At first I thought that Gradgrind also wanted to get his son out of the way in order not to bring shame upon his family, and maybe also to avoid harming his political career. Someone - was it Vanessa - pointed out, however that when publishing his son's guilt after helping him abscond from his just punishment, Gradgrind would be connected with his son's crime, which could no longer be hushed up. So all in all, his will to get his son out of the country was not so much based on self-interest as on paternal feelings towards his ingrate of a son.
I do wonder, though, if being the son of an MP would really have resulted in a more lenient punishment. Could it not also have led to a more severe sentence, especially if the judge involved did not share the political leanings of Mr. Gradgrind's party?
The fact that the sum itself is not very high - and that it was more a case of defalcation than actual robbery - and that the whole crime took place in a relatively out-of-the-way town like Coketown would probably have been outweighed by the circumstance that the case might be newspaper fodder with regard to an MP being somehow involved in it.
I do wonder, though, if being the son of an MP would really have resulted in a more lenient punishment. Could it not also have led to a more severe sentence, especially if the judge involved did not share the political leanings of Mr. Gradgrind's party?
The fact that the sum itself is not very high - and that it was more a case of defalcation than actual robbery - and that the whole crime took place in a relatively out-of-the-way town like Coketown would probably have been outweighed by the circumstance that the case might be newspaper fodder with regard to an MP being somehow involved in it.