A YOUTHFUL ROBBER.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4559, 30 October 1875, Page 1 (Supplement)

A YOUTHFUL ROBBER.

(From the Pall Mall Gazette.) “ 1 have often thought,’’ said Coleridge, 44 what a melancholy world this would ba without children.” Yet the proceedings of some children, it must be admitted, are of a nature to produce a feeling of sadness rather than cheerfulness. Such a child, for instance, as Albert Wise, aged twelve years, who was charged at the Clerkenwell Police Court with highway robbery, is a grief to his family aud friends —or, rather would be a grief but for the fortunate circumstance that he has neither family nor friends. The desperate ruffian stands alone in the world ; he has not, it was stated, any father or mother, nor does he appear to be blessed with any clothing, for when he was placed in the dock he was attired in garments provided for him by the workhouse authorities. Wise com* mitted the crime which led to hia apprehension under the following oircumstancesA hoy named Wilding, sis years old, who from his age and experience was entrusted by his parents to conduct money transactions on their account, was sent by his mother on an errand with a purse containing a florin. Wise, like a tiger in his lair, was lying in wait for a victim, and, poimcing upon Wilding in the street, robbed him of the florin. The booty he had thus secured by his lawless act was spent in the gratification of his vile appetites— 14 He went and spent it m aweetatuff.” The magistrate, remarking that “ the prisoner had committed a daring theft, sentenced him to seven days imprisonment, and to twelve strokes with a birch rod. Wise must not complain that he is thus punished even more severely than his elders and betters, who receive no corporal punishment, even when they nearly murder their wives or children by “ aggravated assaults.”