A mechanic, Mr. George Beavis, living at 6 Queen's Place,
Rutherfield Street, Islington, appears, if his own account sent to -the Kentish Mercury be accurate, to have been almost as badly treated by the administrators of English " justice " as if he had been an innocent person committed for trial by the blunder of a county Bench. His little girl, who ought to have attended school, was kept away for the ring-worm. Her sisters had the whooping- cough. The children of the lodgers had the measles. So after the child got well from the ring-worm, she was kept at home another month, for fear she should spread the whooping-cough -and the measles, which were still in the house. Summoned to Clerkenwell Police-court for her non-attendance, Beavis was told that he was pleading a petty excuse, and fined 2s., with is. costs. He had only brought a shilling in his pocket, and asked leave to give -this shilling to a messenger who should be sent to his house for -the requisite money. He was not only refused, but sent straight off to Coldbath Prison ; had his hair cut, was locked up in a -dark cell all night, dressed the next morning in the prison dress, and only released when his wife found him out and paid the fine. That is simply monstrous. It turns a fine into a disgraceful and severe punishment. A system of justice which, in its eagerness to prevent the escape of guilt, inflicts gratuitous punishment on the guiltless, more than neutralises a great deal of the benefit of its own work. A Court of Injustice might take some pleasure in rewarding crime, but its chief aim would be to scourge the just.
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