The Express.
London, England, 1851-09-02 00:00:00

are similar, this increased expenditure must principally
arise from the lengthened attendance of parties at
the court, and their consequmit detention from their homes
and business. Nor arc the..., the only evils. The witnesses
for prisoners receive no allowance for expenses; the pri-
'men themselves are unable to ply them ; and it is not of
unfrequent occurrence, that pt. HMIs in an humb'e statiou of
life, who have long been waiting about the court to speak to
the character of a prisoner, or to facts which may be im-
portant for his defence, are unable to bear the continued
loss of time, and arc absent when the trial takes place. The
plan adopted for giving this relief is the simple and obvious
one of restoring to the courts of quarter sessions within the
district of the Central Criminal Court their ancient jurisdic-
tion, and letting the committals to the different courts be
regulated by the principle by which they were formerly go-
verned, and which governs the committals to the assizes and
the sessions in all other parts of the kingdom, namely, the
magnitude and importance of each particular ease. This
has been effected by statute 14 & to V te., c. 55, Sec. 13 ;
and I congratulate my brother justices of the county of
Middlesex upon this wise and just enactment, which, whilst
it will prove of great public utility, has restored to
the bench its ancient powers, and replaced us in
that position from which there was no adequate
cause for our removal. It may not be irrehavent
here to state, for the guidance of my brother justices acting
for the county at large, that as the expenses of prosecutions
from the country districts of necessity greatly exceed the
expenses from the police districts, especially when parties
arc detained in London, because of the allowances fur board
and lodging as well as travelling expenses, and as the com-
mittals from some of the petty sessions are now always
made, however trilling the offence, to the Central
Criminal Court, it has been thought right to take
an average of the comparative costs of trials at
the two courts in country cases for common larcenies
triable at the session., independent of the before-mentioned
general average of costs, which includes also the police dis-
tricts. The result is as follows:—Costs of 52 eases of com-
mon larcenies triable at the sessions, but committed from
County I'etty Sessions to the Central Criminal Court, be-
tween January 1 and December 31, 18.10, 369/. 6s. fel.
Cost of 83 ditto, committed from County Petty Sessions for
trial at the Quarter Sessions, 2051. 2s. Bd. Average cost
of committals to the Central Criminal Court, 71. 2s.
Ditto to the quarter session, 21. 9s. 541. I have now,
gentlemen of the grand jury, brought succinctly under your
notice the new rigulations fur the administration of cri-
minal justice within the metropolitan county, and which
I trust I may be permitted to say, although they east ad-
ditional duties upon myself, are not unwelcome to me, for I
feel that neither my brother justices nor myself sow occupy
a position inferior to the judges of every other criminal
court within the United Kingdom. I have only in conclusion
to add, that as it is the wish of her Majesty's government to
I adopt every practicable means fur lessening the inconve-
niences, the delays and expenses necessarily attendant upon
the protection of property and the prosecution of offenders,
so it is the earnest desire of the police magistrates and my
brother justices to carry their measures into effect. For
myself, allow me to say, that I enter cheerfully upon my
new duties with an honest desire faithfully to discharge
them ; and I sincerely hope that the arrangements now pro-
mulgated will be as welcome to the inhabitants of St est-
rninster as I am confident they will be to the country at
large. The court then proceeded to the ordinary business
of the day. ,