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

ASSIZE INTEL LIGESOE.

SOME CIRCUIT.—CHELmsronD, Dro. 11.
The commission fcr tha county of Essex was opened
here to-day by Mr. Bann 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 whou
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 not 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 cona•
mitted to the assizes, and the object 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 those cases
which the quarter sessions had no power to try. He
believed that an impression existed in some quarters
that the erimiral 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 sitting 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 commu-
nicate with that commission, and any suggestions they
mtht 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 Fame 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 itseif 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 whet 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 he
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 bad 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 system—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.—YORK.
(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-
ther at Selby, and on tke 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 blew at the proseentrix's neck, cat
her slightly just over the carotid 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 events, 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, DEC, 11.
(Before Mr. Baron Alderson.)
Thomas Smith, a ticket-of-leave man, was indicted for
burglary in the house of Andrew Dobbie, at Manchester
on the 7th of October last.
Mr. Alfred Milne prosecuted, and Mr. E, M. Penwick
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 he eaw 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 Caine 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 the tune
he fir,t 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 been at-
tracted by what he thought must have been the noise of
the falling of a chain inside the door.
Mr. Feuwick haying strongly urged that the identity
of the prisoner had not been clearly made out, owing to
the dimness of the light at that hour of the morning.
The learned judge summed up, and
The jury found the prisoner guilty.
His lordship, addressing the prisoner, said,---You are
one of those gentlemen who, having been transported
for seven years, have been sent back again to give us
trouble. I see you wore only discharged last July, and
you were transported after being previously convicted
five times. The sentence of the Court is that you be
transported for the term of 20 years.
The prisoner, who bad protested his innocence, ex-
claimed, "Thank you, my lord !"