Police-constable Brooks arrested M.allick Sheen, a labourer, for breaking an
ale-glass, value sixpence, at Acton. The man was abusive, and the constable, a horse-patrol, handcuffed and chained him to his saddle, mounted his horse, and dragged him at "a jog-trot" till the man fell, and was 'dragged between the horse's feet for fifty yards. This is the policeman's own account, and he seems to think the prisoner's unruliness entirely justified him. He does not half know his business. He should have tied a loop in his whip-lash, and passed the whip through, thrown the noose over Sheen's neck, and started off at a trot. Then Sheen must have kept on his feet, or been throttled off-hand. The objection that death is not the legal punishment for breaking ale- gla,ses is clearly of no moment at all. Torture is not the legal penalty either.
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