254 HIGH IV AYS AND HORSES. 



was no distinction in the treatment of the prisoners ; 

 besides which, those who could pay exorbitant fees 

 were allowed great privileges and indulgencies. There 

 had been no improvement made in the management 

 of prisons for many years past, until in 1777 John 

 Howard published his book on prisons, and awakened 

 public attention to their deplorable and disgusting 

 condition. AlthouQ-h the condition of the law is not 

 even now what it should be, yet there is nothing like 

 the amount of crime there was one hundred years ago. 

 By lessening the severity of punishment, crime seems 

 to have diminished rather than have increased ; in fact, 

 throughout the present reign crime has diminished to 

 an extraordinary extent, and there is no doubt it will 

 continue to do so as the law becomes better adminis- 

 tered and the sentences present a more uniform justice. 

 At present, to read of the sentences inflicted by judges 

 upon criminals who have committed offences of exactly 

 the same nature, and in all points bearing a strong 

 resemblance one to the other, is positively ludicrous. 

 It is to be hoped that some day an Act of Parliament 

 will be passed compelling judges to pass a certain 

 sentence for a certain offence, and that they will not 

 be permitted to exceed or diminish the amount of 

 punishment except by permission of a higher tribunal, 

 and then only when the circumstances of the case 

 will necessitate the infliction of a certain increase or 

 diminution of punishment. The amount of crime a 

 century ago was, in a great measure, owing to the 

 condition of the prisons and the modes of punish- 

 ment, which provoked persons of an evil disposition 

 into a course of depredation and warfare upon society. 

 In country villages there was no other guardian of the 

 peace but the parish beadle, a far more imposing 



