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

GENERAL COURT OF QUARTER SESSIONS.

WEDNESDAY.
The Court was opened for the trial of prisoners at 10
o'clock, before the Rev. Harry Farr Yeatman, chairman,
and a bench of magistrates.
The grand jury having been sworn, the learned
chairman addressed them at considerable length. He
commenced by expressing his regret at the number and
character of the offences charged in the calendar; and
went on to shew, by a referenoe to the records of the
gaoler, tl.at there was, to a certain extent, a diminution
of crime in the county of Dorset. He adduced volumi-
nous statistics of criminal offences from the year 1852 to
1855, and stated that from the latter period down to the
present time there had, happily, been a decrease in the
amount of crime—the diminution in the number of
prisoners tried for felonies and misdemeanours being 27
in 1857, as compared with 1856. Notwithatanding that
this was to a certain extent a favourable view of the
case, there was the very large number of 500 persons
committed for felonies and misdemeanours in those two
years collectively. Then came the important question,
what could have been the cause—the exciting cause of
this large amount of crime, committed in an agricul-
tural, quiet, and peaoeable county like this, which was
fortunately removed from all those exciting and turbu-
lent feelings which are known to exist in large manu-
facturing districts? Wages had been remunerative, and
the demand for labour exceeded the supply. The class
of persons generally committed had been well-doing, and
not in a state of want and destitution ; which conditions
were, according to the views of some, the great exciting
cause leading up to the commission of crime. From in-
quiries he had made of the gaoler and the chaplain of the
gaol, he found that the great exciting cause to the com-
mission of crime in this county, as in others, was nothing
more or less than the drunkenness and intemperance
which were known to prevail in most counties ; and his
own experience entirely confirmed that view of the case.
The learned chairman then dwelt upon the large and
increasing nninbor of beer-houses and ale-houses, to the
pernicious existence of which he referred the promise.
tion of crime, and cited the opinion of Mr. Justine
Wightinan in support of that view. He related the
unsuccessful attempt made in the last session of Par-
liament to take away from the Excise the power of
granting these houses, and to invest that power in the
hands of the Justices of the Pesos, who would exercise
• proper discretion in the matter, and make all necessary
inquiries into the character of applicants for licensee,
and would not do as the Excise did—grant them at once
without asking any questions, their object being to In-
crease their revenue, Mr. Yeatinen then referred to the
unsatisfactory progress of legislation regulating beer.
houses—the conflicting and confused nature of the
statutes—and deplored the power given by law to keep
these houses open 17 hours out of 24—thus providing
facilities to those who are so disposed to indulge in that
state of ferment, he might almost add delirium, which
leads to crime. The learned chairman oonoluded with
some remarks on the legal bearings of two or throe
eases in the calendar, and disinissed the grand jury to
their duties. _ .

There were no appeals to bo heard. The Courts were
kept by eounty constables, as determined at the Diiehael•
mas Sessions, and not by the High Sheriff's javelin men
as heretofore,

Fontmell Marina appellants V. Ellison respondents.—
Mr. Ffooks gave notice to enter and reepite to the next
sessions an appeal spinet an order made by C. J. Parke,
Esq., and the Rev. C. J. Cilyn, for the removal of
William, Albert, and Jane, the children of John and
Skill' Steele. . . _

Mr. Ffooks moved that s certlfloate by H. G. Sturt
and Geo. Churchill, Esurs., as to the state of repair of a
highway leading from Crauborne to Edniondrham at a
geld called Longoroft, thence to Button, in Gussage All
Saints, be filed amongst the county records.