"Three Weeks" for a Penny.

Cromwell Argus, Volume I, Issue 1, 3 November 1869, Page 1

"Three Weeks" for a Penny.

To steal a duck's egg appears to be about as mild an infraction of the laws of property as could come within the law of larceny. We are therefore justified in believing that it was n-t the enormity of the offence, but a zealous regard for the rights of property in the abstract which influenced the Bearsted bench of magistrates, lately, in dealing with the case, of the larcenous " taking aud removal" of a duck's egg. In the Court-house at Maidstone, we are informed, Sir Geo. Hampson, Bart., in the chair, an old waggoner, named Thomas Osborne, for nearly -10 years a farm servant in the neighbourhood, and without any previous stain .on his character, was charged with the shocking offence to which we have referred. lie stoutly asserted his innocence, but doubtless he was guilty, for a country policeman, whom the Bench believed, proved the stealing of the egg. The Bench was convinced, and Osborne was convicted. He was sentenced to three weeks' imprisonment with hard labor; and at his age, after forty years of honest toil, he will be dismissed from prison, branded with Jhe name of thief. We have every respect for.the magistrates who so sternly vindicated the rights of property, yet we cannot but own to a regret that it was not posssbie to let off poor old Osborne for his pennyworth of larceny at a lower rate. It seems that a brute like the manager of the Jarrow Theatre can knock a girl's teeth clown her throat, and then purchase impunity for a iivepound note, while the theft of a duck-egg is punished, without any chance of escape, with three weeks on the tread'-, ill, and utter loss of character. We are aware that it is the singular policy of English lav.- to punish offences against the person, but "it is a peculiar consequence of tins doctrine that an actress has less protection for her teeth, which are, after all, property to her in the strictest sense, than a Kentish farmer has for his fnvl-housc — -Echo.