The police magistrates, especially Mr. Knox, seem to have not
so much investigated many of the cases, as taken the part of the police in their controversy with the outer world. One man, George Williams, who admitted that he laid hold of the reins of one of the mounted police, who were pressing on the crowd, and then resisted capture—without, however, injuring anybody, was given a month's hard labour, Mr. Knox assuming that he took hold of the reins with the view of "shaking the constable off his horse ;" another man, James Dempsey, who certainly joined a gang in pelting the police with stones, was given only 40s. fine, or a month's imprisonment, though Mr. Knox threw in the remark that he "formed one of a gang of miserable dastards and cowards" to trim the balance. Mr. Knox almost always concluded a disputed case with an act of faith, "I believe the police ;" and fined the prisoner 40s., or a month. In one or two cases, when he had more doubt—the prisoners being "respectable," that is, professional persons—he remanded for a week, which means at best a week's imprisonment.
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