The Express.
London, England, 1853-08-26 00:00:00

MEETING OF MIDDLESEX MAGISTRATES.

Yesterday a meeting of the magistracy of Middlesex
was held at the Sessions house, on Clerkenwell green, for
the transaction of the ordinary business of the county ; Mr.
POWNALL presided.
The usual reports from the committees were presrnted,
sad the recommendations contained in them were adopted.

Anson the parliamentary papers laid before the court
were the Assistant Judge's Salary Bill and the Militia Pay
Bill. With reference to these,
The CliAtiLyAN said the court would have learned with
such regret that the fist named, the bill for increasing
the salary of the sees tent judge, had not passed into a law.
The business transacted at the sessions was of a very im
portant nature, and required a mind of no ordinary chg.
racier, and a knowledge of mankind not generally possessed
even by members of the bench. The 0:b pi of the business
of the court had no parallel M any court of sessions in the

country.
Mr. WiLds heartily concurred in the obienations of the
chairman uo the subject of the Assistant Judge's `glary
Bill, and proposed, in order that the whole bench might he
put in possession of fall information upon the matter, for
some future OCCAIIiOII, that the returns ordered by the House
of Commons of the business of the court, should be printed
end circulated.

This was unanimously agreed to.
On the motion of Mr. JOSIAH WILSON, the sum of
1,0001. was granted for the purpose of completing the store
house for the lot Regiment of Tower Hamlets Militia, and
• like sum for the 2nd Regiment of Tower Hamlets Militia.
Mr. Henry John Hammon was elected surveyor for the
district of St. Luke, Old-street, and Glass-house-yard.
A memorial signed on behalf of the wardens and sub-
wardens of the House of Correction, Cold Bath-fields,
was laid before the court. It prayed that the memorialists
might be permitted to receive the amount standing to
their credit in the Finsbury Savin,.s Beak, and allowed to
have unrestricted control of their full pay, and in all other
respects he placed on the same footing as the officers of the
other prisons of the county.
It appeared from the statements in this memorial that in
1837 a new scale for the regulation of the pay of the prison
officers was adopted, under which they became entitled to
receive from time to time an increase to the amount of
their weekly pay, according to the length of their Teepee-
five services. The officers of the House of Detention and
the House of Correction, Westminster, were permitted to
receive the full amount of their pay, as the various jemmies
were ordered; but at Cold-bath-fields the magistrates
adopted the peremptory regulation of stopping the amount
of the increases, and having them deposited to the credit oi
the men in • savings bank, with the restriction that no por-
tion of such deposits should be withdrawn without the
sanction of the magistrates. When compelled by urgent
necessity to make application to the magistrates to draw on
their accumulated deposits to meet exigencies which the
could not otherwise provide for, the memorialists set forth
that they were subjected by the magistrates to a rigid and
humiliating scrutiny into their private affair', before they
were permitted to receive even a small portion of a fund
which they say is unquestionably their own ; sad in some
cases the request has been complied with, en condition of
their paying back the sum drawn by weekly instalments
from their reduced incomes. They, therefore, prayed, ac
knowledging that the originators of this regulation only in-
tended to benefit the officers and their families, that the
court would order that for the future they might receive
their full pay, without stoppage, and that they might
receive the sums standing in their names in the savings
banks.
Mr. Tretren moved that the memorial be referred to the
committee of the prison, who were actually considering the
subject when the men got up this memorial. With regard
to the memorial itself, and the terms in which it was drawn
up, observations might be made ; but, considering the class
of persons it came from, he did not think it necessary to
allude farther to it.
The motion was seconded.
Mr. Aaxstaoxo moved as an amendment, seconded by
Mr. Alderman LAWRIE:SCR, that the prayer of the memorial
be granted. These magistrates and others warmly espoused
the case of the memorialists, and urged that employers
ought not to interfere with the value of the labour of the
employed.
The CHAIRMAN said these stoppages were made under a
standing order of the court.
Mr. Tcteren's motion was carried, and the amendment
not pet.
Mr. ARMSTRONG then gave notice that he should at the
neat court move for the repeal of the standing order alluded
to by the chairman.
Some formal business wu disposed of, and the court ad-
journed.