"Now we come to the third man. Where was he? I must say there is a slight difference between his case and that of the other two men, who might be said to have been caught in the very act; but it's for you, gentlemen, not for me. It is difficult to point out item by item, as it were, the difference between the three cases; but you will say, gentlemen, whether they were not all mixed up in this robbery—it's for you, gentlemen, not for me."
The jury were not going to let off three such rogues as the Recorder plainly thought them, and instantly returned a verdict of guilty against all.
"I agree with the verdict," said the Recorder. "It is a very bad case, and a mercantile community like Saffron Walden must be protected against such depredators as you. No doubt there are degrees of guilt in your several cases, but I do not think I should be doing my duty to the public if I made any distinction in your sentences: you must all of you undergo a term of five years' penal servitude."
Whereupon Tom Chambers was furious. Up he jumped, and said,—
"Really, sir; really—"
"Yes," said Knox, "really."
"Well, then, sir, you can't do it," said the counsel; "you cannot give penal servitude for petty larceny. Here is the Act" (reading): "'Unless the prisoner has been guilty of any felony before.'"
"Very well," said the Recorder; "you, Brown, the actual thief, and you, Jones, his accessory in the very act, not having been convicted before, I am sorry to say, cannot be sentenced to more than two years' imprisonment with hard labour, and I reduce the sentence in your cases to that; but as to you, Robinson, yours is a very bad case. The jury have found that you were mixed up in this robbery, and I find that you have been convicted of stealing apples. True, it's a good many years ago, but it brings you within the purview of the statute, and therefore your sentence of five years will stand."