Old Bailey experience. Criminal jurisprudence and the actual working of our penal code of laws. Also, an essay on prison discipline, to which is added a history of the crimes committed by offenders in the present day / By the author of 'The schoolmaster's experience in Newgate' [i.e. T. Wontner].

  • Wontner, Thomas
Date:
1833
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Old Bailey experience. Criminal jurisprudence and the actual working of our penal code of laws. Also, an essay on prison discipline, to which is added a history of the crimes committed by offenders in the present day / By the author of 'The schoolmaster's experience in Newgate' [i.e. T. Wontner]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    she carried to a counsel, with the brief, in a strong feeling of resolution that her partner should not be lost for want of any sacrifice on her part. No one can defend the ma- gistrate who committed this man; I have avoided the in- sertion of his name—the mention of the place, should he see this, will perhaps cal] it to his recollection. I conclude this case by saying, I never wished him any other punishment for his thoughtlessness than for a time to have witnessed the scene as I did. If he has common feelings of humanity it would have been chastisement enough. Every session our calendar of crimes is swelled with many cases similar to the one here related. This inconsiderateness of ma- gistrates out of London produces much injustice, as the judges at the Old Bailey, when they obtain a conviction under cases of this nature, generally pass a sentence of transportation, having a notion that the prisoner must be a known bad character in the neighbourhood from whence he came, or the magistrate would not, for such a trifling offence, have committed him. Thus, as the offence is minimised the judge maximises the punishment, thinking he is doing the country a service in disposing of so desperate a character, without any evidence that the man was ever ac- cused of crime before. I will add another recent case, which, although not in the list, now occurs to me. A man of here- tofore good character, who kept a beer-shop at Teddington, was committed on a charge of stealing some potatoes last year. This case arose out of a dispute of ownership, and ought not to have been sent to the Old Bailey at all. For want of proper management at his trial, he was found guilty and sentenced to seven years' transportation. When this heavy sentence fell on him, his astonished neighbours began to make inquiry into the merits of the case, and soon satisfied themselves of the man's innocence. I wrote to a gentleman of consequence, and possessed of some influence in the neigh- bourhood, who, after convincing himself of the true merits of