I was frequently struck by the vast difference in the sentences awarded in what appeared to me to be parallel cases, and tried in vain to discover any system that might be supposed to regulate them. It cannot be denied that a great difference of opinion exists apparently amongst judges on the subject of crimes and their punishment, and that whereas one judge will administer justice with harshness, another will attain the same desirable end with a regard to humanity. With these respective characteristics, the criminal classes are thoroughly conversant, and it would astonish the Bench if they heard how accurately their respective peculiarities are summed up. Thus one judge is credited with being very severe on conspiracy and long firm cases, whilst another is supposed to be “down” on burglars, whilst it is generally conceded that a plea of guilty will invariably fare better than one of not guilty. For my own part I fancied I had noticed that conspiracy is considered the most serious offence, and that two men conspiring to defraud another of £50 will run the risk of a severer punishment than the individual who unaided steals £500. I will quote a few first offences which, apparently similar, differ considerably as regards their sentences:— (_a_) A solicitor for passing a forged cheque for £18 that had been paid to him: 18 months’ imprisonment with hard labour. (_a_) A bank manager for appropriating £300: six months’ imprisonment with hard labour. (_b_) A wine merchant for complicity in a forged cheque, £52: sentence, 18 months’ imprisonment with hard labour. (_b_) A commission agent for forging a £600 bill of exchange: 12 months’ imprisonment with hard labour. (_c_) A clerk (with twenty years’ good character and recommended to mercy), for forging £50 and stealing employer’s cheque: sentence, twenty months’ imprisonment with hard labour. (_c_) A City man, for a fraudulent mining scheme and forgery, whereby he obtained £7000: sentence, two years’ imprisonment with hard labour. (_d_) A shopman, for robbing his employer of £50: sentence, three months’ imprisonment with hard labour. (_d_) A beggar boy, for stealing 1s. 6d.: sentence, three months’ imprisonment with hard labour. There are men in Coldbath whose cards show upwards of seventy previous convictions, varying from a year to seven days; nor is it to be wondered at, considering the starvation that confronts them outside and the comfort that is accorded them in prison. One of these habitual vagrants on his periodical appearance was usually accosted with an official joke, “Same address, I suppose?” “Yes, please,” was the invariable reply; “no change since last time.”