The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1852-08-17 00:00:00

CROWN COURT,

qhtfulness of the

minutes past ten o'cloc'

and th

Brotherton

gious

LL took his seat on the bench at a few

following gentlemen
were then sworn on the grand jury :—Wm. Brawn, Esq.,
M.P., foreman ; Sir Elkanah Armitage, Knight ; Joseph
; Thomas Thornely, M.P. ; Charles
llagazine, I Turner, NI.P

; William Eccles, M.P. ; John Bentley,
Thomas Baziev, Richard Birlev, Thomas Brocklebank,
Ralph Greenhough, Robert Gardner, John Hargreaves,
Francis Heywood, T. E. Moss, R. N. Phillips, Richard
Shell, J. P. Tempest, R. V. Yates, Wm. Rathbone, and
Peter Ainsworth, Esqrs

Le usual proclamation against vice and immorality

having been read,
His LORDSHIP proceeded to deliver his charge to the
grand jury. He regretted that, in Liverpool, a number
of gentlemen summoned on the grand inquest had not
answered to their names. This had not occurred in any
other place on the circuit, and it would have been his
duty to have forced their attendance by imposing fines,
but he had abstained in the hope that such a thing would
not occur again. His lordship proceeded to remark upon
the calendar, which, he said, appalled him, containing as
it did the names of 121 prisoners, many of them charged
with very grievous offences. He was one of thos3 who
thought that manufactures and commerce had the effect
of humanising and refining, instead of degrading and
leading to the commission of crime. Amongst the most
prevalent offences in this county he found those of rob-
bery, burglary, and stabbing; and it gave him pain to
find that the use of the stiletto and knife, which was an
un.English practice, was on the increase. The crime of

perjury, too, was increasing, apparently owing to a late
act of the legislature which allowed parties to be witnesses
for themselves. That act led to the just discovery of ,
truth, and the dealing out of justice between litigant
parties ; but unfortunately there was no unmixed good
in this world, and it held out a temptation to falsehood,
which must be repressed. He found it stated in a report
laid before him by the Chaplain of the House of Correc-
tion at Preston, to whom he paid a high compliment,
that crimes of violence against the person had decreased
in this county, whilst those against property had in-
creased. This, he said, surprised him, inasmuch as there
was now a demand for labour, both manufacturing and
agricultural, sufficient to secure employment for every
industrious man. It was too much to hope that in this
world crime could ever be exterminated. He believed,
however, that it could be decreased by giving to the
people a sound religious education. Another means was
the repression of the crime of drunkenness, which was
the origin of at least three-fourths of the crime which
came before him. He had had reason to know, from
holding the office of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster,
that the magistrates of this county were exemplary in the
discharge of their duties ; and he believed that in the town
of Liverpool there was an example set to all the corpora-
tions of the kingdom. This was now not only the second
city of the empire, but almost rivalling the metropolis.
In the last year its customs receipts were only less by
£5,000 than those of London ; and although it might
never become the metropolis, it has become, and will
continue to be, the rival of the great metropolis of the
British empire ; and he believed f,r its institutions for
education and for charity that it sets an example to the
whole world. His lordship proceeded as follows :
Gentlemen, before concluding this address to you, I think
I am bound publicly to express the sense I entertain of
the becoming conduct of the High Sheriff of the county
in his reception of the Judges. You are aware that he is
the worthy representative of an ancient and distinguished
family, the Blundells of Ince Blundell, and that, adheeing
to the faith of his ancestors, he is a strict and sincere
Roman Catholic. But reflecting credit on the religious
persuasion to which he belongs, he has cautiously ab-
stained from doing anything that can be considered con-
trary to the law of the land, or offensive to the feelings of
Protestants. Instead of obtruding on the judges as
chaplain a Roman Catholic priest, in the costume of the
Romish Church, proposing that this priest should appear
in the same carriage with the judges when they go in
procession, attended byjavelin-men and trumpeters to open
the Queen's commission, and that he should sit by them
in court, as chaplain, whilst they administered justice
during the assizes, your High Sheriff, enjoying the full
benefit for himself and his family of the ministrations of
the spiritual instructor whom he in his conscience prefers,
has made arrangements whereby, both at Lancaster and
Liverpool, the Judges have been enabled, according to
established usage, to join in the public worship of God,
according to the rites of the Protestant religion, before
the commencement of judicial business, and have had the
benefit of a Protestant clergyman officiating for them as
chaplain. Happily the High Sheriff can perform all that
belongs to the duty of his office without any interference
with religious scruples. We do not expect or wish the
anything which can incur censure from the guides of his
conscience. On the other hand, it is not unreasonable to
require that in our presence the law of the land shall not be
violated, and that due respectshould beshown to our feelings
as Protestants. From the benevolent and enlightened tone
of recent legislation all religious disabilities are now done
away with, and civil offices (with very few exceptions) are
equally open to persons of all religious denominations.
It would, indeed, be a cruel injustice that Roman Catholics,
whilst they agree to submit to the supremacy of the state
in all temporal matters, were excluded from the full en-
joyment of religious liberty. But for their own sakes,
and for others, they do well when they avoid anything
which may reasonably excite the suspicion that they mean
to act aggressively, or that they have formed a plan for
reviving the ascendancy of their religion in this country.
It may be hoped, after the wise example set by my es-
teemed friend, Mr. Blundell, the attempt to fasten a
Roman Catholic clergyman on Protestant judges will not
be attempted again. To show the delusion on which this
pretension rests, it is enough to point out the consequences
to which it necessarily leads. Jews and Quakers may fill,
and have filled, the office of high-sheriff in Engjand ; and
if the high-sheriff is entitled to put into the carriage,
along with the judges, the religious adviser he selects for
his own edification, they may find themselves riding
through the streets of a provincial capital " the observed
of all observers," with a Jewish high priest sitting by
them, or a male or female follower of the founder of the
sect of friends, who admit the softer sex to have the pri-
vilege of publicly praying and preaching. But such a
violation of propriety was not attempted by the late Jew-
ish sheriffs of Buckinghamshire or Surrey, or by the late
Quaker sheriff of Cumberland, although there is no sta-
tute forbidding the use of rabbinical vestments, or broad-
brimmed hats and russet garments in public processions.
Gentlemen, I trust there is nothing improper in expressing,
on this occasion, an earnest wish that all her Majesty's
subjects, of all religious persuasions, should live together
in peace and happiness, respecting the rights and feelings
of one another, and that they would abstain from thinking
that they are persecuted or aggrieved, if they fail in any
ill-advised endeavour to ettack rivals, and to obtain un-
due superiority for themselves. I have read, gentlemen,
the depositions, and it does not appear to me there are
any cases likely to present a difficulty to come before you.
If there be any, I shall be extremely ready to render you
my best assistance, if you favour me with any doubts that
may arise.
At the conclusion of his lordship's charge, Mr. Rath-
bone and Mr. Ainsworth came into the grand jury box,
and were sworn. Mr. J. A. Tinne attended shortly after,
but was not sworn.