There are certainly too many cases where the wealth and position of a prisoner leads to favoured treatment in the Criminal Courts. I am glad to note that these are always pilloried in the Press and publicity is given to them, and in a way nothing could be better because it is the open door that has done so much to keep our courts free from the taint of any suspicion of real corruption. I firmly believe that when these cases do occur they are generally the outcome of a spirit of humanity on the part of the presiding judge coupled to a certain extent by a class feeling of tenderness on account of the terrible downfall of a man or woman in his own social position. Such cases, too, are rare. No special note is taken of any case where the law takes its ordinary course and the rich criminal is treated in the same way as his poorer brother. These are, of course, the great majority, and there are also many cases I am glad to know where leniency and mercy is extended to the poor criminal and he is helped by societies and personal aid to regain his position among honest men. But with all this the poor man can point to too many instances where rich hooligans running amok with a motor car in Regent Street or assaulting the police on a racecourse are let off with a fine. Here is a curious case from the London Sessions that is bound to cause a lot of talk in the mean streets. A fashionably dressed young man was indicted in an admittedly false name, and was allowed to use it for the purpose of the proceedings, and pleaded guilty. He had obtained a sable stole, value L40, from a costumier in Shaftesbury Avenue by false pretences. He had opened an account at Oxford. He received a cheque book and then withdrew his money and closed the account. He used to obtain goods which he paid for with cheques on the Oxford Bank, and cheques to the amount of L5,241 6_s._ 3_d._ had been returned marked "no account." A detective said he was a young man leading a fast life. The city police had a warrant for him for obtaining a ring value L145 and a gold watch L15. These articles it is true were returned. The Oxford police had a warrant out for him and when arrested he was attempting to obtain a valuable fur article in Dover Street. His counsel urged that his parents were people of respectability and integrity who had suffered losses, and the young gentleman was trying to keep things going in the same style he had been accustomed to, and had come under bad influences. That is the whole story, and the report ends, "the defendant was bound over, the magistrate remarking that there was no need to cause his relatives to suffer by mentioning his name."