The Sun.
London, England, 1856-12-12 00:00:00

THE OFFICE OF RECORDER.

The LORD ALtvoa said he was requested by the Court
of Aldermen to place before the Common Council a reso-
lution passed on Tuesday by the former, adopting the
report of the General Purposes Committee of the Court
of Aldermen, the purport of which was, that "the town
elerk having laid before the committee for their informa-
tion a copy of a report from a committee presented to the
hon. court on the sth of September, 1850, in reference
to the duties of the office of Recorder, and also a report
from the committee in relation to officers and clerks,
presented to the Court of Common Council on the 17:h
of September, 1850, on the reference to them to con-
sider the duties and emoluments of the office of Recorder,
and this committee having attentively considered the
duties set forth and defined in such reports, the com-
mittee were of opinion and recommended that the duties
should remain the same, and they had caused a state
ment of such duties to be hereunto annexed for the in•
formation of the hon. court. The town clerk had laid
before the committee a return of the number of courts
held, and the number of causes entered and tried in the I
Mayor's Court from the year 1851 to the present time,
whereby it appeared that the Recorder's duties as judge
of that court had very materially increased, and were
likely still to increa..e, in consequence of the court having
been thrown open to all attorneys to practice therein ;
but, on the other band, the passing of the Criminal
Justice Act (18 and 19 Vie., cap. 126), empowering
justices at petty sessions to punish persons charged with
larceny, &c,, summarily, had had the effect of reducing
the number of days of the sittings at the Central Criminal
Court. Under these circumstances the committee are
of opinion that the salary of 3,000/, per annum, as
settled by the Court of Common Council in September,
I‘so, should not be altered."
Mr. 11. L. TAYLOR said he thought any dictation by
the Court of Aldermen respecting the salary of the Re.
corder was trenching upon the prerogatives of the larger
body of the corporation. The last report, which was
dated 3d Sept., 1856, said—" As it appears from one of
the documents laid before us, and numbered two, that the
additions to the ancient salary of 1201. per annum to
the Recorder have been made by the Common Council
from the year 1739 to the present time, amounting to-
gether to the sum of 3,0001. per annum, exclusive of fees
on cases laid before him, on behalf of the corporation,
we abstain from giving any opinion on the subject of
salary, the additions made to it resting with the Com-
mon Council." He (Mr. Taylor) thought this a very
judicious paragraph, and would have been delighted to
have accepted the present report of the Court of Alder-
men if it had been similarly worded. He believed every
member was most anxious to do justice to one of the
most important offices of the corporation, but they must
have perfect liberty to consider all the circumstances of
the appointment, and they must not have it dictated to
them by the aldermen that 3,000/. was the salary to give
to the Recorder. He therefore wished the report to be
withdrawn.
Mr. Alderman HALE said he had not the least ob-
jection to move that it be referred to the officers' and
clerks' committee of the Court of Common Council to
consider the anjount of salary.
Mr. Deputy HARRISON urged that if the Common
Council followed the course we took upon the last occa-
sion, in Sept., 1850, they could not do very much amiss.
They should refer it to their committee of officers and
clerks, to consider the duties and emoluments of the
office of Recorder, and stay the election till the commit-
tee should have reported upon that subject. They should

then communicate with the Court of Aldermen, and pro-
ceed to the election.

Mr. ANDERTON asked when was the Recorder's resig-
nation sent in

The LORD MAYOR—Ln.st Saturday week.
ANDEPTON—Has his resignation been accepted ?

The LORD MAYOR—•It has nor.

Mr. ANDERTON—Then there is no vacancy. He has sent
in his resignation, and the Court of Aldermen, for some
reason or other, have not accepted it, and therefore we
are not in a situation to proceed further with this matter.
Look at the situation in which the sheriffs will bo placed
at the Central Criminal Court on Monday next when the
sessions begin. We have got only one judge at present
for the sessions.
Mr. Alderman iIIIMPHERY—The Court of Aldermen
meet on Tuesday next to elect a Recorder. Mr. Baron
Martin has kindly consented to do duty for the Recorder
on Monday,
Mr. ANDERTON—Then you ar3 going to elect a Re-
corder before you have settled his duties or his salary.
It is preposterous. We are placed in a very difficult
situation in consequence of the Court of Aldermen hav-
ing neglected to proceed to the election eooner. They
have got one of the best judges that ever sat upon the
bench in the person of Mr. Gurney, and yet, forsooth,
the aldermen have been trying by every means in their
power (as we understood) to have put somebody else in
the place that he ought to occupy.
Mr. H. L. TAYLOR then moved that the report of the
Court of Aldermen, with the exception of the latter
part of the last paragraph, relating to the salary, be
entered upon the minutes of this court, printed, and a
copy sent to every member of this court.
Mr. Alderman BALE seconded the motion.

Mr. Alderman WIRE said he could assure this court,
on behalf of the whole of the members of that court, that
so far from interfering or attempting to dictate as to the
salary of the Recorder, it was most anxiously considered
that the aldermen should use such expressions as would
leave this court perfectly unfettered.
The motion wr,s put and carried unanimously.

Mr. H. L. TAYLOR then moved—•" That it be referred

to the committee in relation to officers and clerks to con•
eider the duties and emoluments of the office of Re-
corder to the City, and to report thereon previously to
the election taking place in the Court of Aldermen of a
successor of the present Recorder."
After a short discussion, the motion was carried.
THE CITY CEMETERY.

Mr. Deputy PEACOCK, chairman of the Commission of
Sewers, !sandal in a resolution of that body, passed on
Tuesday, pursuant to the former report made to this
court by the commission on the 17th July last, stating
that they hod caused the requisite notices to be given for
the application to Parliament this ensuing session to in-
troduce a bill to amend the act of the 15th and IGth Vic.,
intituled " An Act to amend the Laws concerning the
Burial of the Dead in the Metropolis."
Mr. Deputy PEACOCK moved, " That, in accordance
with the recommendation of the Commissioners of Sewers,
a petition be presented to Parliament."
Mr. LANGHAJI moved the previous question by way of
amendment. He was understood to say that the Commis.
sioners of Sewers bad sought to deprive the clergy of
London of vested rights by taking away from them fees
attendant on the burial of the dead. The commissioners

had been to Sir G. Grey since the matter was last before
the court, and the Secretary for the Home Department
had refused to sanction their plan. The ratepayers ought
to be taxed with the expense of carrying a bill through
Parliament which sought to deprive individuals of vested
rights.
Alter some discussion the amendment was put, and
two hands (those of the mover and seconder) were held
up in favour of it.
It was, of course, negatived by a very large majority.
The original motion was then carried.
Adjourned.

UNIVERSITY INTELLIGENCE.

OXFORD, DEC. 11.

In a convocation held this day at 10 o'clock the Rev,
F. J. A. Hort, M.A., Trinity, Cambridge, and the Rev,
J. C. James, M.A., St. John's, Cambridge, were admit.
ted ad eundem.

Ina congregation held directly afterwards the follow.
ing degrees were conferred :-:-

B.D.
Rev. John A. Cree, M.A., Fellow ... Magdalen
B.C.L. IND M.A.

Rev. Arthur A. Fanshawe ..... . . New College
M.A.
Rev. Joseph P. Steel
Rev. Arthur Eden
Rev. Charlet J. K. Shaw Merton
James W. Taylor
Rev. Henry W. Cartier
Rev. William H. Templer
Rev. John W. Marsh
B.A.

William 11. Milligan 'University
Augustus John C. Hare University
Edwin Lascelles
Streynaham M. Master Balliol
Henry Pottingcr
Henry Scott
George C. Harris, Scholar
William C. Risley Exeter
Edmund R. Coldby Exeter
James R. Morton Exeter
John Houseman Exeter
Thomas L. 0. Davies
Gerard Andrews Herklots
Francis B. Shepherd Oriel
Charles S. Harrington Oriel
Edward Wanklyn Queen's
Charles Frederick Dyer
William B. Shepherd
Charles Day
James H. M`Cheare Lincoln
George Hester
Josiah Mitchell
Edward H. Osborn, Demy
John J. Evered, Demy Magdalen
Edmund Nerrold, Demy Magdalen
Joseph Tanner, Demy Magdalen
Frederick H. Sutton Magdalen
John Rogers, Scholar Brasenose
Edward C. M'Clure, Scholar
Joseph B. Litler, Scholar Brasenose
James Furnival
Horace Bentley
James E. Shearman
Charles T. Arnold Corpus
Henry T. Hole
Sidney Joyce, Student Christ Church
George G. Jelf, Student
Henry Longley, Student Christ Church
Thomas S. Fardell... Christ Church
William C. P01e...
John Horsley
Alfred Freeman Trinity
John A. Whitaker St. John's
David R. Thomas, Scholar
William E. Jones, Scholar
George Giitfith, Scholar
John Morgan Jesus
Hugh L. Jones Jesus
Robert H. Walker, Scholar Wadham
Henry M. Clifford Wadha in
William H. Shorland
Herbert B. Harington
Henry G. Lawson Wadham
William F. Rawdon Wadham
Edward M. Weigall, Scholar
Edward W. Hawkins, Scholar... Pembroke
Horatio L. Todd Pembroke
William H. Alexander
Walter Fursclon
Fortescue L. M. Anderson
Thomas Dunn Worcester
James B. Poulden Worcester
Samuel Joy Worcester
Jan Edwards
Montagu Burrows Magdalen Hall
George Godsell
-

In a Convocation held at 2 o'clock the statute apply-
ing to the Hebdomadal Council, a clause of the old sta-
tutes respecting the meetings of the Hebdomadal Board,
and another statui,e merely formal were submitted and
approved. A grant of 201. a year to the vicar of Home
Cu!tram (a IJniversitr living), in increase of his stipend,
and another grant of 25/. a year to the schools of the
same place were also t,anctioned. Finally, a grant of
2001. towards the arrangement, classification, &c., of the
geological collection left by the late Dr. Dockland to
the University was proposed and approved. In a Con-
gregation which was held directly afterwards the two
forms of statutes concerning the appointment of Museum
Delegates and a Museum Curator, which were promo'•
gatievrien.
diin Congregation a week ago, were carried without
a d

CAMBRIDGE, DEC. 11.
The syndicate, appointed by grace, Nov. 2G, to con-
eider whether any and what alterations should be made
in the previous examinations, have issued their report,
which is very long. The principal alteration in the
scheme of examination is as follows :
" 1. That the examination shall begin on the Wednesday
in the week before the end of the Lent term in each year.
" 2. That the days of examination shall be Wednesday,
Thursday, and Saturday, in the first week ; and Monday,
Tuesday, Wednesday,
hours of examination each day from
Thursday, and Saturday in the fol-
lowing week ; and the
9 till 12 in the morning, and from 1 till 4 in the afternoon.
" 3. That every undergraduate shall be required to attend
the examination in the Lent term of the year next after or
next but one after that in which ho has kept his first term,
according as the said first term be or be not a Lent term.
"4. That two classes (each of them arranged alphabeti-
cally) shall be formed out of those examined, the first con-
sisting of those who have passed their examination with
credit, and the second of those to whom the examiners
have only not refused their certificate of approval.
" 5. That the examination of the additional subjects shall
beheld as follows :—viz, in Euclid on the Monday before
the commencement of the general previous examination
from 9 till 12 ; in algebra, on the same day, from 1 till 4 ;
and in mechanics on the following day, from 9 till 19.
"G. That the names of those students who have passed
the general previous examination, and have also passed the
examination in the additional subjects to the satisfaction of
the examiners, shall be placed alphabetically in one class.

" GENERAL REGULATIONS.
"7. That on or before Monday in the week preceding
that in which the examinations commence the names of all
students who intend to present themselves for the general
previous examination, or for the examination in the addi-
tional subjects, shall be sent to the examiners iu two sepa-
rate lists by the pr electors of the several colleges ; and that
no student shall be allowed to attend either examination
whose name has not been sent to the examiners.
"8. That to conduct the examinations there shall be
eight examiners, four to lbe nominated in every year,—
viz., two by the colleges which presented the proctors in
that year next but one preceding ; and the examiners so
nominated shall, if elected by the Senate, and also re-elected
by the SenLte in the following year, hold their office for
two years; provided that no one of such examiners shall
also hold the office of proctor or pro-proctor at the time of
the Lent examination.
" 9. That the examiner nominated by the college which
presents the senior proctor shall be nominated to examine
in the additional subjects and in arithmetic during both
his years of office ; and that the names of all the exami-
ners shall be proposed to the Senate for election at the first
Congregation after the 10th of October."

ASSIZE INTELIJGENCB.

HOME CIRCUIT.- CHELMSFORD, DECAL

Toe co:nmission for the county of Essex was opened
here to-day by Mr. Baron Bramwell. There are 28
prisoners for trial, of whom 10 are charged with bur-
glary, 4 with arson, 5 with housebreaking, 1 with per-
jury, and the remainder are offences of the ordinary
character.

Mr. Baron Bramwell, in his charge to the grand jury,
said that, although it was no doubt productive of some
inconvenience that they should be called from their homes
at this season of the year, yet he was sure that when
they considered the number of prisoners in the calendar,
and the great importance that those among them who
were innocent should be set at liberty, and that those
who were guilty should receive speedy punishment for
their crimes, they would net complain of being assem-
bled together to discharge the duties that devolved upon
them. A good many of the cases that were in the
calendar were of a character that ought not to be com-
mitted to the assizes, and the obj-ct of having a winter
gaol delivery was that cases might be disposed of that
were not cognisable by the quarter sessions, and none
others ought to have been committed except these cases
which the quarter sessions had no power to try. He
believed that an impression existed in some quarters
that the crimiral business of this county might be dis-
posed of with advantage to the public in London. He
should offer no opinion himself upon the matter, but he
would observe that a commission was sittirg in London
for the consideration of the subject, and if the gentle-
men of the county were desirous of offering their opi-
nions upon the question they would do well to commie-
nicate with that commission, and any suggestions they
might make would no doubt be attended to, and receive
all the consideration to which they were entitled. He
perceived there were a good many charges in the calen-
dar against persons who had been discharged from
custody upon what was termed a ticket of leave. He
was not going to say anything either in favour of or
against the system of granting tickets of leave, for, in
point of fact, he knew very little about it; but he must
say that it appeared to him that the granting of tickets
of leave had very little indeed to do with the amount of
crime that was alleged to be committed by the persons
who received them. The fact was that when a person
was sentenced to a certain period of imprisonment or
other punishment, he was allowed, if he evinced
contrition towards the end of the sentence, to
escape a portion of his punishment. Undoubtedly,
it happened that many such persons, after ob-
taining their liberty, committed other crimes ; but it ap-
peared to him that the same result would most probably
have occurred if the prisoner had received a pardon, or
had been sentenced to a shorter period of imprisonment,
and what he desired to point out was, that the granting
of a ticket of leave was not in itself any more likely to
be productive of crime than either of the other proceed-
ings he had alluded to. It was possible that this system
of granting tickets of leave, remitting a considerable por-
tion of the sentence passed upon a prisoner, might have
the effect of creating a hope in his mind that he might
be speedily set at liberty, and thus diminish the effect of
the sentence ; or it might also have the effect of induc-
ing prisoners to make a hypocritical show of amend-
meat ; but what he wished to say was, that it appeared
• to him that the mere letting a man out of prison before
his time had expired had no more to do with creating
crime than if the man had been actually sentenced to a
shorter period of imprisonment, or had received a par-
don ; and it was exactly the same thing for a man to be
sentenced to imprisonment for two years and discharged

at the expiration of that period, or that, having been
sentenced to a longer period of imprisonment, he should
be set at liberty after he had undergone that portion of
his sentence. He did not wish it for a moment to be

understood that he was speaking in favour of the ticket-
of-leave sy3tem—it might or it might not be advisable

to return-to the system of transportation, or that some
other punishment should be substituted ; but whether

the ticket-of-leave system was retained or abolished, he
thought that either course ought only to be resorted to
upon some ground that was reasonable and in accordance
with common sense.

NORTHERN CIRCUIT.—Yomc.
(Before Mr. Justice ERLE )

John Weavers was indicted for stabbing his wife,
Hannah Weavers, with intent to murder or to do her
some grievous bodily harm, on the 7th of August last.
Mr. Wheelhouse prosecuted ; the prisoner was not de-
fended.

The prosecutrix and prisoner, it appeared, lived toge-
thee at Selby, and on the day of the occurrence she had
returned from York, to which place she had been for the '
purpose'of receiving some small legacy in money. At
night the prisoner asked her where the money was, and
she said that she had " made it all safe before she left
York." At the time when this took place the two were
getting supper together, and instantly on the prosecu-
trix making this observation the prisoner rose from his
seat, and aiming a blow at the prosecutrix's neck, cat
her slightly just over the earotid artery, and immediately
under the left ear, with the knife in his hand. There
were two cuts, one apparently a stab, the other a cut
wound, neither of them being really dangerous to life.
The learned Judge summed up very carefully, and told
the jury that they must not, because a wound bad
actually been inflicted on so dangerous a place as this,
necessarily conclude that it was committed with intent
to do any of the acts named in the indictment. They
must consider whether or not it was impossible that the
prisoner, who was then eating his supper, being put
much out of temper, used the knife, without any precise
intent in his mind at the moment he did so. That even
such a use of such an instrument as the knife produced
would, at any rate, if used as the prosecutrix had
described, be an unlawful act, and the prisoner had, at
all event, rendered himself liable to be found guilty of
• unlawful wounding.
After some consideration the jury found the prisoner
guilty of this last-named offence, and he was thereupon
sentenced to be imprisoned for two years, with hard
labour.

LIVERPOOL, Dim. 11.
(Before Mr. Baron Alderson.)
lhomas Smith, a ticket-of-leave man, was indicted for
burglary iu the house of Andrew Dobbie, at Manchester
on the 7th of October last.

Mr. Alfred Milne prosecuted, and Mr. E, Fenwick
defended the prisoner.

The prosecutor. who is the landlord of the Greyhound
public-house in Ludgate-hill, Manchester, stated that
his family retired to bed about half-past 11 upon the
night in question, having first secured all the doors and
windows of his house in the usual way, and that he was
called up before 6 o'clock on the following morning, and
upon going downstairs he discovered that the fanlight
over the door had been removed, and a side-door of the
house left open, and, continuing his search, he ascertained
that the drawers of the till containing his money had
been taken away from the bar. The evidence against
the prisoner rested mainly upon the testimony of a little
boy, who stated that he was going to his work a little
before 6 o'clock on the morning of the 7th of October,
and in passing the prosecutor's house be saw four men
standing at the door; one of them (whom he distinctly
swore to as the prisoner at the bar) lifted up a small boy
through the fanlight, and, the door being opened by him
from the inside, the prisoner went in and came out with
a drawer under his arm, followed by the boy with an-
other drawer, and thereupon all the party ran away.
The witness was positive as to the identity of the pri-
soner, though he was standing 40 yards off at thp time
he first observed them. His statement was confirmed
in some measure by another witness, who saw the party
for a minute or two, and whose attention had beeia
tracted by what he thought must have been the noise of
the falling of a chain inside the door.
that
out, the identity
Mr. Fenwick having strongly urged
of the prisoner bad not been clearlyu owing to
the dimness of the light at that hour of thee morning.
The learned judge summed uP,.?•°(l_
The jury found the prisoner gu!itri
His lordship, addressing the p
one of those gentlemen who, bayi
risng said,—You are
oner,
been transported
ftorrousblev.en
I e yseesrs, have been sent back again to give us
you were only discharged last July, and
you were transported after being previously convicted
five times. The sentence of the Court
transported for the term of 20 years.
The prisoner, who had protected his innocence, ex-
claimed, "Thank you, my lord !"