LETTER TO THE EDITOR.
SPEEDY JUSTICE.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—Had your article headed " Speedy Justice " appeared in a daily paper, I am sure it would have been the signal for a flood of experiences. For the sake of the moral, allow me a space for the following :—I was forcing my way to the Cannon Street ticket office on the day of the Oxford and Cambridge boat-race, 1868, with my coat buttoned up, when I felt a twitch at my watch. On looking down, I saw my coat open, my watch-chain hanging loose, and a lithe little fellow (whether twelve or twice twelve years of age you could hardly say) close against me, with one hand clenched ; by a happy inspiration I seized this one band with both mine, dragged the offender forth, and shouted lustily, "Police." When a policeman appeared, 1 applied my knuckles to the back of the youth's hand, in a way well known to schoolboys, and forcing it open, displayed my watch to view. We were both taken to the police station. There I was made to leave my watch and my watch-loving friend, who, by the easy way he com- ported himself, and by the pleasant jests he bandied to and fro with the officials, showed himself to be an old offender. Thence to the Guildhall, that I might, at the policeman's earnest request, prosecute, thereby, of course, losing the boat-race, for which I cared at the time far more than for twenty convictions. Mark this, now. I went home to my curacy, twelve miles or so from town, told my story to a brother parson, who, when I finished, at once exclaimed, " You're in for it ! I should not have dreamt of prosecuting ;" and he evidently considered me a very foolish fellow. So I thought myself, when 1 went up to the Old Bailey a month or so after. First day's experiences,—constant hints from the policeman and warder, the latter ready with half-a-dozen previous convictions, that I had better employ a certain legal gentleman, to these hints I do not listen ; second day,—ditto, ditto, with the addition that I treat the policeman to a dinner ; third day,—ditto, ditto. I can bear it no longer, and give way ; at once all is alacrity ; but my mind misgives me, and I rush to a wigged individual and relate what I have done ; he explains that he will set me right, that my impatience has nearly caused me to draw needlessly a guinea or two out of the county rates ; after this, all went smoothly, and I had at last the satisfaction of hearing my little man was to be confined for eighteen months. I sincerely trust that he has come to a better mind, and is not carrying on his old
trade, which he declared paid better than any other. 1 hope to come to town for a holiday ; there are limits to everything ; and if I do catch any one showing a passion for my watch I shall certainly prefer to the slow wheels of law the more speedy flash of the sword of justice in the shape of a hearty " one, two."—I am, Sir, &c.,
A. CHAPLIN.
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