halfpenny theft was imprisoned for six
months; and, at the Michaelmas Adjourned
Sessions, B. C. received precisely the same
punishment for a robbery of thirty-seven
pounds.

At the Epiphany Sessions for Hampshire,
eighteen hundred and forty-nine, T. W.
received, for twenty-three pounds, six months'
imprisonment, when J. G. got seven years of
transportation for a shilling. We could
continue almost indefinitely these chronicles of
the Shallow family. We stop because they
are becoming tedious. It is right, however,
before we turn to other and more sensible
topics, to point out that the inequalities of
punishment thus evident are not to be
accounted for by any theory within the reach
of ordinary logic. They have little, and
generally nothing, to do with previous convictions
or the merits of the cases. We will
show this by one or two other samples for
which we have only to dip our hands into
the bag.

At the Sussex Sessions, Midsummer eighteen
hundred and forty-nine, S. H. was
convicted upon three several charges for
stealing property to the value of about
eight pounds. He was sentenced to three
days' imprisonment; upon a fourth case,
for robbery to the value of three pounds,
being proved against him, he was sentenced
to six months' imprisonment. But at the
same Sessions, J. P. was sentenced for a
theft of four shillings to one week's imprisonment,
and, upon the proving of a second case
against him—a theft of one pound, twelve
and ninepence—was transported for seven
years.

At the Norwich Assizes last July, John
Brown, who had been previously convicted
of felony, was indicted with three other
persons on three separate charges for stealing
wheat, the property of the same prosecutor.
He was found guilty on each indictment and
imprisoned for eighteen months. But at the
Norfolk Quarter Sessions last June, John
Landimore, before mentioned, who had never
before been convicted, was indicted with
three others for the same offence in precisely
the same way, and was transported for thirty
years.

We have quoted a sentence of ten years'
transportation for the theft of a faggot.
The thief had certainly been once before
convicted. But at the Woodbridge Summer
Sessions, Thomas Longford was proved to
have stolen two faggots and to have been
once before convicted, yet was only imprisoned
for six months; and at the East Kent
Midsummer Sessions Thomas Longford, who
stole three faggots and had been twice before
convicted, had only a sentence of twelve
month's imprisonment.

At the Norwich City Sessions last July,
Thomas Cudden, for stealing one pig, was
imprisoned for twelve months; when at the
same Sessions, six months before, Samuel
Brighton, who stole seven pigs, had only
been imprisoned nine months, though he
had been previously convicted of house-
breaking and there had been recorded against
him sentence of death.

Two boys, sixteen years old, were
sentenced at the last York Summer Assizes to
transportation, one for fifteen and the other
for twenty years, in punishment for a theft
of six shillings and sixpence from the person.
A month afterwards, at the Liverpool Assizes,
L., D., B., P. and K. were found guilty of a
serious burglary. L., D., B. and P. had been
convicted previously for felonies. L, had
been convicted before of burglary and suffered
eighteen months' imprisonment; had also
been convicted of felony on one other occasion,
six times again as a reputed thief. D.
had been twice before found guilty of felony,
and several times summarily convicted. P.
had been twice convicted of felony, and once
transported for ten years; also seven times
summarily convicted. Punishments were
distributed among them, varying from twelve
months' imprisonment to twelve years'
transportation; but not one of them had such a
bargain as that allowed to the two boys who
got between them thirty-five years of
transportation for a highway robbery of six and
sixpence.

It is not our matter that is now exhausted,
but our patience. We must quit the Shallows.
When we have found out how to paint
lilies roses, we shall have learnt how to
comment upon facts like these.

ONLY AN EARTHQUAKE.

SINCE the nuisance of a three or four weeks'
quarantine has been abated, a run in Albania
has been as natural to us of Corfu as a run
in Wales may be to Londoners. It is twenty
years since I first made a holiday trip on the
mainland, with which I have since had occasion
to become thoroughly familiar. Twenty
years, however, do not dim the recollection
of a merry holiday among the mountains, by
a man who throughout life has been engaged
mostly, in climbing up and down an office
stooI.

I  then glided across the smooth water
between Corfu and Albania with three young
officers—middle-aged men now, not to say
elderly—delighting in their escape from
garrison routine. The wind failing us, we finally
rowed into the custom-house station of
Sajades at the close of a long summer's day,
and landed on the rough mole there provided.
We were annoyed but little by official
questioning, and as I had a note of
introduction to the chief custom-house functionary,
he very politely offered to us the accommodation
of his private rooms, and promised
that horses and mules should be sent for and
got ready, so that we might set out upon our
trip at dawn.

The custom-house building, seen, as we