"We have of late heard – we do hear so much of SALVATION of souls; surely we cannot do better than forward the success of that speculative movement by aiding that more positive condition, the SALVATION of bodies. We are not going to pretend the public wants any such paper as the one we now propose starting for its benefit. The public no more wants what is good for it than the schoolboy wants a flogging. Were it possible to propagate words which should be as rods of scorpions, we would do so, hoping that the same castigation also [?]. We present our views (based upon daily facts) to the public, on the same principle as the administration of the birch rod, not because either is WANTED or DESIRED, but because THEY OUGHT TO HAVE IT! How long have we, who study what we read, been painfully impressed by innumerable cases of personal injustice! Daily we read in the reports from Police Courts and Courts of LAW (God forbid we should call them JUSTICE) of sentences which amaze us by their inequality, their apparently unaccountable harshness or leniency; and, while we acknowledge that such reports are necessarily incorrect – often biased (as they generally issue from the reporter’s pen) – we do not forget they are subject to further transmutation at the hands of the several editors, all desirous of encouraging the prevalent belief that each has a special reporter in each Police Court" ("Cat O' Nine Tails", 1:1).