that they have in the end often led to a speedy
reform of those abuses and those acts of
injustice.

          ROUGH DOINGS.

LET us suppose that some person with leisure
to think, has during the last few months bestowed
a certain amount of watchfulness upon the
reports of trials and police examinations in the
daily papers, what would be the phenomenon
which would strike him most?

He would certainly be struck, first of all, and
before taking note of anything else, by the
preponderance of what are called "acts of violence"
over other misdemeanours. He would have met
continually, in the course of his reading, with
details of bodily maltreatment inflicted on each
other by men and by women. He would have
read continually of assaults, blows, kicks, stabs,
blood-lettings—not in the medical sense—bruisings,
stripes. He would have read of heads
bound up, and wounds strapped together, of
murderous poundings with fists, and savage
tramplings with iron heels, of human beings
hugging their victims as bears do, or tearing
at them, tiger-fashion, tooth and nail. He would
find that first rude idea of the savage, of ill-using
the body of the person against whom he bears
ill will, an active idea among all sorts and
conditions of men, in this advanced period
of our civilisation. Keeping to the crime-
records of one day, he would read: 1, that
"William Allen, about thirty years of age,
was sentenced to two months' hard labour
for a violent assault upon William Pickett,
357 H, on Saturday night, in St. George's-in-the
East. The prisoner was drunk and making a
noise, and when requested to desist and go
home, he made a furious attack upon the
constable, striking him several times, and biting
his neck;" 2, that "William Ryan, a labourer,
was charged with violently assaulting three
policemen, on Saturday night, while he was
drunk;" 3, that "William Davis, a young man,
described as a paper-hanger, was charged with
the following assault: Caroline Howell, of No.
2, Lancashire-court, Broad-street, said, that on
Saturday night she was coming down Oxford-
street, having walked on a short distance from
a friend, who stopped to speak to a friend of
hers, when the prisoner came up to her and said
something very wrong. She told the prisoner
that if he did not go on somebody would give
him something, and he replied 'I will,' and
then struck her in the eye, and before she could
recover herself, he struck her on the arm, and
she fell, and her back was injured. She was all
over marks, like that on her arm. Her arm was
much discoloured. The second blow the prisoner
gave her knocked her down."

Turning from acts of mere drunken
violence to those in which such violence is
accompanied with robbery from the person, our
newspaper reader finds, still in the same number
of his journal, that on a certain evening Mr.
Alexander Thorne, a collector, who was in the
habit of carrying large sums of money about with
him, was passing from Roehampton to Putney
Heath (a lonely bit of road, as some of us know),
when he noticed that two men were following him.
He pulled up under a lamp and waited for them
to pass, which they did; but, presently returning,
one of them struck him a violent blow on the
side of the head with a life-preserver.

The blow cut his ear open. His assailant then
struck him again on the right side of the head, which
caused the blood to flow freely. The prosecutor tried
to defend himself with his umbrella, but it was
snatched from his hand, and he was struck to the
ground, and again assaulted in a very violent manner.
When on the ground the prosecutor managed to roll
over on his side for the purpose of saving the money
which he had in the breast-pocket of his coat. One
of his assailants placed his foot on his neck, and the
other man his foot tip on the lower part of his body.
In the tail-pocket of his coat the prosecutor had a
ledger and a book of poems. The thieves felt this
parcel, and probably imagining that this was the
booty they sought, they tore off the tail of the coat
and decamped. They were thus disappointed in
getting the money, which, amounted to about five
hundred pounds. The prosecutor was severely
wounded, and remained ill for some time. The facts
as to the robbery and the circumstances which
accompanied it were not disputed, and the question for
the consideration of the jury was the identification
of the prisoner.

The next deed of violence which the
student of our civilisation will find narrated in this
same newspaper, is of another type:

SOUTHWARK.—STREET OUTRAGES.—James Turner,
twenty, was brought before Mr. Woolrych by
Walker, 30 M, and Beechy, 265 M, charged with
assaulting Mr. Andrew Cotton, in the Blackfriars-
road, and robbing him of a valuable gold watch and
chain.

Mr. William Seymour, a boot and shoemaker in
the Blackfriars-road, said, that on Tuesday afternoon
last he was standing near his doorway, when he saw
the prisoner and another young ruffian following the
prosecutor. He heard them make some remark,
pointing to the latter, which aroused his suspicions,
and he was induced to look after them. At the
corner of Friar-street the prisoner's companion crossed
over to make signals to the former, who had followed
Mr. Cotton down Friar-street. He accordingly
proceeded that way, and when he was about to turn
into Friar-street, he met the prisoner running with
a watch in his right hand. He ran across the
Blackfriars-road into Webber-street; but, as he
was surrounded by a gang of desperate young-
ruffians, he was afraid to pursue him any further,
consequently he escaped. Witness then returned
to Friar-street, where he met the prosecutor in a
very excited state, and was told by him that he had
just been robbed of a watch and chain by a young-
fellow who had run into the Blackfriars-road.
Witness told him he knew the thief, and he accompanied
him to the police-station, and gave information of the
robbery, with a description of the prisoner. He had
frequently seen the prisoner and his companions
attempt to rob people near his shop.

The prosecutor, an elderly person, said that he
was a brass-founder, and carried on business in
Union-street, Borough-road. On Tuesday afternoon
he was returning to the latter place, and just
as he was turning out of Friar-street into Union-
street, some young fellow came suddenly in front of
him, struck him a heavy blow on the chest, and then