The Sun.
London, England, 1845-07-12 00:00:00

CROWN COURT.

Mr. Justice COLERIDGE presided in this Court ; and after
the grand jury had been sworn his Lordship proceeded to de-
liver his charge to them. After congratulating them upon the
small number of prisoners for trial and the probability that
their labours would be of very short duration, his Lordship
said that having made all the remarks that appeared to him to
be necessary with respect to the cases in the calendar, he
would proceed to offer a few observations to them upon the im-
portant subject of the state of crime in the county. He had
before him the criminal returns for England and Wales, upon
which his observations would chiefly be founded. By these re-
turns it appeared that the number of prisoners committed for
trial, or bailed, during the past year, in the comity of Hert-
ford, was 271. if they went back for ten years, they would
find that the number at that time, for the same period, was
238: and ever since there had been a steady increase ; and it
was worthy of consideration whether this could be accounted
for by the increase of the popul ition during the same period, or
whether it was owing to the moral deterioration of the popula-
tion of the county. He observed that in every other county in
England, during the last two years, there had been a decrease
in the number of committals, and although the increase in this
eounty was certainly but small, yet he thought they ought to
regard the subject with a very jealous eye, and endeavour if
possible to trace out the causes of that increase. It was satis-
factory to a certain extent to perceive that although there was
anincrease in the number of committals in the county, vet that
there were very few cases of vimence to the person, and the
erimes mostly consisted of common larceny and larceny by
servants; and while upon this part of the subject he would
mention one circumstance which in their capacity of magis-
trates he thought very important for their consideration. He
perceived by the returns that out of 271 prisoners who were
committed or bailed to take their trial, only 177 were convicted,
and as many as 94 were either acquitted, not prosecuted, or
the bills against them were ignored by the grand jury. Now
he should not be so unjust as to found, upon such a return as
this, a complaint of the manner in which the magistrates per-
formed their duty ; but at the same time he must take the
liberty of calling their attention to the very great proportion of
persons who had been sent to prison for a greater or less perm I,
and who were eventually acquitted of the chr.rges brought
again them. It might be the opinion of some that with re-
gard to a great many of those persons, although acquitted, yet
there was no moral doubt of their guilt ; but if they placed any
faith in the due administration of the laws of the country, they
would see that they ought not to place much weight upon that
opinion, and he, therefore, begged to impress upon them the
importance of not sending persons for trial upon slight grounds.
In all cases of imprisonment it was a great evil to the party
who suffered it, and however improved their system of prison
discipline might be, yet if any one was confined upon slight or
insufficient grounds it could not fail to be a source of great in-
justice to himself personally, and very probably of evil to that
society which he afterwards joined. Hi 2 Lordship then pro-
ceeded to observe that it was gratifying to see by the returns
that generally throughout England crime was on the de-
cease ; in the mining districts there had been
an increase, which was probably occasioned by the
strikes of the workmen for higher wages, which had always
been productive of crime ; and he said he would here
remark that the mere improvement of the physical condition of
the people did not appear to have any tendency to diminish
crime. As an instance of this he would state that when he
was at the last winter circuit in the county of Durham, it ap-
peared that in the coal •mining districts the workmen were get-
ting four or five-and-twenty shillings a week, with house rent
and coals for nothing, whi!e in the other districts no more than
the ordinary agricultural wages were being paid ; but yet the
far greater proportion of crime ap?eared to
.have been com-
mitted in the former, and the extent of crime in the latter was
comparatively trifling. God forbid that he should wish to de-
press the physical condition of the working classes; but he
was quite certain they would only half do their work
in the repression of crime if they neglected their moral con-
dition at the same time. It was melancholy to see that,
although there had been a general diminution in the amount.
of crime, vet that cases of violence against the person had
very :much increased, and particularly one class of offences
connected with the game•laws, which he thought he ought
not to pass over. In addition to the ordinary cases, of
being armed at night in pursuit of game, tresspassing, &c., it
appeared that dm-mg the year 1844 there were three cases of
murder, nineteen of shooting at keepers or other persons with
intent to commit murder, and two eases of manslaughter, all
arising out of offences connected with the game-laws. He
thought this afforded matter for very serious consideration ;
and without wishing to say anything invidious, he could not
help remarking that it was impossible not to lament that the
present system of protecting game led to such serious results.
Having made these observations, he would now express his
opinion that the only mode by which crime could be surely re •
pressed was to improve the moral condition of the people. It
had been urged by the advocates for the abolition of capital
punishment, that the certainty of severe secondary punishment
would certainly tend to diminish crimes of that character, but
he regretted that the returns before him, and his own expe-
rience, did not bear out that expectation, and he was sorry to
say that the crimes from which capital punishment had been
taken away had increased more in proportion than any others.
The offences of cutting and wounding, attempts at murder, and
the crime of murder itself, had increased thirty per cent.
There appeared to be a very great increase among the prisoners
of persons who were able to read and write, but this showed
that such an education was not sufficient, and thatiat was of no
avail unless the persons who received it were taught to employ
it properly, and that it would be of very little use to improve
the physical condition of the people, or to give them education,
unless education was founded upon morality and religion.
The grand jury then retired.

VESTEI?N ClRCUlT.—Winchester, July 11.
The Commission was opened here yesterday by both the
Judges, Mr. Justice Erie and Hr. Baron Platt. Their Lore-
ships attended Divine service in the Cathedral this morning,
after which they proceeded to enter upon the bu.iness of the
assizes about one o'clock. The calendar only contains twenty-
eight cases, but exhibits a proportion unusually great of atro-
cious crimes. Two persons are charged with feloniously
wounding, six with manslaughter and child murder, while there
are no less than four cases of bestiality.