278 Notes for the Month. [Sepr. 
by, taken, and convicted them. A very few words will be sufficient 
here to explain our meaning. As the law and the punishment system 
stand, what between the difficulty of finding a thief after he has com- 
mitted a robbery ; the dislike of parties to undertake the expense and 
trouble of prosecuting ; the uncertainty, where prosecution occurs, of 
making a case out in evidence; and the legal quibbles which seem 
left in our law purposely, to enable the culprit, when all other chances 
are against him, to get off: taking into consideration all these hindrances, 
we speak certainly within very guarded limits, when we say not one offence 
in six ever becomes the subject of discovery, trial, and conviction. But 
this is not the worst—the greatest evil is, that, of every ten men convicted 
in England, nine are speedily turned out to prey upon society again. 
Full one-half of the criminals tried at every sessions and assizes, con- 
sist of men who have been tried, and convicted (very often only in the 
preceding session) of offences before! The slightest attention to those 
cases in which offenders suffer the last punishment of the law (when the 
details of their lives generally come out) will shew that this estimate 
is not overrated.* We sentence one man—a confirmed and notorious 
pickpocket —to twelve months’ imprisonment in Bridewell. A shop 
lifter is sent to the hulks—from which he is probably liberated at the 
end of a couple of years. A horse stealer is sentenced to transportation 
for life, but escapes probably with a limited term of confinement. A 
case hardly occurs—except in the instance of forgery—of a man being 
hanged, who has not been capitally convicted four or five times. 
* A case immediately before us described in the West Briton (Cornish paper) may serve 
to illustrate this fact. 
« ExEcuTion.—On Thursday morning Thomas Pring, who was convicted of three 
burglaries at the last assizes, was executed at Bodmin, pursuant to his sentence. From 
the time of his conviction the unfortunate young man behaved in a manner becoming his 
situation, and met his unhappy fate with resignation and fortitude. At an early hour of the 
morning he was visited by the chaplain of the gaol, and attended divine service and 
received the sacrament in the chapel, with much apparent devotion. About half-past ten 
o’clock he ascended the platform with firmness ; and after remaining a short time in prayer 
with the clergyman the drop fell, and his sufferings terminated after a few struggles. 
According to a statement made by him to the chaplain of the prison, he was about twenty- 
one years of age at the time of his execution. When he was about five years of age, his 
father, who lived at Stokeclimsland, was found guilty of stealing cattle, and was sentenced 
to be transported. His mother died when he was seven years of age, and he was bound 
apprentice, by the parish officers, to a farmer. He eloped frequently, and was, in his 
youth, more than once an inmate of Bodmin prison, for leaving his master, robbing orchards, 
gardens, &c. During one of his rambles, he robbed Mr. Mill’s dairy of some butter, for 
which he was convicted and sentenced to be transported for seven years; but being sent to 
the Penitentiary at Milbank, he conducted himself so well there, that he was discharged in 
February last. In passing from Devonport, where he had been sent from the Penitentiary, 
he broke into a house, and stole a few shillings. In the early part of March, he went 
towards Truro, to seek for work, and on his way broke into a house near the Indian Queens, 
from which he stole six teaspoons and other articles. He lived with Mr. Peters, of St. 
Clements, for a few weeks, when he left, and afterwards returned and broke into the 
house. For this offence he was committed to Bodmin gaol, where he robbed a fellow 
prisoner, and was, in consequence, confined in a solitary cell, out of which he broke. He 
tried to catch a horse in a field near the prison, but not being able to do so, he broke into a 
stable, stole a horse, on which he rode to the Jamaica Inn, and broke into it in order to get 
some clothes to conceal his prison dress. He then rode to another public-house, which he 
also broke into, and drank liquor until nearly intoxicated. He then rode to the house of 
his old prosecutor, Mr. Mill, which he entered and carried off a variety of articles, with a 
bottle of spirits. He then entered an orchard, drank until he became intoxicated, and fell 
asleep. He slept several hours, and was awakened by the constable and three other 
persons, who took him into custody, and conveyed him back to the gaol from which he had 
escaped a short time before.” : 
