We remarked a fortnight since op the difficulty of framing
a law which would suppress Newgate literature without also sup- pressing a book like Paul Clifford, just as likely to injure an -excitable lad under circumstances favourable to crime. This week a boy of fifteen, John McEachin, was charged with breaking open Messrs. Smith and Son's till at Surbiton, and stealing a 5/. note. The lad had been reading Paul Clifford, a copy of which was found -in his carpet bag, till he fancied himself a highwayman, and wrote a letter to his immediate superior, signed " Captain Claude." " You know my real name," he writes, " now know me as Captain Claude." The little fool seems to have stolen about 251., and lived for three days at Portland at the rate of 5001. a year, spending 1/. a day in cab hire, and running up tavern bills for wine. He probably owes his sentence—four years in a reformatory—to Lord Lytton, yet who -can say that Lord Lytton ought to be imprisoned for what was to him an intellectual speculation ?
Previous page
