n interes
which, though ob-
Principle genera to some of the details, was in
the chairman closLagroved of. A vote of thatitkrs,tr
..._,..,
._,,,.,.. . t Egyz is becorawg, . '.
' resort
(114elapera Pt the ,-- N'ery popular pace of
Lnalfsh aristocracy in the winter.