The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-30 00:00:00

The Recorder of Birmingham on Crime.

At the general quarter sessions of the borough, on
Monday, M. D. Hill, Mg., the Recorder, delivered
the following charge to the grand jury :

Gentlemen,—You have just heard that it is the command '
of her Majesty the Queen that the laws which prohibit idle I
and dissolute persons, or indeed any ethers, from drinking
on the Lord's-day to excess must be put into force. I have
great satisfaction in stating that I believe in this borough
these laws are put into force with great rigour, and, I trust,
with corresponding success, but of that I cannot speak of
my own knowledge. I have before me the calendar of the
sessions, which contains 82 names, and I find that of these
82, 35 have been previously convicted. I find that of these
35 seven have had penal servitude, and I also find that, in
addition to the number of prisoners sent for trial at the ses-
sions, there have been since the last sessions 6t male per-
sons and 20 females convicted under the Summary Juris-
diction Ac's—that is to say, those acts which give to the
magistates the power of disposing of cases, sentencing the
guilty and acquitting the innocent without the intervention
of a jury. It was very right and prudent on the part of the
legislature to limit tho powers given to magistrates to exer-
cise them without the assistance and safeguard of a jury
within tolerably close restrictions, but I think we may now
say that the experience of many years has shown that there
is no disposition on the part of justices of the peace to
press the laws unfairly and with over severity against those
prisoners who are thus entrusted to their charge. And I
could wish they were armed with more power—that is to
say, that the sentences which they can inflict should be of
longer duration than they are enabled to pass at the present
time. gentlemen, I believe that the danger, as I stated at
the last sessions, is rather that justices of the peace should
not give way to their humane feelings too much than that
they should overstrain the laws with undue severity against
the prisoner. Whether it be the fault of the law which too
much narrows the power of the justices, or whether it be
from that sort of humanity to which I have just adverted, I
cannot say, but so it is, that the terms of confinement are
too short, and being too short, the result is that prisoners
come again, and again, and again, so that in this long lint
which I have before me 1 find cases in which prisoners
have been previously convicted, either before justices or at
the sessions or the assizes, many times before they come
here on the present occasion for trial. I have before me the
record of a female prisoner who has been previously con-
victed eight times before she comes up on the present occa-
sion. Now, gentlemen, these facts show that punishments
as they are now administered are far from being so effective
for the repression of crime as we could wish, or, indeed, as
we have a right to demand, if there be any possibility of
obtaining it, for the protection of our families, ourselves,
our friends, and our neighbours. It is, indeed, melancholy
to think that more than one-third of the prisoners who are
waiting their trials have already been convicted. They
have already felt the visitation of the law; they have already
known what it is to be guilty, and to suffer punishment for
their guilt, but they are not reformed ; and, gentlemen, my
experience is that a prisoner who is not reformed by being
sent to gaol is made worse. No
man, no woman, can come
out of gaol the same being he or she was when they went
into gaol—they are either better or they are worse. If the
discipline which the law has appointed, and which has been
administered upon them, has not had the effect of preventing
they must become more
hardrepy,
arredp;:tinitioorne
again;orfeathdeyirtoooffffenencdes,wh
while they have gained
experience, through the previous offences which they have
committed, of how such offences are to be committed with

greater determination to do wrong, and with
safety. The consequence is, they come out a
greater power
again with a
of doing wrong with impunity. Not but that they will be
overtaken at last; but my inquiries have led me to believe
that there is a large class of persons always in this, and,
indeed, in every other country, who have skill and cunning
enough to commit crime with impunity for a very long time
—sometimes for years, sometimes for many years. Again,
there is an offence which it is thought is peculiar to the
town of Birmingham, and that is the offence of passing bad
money. When I say peculiar to the town, I do not mean
that it is supposed to be exclusively practised in this town,
but we have credit given us for a very large number of
eo
offenders of this class. I bellevetahiaerreeixsasgogmereadteiognrern and
some this
opinion;
h and, corroboration
e p
sent occasion there is not one single
charge of that kind to be brought before you. I am glad
tconsiderablea ton
h d eg r
present
e. degree--of
P°
of that view, I am happy to
tell you
of this, because I take rather a more serious view, perhaps,
of these offences than that generally held. I consider it an
offence of a very nefarious kind. I consider that the passing
of bad money presses very hard indeed upon the poorer
clasees of shopkeepers, who can ill afford such losses as I
have often seen it proved they have sustained in the trials
which have taken place in this court. Now, gentlemen, it
is satisfactory, and it is very much to the credit of the police,
that it should have been found so dangerous to commit
these offences, at least in this town, that if the offenders
still persevere in their evil courses they, at all events, think
it necessary to go away from a place where they are sa
vigilantly watched. But, gentlemen, there is another
offence of a more heinous nature, more dangerous, and
producing more 'misery than the one I have mentioned,
and which I am sorry to say is very rife among the people
of this town—l allude to the offence of embezzlement.
I have in the present calendar nine cases of embezzle-
ment to be tried before you. When we remember that a
person who embezzles is one who, up to the period of his
being apprehended and brought under the cognizance
of the law, is a person of character—not one of that
class who is under suspicion, and carefully watched by the
police; but On /310 Vin eilnollg you, and, if he is in you