Hard Times - the ending

(SPOILERS)

What did you think of the last couple of chapters when Mr Gradgrind, Sissy and Louisa try to get Tom out of the country with help from the circus troupe? I thought Tom was the least likeable character in the book, although one of the two best drawn. The student notes I have been reading said Bitzer, Tom's fellow pupil at the Gradgrind school and then colleague at Bounderby's bank, was the most unlikable character in the book. I did not find him so. I hoped Bitzer would drag Tom back to face a court trial. I admired his detective work. I suppose it is difficult to blame a father for wanting to spare his son a long term in prison. OTOH is it right for a responsible person, a member of parliament no less, to help someone to escape justice for quite a serious crime? If the thief had not been his son, he would surely have tried to see he was arrested. Tom stole over a £100 from the bank and put suspicion on an innocent man. £100 would not have been a huge amount of money to rich men like Gradgrind and Bounderby, but is, I suppose, equivalent to over £20,000 in today's money. By the late 1840's to early 1850's when the book was set, capital punishment had been abolished for all except the most serious crimes. Nevertheless, Tom could have expected quite a long prison sentence.