DOGS--WHIPPING YOUNG THIEVES--GARDEN ROBBERS--REFORMATORIES--APOLOGIES
FOR VIOLENCE--TRESPASSERS ON A NUNNERY.
The statute, passed since my retirement, to enforce and regulate the
registration of dogs, has relieved the magistrates from having to
dispose, in the course of each year, of some hundreds of summonses
against the owners, or reputed owners of dogs which were found "roaming
at large on the public thoroughfare, without log or muzzle." In my time,
I never found a summons in reference to a dog, at the instance of a
constable, entered indiscriminately with other complaints. If the first
case was a canine one, I might feel assured that it would be followed by
forty or fifty others of the same description, and that the dogs would
monopolise the day. It appeared to me that the police were occasionally
directed to give special attention, for two or three days, to the
unlogged and unmuzzled curs, and thus produce what our clerks used to
term "a dog board." The appearance of a male defendant was extremely
rare. The persons complained of were generally working tradesmen or
labourers, who, on receiving a summons, directed the wife to attend the
court, as they could not afford to lose their time. When a defendant was
called, his female substitute, eager to have the first word, answered to
the man's name; but what she said referred to the animal. A mere
listener might imagine that the defendants were either guilty of some
atrocious offences, or were subjected, unheard and untried, to a
fearful, fatal doom; for instance--
"Call James Foley."
"He's drounded, yer worship, we drounded him off Wood Quay, the very
evening that we got the summons, he wasn't logged or muzzled, but he is
dead now, and the policeman 'ill never see him again."
"You are fined two and sixpence."
"Oh! yer worship, that's very hard, and he dead."
"Call Peter Casey."
"He's hung, sir; he was very owld and stupid, and hadn't a tooth in his
head, so we hung him, not to be bother'd with him any more," &c.
"Call Patrick Dempsey."
"Plaze yer worship, he's dead, and if the polisman knew him, he'll know
that he's dead. We had him hung and got him skinned, and I have his skin
here to show you."
Perhaps another case would disclose the appalling fact, that Denis
Reilly was "_pisened_ by a young doctor that we got to sponge his nose
with some Prooshun stuff, and it kilt him." Such calamities have been
averted from the Foleys, Caseys, Dempseys, and Reillys of the present
time, and the magistrates have been relieved from having to listen to
such murderous details from the lips of the gentler sex by the magical
effect of canine registration.
WHIPPING YOUNG THIEVES.
In a few years after my appointment, a statute passed authorising the
infliction of corporal punishment on boys convicted of thieving. The Act
empowered us to order the offender to be flogged, if we were of opinion
that his age did not exceed fourteen years. There was a lad named Lowry,
who was an inveterate thief, and who received five or six castigations
by my directions. The instrument employed was a birch rod, with which a
constable gave the delinquent six heavy lashes. As soon as Lowry
appeared before me, he seemed to disregard the details of the charge
preferred. There were no protestations of innocence, no admissions of
guilt; but the moment he entered, he commenced the loud and continued
assertion, "I'm beyant fourteen, I'm beyant fourteen." On each occasion
I differed from the opinion so forcibly enunciated, and ordered the
application of the birchen correction. Finally, he withdrew from my
quarter, and restricted his delinquencies to the B and C divisions. I
was informed that he expressed his disgust at my decisions by
saying--"If I was to live until I got as grey as the owld rascal
himself, he'd still insist that I was not beyant fourteen."
One day there were a number of packages lying in a heap on the floor of
a shop in Parliament Street, and rather near the entrance. A label upon
each stated the contents to be three pounds of tea, of the finest
quality, offered by the proprietor of "The Golden Teapot" to his
respected customers, at the unprecedented low price of seven shillings.
The parcels were covered with bright tin-foil, and had on each end a
large seal in red wax. A detective passing at the opposite side of the
street observed a boy stoop forward, just inside the door, and possess
himself of one of the packages of "splendid tea." The young thief was
seized at once, and brought before me, in about five minutes after he
had stolen the article. I ordered him to be taken down stairs, to have
six lashes administered, and to be discharged. I then directed the
office messenger to run over to the establishment, and tell them to send
some person to claim the property. On his return he said that the people
were making fun of him, and laughing at the result of the young thief's
attempt. I then raised one of the seals slightly with an office knife,
and found that the parcel was a _dummy_, made up for show, and that the
contents were sawdust. I told the messenger, when I had closed the seal
with another touch of wax, to take it down and give it to the delinquent
on his departure, as the owners had not claimed the property. The
whipping was just over, and the sufferer issued forth, having under his
arm the cause of his punishment, and for which it was to become his
consolation. I was standing at the window, and just as he passed the
external rails, he stopped suddenly, and proceeded to examine the
package. Instantly he tore the cover, and flung up the contents. The
pain of the flogging seemed to return with augmented force, and he
screamed forth the most vituperative comments on my decision. "It wasn't
tay at all. I was beat for sawdust, and there's no law for that. I'll
get a letter wrote to the Lord Leftennant, you owld rascal, and he'll
larn you the differ between sawdust and tay." Inspector O'Connor told me
that the case was very fully discussed amongst the young thieves, and
that the general conclusion was, "not to be too ready to steal parcels
out of shops, without knowing what was inside of them."
GARDEN ROBBERS.
My immediate predecessors generally resided in Dublin, and they were
considered by the proprietors of orchards and gardens in the rural
portion of the district, as too lenient to depredators of fruit and
vegetables. At the time of my appointment, there was no safety for such
crops unless they were closely watched, and during the night, the
discharge of firearms, to deter marauders, was almost continuous in
Dolphin's Barn, Kilmainham, Harold's Cross, and Crumlin. Any cessation
of strict vigilance was certain to produce consequences which might be
fairly termed calamitous to those whose fruits and vegetables were
depended on for the maintenance of their families. There were many
persons who followed garden robbing as their avocation, and the injuries
inflicted by them frequently extended to the succeeding year. If they
feared interruption, they would tear or cut the branches of the larger
fruits, and entire gooseberry and currant bushes would be abstracted, to
be picked at leisure. Small fines or short imprisonments had totally
failed to check such offences. At the time to which I refer, I resided
at Roundtown, and although I had gardens and a fine vinery there, they
were never spoliated, so that in adopting towards fruit-stealers
stronger measures than they had previously experienced, I was not
actuated by any personal feeling. However, I had the birch very
liberally used amongst the boys, and the more mature offenders were,
when convicted by me, deprived of any opportunity for continuing their
depredations on the growing or ripening productions of the season.
Personal motives were, nevertheless, sometimes ascribed to me, even by
those who were highly pleased with my decisions. A very extensive
orchard and garden at Harold's Cross were entered by three habitual
thieves, and they were captured whilst hastily filling two sacks with
the choicest apples, pears, apricots, &c. They had taken the sacks from
premises adjoining, and I convicted them of two distinct offences. Each
was sent for four months to Kilmainham, with hard labour. Mr. Cox was
engaged in drawing the informations and committals, when the proprietor
exclaimed, in a tone of the highest gratification, "Oh! Mr. Cox, is it
not a blessing from God that we have now got a magistrate _who has a
garden of his own_?"
Two musicians belonging to a regimental band were observed one night to
cross a wall at Inchicore, into a garden abounding with every
description of choice fruit. The police were quietly apprised of the
offence, and the delinquents were apprehended coming out of the premises
precisely at the place where they had entered. They were both Germans.
Their pockets were crammed, and each had a handkerchief containing as
much as could be bundled in it. They had not taken a peach, apricot, or
plum; even the pears and apples were disregarded; and the produce of
their daring raid consisted entirely of onions. I committed them for a
week, and they were dismissed from the service by the regimental
authorities.
REFORMATORIES.
Previous to my retirement from magisterial duty, the offence of
fruit-stealing had greatly diminished, and I believe that it does not
now attain one-tenth of its former frequency. When the magistrates were
empowered to send juvenile thieves to reformatories, corporal punishment
ceased to be administered. I preferred having a boy flogged and
discharged to sending him to prison, to be kept, at the public expense,
in baneful associations. As soon, however, as a reformatory became
available, I transmitted the juvenile offenders, after a few days'
imprisonment, to the care and instruction which, in all those
institutions, have produced most beneficial results. My first
consignment to Glencree Reformatory was made under circumstances rather
extraordinary.
I was invited by my kind and valued friend, the late Mr. George Evans,
of Portrane, to spend a week at his hospitable mansion. Arrangements
were made by me with my colleagues to admit of my absence for that time,
and that I should take the duty on the Monday of the succeeding week.
Accordingly, I came to Dublin from Donabate by an early train, and
commenced the custody cases about ten o'clock, a.m. A constable
prosecuted a lad whom he had met on Rathmines Road about four o'clock on
that morning, carrying a coarse bath-sheet, in which two check shirts,
three pairs of cotton socks, and a washing waistcoat were wrapped. The
prisoner was charged with having those articles in his possession, they
being "reasonably suspected of having been stolen or unlawfully
obtained." I called on the prisoner to account to my satisfaction how he
came by them. He declined any explanation, and produced a laugh in court
by saying "that I would know time enough." I ordered him to be
imprisoned for a week, and then to be transmitted to Glencree for three
years. On my return home to Roundtown in the evening, I was told that my
bath-sheet, nightshirts, &c., had been stolen on the previous night from
a bleaching-line in the back yard, over the wall of which my first envoy
to Glencree had managed to clamber. The articles did not remain long in
the police store.
APOLOGIES FOR VIOLENCE.
Soon after my appointment to office, an election occurred, and the city
of Dublin was keenly contested. I received an order to proceed, on the
nomination day, to Green Street, to take charge of the civil force
there, and to report myself to the returning officer, the High Sheriff.
I had consequently, in my official capacity, to present myself to my own
brother, the late Joshua Porter, and I continued during the election,
which was protracted as long as the law allowed, ready to quell any
riotous demonstration. My brother was not fortunate enough to please
all parties. His arrangement of booths and selection of deputies were
denounced as having been made in a partial spirit, and the mob
vociferously expressed an anxiety to be actuated in their treatment of
him by the greatest of Christian virtues, for they unanimously agreed
that it would be a "charity" to pelt him, if any opportunity offered to
make a liberal subscription of stones for the purpose. He was escorted
each day to and from the court-house by a strong body of police, and he
remained in it until the termination of the proceedings in the evenings.
There was usually during the election, a troop of hussars stationed in
Halston Street, at the rere of Newgate, and a party of police was
distributed between them and King Street, North. One afternoon, just at
twilight, I walked out of the court-house, and as soon as I got to the
steps, a crowd in King Street uttered a yell of animosity, and sent a
volley of stones at me. I was not struck by any of the missiles. The
police moved towards the mob, and the latter receded a few yards, but
remained together. I walked towards them, and loudly informed them, that
if they renewed their attack, I had the "Riot Act" in my pocket, and
would instantly read it, and reply by a discharge of carbine bullets.
There was no further demonstration on their part, and I returned to the
court-house. In a few minutes, I was departing for home, when I was
accosted by a carman named Smith. He asked me, "Would I take a covered
car?" and I replied in the affirmative. He brought me home; and on
discharging him, he said that the people had directed him to try "if he
could get to say two or three words to me." He then conveyed to me the
most extraordinary apology that could emanate from a mob for an
attempted outrage. "Yer worship, I was tould to tell you that there
wasn't a man or boy among them would throw anything at you or any other
of yer magistrates, but whin you came out on the steps, in the dusk of
the evening, they really thought that you were THE HIGH SHERIFF."
I may mention that being in London in 1849, on official business, I was
invited to dine at the Mansion House at an entertainment given by the
Lord Mayor of that year (Sir James Duke) to the judicial authorities,
metropolitan magistrates, &c. I had the honour to sit beside Chief Baron
Pollok, and in conversation with him and two or three others in my
proximity, I narrated the preceding anecdote. He said that the apology
tendered to me was not more ridiculous or absurd than one which had been
offered by some of those engaged in the "No Popery" riots of 1780,
connected with the name of Lord George Gordon. There was a house in
Charles Street, from the precincts of which morality was totally
estranged, and it was thoroughly devastated by a furious mob. Some of
those concerned in wrecking it were subsequently arrested, tried and
convicted of the offence. When brought forward for sentence, the judge
gave them to understand that the reputation of the premises afforded no
justification for their violence, nor could it be alleged in mitigation
of their punishment. Two or three of them exclaimed, "that if they had
known what the house really was, they would never have attacked it; but
they had been told, and fully believed, that it was _a Nunnery_."
TRESPASSERS ON A NUNNERY.
In twelve or eighteen months after the festive occasion to which I have
referred, I accompanied a friend to visit two of his daughters, who were
pupils at the Loretto Convent, Rathfarnham. Mrs. Ball, the aged and
respected Superioress, gave us a very kind reception. We were conducted
through the gardens and conservatories. On returning to the house, we
were plentifully served with refreshments. In the course of
conversation, my friend expressed his regret that so much hostile
feeling should exist against conventual institutions. I remarked that it
was not at all so intense as it had been in the previous century, when
in London the mere reputation of a house being a nunnery was considered
by the populace as fully sufficient to justify its destruction. To the
best of my recollection, the Superioress observed--"I hope that those
who entertained such hostile feelings lived long enough to repent of
them. I think that the various classes of society are coming to a better
understanding, and I expect great progressive improvement. Here we have
not suffered the slightest annoyance for more than thirty years, and the
only matter of which we had to complain was not very serious. Shortly
after this establishment was founded, two young fellows, who resided in
the neighbourhood, formed a design to entice two very handsome and rich
young ladies to elope with them. They provided ladders, climbed into the
trees which overhung the wall, dropped notes at the feet of the lasses,
and were for a time incessant in their amatory pursuit. However, a
communication with the guardian of one and the parents of the other, and
the consequent authoritative expostulations, produced a satisfactory
effect. They promised to relinquish their project, and as a token of
their sincerity, sent us their ladders. I believe they repented of
having given us any trouble, and they implicitly kept their promise. One
of them is now a colonel in the army, and the other is _a magistrate of
police_. Mr. Porter, let me request you to have more fruit and another
glass of wine." I admired the kind and forgiving sentiments of the
Superioress, and felt very grateful for her courteous hospitality, but I
had no idle curiosity to know the names of the two ladder lads to whom
her observations referred.