The Sun.
London, England, 1848-01-21 00:00:00

MIDDLESEX SESSIONS.

(Before Mr. WALESIIT, Chairman, and a full Bench

of Magistrates.)
Yesterday Edward Gay was indicted for having
stolen a pair of boots, of the value of 6d., the pro-
perty of H. Chambers. The prisoner pleaded
Guilty.
The Learned CHAIRMAN desired the prosecutor to
stand forward, and then addressing him said, he had
looked through the depositions, and found that these
boots which had been taken by the prisoner had been
hung outside of the shop in order to attract public
attention. Now, if a tradesman thought proper, with
a view to his own emolument, to run the risk of ex-
posing his goods in such a manner as that from the
very position in which they were placed they should
act as a temptation to the common thief, or to those
who might chance unhappily to be in pressing dis-
tress, to take them, such a tradesman, he was of
opinion, would not be at all justified in calling upon
the county to give him any remuneration in a pecu-
niary sense for the loss, which, to a certain extent, he
had courted, and by his own act of imprudence
had brought upon himself. In every case, therefore,
that came before that Court in future, under similar
circumstances, the Court would not grant any ex-
penses to the prosecutor. It was not to be tolerated
that the county was to be called upon to pay for the
protection of the goods which a tradesman impru-
dently exposed. It was a temptation to theft. In
the present instance there was a poor half-starved
Spitalfields' weaver, who would doubtless have ab-
stained from the commission of a theft had it not
happened that there had been this temptation thrown
in his way. Ile had no hesitation in declaring it to
be hi opinion, that one great source of crime had
its origin and was attributable to the improper expo-
sure of property by tradespeople on the outside of
their shops. This exposure of goods operated as an
encouragement to the thief, and threw an irresistible
temptation in the way of those whose natural disposi-
tion would not have permitted them to commit crime
under less inducing circumstances. The expenses of
the prosecution, in the case now before the Court,
would not be allowed.
The Couar then sentenced the prisoner to one
month's imprisonment and hard labour.
C. Treble, aged 16, Daniel 11,PCarthy, aged 17,
and .Frederick Goode. ve, aged 16, were found Guilty
of having stolen a pocket handkerchief from the per-
son of John Fisher Kennell.
The Learned CHAIRMAN said it was absolutely im-
possible that these boys could be allowed to remain
any longer in ibis country. He found, from the in-
quiriesnd which had been made respecting them, that
for the last seven years they had run a course of
crime. They had during that period commenced
from
a d the prison they had returned to the commis-
sion of crime ; and from crime they had again
foundet
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least, in the commission of crime and as the in-
mates of the public gaols. It was out of the question
that such persons, youthful as they were, could be
allowed to prey upon
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