THE LATE ASSAULT CASE.

Thames Guardian and Mining Record, Volume I, Issue 143, 25 March 1872, Page 3

THE LATE ASSAULT CASE.

To the Editor of the THAMES GUARDIAN. Sir, —Would you allow me through your columns to make a few remarks touching the assault case Perrier v. Stidolph, which was tried in the Police Court at Shortland on Saturday morning. In the first place I must say’ (and I think every man with any reasoning powers about him will agree with me) that I think that the R.M. was not at all justified in passing such a severe sentence on the prisoner as he did. He certainly never took into account the amount of provocation which had been received by the prisoner before he committed the assault. Any one down here knows, or if he does not he can soon find out, that some of the articles which have appeared in the Star under the heading “Intelligent Vagrant,” were about the most scurrilous articles that have ever appeared in print in any’ paper in the province, stopping only just short of libel. Well, sir, it must be very annoying for a man to be paraded in public print and to be made a laughing stock of for the W orld in general, even though he does, to a certain extent, draw it on himself. I must say that Mr Stidolph was decidedly wrong in attacking Mr Perrier as he did; andany man in his sane senses will agree with me; but, at the same time it must be allowed that he reeeived great provocation. In a recent assault case, in which one of our well

known citizens nearly smashed a man up, —breaking his ribs, &c., a fine of Is. was inflicted; but here a man gets seven days hard labour for barely touching a man—(lie provocation in the one case being as much as it was in the other, though of a different sort. Certainly Mr Stidolph was a great fool for saying what he did about the subscriptions towards paying his fine, and no doubt that had a great deal to do with the infliction of the sentence. I wonder if “The Intelligent” Vagrant had ever taken a slap at our R.M., whether the sentence would have been so severe—l certainly think not. As a rule, the decisions given in our R.M. Court have been such that no one could cavil at them ; but in this instance, I think with a very largo number of the community, that lie has been rather severe.—l am, &c.,

Fair and Square.