The Sun.
London, England, 1855-03-24 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT

HOUSE OF LORDS—(YESTERDAY.)
The LORD CHANCELLOR took his seat on the wool-
sack at five o'clock.
A. MESSAGE FROM THE QUEEN.--TREATY
WITH SARDINIA.
The LORD CHANCELLOR communicated to the
house a message from her Majesty, in which her Ma-
jesty informed the house that she had, in concert with
the Emperor of the French, entered into a treaty with
the King of Sardinia, whereby the latter engages to
maintain for the purposes of the war 15,000 men, well
organised and instructed in their du ties as soldiers, and by
the same convention her Majesty undertakes, on the re-
commendation of Parliament, to advance to the King
of Sardinia, 1,000,0001., 500,0001. to be paid as soon
after the assent of Parliament to the loan had been ob-
tained as possible, and the remainder to be paid six
months after the first instalment. Her Majesty further
engages, after the expiration of 12 months, to ad-
vance to the King of, Sardinia a like sum of 1,000,0601.,
the Government of Sardinia enEagin, to pay 4 per cent.
per annum—one ptr cent, of which was to go to the
sinking fund. Her Majesty has directed a copy of the
convention to be placed before their lordships ; and she
relies upon the House of L,3r Is to make good the en-
gagements which she had contracted.

THE MILITIA.
The Earl of 'HALM ESEURY, seeing his noble friend
opposite, begged to ask wha!ier any information had
been received from the law officers of the Crown relative
to the construction of the Militia Act of 1852, as to the
service to be expected from the men u,:der the act
passed in the present session ?
Lord PANMURE begged to state that experience
bad shown him the bad effects that invariably follow a
discussion as to the rights of soldiers in this house. The
men, after such a circumstance, invariably entertain
erroneous notions as to their rights, and such had been
unfortunately the case in the present instance—many
militiamen had, on the suggestions of others, laid down
their arms, refusing to do duty, and applied for
their discharge. On explanation, however, they
bad resumed their duty, and expressed themselves
willing to abide further instructions from the Govern-
ment. (Hear, hear.) Although he had never any doubt
in the matter, he had, nevertheless, taken the opinion of
the law officers of the Crown, who had assured him that
every militiaman who was now serving under the act of
1854, whether he had been enlisted under the acts of
1852 53, or subsequently to the passing of the act of
1854, was equally compelled to be sworn as a regular
embodied militiaman. That was distinctly and unques-
tionably the present state of the law. There was another
point that had been touched upon in the discussion be-
fore alluded to. It was stated that when the act of 1852
was passed a pledge was given by the Government,
or was understood to be conveyed, that the men who
were enrolled in 1852 were to have the option as to the
limitation of service. Now, if any such engagement
had been given, whether such was right or wrong, he
thought that it ought to be religiously and strictly ad-
hered to. But that, however, was a question to be
inquired into. (Hear.) The behaviour of the militia,
he thought, was deserving their highest approbation,
and it, of itself, furnished strong inducement that their
case should receive that consideration which it was so
justly entitled to.
After a few observations from Earl GREY and the
Earl of MALMESBI7RY,
The subject dropped.
CRIMINAL PROCEDURE.
Lord BROUGHAM then rose to call the attention of
the house to the subject of our criminal procedure. It
was a subject of vast extent and great importance, and if
the difficulties of dealing with it were equally great, he
should shrink from undertaking it. But those defects to
which he was about to call attention were too obvious, and
their consequences were too generally felt, to make it any
very difficult matter to deal with the question, though he
did confess that, for some of those difficulties, it might
not be so easy to find a remedy. It was his intention, in
the course of the remarks he was about to make, to confine
himself entirely to the subject of the criminal procedure,
and not enter into the large field of the criminal law, much
as that required amendment, for whole classes of offences,
tending to irreparable mischief, were no crime at all by
our law. To begin then at the beginning. The courts of
the metropolitan police magistrates, before whom the of-
fender was first brought in London, were in reality a great
misnomer, for they were nothing like the courts of police
magistrates. It had indeed been said by a learned person
that their title reminded him of fee remark of Voltaire on.
the title of the "Holy Roman Empire." Ho said there
never could be a worse name, for it was neither " holy "
nor "Roman" nor an "empire." So these courts were
neither "metropolitan," for they were excluded by act of
Parliament from the metropolis ; nor "police," for they
had nothing to do with the police, any more than any other
justices; and they were properly speaking not "magis-
trates," because in this country that meant an unpaid
judge, but those gentlemen were stipendiaries. Nothing
could be more useful than these courts. They had a very
useful criminal, and also a very useful civil, jurisdiction,
although be thought this last ought to be transferred to the
county courts; they got through an immense amount of
business, and he hoped that it would not be long before their
number was multiplied, and they were spread over the
different parts of the country. He thought, however, that
the power should be extended, so as to give theta the right
of discharging prisoners not only on bail, but also on their
own recognisances; for he was informed by those who
practised at the sessions, and who were connected with
these courts, that there was rarely very little heard of
persons liberated on their own recognisanees making their
escape. In fact these poor people could not or would not
remove from their ordinary place of residence to avoid a
trial. With respect to tho police or constabulary force, it
was perfectly clear that this was very deficient, for although
many of the lArge towns had a police—not, perhsps, a very
perfect one—in many parts of the country there was no-
thing that could be said to deserve the name of police. Not
only were a large supply of constabulary necessary, but it
was desirable that some general rules should bo framed to
give uniformity to the action of different parts of the force
in various districts throughout the kingdom. The amount
of fees varied considerably in different counties. Iu Dar-
ham the average was 31. for each case. In Essex the ave-
rage was 21. 4s. ; in Dorset 4/. 10s. ; at Havering-atte-
Bower, 6/. 13s. ; whilst at Derby it was only 11. This ine-
quality proved the expediency of paying the officers by
salaries instead of by fees. He thought it would be very de-
sirable in the manufacturing districts to have a reserved
force in addition to the ordinary constabulary. Such a force
would be at the call of the magistrates, and the knowledge
of its existence would tend greatly to the prevention of
the mischief caused by agitators and other disturbers of
the public peace. He would now call their lordships sae's,
tion to another point. The offender having been trapped it
was necessary to bring him to trial, and then arose the
greatest defect in our criminal system—the want of an au-
thority vested in executive Government to provide for the
execution of the law by putting it in motion. He believed
this was the only country in the world in which the cri-
minal law was left, as it were, to shift for itself, for it was
nobody's business to prosecute. He would mention a few
instances to show the evils arising from the want of a
public prosecutor—instances in which the guilty had been
allowed to escape, and in which the innocent had been in-
jured by prosecution. The first case was that of a trades-
man in a large way of business at Portsmouth or Plymouth,
who was committed for forging a hill for 2,0001. or 2,50 J/.
A true bill was found by the grand jury, but the prosecu-
tor was not to be found, and the prisoner was discharged.
Another case was that of an honourable baron, who fired a
loaded musket at a clergyman, with the intention either
of killing him or doing him some grievous bodily harm.
The prosecution was dropped and the baron escaped all
punishment. Some time ago, at the Old Bailey, a bill was
found against a person for forging a will ; but when the
case came before the judge, there did not appear to be the
least ground for the charge, and the party was discharged.
On one occasion he was counsel in a case which was tried in
the county of Lancaster, where a most respectable gentle-
man, possessing an income of 10,0001. or 12,0001. a-year, was
arraigned on a charge of murder. It turned out that the
bailiff of the gentleman had placed a rope across a road
which was under repair, and that he had neglected to place
a lantern on the spot durinc, the night. The consequence
was that a poor woman fell and broke her neck. The
grand jury sagaciously decided that it was murder, and
found a bill, not against the bailiff, who was the cause of the
accident, but against the master, who was totally ignorant of
the transaction. The judge at once directed the gentleman
to be acquitted. Now, if there had been a public prosecutor,
net one of the cases which he had mentioned could by tha
most remote possibility have had any existence. Under the
present system there was no security either for the execu-
tion of the law or against its abuse. That system had come
down from times of the greatest barbarism and dark-
ness—from times when one class of the community was
altogether exempted from capital punishment—from times
when a man's life was valued at a price, and when it was
the practice to look at the pecuniary value of the thing
stolen or the life or limb lest, and to give compensation
accordingly—from times when there was trial by fire and
by water, as well as by jury. He would now direct the
attention of their lordships to the advantages arising from
thelexistence of public prosecutors. In Scotland the Lord
Advocate had the superintendence of all prosecutions, and
in every county, and in most of the large towns, there was
a procurator fiscal, who was prosecutor for the district ;
and such care was taken that acquittals were very rare. In
'the year 1853, the number of commitments in England
and Wales was L 7,057. The number tried was 25,585, of
whom 4,800 were acquitted—about one-fifth or one-sixth
of the whole. In Scotland the number of commitments
was 3,756, the number of trials 3,139, and the number of
acquittals 279 ; being one-sixth or one-twelfth of the
whole. The difference was attributable to the employ.
ment of a public prosecutor. In Ireland, down to the
year 1816, there was hardly such a thing known as a
witness going before a grand jury. All that was required
was the written depositions taken before the magistrates.
The practice was exposed by Sir S. Romilly and Mr. Hor-
ner, and a bill was passed to remedy the evil. At that time
the proportion of acquittals was fifteen-sixteenths, for in
205 cases in which bills were found D. 4 less than 192 ac-
quittals took place. The proportion of acquittals varied
considerably in different counties. In Somerset the propor-
tion was between one-fifth and one-sixth ;in Hampshire and
Berkshire, between one-third and one-fourth • in Sussex,
one-fifth ; in Wiltshire, one-sixth or one-seventh. In some
parts of the country, Middlesex, London, and parts of
Surrey and Kent, a great number of criminal courts were
held, in addition to a number of sessions, whilst in York-
shire there were only the criminal assizes and the quarter
sessions. In Northamptonshire a case had occurred of a
woman who was charged with manslaughter on the 26th
July, just after the grand jery had been discharged. She
was kept in prison until the March following, and then no
bill was returned against her. Now, was it fit and pro-
per that there should he this diversity ? Why should not
one
part of the country have the same benefits in the ad-
ministration of the law as another? Why should it not
be the same all over England as in Middlesex, Surrey, and
the districts adjoining the metropolis? He knew thejudges
were most willing to lend their services in going additional
circuits, if Parliament was willing. There must, of course,
be an increase of their number, but a moderate increase
would be sufficient, if a judicious alteration was made in
the circuits ; at all events some arrangement might be
made, and he was inclined to think that, inasmuch as a
groat deal of the business of the judges was now taken
from them by the county courts and the recent changes in
the law with respect to petty offences, which lessened the
time CODAkthaed Q 4 Ow circuits—soy takiDgall theft things

Mr. BERKLEY presented a petition from Bristol in
favour of the Friendly Societies Bill ; also a petition
from the newspapers of the same place praying for the
repeal of the newspaper stamp.
Mr. HORSFALL presented a petition from the Pro-
testant Association of Liverpool, complaining that a
certain person had assumed the title of Bishop of Liver-
pool, and praying that the law officers of the Crown
might be instructed to enforce the law against him.
Mr. A. PELLATT presented petitions from certain
Dissenting bodies in the West of England, complaining
of the conduct of the Bishop of Exeter, in refusing to
consecrate their burial grounds, unless they complied
with conditions which they did not believe were autho-
rised by the Burial Act. Also petitions from various
private individuals, complaining that they were deprived
by the Burial Act of making use of certain vaults upon
which they had spent large sums of money.
PARKEIURST BARR4CKS.
Colonel HARCOURT asked whether it was true,
that in November last there was an inspection of the
sheeting in use in Parkhurst barracks, when a very
large quantity was conderniod, and put aside for the
express purpose of being immediate] forwarded to the
Crimea, for use as bandages and
Y lint, but that
till very recently, if not up to that time, it
remained at Parkhurst, and was not used for any
purpose :—Whether it was true that Lord Methuen, the
colonel of the Wiltshire Militia, declined allowing his
men to be embarked for the Mediterranean in the troop
ship Resistance, in consequence of his not considering
her fit for the purpose; whether it was not then proposed
to send out the drafts of the Guards in her, who equally
objected ; vAd whether drafts of the highland brigade;