ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE

Dunstan Times, Issue 444, 21 October 1870, Page 3

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE

POLICE V. BRIDGET CORCORAN.

'VVe do not identify ourselves with the opinions that uay be expressed by our correspondents.

(To the Editor oetheDunstan Times.) Sir,— I am inclined to think that the Justices at Alexandra, on Monday, committed a great mist ke in dismissing the ease brought by the Police against Bridget Corcoran, for theft f n variety of nrticVs from hj r master an mistress. The whole of the articles were cieerly and, positively sw«m.io.l<y

Mr. and Mrs. Low as I eihg the ir property, Mr. Low, not being desirous of pressing the case before theSnpreiueCourt, estimated the value of the property stolen at from £4 to £5. It was, of curse, difficult to Hx a value, as it was only the renin nts of new linen sheets and'other things, which the accused had worked up for her own use, that had been discovered by the Police, excepting some handkerchiefs of Mrs. Low’s and come socks and slippers. The irisouer hud ingeniously cut tip everything, making the sheets into cheineeses an I other articles of female under-clothing, to that no marking would have been of any avail against her scissors. The Bench deei ed that the felony had been proven, and, although the articles w< re prove to be of from £4 to £5 in value, availed themselves of the 82nd Clause of (he “Justices of the P.ane Act,” which provides that, although a felony he proved, when the goods stolen do not amount in value to 205., and the circumstances of the ease (characterise I as “ Kleptomania” by the presiding Magistrate) are of a trivial nature, the accused person may be discharged No evidence Was put n by way of defence, but the eoused was ably . efended byMr.Brou.li, who astonished (he auibence, and even cause the presiding Magistrate to open his eyes with a wide vacuous staie, when, in concluding his address, lie state that he believed the prisoner to lie innocent of fe onions intent in taking the goods. The prisoner appeared very much surprised at the decision arrived at by their Worships, and although two minutes before Mr Pike had said the felony had been clear y proved, the woman had afterwards the audacity to thank the Bench for “ Justice,” as she called it. I am much surprised that the Bench did not even attunpt to correct the impression, forsel om has Mr. Vincent Pike lost such an opportunity of throwing his slii. Id over the S .ere name. Justice and Merc , however, are istinct attributes all the same. The result of this last freak of “Justice’s Justice” is that a servant, proved guilty of felony, has been discharged,' and, judging from her remark, probably, under the impression that she has suffered a wrong at the hands of her employer, and that she had-a perfect right to make free with her mistress’s 'handkerchiefs and laces, air ! . when in want of un erelothing, nothing to do but to helf herself with impunity to the contents of the linen closet. Empl yer’s of female labor are put to great expense in getting servants up-county, an , when they obtain them, they are ahiolntcly powerless to enforce a proper performance of their duties ; and, in looking to the result of thi ■ decision on servants generally, aril the false imprestion allowed to remain on the mind of the accused, I am most certainly of opinion that a grape mistake has been-committed by the Bench, and employers placed still further at the mercy of a c ass they cannot do without, and against whom, in the present state.of. the “ Masters’ and Servants’ Act” and ‘Dunstan Justices’ views ot the proper treatment of discovered ‘crime, there is practically no rccouroe.. Mr. Low generously state- 1 , in mitigation of the suppose i impen ing punishment, that he had a letter speaking to the good character of the prisoner, from Mr Massey, Town Clerk 'of Dunedin, and Mr. Brough put in a certificate in her favor from Mrs. Hawthorne, wife of the Rector of the High School, Dunedin. If Mr Low had expected to he told that the Bench considered the case too trivial 'for prosecution, I think he would have saved himself the trouble, and I advise ladies, in future, to count their linen before granting certificates of character to servants, for one of the first things found by the police, in searching the prisoner’s box at Mr. Low’s, was a cambric handheiehiet marked distinctly in one c rner “ S. Hawthorne.” Employers of female labor, occupying quite as respectable positions in society as tho Dunstan Justices, will probably differ with them as to whether the prosecution in this instance was a visable. Fo ■ myself, I think that, in the interests of that laroa portion-of society who are at the mercy of female servants, their decision is highly unsatisfactory. 1 am, &c. Alpha. Alexandra, Oct. 17. 1870.

MISCELI. AXKO US. A party of epicures dined together at an hotel. After they ha drunk an enormous quantity of wine, thiy called for their reckoning, ‘ It is absolutely impossible that we four men drank so much.” stammered one,—“ Yon are quite right,” replied the waiter j bat yon forgot the three nude r the table.” 1 A correspondent writing to the “Lon 'on Times,” tells a strange story from Egypt. According to his account, a brisk tra e has been going on for the but nine months in human dust and ashes from th ■ catacombs near Alexau ria. The manure thus ob. tained appears to sell at £6 10s. a ton to the English manufacturers, who mix it with guano. Thus myriads of Egyptians are now scattered broadcast on English soil, are eaten-as bread, walk the world again after accomplishing their tardy transmigration. A prosperous but illiterate New York grocer, having been advised to give his son a col ege educatun, did so. After the young man had graduated, he sent him to New Orleans to look after his sugar interests i on reading a letter from him he exclaimed to the gentleman who ha l ' induced him to send his eon to college, “ Just look here, mi v, and sea how ynn’ya ma le me throw aw\y my money on this boy.; fop, after all his college learning, he spile without au i* every tim^.

A certain justice was called to the gaoj to libeiate a worthy debtor, by receiving his oath that ho was not worth £20.-- “ Well, Johnny,” said tho justice, ‘ can > you swear that you are nut worth £2O, and thatyou never will be?”—“Why,’’answered the other, chagrined at the question, “I can swear that I am nut worth that at present”— “ Well, well,” returned the justice, “ I can swear to the rest, so go along, Johnny."—Ami the man was discharged. The manager of a Berlin theatre got up a drama in which a human head was tube offered to a tyrant. In order to produce as much effect as possible, he resolved to use a human hoad. on the stage was placed a table covered with a cloth ; on the table was a basin, and an actor, concealed un.der the cloth, poked up his head through a hole in the table, so as to eem to bo placed in the basin The effort was prodigious ; the audience applau ed and trembled. Uu--1 ickily a wag, who ha 1 been strolling about the stage, had sprinkled a spoonful of snuff' on the bariu, and just as|lhe tyrant finished his address to thesevered head of his enemy, the hea replied by a hear'y tit of sneezing, changing the audience “from grave to gay’ with Teu/ivrkable expedition. At th) great fir ;in Constantinople.—A woman was seen rushing through the streets, nd dashing into a friend’s house at a distance from the flam )S, hugging something in her amis “ Safe , safe!” she exclaimed;; “ thank God I have saved my child! My plate is down the Well, and that can be got at when the tire is over. ” A piercing shriek followed, for, looking down, she found that avhat she heldin her arms was only her plate tied up in a kerchief, and that in her be. wil erment and hurry what she had thrown into the well was her own infant! ■ A French journalist, M. Bertrand, has discovered a new profession which, it is enteresning to know is pursued in Loudon. He calls it a strange eccentric profession—“bizarre” is his own word—and, as regards its characterisation, he is not far wrong. It* consists, M. Bertrand explains, in picking out pretty girls of low station, washing them, dressing them like ladies giving them a few lessons in deportment, manners and the art of speaking english, and then exhilfitingthem in heparks, public gardens, and theatres, until they attract the attention and gain the heart, and ultimately the hand, of somi rich man. “ Little by little,” we are told, “ tho poetic illusions of the honeymoon disappear, until at last the husband discovers that ho has marrie 1 a girl without position or e ucation. So much the worse! Butin the meanwhile the bar gain has been struck, and the matrimonial agent has pocketed his premium.” These improvise i young ladies are, it appears, called “drapery misses.” Charles Dickens wrote not for one class only, but for , 3 classes, and lawyers as well as .ther persons read his works. A late eminent ju 'ae described the pleasure and ] rolit lie; erived from the perusal of a New "Waverly,” and a host of living lawyers wil gratefully acknowledge hew greatly theV have been rei'r sh d and delighted by an hour "with “ Biz.” In his youth, Dickens was for a short time in a solicitors office hut happily soon turned his back 'on the Law and devoted himself to literature. He has left us a whole gallery of legal caricatures. We have the wonderful trial of “ Bardell v. Pickwick,” introducing the Fussy Bnzfuz and that rare phenomenon, a‘modest junior. In the same hook wo have the smartjDodson and Fogg, the expert Mr. Perker, and the solicitor to the Well-ns. In “ B1 -ak House” we'have the great chancery suit of “ Jarndyeo v. Jarn yce,” with graphic descriptions of the court, of the lawyers -engaged in the suit, of the shrew i solicitor of the dedlock family; ami of the poor law-writer. In the “ Old Curiosity Shop” we have Sampson Brass, the masculine Sally Brass, and the mirth-provoking Dick Swivellet. In “ Great Expectations” we have the wonderful character, Wemmick, and his we l-conceived employer, the Old Bailey attorney. We need not add to the list. Il sometimes Mr. Dickons appears bitter to lawyers, we must remember how he hated double-dealing, and we may be grateful tc him for his ixposnre of the meanness an 1 rascality of the Black sheepof profession. Besides Mr, Dickens could appreciate a good lawye'as well as a good parson or a good merchant. It would have been strange it it had been otherwise, for he was on intimate terms with very many of our profession, Dickens was the intimate companion of Talfourd, and the old. tried, and trusty friend of Lord Chief Justice Cockhuru.— “ Law Journal.’.

From “The Pleasant Creek Chronicle.”— The effiacy an 1 ginunl exce’lence of Grover and Biker’s El istic-Stitch Family Sewing VI lobbies have hj ill signal'y tested by a nurchaser, connected with th? offic •of this journal. In every reioect it has answered the account given in the advertisement of its capabilities— f -hc hemming, stitching, and falling being uucninmml, 7 gaol. Firenbroi lery a better maohi le could not be found 7 and in that nsoect it may take precedence of all other maohi ies very easily Altogether the Grover and Baku 7 Se.ving Machine is an indispensable aid in the don >etic economy of any honsohold, and those who purchase it will not be disap pointed.” “Steam Printing Office, 97 Little Oollins-streat East, Melbourne, October 22,1033. —Gentlemen, - The strong Shuttle Mvehine furnished to my printing office, has has given comp’ete satisfacGon, an though id his been subjected to rather rough usage in sewing pamphlets and similar work, it has not gone out of or ter in any way. We also use it for family sewing, and it answers well. I highly approve of ; the mechanical construction, as it is strong, very simrde. and by a liberal use of friction rollers not ikely to wear out. I can confidently recommend it. and you are at liberty to use my testimonial in any way you may | BgJ-r-

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