The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1858-01-12 00:00:00

Somersetobire.

SOMERSET QUARTER SESSIONS.

Taunton
fnthoen rwuesdafor
last,So aetrstre-
W. Miles,
Chairman, C. A. Moody. Esq., M.P., W. . Knatch-
bull, Esq., M.P., W. Gore Langton, Esq., M.P.,
ishlasiTrtleheecooQnrmi,rteeanucrnetdoSnaes:t TibodintuosreM.P.,
the Earl of Cavan, John Wood, Esq., Colonel Pin-
ney, M.P., W. H. P. Langton, Esq., M.P., E. N.
Sandford, F. 11. Dickenson, 11. N. Grenville, W.
Blake, J. Bullock, A. Kinglake, M.P., R. T. Cbmbe,
W. H. Richards, F. W. Newton, P. Broadmead, J.
Battersby, it. K. M. King, Joseph Woolley, J.
Hippisley, H. N. Seeley, W. Beadon, Eaqins., Hon.
W. W, Addington, F. Slade, R. L. Phipps, G. W.
Sheppard, R. Clerk, C. J. Helyar, William Moody,
H. -Hoskins, H. B. Batten, J. Meech, William
Wood, J. Roy Allen, V. S. Wood, H. G. .Moysey,
H. Feuwick, J. C. Somerville, H. B. Strangways,
Esqrs., &c.
The grand jury having been sworn, the Chair-
man said he was very happy to be able to congratu-
late them upon the lightness of the present calendar,
for, though on looking over the offences they ap-
peared to be very heavy, still there were fewer in
number now charged with the committal of offeires
than there were at the corresponding pe 'nod last
year. By the calendar they had in their hands they
would perceive that last year there were at the
Epiphany and adjourned Epiphany Sessions 67 pri•
Boners for trial, and under the Criminal Justice Act,
from Michaelmas to Epiphany, there had been 46
persons disposed of, making a total of 113 ; whereas
(the adjourned sessions having now been done away
with), he found at the present sessions they had to
deal with 45 prisoners, and those were charged with
only 39 offences; and under the Criminal Justice Act
there had been convicted 49, making a total of 94
this year, against 113 last year. He thought they
had great reason to congratulate themselves on this,
because it had been long found that where the rural
police had been appointed, for three or four years
there had been a greater number of convictions than
before; for he need scarcely tell them that the cri-
minals were much better looked after, and that the
proportion of those brought before the justices had
been much greater than it was usually found to be
under the old parochial constable system. There-
fore, he thought they had reason to congratulate
themselves. He must likewise say he never recol-
lected to have sat down to the inspection of a calen-
dar for a quarter sessions in which education ap-
peared to be more advancing; for often as he had
had to charge grand juries at quarter sessions, so he
had frequently had to complain of the want of edu-
cation which appeared on the face of the calendar.
But here they found that out of 45 prisoners there
were only 7 actually perfectly uneducated. And he
knew at the same time from a report which would
very shortly come out by their diocesan inspector,
that it would appear that the means of education had
been very much enlarged of late years. This was A
circumstance also for congratulation. He did not find
in the calendar, though some of the cases were very
heavy and painful, that there was anything requir.
ing any observations from him. He might, how-
ever, mention through them to the different magis-
trates of diviaion, that in several of the orders for
payment which had come in signed by committing
magisttates,or by magistrates unclet the Criminal Jus-
tice Act, allowances had been made for travelling ex-
penses. There were two seta of fees. By the general
table of fees there was an allowance for travelling
expenses where the distance was more than 3 miles •
but in the Criminal Jurisdiction Act there was no
allowance for travelling, and it must be understood
that all such fees for mileage could not in future be
allowed.

The routine business was then proceeded with,
comprising the Finance, the Police, and the Bridge's
Committees, whose reports did not present any
features of striking interest or novelty.
The abolition of javelin-men, and the transfer-
ence of their duties to the hands of the police was
discussed, and the proposition negatived.
The following brief debate upon the question will
be found interesting :

THE SERIEVALTY.
Mr. Neville Grenville, in introducing a motion of
which he had given notice, for abolishing javelin-men at
assizes, and supplying their place by the county police,
avid he was well aware of the great disadvantages which
a junior member of that Court had in bringing forward
measures which entail the alteration of any established
practice; but he should be very ungrateful if he did not
recollect how ready the Court was to hear suggestions
from the younger members, and particularly that it was
at the suzgestion of so humble a member as himself that
they were now holding their sittings in that court. Al-
though his motion was something of a novelty in that
county, it was not so in others, for a motion introduced
by his noble friend, Lord Henniker, in the county in
which he lived was carried by the unanimous vote of the
sessions. He trusted nothing would fall from him that
would provoke a debate on the propriety of abolishing
the office of High Sheriff, or of making it a paid office.
He took things as he found them, and he bertxl it to
be the wish of them all, that the High Sheriff should
meet the judges, the representative of Majesty, with
becoming dignity. At the same time he believed it to be
the wish of the county that the Sheriff should be saved
any unnecessary expense, and, necessary as it !night have
been in former days when there was no railroad, and
scarcely any roads to bear • cortege to accompany the
judge throughout the county, yet he thought now that
the judges were met at the railway station by the Sheriff
it was quite unnecessary to entail on one individual the
expense of maintaining an amateur force, when the ten
thousand ratepayers of the county had an organized and
disciplined force at hand. They should be careful in
saving the Sheriff unnecessary expense, when they re-
membered how few gentlemen were privileged to hold
that high office—that the great properties of that county
were held chiefly by those who could claim exemption—
by peers, spiritual and temporal—by those who could
claim exemption from having served in other counties—
by reverend gentlemen and by ladles. He should have
left the motion in the hands of the Court, hoping that
it would have followed the example of Suffolk in adopt-
ing what seemed to him a common sense arrangement,
but he had been told that such a force would be illegal.
When lawyers and judges differed, it was not for a
humble individual like himself to decide; but he might
remark that the 13th and 14th Charles 11. which
defined the retinue of the Sheriff, enacted that he should
not have less than 20 nor more than 40 liveried ear-
yenta. Now be had had considerable experience in the
hospitalities of the county, and he had never yet had
the honour of meeting a gentleman who had 20 liveried
servants. It might be so in days when there were no
assessed taxes, and display more indulged in than it was
now. In Hampshire the principle for which he con-
tended was already in force, the High Sheriff paying
L'9o towards the police rate. (Loud cries of hear, bear.)
In concluding, Mr. Grenville allowed that his motion
required modification, and proposed to submit the ques-
tion of the legality of the charge to the investigation of
the Polka Committee.
Mr. Graham seconded the motion.
-

Mr. Slade characterized the mokon as • yevolutionary
one, that he did hot expect would have emanated from
the owner of Hutleigh °Mt Be eonld,onl,y explain it by
supposing that his friend thought his turn to awe the
office of sheriff waa at hand, and desi 10 at the
expense of the ommty. The office wee OM of high
dignity, for the person who held it 'took precedent of
every nobleman /tithe county, and possibly of the Lord
Lieutenant himself. In former years it was eleqtiTei
and persona were elected to it by the .freakidem, jUI4
as ooronere were at the present day, and forth. reason that
a person should .be °lateen who would be no burden to
the county. In former timea ladies filled theafflor, and
Anne, Countem of Pembroke, had it in her family heri-
ditery for many years. There wee nolaw known that
exempted noblemen. In one case • scion of royalty—
Richard Duke of Gloucester, afterwards Richard the
Third—held the office of high sheriff of Northumberland
for a long aeries of years. He mentioned this to show
that this was a position and dignity .whieh it ill became
a party to fill en fervid pcniperis. With .reference to
Suffolk it should be stated that the chief justice had
fined the sheriff £2OO for not having the twenty men in
livery, required by the act. Irrespeotive .of that, the
police were not the proper persons to escort the sheriff,
as they must be taken from their duties, and leave dis-
tricts exposed. Besides he should like to know where
they were to get a captain? Where were they to get the
two trumpeters —(much laughter)-- under whose authority
would they be? The Sheriff had authority over his
javelin-men, but the police were under the chief con-
stable.
Mr. Wood contended that they would stultify them-
selves as a body of magistrates if they attempted to in-
terfere with an Act of Parliament Would the hon.
proposer of this motion venture to recommend them to
follow a course which had already been rebuked from
the bench, and had led to the imposition of a fine?
Mr. Somerville said it was a standing _fact that the
police force was used as javelin-men in Hants, and it
must be presumed with the sanction of the magistracy.
Mr. Sanford was disposed at first to agree to Mr.
Grenville's motion, but after what had fallen from Mr.
Slade, and his remembrance of the circumstance that
there was a Sheriff's fund in this county which gentle-
men might avail themselves of for lightening the charges
of the shrievalty by a subscription of five guineas per
year for life—he would recommend Mr. Grenville to
withdraw his motion.
Mr. Grenville said, after such advice froma gentle-
man whom he was in the habit of looking up to in mill.
tary niatters—(laughter)—he would ask leave to with.
draw his motion. "Non tali euiri/o," cried the Judge;
" Nee defeneoribus iatio," responded the magistrates.
(Much laughter.) And yet they had just heard • claim
put in for additional constables to keep order in the
court.

TED LEIGH WOODS MURDER.

It will be in the reoollection of our readers that for
some time after the murder of Charlotte Ripley in
Leigh Woods, the body could not be identified. In order
that so foul a murder should not go unpunished, our
feLlow-citizen, Mr. J. Fry, of the firm of Johnstone and
Co., feather-bed makers of Bristol, very liberally offered
a reward of £2O to any one who could identify the body.
This reward was the means of leading not only to the
identity of the murdered body„ but to the apprehension of the murderer. On the Monde/
_following the first
clue was obtained, through Mary Fickeriw, of Beehe-
lora' Walk, Baptist Mills, who formerly washed for the
Honourable Mrs. Hutchinson, with whom Pugsley lived
as cook, about three years since. Some of the articles
produced she recognized, as well as the marking of the
others. Her statement was corroborated by Mari
Styles., of All Sainte'-street, who lived es fellow-servant
with Pugsley. They both gave their statement to Mr.
Bell, inspector of poliee ; and the clue once given not
only was the identity verified, but by means of it Wm.
Burt, of St. James'irstreet, Bath, oommuniceted the
circumstance of Pugsley leaving Freahford in company
with Beale. We now learn that the reward thus offered
by Mr. Fry has been awarded in the following manner:
--£lO to Mrs. Pickering; £5 to Mrs. Styles; and a to
Mr. Burt.