The Express.
London, England, 1853-01-25 00:00:00

MIDDLESEX SESSIONS.-YESTERDAY.

The January Adjourned Quarter Session of the Peace
for the county of Middlesex commenced this morning, at
the Sessions House, Clerkenwell-green, before Mr. Serjeant
Adams, Mr. Witham, Mr. Woodward, Mr. Bayliss, and
other magistrates. The calendar contained the names of
82 prisoners committed for trial, of whom 76 were indicted
for fenny, and 6 for misdemeanour.
The learned Judge very briefly addressed the grand jury
and dismissed them to their duties.

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Wee. 5,d,er,22, Mary Clark, 24, and Ann Stokes, 26,
were indicted for stealing a handkerchief and nine sove-
reigns, the property and monies of Charles Hanburgh, from
his person.
The prosecutor said that be was a tea-dealer, and lived
at No 10, Charles-street, Globe-fields. On the oth of Ja-
nuary, at about half-pest 9 o'clock at night, he was in the
Cambridge-road, on his way home, end when he got op-
posite to the Queen's Head public-house he was met by two
women, the prisonen at the bar. At the moment he met
them they separated, one going on each side of him, but
just as he got between the two women, thinking to pass
them, Stokes threw one arm round his body and put her
hand into his side pocket, drawing therefrom a silk hand-
kerchief with nine sovereigns tied up in it. When she
first caught bold of him he pushed her away and told her
to go on, but as she drew herielf from him he saw his hand
kerchief in her hand, with which she ran away across the road.
He followed her immediately and caught her near the kerb-
stone on the opposite side of the road. While this was going
on she gave two distinct coughs. He caught hold of her
hands to recover his handkerchief, and while ho war strug-
gling with her the prisoner Sadler came up, and said,
" This is my wife; whst are you doing with her ?" At
that time he had hold of the wouran4 clothes. Sadler then
got behind him, and struck him • violent blow on the
head, which knocked him down, and the prisoner Stoki a
tore herself from his grasp at the same moment. Clark
then came up, and, with Sadler, they held him to p
him following Stokes, nod struck him several times. Wlsen
he found that Stokes was gone he fought with Sadler until
a policeman came up, and Sadler and Clark were taken
ince custody. Stokes escaped ; but he saw her the neat
day, when ho knew her again, and she was taken into
custody.
After some corroborative evidence, the jury returned •
yerdi-t of Guilty against ell the prisoners.
The learned Judge said that Stokes was very well known
to the police, but he should remand all three until the neat
session, in order that inquiries might be made about them.
They were remanded accordingly.
James Levois,;a hoy, 14 years of age, was convicted of
picking pockets. He had been in prison before.
The learned Judge remarked that he had ucertained from
perusing the report of the Committee on Juvenile Offenders
that there was • considerable differ( nee whether one of
that class was sent to Parkhurst or Red-hill. Parkhurst
was • prison, and when boys were sent out of the country
from it, the stigma of having been in prison remained on
them; whereas Red-hill was a training_ school, and was
regarded as suck. If a lad was sentenced to a term of im-
prisonment, and there was any chance of reformation, he
was sent to the school at Red-hill. In all cases where he
thought a boy might be reformed, he should sentence him
to such • punishment u he trusted would ensure his going
to Red hill, instead of transportation, which would have
the effect of sending him to Parkhurst. The whole of the
evidence in the report showed that if they wanted to reform
children, they must treat them as ebildreo, and not as
grown-up felons. In the present case he should sentence
the prisoner to two yeah' imprisonment, in the hope that
he would be sent to Red-hill ; and he gave • long term,
because the able chaplain and manager of the establish-
ment, Mr. Sidney Turner, had borne his testimony that the
boys who had long sentences of imprisonment invariably got
on better than others sentenced to short periods. If this
sentence did not ensure his going to that place, Captain
Williams, the government inspector of prisons, would in-
form him, ant then the matter would be set right. He
made this eaplanstion in order that the views of the court
might be known, and their determination, for the reasons he
had stated, to sentence juvenile offenders to a long term of
imprisonment, where there was any hope of reformation,
instead of transportation.