William Howitt

The Man of the People William Howitt

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1860. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... whose sentences were left to the county magistrates to decide; and I went to Lawyer L and told him of his promise -- but he only said, 'Good woman, be thankful he is not hanged. They must all pack off together!'" "Great Heaven!" exclaimed Philip, "can there be such perfidy? such barbarity?" "Ay, sir," continued the poor woman, seeming to surmount for a time her grief in her indignation; "there's no feeling in men's hearts--no, none at all, not so much as in the heart of a stone. I was told the magisstrates were to name the sentence, and I went to the chairman, and begged him on my knees to let my husband off with an imprisonment, and I told him what the lawyer had always said. 'Why, my good woman,' the gentleman exclaimed, 'that is very strange indeed;' and he pulled out a letter from Lawyer L hisself, which recommended that all the persons, except those to be hanged, should be transported for life; and he specially said of my husband, 'Send him off for life without fail, for he's vastly too clever to remain in this country.' And the magistrate said he was sorry for me, but he could not interfere." And the poor woman sate and rocked herself in her agony, and would not be consoled. Philip bade her not despair. He hurried forth, saw the lawyer, saw several of the magistrates--urged, pleaded, denounced the infamy of such conduct--but in vain. The whole batch were sentenced, by the advice of the magistrates, to transportation for life! Philip was stunned, as it were, by the obduracy of these proceedings. There was yet, however, one consolation in his power. He assured the unhappy woman that her husband, if he were careful, orderly, and industrious in the colony, would soon receive his liberty on a ticket of leave, and might then make his fortune. That he had a friend po...