AGGRAVATED ASSAULTS.
(To THE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOli.1 SIE,—You give some Very good reasons why we Justices should not, if we can help it, commit for trial by a jury, but you omit one which would influence me more than any, viz, the utter un- certainty of what motives may influence a verdict. At our Quarter Sessions not long ago, a pauper was charged with an assault on a workhouse master. The evidence was perfectly clear ; the prisoner made no defence ; he offered no excuse ; and the jury immediately found "Not guilty " ! I felt certain at the time, and am so still, that they were angry at being dragged from their homes in a distant part of the county, and took this simple method of revenge on "Society." Of course, there- fore, having seen such failures of justice, we prefer almost in- variably to deal summarily, even though the punishment we can inflict may be ridiculously inadequate.—I am, Sir, &c., A MAGISTRATE.
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