ild three men, named respectively Marshall,
Cartwright, and Ingram, were charged with having committed a burglary
in the house of a gentleman named Pym, who lived in a village in
Hertfordshire, Marshall being at that time, and Cartwright having
previously been, butler in the gentleman's service. Ingram had been a
footman in London.

The burglary was not in itself of an aggravated character. Plate only
was stolen, and that had been concealed under the gravel bed of a
little rivulet which ran through the grounds.

No violence or threat of violence had been offered to any inmate of
the house, yet the case was looked upon as serious because of the
position of trust which had been held by the two butlers.

Ingram was admitted as King's evidence. The butlers were convicted,
sentenced to death, and hanged, whilst Ingram was, according to
universal practice, set at liberty. Before the expiration of a
year, however, he was convicted of having stolen a horse, and as
horse-stealing was a capital offence at that time, he suffered the
penalty of death at Hereford.

It was a curious coincidence that only a year or two afterwards a man
named Probert, who had given King's evidence upon which the notorious
Thurtell and Hunt were convicted of the brutal murder of Weare
and executed, was also released, and within a year convicted of
horse-stealing and hanged.

An old calendar for the Assize at Lincoln, which I give as an
Appendix, reminds me of the condition of the law and of its victims
at that time. At every assize it was like a tiger let loose upon
the district. If a man escaped the gallows, he was lucky, while the
criminals were by no means the hardened ruffians who had been trained
in the school of crime; they were mostly composed of the most ignorant
rural labourers--if, indeed, in those days there were any degrees of
ignorance, when to be able to read a few words by spelling them was
considered a prodigious feat.

Jurors often endeavoured to mitigate the terrors of the law by finding
that the stolen property, however valuable it might be, was of less
value than five shillings. May the recording angel "drop a tear over
this record of perjury and blot it out for ever."

It was in those days that Mr. Justice Graham was called upon to
administer the law, and on one occasion particularly he vindicated his
character for courtesy to all who appeared before him. He was a man
unconscious of humour and yet humorous, and was not awar