The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-05-11 00:00:00

LIVERPOOL QUARTER SESSIONS.

The Quarter Sessions of the Peace for this borough com-
menced yesterday, in the Court-house, before JAs. CLARKE,
Esq., Recorder.
The following gentlemen were sworn on the Grand Jury :
RICIID. MOON, Esq., Tithebarn-street, merchant, Foreman.
Wm. Alexander Brown, Grecian-terrace, merchant.
Daniel Buchanan, Northumberland-terrace, broker.
James Bateson, Shaw-street, broker.
Thomas Brown, Netherfield-road South, broker.
Robert Lewin Bolton, Gambier-terrace, merchant.
Richard Bryans, jun., North John-street, merchant.
Thomas France Bennett, Lodge-lane, agent.
George Wm. Boyde, Stanhope-street, corn merchant.
John Bibby, Springfield-street, merchant.
John Wilson Carter, Erskine-street, corn merchant.
Christopher James Corbally, Falkner-street, merchant.
Woodhouse Crompton, Mill-street, merchant.
Hugh Craig, Percy-street, merchant.
James Judson, Monument-place.
John Marriott, Beechby, cotton broker.
Thomas M`Teer, Chatham-street, merchant.
Francis Maxwell, Fenwick-street, corn merchant.
John Rowlinson, High Park-street, broker.
William Joseph Myers, Aigburth, merchant.
Israel Barned, Rodney-street, banker.
William Blain, Beech-hill, corn merchant.

The CLERK of the PEACE having read the royal proclama-
tion against vice, profaneness, and immorality,
The RECORDER proceeded to deliver the charge to the
grand jury. He was happy to inform them, upon looking
over the depositions in the various cases, that they would
not find them encumbered with difficulty. There was one
case, in which William Williams and Patrick Roach were in-
dicted for having stolen a quantity of wheat. On looking
over the depositions he (the learned Recorder) was not
satisfied that there would be sufficient evidence to justify
them in finding a bill against Roach, nevertheless that
was a point entirely for their consideration. He should
allude to another case, which, though free from difficulty,
was accompanied with many circumstances which were
quite alarming. It was against a woman named Agnes
Weir, who was indicted for stealing a large quan-
tity of books and paper, some of which belonged to Messrs.
Moss, the bankers, and others to an attorney. The prisoner,
it appeared, was placed in a confidential situation with these
parties, and she had, in a most abandoned way, got hold of
most valuable papers and books without limit, and sold them
as waste paper. Many of these papers were valuable docu-
ments, and vouchers of the very last importance. He men-
tioned this to show how particularly oareful merchants and
others should be as to whom they admitted into their offices
and counting-houses at an early hour in the morning. In
another case, a man named Tempest, an attorney's clerk,
had stolen away volume after volume of books, and having
taken them to grocers and chandlers, sold them there as
waste paper. These cases were pregnant with mischief, and
they showed how dangerous it was to allow people an unli-
mited range over premises without check. The learned gen-
tleman then alluded to the fact that many of the prisoners
came out of gaol quite indifferent as to the punishment they
had received, and immediately returned to their old prac-
tices. We had the benefit of a very excellent police, and
when that police was established, he expected crime would
have decreased ; but crime had not decreased. The police,
however, were not to blame, nor were magistrates or judges
to blame in their administration of the law. The difficulty
arose from there having been no secondary punishment yet
found out to deter crime. Capital punishments were done
away with, transportation was become very difficult,
government, for some reason or other, checking it as
much as possible, and consequently they were driven to
imprisonment. But imprisonment merely, unless it was
combined with something else, would not check crime. In-
dustry in the gaol was unfortunately very imperfect, and a
state of idleness, of all others, was found to encourage crime.
The learned recorder then commented upon the heavy bur-
dens which frequent prosecutions of the same persons
imposed upon the country, and attributed them to the ab-
sence of some mode of secondary punishment, yet undisco-
vered, capable .of producing reformation. He quoted Sir
Matthew Hale to show that the same evil existed in his
day, and trusted the jury would not consider these remarks
improperly introduced. He saw no remedy for the increase
of crime, but the adoption of some judicious and effective
mode of secondary punishment. Indeed, if the past system
prevailed, of regularly going in and out of gaol, the burdens
of the country would be increased, and crime not diminished
in the least. The Grand Jury were then dismissed to their
labours.