The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1862-04-15 00:00:00

WEDNESDAY.

Lord Pownorr, in charging the Grand -Jury, ex-
pressed his gratification at seeing so large an attend
*me of grand jurymen present, and added that he
*as happy to be. able to say their duties would be
light. This arose from the assizes having been's,'
recently held here, and not from any diminution of
crime. i•,ger.,tisw• pm!nt pcssaion lifew was se
matter- if -Oat interiati or iuipiertianeehilinge
of law, which required him to occupy their time;
but he might remark that -which weighed- heavily
with him and all the magistrates—the difficulty, if
he might use the word, experienced in satisfying
public opinion an to the sentences of prisoners.
There was no duty so difficult to any court as to the
apportionment of the sentence to the offence. The
law gave a large discretion to the judges and
justices as to the amount of punishment they might
inflict. He had heard considerable comment on
sentences passed all over the country by the judges
et the last assize, but he was certain that nothing
was so unfortunate as that public opinion should
be formed upon the merits of sentences without
possessing full evidence to enable them to come to
just conclusions on the point. Those in this
county would give the justices credit for doing the
best they could under the very difficult circum-
stances they were often placed in. There was also
another matter which prevailed in public opinion,
which was, that the sentences vaned, according to
the knowledge which some member had of the
particular individual before them. Now it was
always the wish of the Quarter Sessions that no
magistrate who had committed a prisoner should
take part in the sentence of that prisoner, thus
showing that they were exceedingly desirous that
the court should be quite free from the
hien that might have been adopted by the commit-
ting magistrate, from his knowledge of the osim be-
fore him, and that they sbould be guided solely .by
the evidence. It was also supposed that the coon
was more liable to receive information of private
character than the judges, but the same good feel-
ing existed at this courteas at the assizes, so that
the justices at sessions always acted upon the evi-
dence, without allowing any information which they
only ought to know through such a medium.
Therefore' so far as the due administration of justice
was concerned, every means was taken to secure an
unbiased sentence. His Lordship then referred to
the cams in the calendar, and dismissed the grand
jury to their duties.

TRIAL OF PRISONER&
(Before LORD FORTRAN.)

Joseph Davis was charged with falsely pretending
that 27 lbs. of fat, which he sold to Augustine Doniny
for beef suet, was good and fit for food, whereas in trutls
and in fact it was totally unfit to eat. He was there-
fere accused of obtaining by this means the sum of
13e. 6d. by false pretence; at Buckland Newton, on the
19th Marcb.—Verdict, Not Guilty.
. . .

,
Job Dyke and George TraVMS were charged with
stealing 11 coal bags, the property of George Tucker, at
Beaulinster, on the 11th March ; and also with stealing
two bags, the property of George Boatridge, of the
same plice, on the Bth March.—Travers was acquitted ;
Dyke, who had been eight times convicted, and onoe
transported for four years, was sentenced to four years
penal servitude.
Thomas H pry ,A. Turner was charged with being
found in &cowshed, in the occupation of James Burt, at
Mapper-ton, with intent to commit a felony therein.
The prosecutor had lost many fowls, and defendant was
found there at an unseasonable hour. —Sentenced to 4
months' hard labour.

Stephem MaipAikt MIA eonvieted of dealing 50 lb.. ef
mangold nutted, of the value of 6d., the property of
'

Edmund Andrei', of 11, on the 28th.—Four
months' hard labour.

Mary Burgin, was found guilty obstealleig,' -tiro pieees
of printed calico, the property of 'Johlsilfrireham, of
Whitahureb Canonic:Gruel, on the 25th 'Starch. The
prisoner had had a bid example set her. His lordship
sentenced her to three months' bard labour, and seld
that if at the end of that period she felt disposed te go
into • refuge, the visitors of the prison would do all
they could Cor her, where she would learn her duty to
herself, heipleighbour, and her God.