The Sun.
London, England, 1845-12-03 00:00:00

SURREY SESSIONS.

Monday, the adjourned sessions was held, at the Court.
house, Newington, before Mr.; Puckle, Chairman, and a
full bench of magistrates. 'I he calendar contains the
names of forty-five prisoners for trial for felonies, besides
twelve for misdemeanour. _ .

- - ---
Previously to the trial of prisoners the Court pro-
ceeded to the transaction of county business, during
which the reports of the visiting justices of the different
gaols of the county, as well as those of the officers at-
tached to them, were read. The surgeon's report of the
House of Correction at Brixton gave some curious de-
tails with respect to the operation of the work on the
treadmill on prisoners. It stated that of fourty-four male
prisoners, working on the treadwheel, who had been
more than three months in prison,: twenty-four
had lost in weight, varying from 11b. to 22lbs ; fifteen
had gained, varying from 11b. to 251b5., and five re-
mained the same as on their admission. That of those
who had lost in weight, one man only had suffered in
health, and he had been a butcher by trade, and accus-
tomed to very generous diet before coming into prison.
The surgeon further reported that the cells on the
ground tier, being all paved, were very damp during
wet weather, to which, and the use of so much gruel in
the dietary, he attributed in a great measure the preva-
lence of diarrhoea and dysentery. Owing to the
above suggestion, the visiting justices had caused one
cell to be boarded as an experiment, and therefore re-
commend the Court to authorise them to have the rest
of the cells boarded in a similar manner. During the
past year the number of prisoners admitted into Brixton
gaol amounted to 2,315, viz.—children under twelve
years of age, 50; above twelve and under fourteen, 125 ;
above fourteen and under seventeen, 586. Two-thirds
of the prisoners had not attained the age of manhood-_a
proportion, as the report mentioned, fearful, and attri-
butable to imperfect education in the general acceptation
of the term. _ _ _

__ ..___ . ~.....
The reports having been confirmed, the Court then
proceeded to the trial of prisoners.
A person of gentleman-like appearance, who refused
to give his name, and was entered in the calendar as
thirty-one years of age, was indicted for stealing a horse
and chaise, value 40 guineas, the property of William
Botwright, a livery-stable-keeper, at Yarmouth.
From the evidence, which was entered into at consi-
derable length, it appeared that on the Bth ult. the pri-
soner called at the prosecutor's livery stables in Yar-
mouth, and describing himself as a woollen merchant,
hired a horse and gig to take him to Lowestoft, saying that
he should be back the same afternoon. Prosecutor, be-
lieving the statement, entrusted the horse andchaise to the
prisoner, of whom he heard nothing afterwards until the
13th. On that day prosecutor received an intimation
that the prisoner was in custody at Farnham, in Surrey,
and on repairing there it was found the prisoner had
called upon a man named Newell in that town, wl2o,
amongst other avocations followed that of constable, and
offered to dispose of the gig and harness to him. Newell
having pteTiously geou the hue and Cr,', in which rag