182 GEOEGB JOHN EOMANES 188I- 



they appear in your police reports. Adopting this 

 course, I think that the following, which appeared in 

 your issue of the 29th ult., requires some explana- 

 tion : 



'At Wandsworth, James Clarke, aged 17, a 

 weakly-looking lad, residing at Byegrove Eoad, 

 Mitcham, was charged with stealing two turnips, 

 value dd., growing in a field belonging to Mr. H. 

 Bunco, at Merton. The prosecutor having lost a quan- 

 tity of produce, Police Constable Whitty was set to 

 watch the property, and saw the prisoner pull the 

 turnips and put them in his pocket. The accused 

 said he had had nothing to eat all day, and being very 

 hungry, he took the turnips ! A previous conviction 

 was proved against him for felony, and he was now 

 committed by Mr. Denman for six weeks' hard 

 labour.' 



One would hke to possess a good large field of 

 turnips, where each turnip can be fairly valued at 

 l^d. But, taking this as the true value of the par- 

 ticular turnips in question, it appears that a starving 

 man is now serving a week's hard labour for every 

 half-penny's worth of the cheapest possible kind of 

 food that he could steal. It is, of course, very right 

 that he should have received some measure of punish- 

 ment, if only as a warning to others in the neighbour- 

 hood ; but the measure of punishment which he did 

 receive seems, in the face of the matter, monstrous. 

 We are not told what was the ' felony ' for which this 

 ' weakly-looking lad ' was previously convicted ; but, 

 iat any rate, we do know that on the present occasion 

 his theft was not for any purpose of gain. It must 



