The Reminiscences Of Sir Henry Hawkins (Baron Brampton) | Page 3

conceivable event--I saw,
emerging from a bystreet that led from Bedford Jail, and coming along
through the square and near the window where I was standing, a
common farm cart, drawn by a horse which was led by a labouring man.
As I was above the crowd on the first floor I could see there was a layer
of straw in the cart at the bottom, and above it, tumbled into a rough
heap, as though carelessly thrown in, a quantity of the same; and I
could see also from all the surrounding circumstances, especially the
pallid faces of the crowd, that there was something sad about it all. The
horse moved slowly along, at almost a snail's pace, while behind
walked a poor, sad couple with their heads bowed down, and each with

a hand on the tail-board of the cart. They were evidently overwhelmed
with grief.
Happily we have no such processions now; even Justice itself has been
humanized to some extent, and the law's cruel severity mitigated. The
cart contained the rude shell into which had been laid the body of this
poor man and woman's only son, _a youth of seventeen, hanged that
morning at Bedford Jail for setting fire to a stack of corn_!
He was now being conveyed to the village of Willshampstead, six
miles from Bedford, there to be laid in the little churchyard where in
his childhood he had played. He was the son of very respectable
labouring people of Willshampstead; had been misled into committing
what was more a boyish freak than a crime, and was hanged. That was
all the authorities could do for him, and they did it. This is the remotest
and the saddest reminiscence of my life, and the only sad one I mean to
relate, if I can avoid it.
But years afterwards, when I became a judge, this picture,
photographed on my mind as it was, gave me many a lesson which I
believe was turned to good account on the judicial bench. It was mainly
useful in impressing on my mind the great consideration of the
surrounding circumstances of every crime, the degree of guilt in the
criminal, and the difference in the degrees of the same kind of offence.
About this I shall say something hereafter.
I remained at this school until I had acquired all the learning my father
thought necessary for my future position, as he intended it to be, and
much more than I thought necessary, unless I was to get my living by
teaching Latin and Greek.
In due course I was articled to my worthy uncle, the Clerk of the Peace,
and, had I possessed my present experience, should have known that it
was a diplomatic move of the most profound policy to enable me, if
anything happened to him, to succeed to that important dignity.
Had I been ambitious of wealth, there were other offices which my
uncle held, to the great satisfaction of the county as well as his own.

These would naturally descend to me, and I should have been in a
position of great prominence in the county, with a very respectable
income.
But I hated the drudgery of an attorney's office. In six months I saw
enough of its documentary evidence to convince me that I hated it from
my heart, and that nothing on earth would induce me to become a
solicitor. I took good care, meek as I was, to show this determination to
my friends. It was my only chance of escape. But while remaining there
it was my duty to work, however hateful the task, and I did so.
Even this, to me, most odious business had its advantages in after-life. I
attended one morning with my uncle the Petty Sessions of Hertford,
where, no doubt, I was supposed to enlarge my knowledge of sessions
practice; it certainly did so, for I knew nothing, and received a lesson,
which is not only my earliest recollection, but my first experience in
Advocacy.
At this Hertford Petty Sessional Division the chairman was a somewhat
pompous clergyman, but very devoted to his duties. He was strict in his
application of the law when he knew it, but it was fortunate for some
delinquents, although unfortunate for others, that he did not always
possess sufficient knowledge to act independently of his clerk's opinion,
while the clerk's opinion did not always depend upon his knowledge of
law.
An impudent vagabond was brought up before this clergyman charged
with a violent and unprovoked assault on a man in a public-house. He
was said to have gone into the room where the prosecutor was, and to
have taken up his jug of ale and appropriated the contents to his own
use without the owner's consent. The prosecutor, annoyed