There has been a failure of justice in the case
of Mallick Sheen, the man who was handcuffed by Patrol Brooks to his bridle-rein,. dragged by him along a mile at a "jig-jog trot," and finally thrown down under the horse's feet, to the danger of his life. Mr. Bridges, the magistrate at Hammersmith, found on inquiry that Brooks did all these things, but considered he had done them out of an "error of judgment," and fined him only twenty- shillings. The offence, if it was an offence at all, was that of torturing a prisoner, the act which of all others most destroys the confidence of the public in a police force. The- charge is fortunately unusual in England, but if Sheen had been a gentleman, instead of a violent rough, all England would have- rung with the matter, and the patrol would certainly not have escaped with a fine of four days' pay.
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