It must be remembered that in those days the gallows was a very popular institution. They punished severely even trivial offences, and this case would have been considered a very serious one; while a sentence of seven years' transportation was almost as good as an acquittal.
Herts.
No. 10.
Michaelmas Sessions,
1844.
Regina
v.
Elizabeth Norman.
Brief for the Prosecution.
Mr. Hawkins.
I Gua.
H. Hawkins.
Plea—Guilty.
H.H.
Oct. 14, 1844.
Transported for 7 years.
H.H.
Cobliam.
Ware.
These are my notes:—
Sep. 20.
Mr. Page.
Silk shawl.
Apprehension.
Various accounts.
Exam. before J—— J——.
Propy found.
Mrs. Stevens,}
Mr. Johnson, } Witnesses.
I made a rule throughout my professional life to note my cases with the greatest care.
CHAPTER IV.
AT THE OLD BAILEY IN THE OLD TIMES.
It is a vast space to look back over sixty years of labour, and yet there seems hardly a scene or an event of any consequence, that is not reproduced in my mind with a vividness that astonishes me.
In my earlier visits to her Majesty's Courts of Justice my principal business was to study the Queen's Counsel and Serjeants, and they were worthy the attention I bestowed on them. They all belonged to different schools of advocacy, and some knew very little about it.