(_From "The Legal Intelligence" of the Future._)
Mr. Justice _Punch_ then addressed the prisoner in the following
words:--"Prisoner at the Bar, you have been rightly found guilty of
committing the heinous crime of writing and causing to be published a
pernicious form of composition known as a 'Penny Dreadful.' The jury
who have tried you have had no trouble in coming to the conclusion that
you are solely responsible for the fearful results that have followed
the appearance of your latest contribution to criminal literature.
Had not _Red-handed Rob_ left the printers there is every reason for
believing that the manor-house would have never been burnt down, and
that poor Mrs. SMITH would have been still hale and hearty. Nay more,
the twenty-seven burglaries and fifty-six other crimes of even a yet
more serious character would in all human probabilities have never been
committed. For all this terrible work you are primarily responsible.
In days gone by you would have escaped the appropriate penalty of your
wickedness. But now that the Pernicious Story Punishment Act has become
the law of the land, I have the power, as I have long had the will, to
treat you with becoming severity." His Lordship then passed sentence
in the customary form. Later in the day the publishers and printers of
_Red-Handed Rob_ were convicted of being accessories both before and
after the fact, and shared the fate of their colleague in iniquity.
* * * * *