The Sun.
London, England, 1861-01-23 00:00:00

TREE AND.

DUBLIN, TUESDAY MORNING.
THE SHERWOOD RIDNAPPING CASE.
The Sherwood kidnapping case came again before
the Queen's Bench yesterday. An application was
made on behalf of M'Robins, who had been com-
mitted to the Marshalsea, that he should be allowed
copies of his answers to the interrogatories. The
court were of opinion that it would be time enough
to apply when the parties on the other side moved
to set the matter down for argument. This motion
was made at a later period of the day, and copies of
the answers were then granted.

A MODERN JACK SHEPpAßD.—Yesterday, at
the Midland Sessions, Thomas Andrews, aged 22, was
sentenced to two years' imprisonment for an attempted
burglary, The prisoner had but a short time ago effected
his escape from Newcastle Gaol, and on being taken to
the House of Detention he informed the Governor that, if
he discovered a nail, he would be out of the house in three
hours. The Judge informed the prisoner that, at the ex-
piration of his sentence, he would be tried on several other
charges.

OLD OFFENDERS.—Yesterday Mr. Payne sen•
tensed two young men, named Johnson and Cooper, to six
years' penal servitude for pocket picking. Against the
former there were no less than eleven previous convictions,
and nine against the latter.

CRIME AND PROSECUTION ALLOWANCES.—In
his charge to the grand jury of Falmouth, on Monday, the
Recorder, E. W. Cox, Esq., congratulated them upon the
general decrease of crime apparent throughout the country,
attributable, as he believed, to two causes ; first, and mainly,
to the general prosperity ; and secondly, to the invaluable
efforts of the ragged schools and reformatories in snatching
children from the trade of crime, in which otherwise they
would have been educated. Criminals were of two classes ;
there was, first, the professional criminal, who followed
crime as a business : that class was little affected by acci-
dental circumstances, and there was no hope of reforming
them, and their numbers could only be reduced by the vigi-
lance of the police in detecting and prosecuting them, and by
cutting off the supply of juveniles by whom their ranks
were recruited. But beyond these there was a margin of
criminals who were not such professionally, but from acci-
dental circumstances, as sudden temptation; and too often
the pressure of want. It was upon this class that circum-
stances operated so powerfully to reduce or increase their
numbers. Here it was that the efforts of the preacher and
teacher were most successful, and here above all it was that
the effect was seen of good wages and moderate prices of
food. These blessings we had been enjoying during the year
just closed, and we see the result in a great decrease in the
number of crimes against property committed by the
labouring class. He hoped that the spread of education
and the greater zeal of all sects in the diffusion of religious
truths had contributed much to this gratifying result ; but
when he turned to the newspapers and read day by day the
astounding revelations of fraud in the commercial world,
he was forced reluctantly to the conclusion that the effect
of education had been rather to change the character of
crime than to diminish the amount of it, substituting the
safer course of plunder by fraud, for plunder by the clum-
sier methods of larceny; and it was much to be regretted
that the law did not extend to punish the tradereywas
cheats by thousands of pounds at least as severely
it punishes the boy who
picks
a pocket reached
cher him
But, from all the intelligence thatas
satisfied that
from all parts of the country,
the diminution in prosecutions
On the contrary, it
result of a diminution of crime.lallowances to prosecutors
ginpfleicrts.eodnsutpo.onsutbhmemit
was quite certain that the small wl:e was
altogether the
offender. So it was with witnesses ;
taonda wirobtnbeearsyesthhanad
by prosecuting the
them in heavy costs, which to many
intheUreir:cetfuarttle dra.locisns
they would not see a crime when the consequences of
seeng were to mulct
of them was ruin. Judges, grand juries, magistrates
and tho police were unanimous in denouncing the pre-
sent inadequate scale of allowances as a positive impedi-
ment to the administration of justice, and as offering a
direct encouragement to the criminal class by the
impunity it secured for them, His own experience
as a magistrate entirely coincided with that of all
others who had witnessed the operation of the existing
scale, and ho trusted that it would be strongly pressed upon
Parliament as soon as it shall reassemble. He feared the
year now opening to them would test to some extent how
far the diminution in crime is duo to improved morals, or
to plenty of work and food; for high prices are certain,
and there are gathering storms abroad that might seriously
affect our industry. Should it please Providence to impose
that trial upon us, he hoped that they would all in their
several spheres exert themselves to meet it in a becoming
spirit. He congratulated them that, even among the popu-
lation of such a great and growing port as theirs, two
months lied produced only oge priloucr for trial.