31 MARCH 1866, Page 3

Emily Ballard, the little girl accused of stealin&a penny at

Ink- berrow,. Worcestershire, has been tried. The evidence showed that she was- rather a bad little girl, coarsely brought up, and that she took the penny, but without intencling. to steal it. The vicar, Mr.. Gray, admitted that his- only object was the cor- rection of the child,, and Sergeant Brown deposed that she screamed in the lock-up till he was frightened,, and took her into his own house. The bench unanimously acquitted her,. and Mr. Gray will for the future, we trust, remember that justice is the first element in a Christian mind; or if not the first, second only to mercy. He, though. guiltless.- of intentional cruelty, showed neither, and has- destroyed his, own usefulness, whatever it

Was.