The magistrates of Tsdcaster have sentenced a man named Leathern,
who is said to be in a good position in life, to two months' imprisonment for twice audibly cursing her Majesty the Queen during public worship held in a school-room, while the prayers for the Queen and Royal family were being said. He pleaded that he had been a liberal supporter of the schools, and had apologised to the clergyman, and that his bed language came out of him without thought, owing apparently to some irrita- tion on the subject of tares. Of course that sett of thing must be stopped, and is a great public scandal, but the penalty is surely quite beyond what is reasontehle in such a case. A fine would have been far better, and if it was really the pecuniary annoyance of tatation which moved the man to this gross indecency, a fine would clearly have been keenly felt. Vindictive punishments of morbid acts like this have a tendency to multiply such acts.
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