Ebt Alderman Atkins, an old City Tory, died on Friday.
His ward was Walbrook ; and Sir James Duke having declined a contest for the Aldermanic gown, Mr. Deputy Gibbs will surceed Mr. Atkins.
Yesterday, being the first day of term. Alderman Wilson was duly presented to the Lord Chancellor, as Lord Mayor elect. The Re- corder eulogized Mr. iVilson's conduct as Sheriff of London in 1833, when there was difficulty and danger in collecting the taxes, and firmness was required to overcome "the combinations of disaffected, the resist- ance of individuals, and the rio:ous assemblage of L is the first intelligence we have had of the ereadAd state of affairs in the Metropolis in 1833.] At a meeting of the Middlesex Magistrates, on Thursday, Sir Charles Forbes called attention to a part of the report of the Visiting Justices, which stated that two boys had been committed to prison for stealing two turnips. He was shocked and astonished to find that a Magistrate could send two boys to prison for such an offence,--one which he had often committed' himself when a boy. He was glad, however, to find that they had been released, after seven days' confine- ment, on the representation of the Visiting Justices.
Mr. Pownall said, that Sir Charles Forbes would find his Magis- terial duties very painful if he resided in a rural district— He objected to that Court lending themselves to the system of measuring the offence committed by the amount of the propesty found on the offender. He recently committed a man for stealing fruit : the value of the fruit found upon him was only ninepence, but it was proved that he had stolen fruit of the value of 71. The growers of turnips, potatoes, tse. sto.tained a vciy serious injury by the nightly robberies of their property, which was necessarily left in an unpro- tected state.
Sir Peter Laurie protested against making that Court a tribunal in which Magistrates sat to try one another.
Mr. Gibson, one of the Visiting Justices, said that the boys had been released to " illustrate tile necessity of a system of separate con- finement for juvenile offenders ;" and no reflection was intended to be cast on the committing Alagistrate. Sir Charles Forbes said he had a right to comment upon the conduct of any Magistrate ; and he would exercise it, whether pleasant or otherwise to those by whom be was surrounded.
[This is not the first time Sir Charles Forbes has stood forward as the almost solitary champion of coalman sense and humanity on the Middlesex Bench. It is shocking to think of the committal of two children to the contamination of a gaol for the crime of stealing one turnip apiece. But Mr. Pownall intimates that the lads were made
examples of—punished to deter others. This does not mend the matter. To send any human being to prison for stealing a turnip, is bad enough ; but to inflict the punishment because others had stolen or might steal more turnips, is worse. Yet, forsooth, no notice is to be taken Of such a proceedires: the Middlesex Magistrates are to be sacred front censure ; nobody is to say a word again.t them PI
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