The Sun.
London, England, 1862-12-02 00:00:00

MIDDLESEX SESSIONS, Dec. 1.

The December general sessions of the peace for
the county of Middlesex commenced yesterday
morning at the Sessions House, Clerkenwell-green,
before Mr. Bodkin, assistant judge, and a bench of
magistrates. The calendar is very heavy, consider-
ing the short time which has elapsed since the ter-
mination of the former session on Friday week,
there being 93 prisoners for trial, 82 being charged
with felony, and 11 with misdemeanor. The state
of education of the prisoners was reported as lower
than the average, for amongst the number com-
mitted 19 could neither read or write, 49 read and
write but imperfectly, 19 could read only, and five
were described as being able to read and write well.
The grand jury having been sworn,
The Assistant Judge addressed them as follows :
—Gentlemen of the Grand Jury,—At the last ses-
sions held in this court I felt it necessary to make
some allusion to the recent increase of crime in
the metropolis, and particularly to the fre-
quent occurrence of those daring outrages upon
the persons and property of individuals by which
the streets and highways had become altogether
unsafe, and the lives of those who frequented them
constantly placed in jeopardy, and I intimated that
this alarming state of things would make it the
duty of those in any way entrusted with the admi-
nistration of the criminal law to visit with the ut-
mast severity all who might be convicted of such
offences. I fear that it is not a temporary increase
of the officers of the police, or a spasmodic recourse
to unusual severity, that can satisfactorily secure
the public safety. No doubt the removal from the
streets of a considerable number of hardened crimi-
nals is a direct and positive advantage, but we un-
fortunately see that these diabolical attacks are still
occurring. We must therefore look further for a
solution of the difficulty, and I think it will be found
in a great measure attributable to the system upon
which convicts have been treated since the period
when the power to pass sentence of transportation
was abolished, and penal servitude adopted as a
substitute. I was enabled not long since to visit the
convict prisons at Dartmoor and at Portland, which
are I believe amongst the most important in the
kingdom, and where large numbers are undergoing
penal servitude. I shall not for obvious reasons go
into detail, but I confess that upon the whole I be-
came strongly impressed by the belief that the sys-
tem pursued in those establishments was not calcu-
lated to deter from the commission of crime those
who are habitually following it as a trade. The ex-
perience of many years' practice at the bar has con-
vinced me that, as a general rule, the fear of tran-
sportation is much more powerful in restraining
offenders, and certainly in a greater degree influ-
ences their associates and connections. Though lost
and degraded, it is rare indeed that any individual
is so isolated as not to have relatives or ac-
quaintances interested in his fate, and from
these the cry has constantly arisen for
" any amount of imprisonment so that he can be
saved from transportation," and I have no doubt
that the certainty of such a separation acted
in very many cases upon the associates
of criminals, and induced them to use their influ-
ence, vicious and profligate though they might be,
in preventing the commission of desperate offences,
sure to be visited by this dreaded penalty. This is,
of course, a question for the legislature to dealwith,
bear
bat so far as the opinion of those who have toa
a.
the burden has been pronounced, there seems
truly said,
neral concurrence in what has been
so
desperate
" that a confirmed thief is neverh
when he is at large." Supposing so
oexpensive as
suggested,e there
offenders to be removed in the
would remain by far the mostw way
ynumerous class of
1 to require careful
servituL would seem sal
convicts, whose treatment under sentence of penal
revi-
sion. One of the most obvious improvements that
that
tne ifththa
et
occurred to me was the marked distinction between
those sentenced to penal servitude for the first time
I cannot
doomed help t
o muchthi
n Inkingore rigorous
haveter
habits,to
andut thosecnes
ns t
were who had previously undergone
treatment they would be perpetual examples of
experience it' by a
theirer would
previous they rendered
themselves again amenable t
rwehtuartn the
to for
to the justice of the
country.

ASSAULT ON THE POLICE.
Joseph Plimby, 18, a soldier, was indicted for un-
lawfully assaulting John Laskey, a police-constable,
in the execution of his duty.
The prosecutor, Ek police-constable, 224, stated

that on Tuesday, the 11th ult., he was on duty at
A'geston, °car Acton, and observed the prisoner at
a beet-shop door without cap or boots. Witness
had previously had a cap brought to him, and
he asked prisoner if it belonged to him, and be
said it did. Witness then ased him for his pass'
but he refused to show it. He then asked 1101 in.,
what he had done with his boots, and he said
that he had sold them. Witness said he should
take him into custody, but the prisoner
ran away. Witness ran after him, and
caught him, at the time drawing his truuebeon
to defend himself, but did not use it• rfne
prisoner then drew an iron poker from his clothe:'
and struck him so violently on the head with 1
that he fell senseless, and remained so for some
time. When he came to himself the prisoner was
gone, but another constable coming up, they went
in pursuit, and found him at Perivale.
Thos. Denton, 273 T, corroborated the evidence'
and added that the prisoner said that not all tbde
police force should take him, and struggled an
s
fought very violently. Laskey's head was verj
much swollen.
Thomas Searle, a sergeant in the Grenadieor
Guards, stationed at Wellington Barracks, said tti
prisoner was a private soldier in the same battalion.
On the 9th of November ho was confined to bar'
racks for punishment. He broke out of barracksl
and he did not see him again until he was in OP
tody. He was not absent on leave.
The prisoner in his defence said the policeman'
struck him first.

The jury found him guilty. t to
Mr. Payne sentenced the prisoner to be 1013' t
hard labour for six months, with an intimation thLe
the sentence would have been heavier but from e
knowledge he had that the prisoner would be
ther punished under the military law for the r°
bery of his regimental necessaries.