Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1892-11-21
parison, and from the standpoint of re-
.ulfa- rfter r,ar-i.,a i-, IL.

parison, and from the standpoint of re-
suits, an utter novice In this art
Speaking of police courts, there are
about dozen of these in London. With
the exception of two, tine Mansion House
and Guildhall, these courts are all presi-
ded over by stipendisries. At Bow street
the magistrate gets nine thousand dollars
year, but the others have to exc out q
subsistence on seventy-five hundred dol
lars. Public officials over here are well
cared for; it is only the poor wage earn
er who is put off with a pitiance. All
magistrates are appointed by the govern
ment and hold their Office for life. They
are popularity spoken of as ''the Great
Unpaid" from the fact that, excepting
in large towns, they render service gra-
tuitously. Hitherto those appointed have
invariably been men of wealth, but at
Liverpool few weeks ago a nottingham
was called to the bench. This is reported
to be unique instance, and 1t is hailed
as the beginning of an era in which
worEingmen, when from misfortune or
other causes they stand In a police court
will stand there upon better footing.
The popular idea respecting English
magistrates is that they regulate their
sentences according to the severity or
hghtness of the attack of govt from which
they may happen to be suffering at the
time. This is perhaps q fiction, but they
certainly do not at all times regulate
their sentences by any known principles
of either justice or humanity. One pa
per makes feature Of publishing weekly
the instances coming under its notice of
what 1t calls "Dogberry's Justice" Here
are threa of its latest:
cat Willenhsll Petty Sessions, @. Strin-
ger, for stealing one turnip, was fined two
-. a =
pence costs. AT Gresham Petty Sessions,
William Eversden, little boy, for walk
ing on the grass OF the park, was fined
ten shillings sixpence and costs; and at
the same court Henry Day, for stealing
apples, value sixpence, was fined, with
costs, two pounds, eleven shillings six
pence"
But the English magistrate ia no. with
out his good parts, or even his tender
parts. To hear him lecture the wife beat
or, the son who has lifted his hand
against a mother, and the stepmother
who is trumping up some charge against
thu children of former wife merely to
get them taken off her hands-to hear such
things as these, as one can in the London
courts almost every day, is decidedly re-
freshing. Once in a while magistrate
will fine man and pay the fine himself;
dIu We nave huOHn VI CAE6 IN which
a London magistrate sent a man to pris-
on for refusing TO send his children to
school, and then, learning that the mans
only fault was poverty, and that he had
kept his little ones at home because he
could not clothe them decently, he set to
work and collected fund by which the
man. after his term had expired, was set
up in a new home, given a new situation,
and afforded altogether new start in life.
Still dwelling upon the brighter aspects
of the London police courts, one cannot
speak too highly of the good done in these
dark places by city missionaries The
newspapers for one day report three csses,
involving no less than six offenders in
each of which, through the interposition
of these missionaries, the accused parties
were rescued from impending committsl
and given 3 fresh chance. All were
young and all first offenders. A girl had
attempted suicide. She would never do
it Rgain, she said, and the missionary Of
fering to provide her home, she was let
off Two boys and girl had been iupli-
Gated in theft. If the magistrate would
let them go the missionary would see that
they were properly brought up, and his
honor gladly sequiesced. Two other boys
had stolen from their employer. Their
father had melted them, and the poor
mother had somehow bsen forced to be-
come party. Here again the missionary
comes forward, and on agreeing to pro-
duce the boys when needed, he 10 allowed
to deliver them from the awful shadow of
prison life. The many unfortunate girls
who are brought up for attempting suicide
are always remsnded, and the first person
to visit and labor with them is a female
missionary. In this way large proper
ton of them ars saved not only from pris-
on and death, but from that life of shame
which is worse than either.
the way the railroads are dealt with in
the English courts is a revelation to the
big corporations. and some unfortunate
representative Of the British public who
may be suing for damages, the court gene
rally inclines towards the latter, and the
railways, spite of biz counsel and loud
protestations. have uauaily 10 plank down
a portion of their hard cash. TSo cases
of this kind fall uud.r our notice the same
day. In one the train i taken beyond the
platform ana a woman in sligbting falls.
No porter 10 help her down and the sta
ton officials rather indifferent afterwards.
Damages against the company two hun
dred and fifty dollars In another case
woman falls over box on the platform of
a station and is mi ured. There was an ex-
cursion and come crowding. But the
Judge held thst either the box should not
have been there, or the crowd should have
been moved to avoid il. Damages twelve
hundred and fifty dollars And SO it goes
over here. So that while the English
courts have some bad features, they have
some that are very good, and few which
might be copied with advantage elsewhere.
d. T.