DOI issue:
July to December, 1853
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16612#0277
266
PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.
i
i
SERJEANT ADAMS ON A KNOTTY POINT.
Ir. Serjeant Adams
occasionally makes sen-
sible remarks. In the
course of the other day,
for instance, alluding to
some misrepresentation
of his opinions on the
system of hogging, which
had got abroad, he is
reported to have said
that
“ He had for years watched
the progress of that system,
and had had ample opportu-
nities of doing so, on account
of so many children tried be-
fore him ; and he had so fre-
quently found that the com-
mencement of a child'scriminal
history was with three days’
imprisonment and a whipping,
and after that beginning the
child so constantly came back
to this court, that his mind
quite revolted from passing a
sentence involving whipping
at all.”
“Give a young thief
a whipping, and have
done with him,” is a
very common prescription of Common Sense for the cure ol
juvenile delinquency. Common Sense, however, sometimes jumps to
conclusions which are not verified. Common Sense uttered pre-
dictions concerning gas and steam, which have not. come to pass.
And the views of Common Sense concerning discipline lor youthful
offenders are perhaps rather too summary. “ Give the young thiel a
whipping ”—very good. The thing is done with small expenditure of
time and material. It does not take many minutes : it is attended only
with a slight wear of whipcord: cost you a farthing, as Mr. Iepys
would have said : and a certain laceration of human integument, cost
you absolutely nothing. You lose nothing whatever in raw material.
Therefore inflict the whipping on the young thief. And have done
with him ? Ah ! “ If it -were done, when ’tis done, then ’twere well
it were done quickly.” But it appears that yon won’t have done with
him. On the contrary, after tliat beginning, the child constantly
comes back to this court, as Assistant-Judge Adams says. Alter all,
is it not manifest even to Common Sense—if Common Sense will exert
itself—that to attempt the reformation of a child—and lor what else
would you punish a child ?—by whipping him, is really beginning at
the wrong end p The application of the scourge belongs to the
operative part—the surgery—of the treatment of criminals; and
operations should be resorted to only when all other remedies have
failed. Primarily, the whip lacerates the skin; but the laceration is
succeeded by hardening of the part that was lacerated; but not only by
that: by the induration, also, of any amount of heart that the patient
may previously have been endowed with. After such a beginning, no
wonder that he comes back to this court or that. No : the lash is a
valuable application, so is lunar caustic, so is lapis infernalis, or the actual
cautery itself. But reserve it for desperate cases. Resort to it only
in those of subjects that have lost all sensibility to every other appeal.
Keep stripes for the ruffian w'ho savagely maltreats his wife; lor the
hopeless prate, for the irreclaimable blackguard. And administer
them to him in such a dose that he will not readily come back to any
court to have it repeated. But a little whipping is a dangerous thing.
It degrades and brutalises without subduing. You must lash a human
being hke a hound if you want to conquer him as yon would conquer a
hound—and it surely would be rather too severe to carry flagellation
to that extent with juvenile offenders. It is not fair, moreover, to use
the rod till you have first tried the schoolmaster.
Very Unseasonable Intelligence.
One of “ Our own Correspondents,” speaking of the recent disaster
at Sinope, rather startles ns with the announcement that
“ Turkey for the present is unquestionably worsted.”
If this be. literally the fact, we only hope our country friends will
postpone their usual hampers until Turkey is itself again.
SEASONABLE INCONSISTENCE.
A jovial young printer of our acquaintance having declared the
other evening that he had left off work, was found under the misletoe
a little later most busily employed in printing kisses.
UNEVENHANDED JUSTICE.
Our old friend, Sir Peter Laurie, in his recent modest letter
to the Times upon the legal (as well indeed as social, moral, and in
fact universal) worth and excellence of our Aldermen, marks with a
special note of admiration the gratifying fact, that the number of
acquittals from our City Police Courts falls considerably below the
usual percentage.. Recollecting Sir Peter’s old propensity for “ put-
ting down,” we are in some degree prepared to find that such a
fact as this should be a matter of rejoicing with him. Sir Peter
clearly holds that the proof of the trial is in the finding guilty, and he
has, doubtless, but a low opinion of those judicial courts where mercy
is allowed to “ season justice.” “ The rigour of the law ” is clearly
no unmeaning phrase in Sir Peter Laurie’s eyes : indeed, we almost
doubt if Judex damnatur cum innocens absolvitur be not in reality his
first legal maxim.
Whatever Sir Peter’s present faults may be, there is no denying
that he has rid himself of an old one. We cannot certainly aecuse
him of tenacity of opinion, when he shows himself so evidently prone
to conviction.
CLERICAL TABLE-TURNERS AND SPIRIT-RAPPERS.
lekical gentlemen are going about the
country, giving entertainments, and
making exhibitions of themselves, in
connection with table-turning, spirit-rap-
ping, and other freaks of furniture. The
usual places of amusement, such as the
concert-rooms and lecture-theatres are
being occupied by clergymen, who admit
the public at fixed prices to hear, but un-
fortunately not to see, the wonders on
which they expatiate. By way of Extra
Attraction for the Holidays we re-
commend any one of the Reverend
Mountebanks to go the whole hog, or
rather the whole ma-hog-any, by taking
some establishment suited to scenes in
the circle, and giving an entertainment,
with a programme something resembling
the following:—
THEATRE ROYAL ANYWHERE.
General combination of Table-turning talent. By a happy concur-
rence of fortuitous events, the Reverend Sampson Spooney, the
Reverend Mealy Mouthpiece, and the Pueverend Jabez Jawbone
are now in London together and will have the honour of appearing in
conjunction with the
Most Splendid Stud of Highly-Trained Tables.
For a few evenings, during Christmas, Sampson Spooney in his
rapid act of horsemanship on the
WILD TABLE OF THE NEW CUT.
This astounding table will dash through au open window, spin round
for a quarter of an hour-, and conclude its wonderful performance by
leaping out of the circle, with the Reverend Sampson Spooney hang-
ing on to its castors.
To he followed by the
REVEREND MEALY MOUTHPIECE AS THE COURIER OF EXETER HALL,
On six dining-tables in full gallop, all of which will take an astound-
ing leap over each other’s hacks ; and conclude by throwing a succes-
sion of somersets over a sideboard.
In the course of the evening, the
REVEREND JABEZ JAWBONE, IN THE HAUTE ECOLE,
will introduce his
Favorite and Highly-Trained Table “ Rosewood,”
which will dance the False d Deux Temps, go round the circle on three
legs and terminate its graceful evolutions by a marvellous display of
soimnersaults.
The entertainments will finish with a pleasing act by Masters
Jawbone and Spooney, the celebrated juvenile prodigies, on a pair of
card-tables. The intervals of the performances will be filled up by the
solemn mummeries of the celebrated clerical buffoon, the Reverend
Timothy Twist, assisted by a Deathless Clown from Drury Lane, and
other available talent.
“Une Bonne Bouche.”—When a young lady says her Heart is
her mouth. (Hem ! Rem /)
PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.
i
i
SERJEANT ADAMS ON A KNOTTY POINT.
Ir. Serjeant Adams
occasionally makes sen-
sible remarks. In the
course of the other day,
for instance, alluding to
some misrepresentation
of his opinions on the
system of hogging, which
had got abroad, he is
reported to have said
that
“ He had for years watched
the progress of that system,
and had had ample opportu-
nities of doing so, on account
of so many children tried be-
fore him ; and he had so fre-
quently found that the com-
mencement of a child'scriminal
history was with three days’
imprisonment and a whipping,
and after that beginning the
child so constantly came back
to this court, that his mind
quite revolted from passing a
sentence involving whipping
at all.”
“Give a young thief
a whipping, and have
done with him,” is a
very common prescription of Common Sense for the cure ol
juvenile delinquency. Common Sense, however, sometimes jumps to
conclusions which are not verified. Common Sense uttered pre-
dictions concerning gas and steam, which have not. come to pass.
And the views of Common Sense concerning discipline lor youthful
offenders are perhaps rather too summary. “ Give the young thiel a
whipping ”—very good. The thing is done with small expenditure of
time and material. It does not take many minutes : it is attended only
with a slight wear of whipcord: cost you a farthing, as Mr. Iepys
would have said : and a certain laceration of human integument, cost
you absolutely nothing. You lose nothing whatever in raw material.
Therefore inflict the whipping on the young thief. And have done
with him ? Ah ! “ If it -were done, when ’tis done, then ’twere well
it were done quickly.” But it appears that yon won’t have done with
him. On the contrary, after tliat beginning, the child constantly
comes back to this court, as Assistant-Judge Adams says. Alter all,
is it not manifest even to Common Sense—if Common Sense will exert
itself—that to attempt the reformation of a child—and lor what else
would you punish a child ?—by whipping him, is really beginning at
the wrong end p The application of the scourge belongs to the
operative part—the surgery—of the treatment of criminals; and
operations should be resorted to only when all other remedies have
failed. Primarily, the whip lacerates the skin; but the laceration is
succeeded by hardening of the part that was lacerated; but not only by
that: by the induration, also, of any amount of heart that the patient
may previously have been endowed with. After such a beginning, no
wonder that he comes back to this court or that. No : the lash is a
valuable application, so is lunar caustic, so is lapis infernalis, or the actual
cautery itself. But reserve it for desperate cases. Resort to it only
in those of subjects that have lost all sensibility to every other appeal.
Keep stripes for the ruffian w'ho savagely maltreats his wife; lor the
hopeless prate, for the irreclaimable blackguard. And administer
them to him in such a dose that he will not readily come back to any
court to have it repeated. But a little whipping is a dangerous thing.
It degrades and brutalises without subduing. You must lash a human
being hke a hound if you want to conquer him as yon would conquer a
hound—and it surely would be rather too severe to carry flagellation
to that extent with juvenile offenders. It is not fair, moreover, to use
the rod till you have first tried the schoolmaster.
Very Unseasonable Intelligence.
One of “ Our own Correspondents,” speaking of the recent disaster
at Sinope, rather startles ns with the announcement that
“ Turkey for the present is unquestionably worsted.”
If this be. literally the fact, we only hope our country friends will
postpone their usual hampers until Turkey is itself again.
SEASONABLE INCONSISTENCE.
A jovial young printer of our acquaintance having declared the
other evening that he had left off work, was found under the misletoe
a little later most busily employed in printing kisses.
UNEVENHANDED JUSTICE.
Our old friend, Sir Peter Laurie, in his recent modest letter
to the Times upon the legal (as well indeed as social, moral, and in
fact universal) worth and excellence of our Aldermen, marks with a
special note of admiration the gratifying fact, that the number of
acquittals from our City Police Courts falls considerably below the
usual percentage.. Recollecting Sir Peter’s old propensity for “ put-
ting down,” we are in some degree prepared to find that such a
fact as this should be a matter of rejoicing with him. Sir Peter
clearly holds that the proof of the trial is in the finding guilty, and he
has, doubtless, but a low opinion of those judicial courts where mercy
is allowed to “ season justice.” “ The rigour of the law ” is clearly
no unmeaning phrase in Sir Peter Laurie’s eyes : indeed, we almost
doubt if Judex damnatur cum innocens absolvitur be not in reality his
first legal maxim.
Whatever Sir Peter’s present faults may be, there is no denying
that he has rid himself of an old one. We cannot certainly aecuse
him of tenacity of opinion, when he shows himself so evidently prone
to conviction.
CLERICAL TABLE-TURNERS AND SPIRIT-RAPPERS.
lekical gentlemen are going about the
country, giving entertainments, and
making exhibitions of themselves, in
connection with table-turning, spirit-rap-
ping, and other freaks of furniture. The
usual places of amusement, such as the
concert-rooms and lecture-theatres are
being occupied by clergymen, who admit
the public at fixed prices to hear, but un-
fortunately not to see, the wonders on
which they expatiate. By way of Extra
Attraction for the Holidays we re-
commend any one of the Reverend
Mountebanks to go the whole hog, or
rather the whole ma-hog-any, by taking
some establishment suited to scenes in
the circle, and giving an entertainment,
with a programme something resembling
the following:—
THEATRE ROYAL ANYWHERE.
General combination of Table-turning talent. By a happy concur-
rence of fortuitous events, the Reverend Sampson Spooney, the
Reverend Mealy Mouthpiece, and the Pueverend Jabez Jawbone
are now in London together and will have the honour of appearing in
conjunction with the
Most Splendid Stud of Highly-Trained Tables.
For a few evenings, during Christmas, Sampson Spooney in his
rapid act of horsemanship on the
WILD TABLE OF THE NEW CUT.
This astounding table will dash through au open window, spin round
for a quarter of an hour-, and conclude its wonderful performance by
leaping out of the circle, with the Reverend Sampson Spooney hang-
ing on to its castors.
To he followed by the
REVEREND MEALY MOUTHPIECE AS THE COURIER OF EXETER HALL,
On six dining-tables in full gallop, all of which will take an astound-
ing leap over each other’s hacks ; and conclude by throwing a succes-
sion of somersets over a sideboard.
In the course of the evening, the
REVEREND JABEZ JAWBONE, IN THE HAUTE ECOLE,
will introduce his
Favorite and Highly-Trained Table “ Rosewood,”
which will dance the False d Deux Temps, go round the circle on three
legs and terminate its graceful evolutions by a marvellous display of
soimnersaults.
The entertainments will finish with a pleasing act by Masters
Jawbone and Spooney, the celebrated juvenile prodigies, on a pair of
card-tables. The intervals of the performances will be filled up by the
solemn mummeries of the celebrated clerical buffoon, the Reverend
Timothy Twist, assisted by a Deathless Clown from Drury Lane, and
other available talent.
“Une Bonne Bouche.”—When a young lady says her Heart is
her mouth. (Hem ! Rem /)