The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-10-25 00:00:00

as having

1 could read and writ

been opened witl

I • The court liaciu6
ties, the following g

fireman
W. P
A 3 -

it, Pen

John Golding, Jun., s.

Charles

Wm. John Marrow, merchant
Jacques Myers, brok
Wm. Macfie, si
Mill

Exchange-street West
ar refiner, Temple-strec
ieraiant, Brunswh

Samue

Alfred W. Pow

Les, merchant, Nate

;k-stiee

Jabez Raynes, brOker, Exchange-alley North.
Alexander Shand, merchant, Old Churchyard
Archibald Sinclair, merchant, Chapel-street..
George Scholfield, merchant, Exchange-alley :

Wm. John Tomlinson, merchant, Rumford-stre
John James Scott, merchant, Brunswick-street

[son, commission

1 formali-

11111-rnna

vet Eas

The Learned RECORDER, in his charge to the
Jury, said :—As from day to .day we looked at the

Grand
weather

glass, so, from sessions to sessions, one was apt to look at
Now,

the enlendar as some index of ti

li;e—atTio"u" .i;t

state of the present calendar presented

the lapse of now eight weeks, the number oT seventy

laracter

prisoners was not very great, and the genera_
of the offences, he thought they would find not very seri-
ous. The number would clearly have been less, if some
parties had not contributed by their negligence, and
others by their own loose and disorderly conduct, to the
thefts and mischief of which they complained. Nothing
was more satisfactory in the administration of justice, now-

a-days, than the change that had taken place in respect to
thieving, which was much less seldom accompanied with
violence than it used to be ; and he thought it justified,
and, indeed, required a more lenient view than he could
formerly take; but he should always think it right to

was used

present calendar there was
vhich, at the dead of night, a person, who had
the window and door of his bed-room, was alarm _
wife telling him that there was some person in the room.
On hearing this, he did find on the floor a man who had
been concealed in the room when they went to bed. The

man was taken without, as far as it appeared, an.

1 by hi

serious

it he had had in his possession any deadly
weapon, or if he had used great violence upon that occasion,
he (the learned Recorder) should have considered himself
called upon to inflict a much More severe castigation, than
under the circumstances, upon proof, it would probably
require. He mentioned this for one reason. The man
when taken said he had taken nothing, and it was true
nothing was found upon him ; but the gentleman had
left his purse in his pocket. His trousers were removed
from the chair where they had been put, and the purse
was found on the floor a few yards off. If they should be
satisfied that the purse was taken by that man with intent
to steal it, then, although it was so recovered, and the
man did not get away, he need hardly tell them that in
point of law that was a stealing of the goods, which would
be complete. At the same time, when he observed that
in general theft was not so frequently accompanied with
violence as used to be the case, one did see a clasii of
offences rising up of late in which persons had been seized
in the street, almost strangled, and treated with very
great violence ; and on the same principle that he would
deal leniently with such cases as those he had mentioned,
he thought in these cases great severity should be exer-
cised towards such persons, to put them down, by those
who were empowered to administer the law. Iu such
cases he had so dealt with them. He was not aware that
the present calendar presented any cases of that nature.
He did, however, regret to see that there were no less
than five of the misdemeanour cases of stabbing—cases in
which knives had been resorted to. He was not aware
that the court had been wanting in due severity, but he
certainly found that offence upon the increase, and felt
himself called upon to act accordingly. It was nothing
in extenuation to say that in three of these cases the men
were under the influence of drink. Perhaps the other
two also might have been, but though that might account
for it, it did not at all excuse it, or render it the less
necessary to put down, if possible, by severe punishment
such offences. He had also witnessed frequently in that
court a very brutal and barbarous class of offences. He
had had one instance in which a man had attempted to
tear the eye of another man out of the socket. He was
punished both by fine and imprisonment ; and he (the
Recorder) was happy to say he had not had any others of
that particular offence. Several cases had occurred with-
in the last year or two of persons
,who had absolutely
bitten off part of the noses of others. Here again was
an abominable, barbarous, and inhuman proceeding which
must be effectually discouraged. He had endeavoured to
do so in cases which came before him. There were none
such in the present calendar, but there was a case, as
stated in the deposition, in which a man had bit
off part of another's ear. This again was of that
class which, he said, required to be effectually dis-
couraged. The gentlemen of the Jury would be
aware of the difficulty which had arisen with regard to
transportation. They were aware that for a long time the
administration of the law on this subject had been in a
transition state. In the mode in which persons had been
dealt with under that law, the sentences were subject to
fluctuations. Many things had been tried, and at last a
very decided step had been taken to limit the number of
the sentences of transportation, and, in fact, it was pro-
bable that they might fall altogether into disuse. It so
happened that that court was for the first time, in this
sessions, to administer the altered law, and perhaps it
might not, therefore, be out of place in him to make some
remarks on the subject. For the future, no sentences of
seven or ten years transportation would be passed. Sen-
tences of transportation for fourteen years or for life might
be passed, but even in those cases the judge would have a
discretion, and, in cases of transportation for life, might,
instead of transporting for life, sentence a person to be
kept in penal servitude for life,—so that, in regard to
shorter sentences of transportation, sentences of penal
servitude for a term of years would be substituted ;
and, as a matter of course, and probably eventually, the
vitude. Now the length of that course varied in pro-
sentences would always be for some time of penal
serportion to the sentence of transportation to which
a party would be liable. In lieu of transporta-
tion for seven years, the term of penal servitude is
four years; instead of transportation for ten years, the
term of penal servitude might be from four to six years ;
instead of transportation for fifteen years, the penal servi-
tude might be from six to eight years ; instead of a term
of transportation exceeding nfteen years, the penal servi-
tude might be awarded as from six to ten years ; and in-
stead of transportation for life, penal servitude for the
term of life. Now, it would be dangerous for persons to
flatter themselves that under those sentences the punish-
ment would be light. It would be a great mistake to
suppose that transportation was abolished. Transportation
was not abolished. Transportation, under any of these
circumstances, might take place to any of her Majesty's
colonies. It must be recollected that there were colonies
where there were no complaints, and settlements where
there would be objection, by the inhabitants, to the re-
ception of convict labour; as for instance, Gibraltar,
Bermuda, and even the western part of Australia. It
was probable, and likely, transportation would still go
on to some extent ; and therefore, under any of those
sentences of penal servitude, a person might find him-
self in one of those colonies. It seemed to him
a person might consider it a very alarming thing the very
uncertainty how a man would be dealt with under his
sentence. He did not know, and the judge who passed
the sentence could not tell him. A man sentenced to
penal servitude might find himself in the seclusion of
separate confinement at Pentonville—he might find him-
self labouring in the dock-yard at Woolwich, or at Ports-
mouth, carrying heavy burdens day by day—or he might
find himself working at fortifications at Portsea, or he
might find himself quarrying in the Island of Portland, or
assisting in making the breakwater there—or he might
find himself in the same way employed about the fortifi-
cations at Gibraltar—or he might find himself in that
unwholesome island, of which he (the learned Recorder)
had read so much, Bermuda,—or he might find himself at
the Antipodes. Now he said, though there was great
latitude taken in acts of parliament how government may
deal with those persons under sentences of penal servitude,
they had a deal to fear as to what they had to undergo in
such a sentence; but without seeing how particularly that
might be carried vat, this was certain, that in general
they would have to labour, undergo severe labour, deprived
of course of the society of their friends, removed from the
places which were dear to them, and kept for a long term
in some useful (it might be hoped) labour, but subject to
all the restraints of imprisonment. Now, when he described
this as the consequence of crime, and the consequence of
such sentences,—at the same time it was not intended that
the parties should be left without hope, nor would they be
left without hope if by their good conduct they merited
any indulgence ; and whatever the sentence, it might be
for life or for a shorter period, it did not follow that
government would insist upon their being kept in prison
during the whole of that term, because the law expressed
that if her Majesty should please to grant a license and
permission to return to society they might do so even
before the end of the term to which they were sentenced.
Then of course it was to be expected that her Majesty in
her wisdom, and with the advice which she would receive,
would not restore them prematurely, except from their
conduct there should be reason to think they had sincerely
repented of their crime, and they were likely to return to
society without doing further mischief. No doubt it was
a very serious experiment to return persons under those
circumstances to society at all, because it would be seen
they were, while under the sentences, removed from
all those temptations, removed from the bad society
of all their own companions, and there was perforce
a temptation in degree when they returned to them.
Still, however, it was only fair that persons so sentenced
should, by their good conduct, have a fair chance given
them of amending their condition. In the experiment of
their restoration to society, it seemed to him that it
might be made more safely than it could some years ago.
He had great confidence in the police establishment, in the
control they gave, and the watchfulness they exercised
with
u regard parties ; and here again, if they
hold be
society, there was power kept that
if they misconducted themselves, her Majesty had the
power of revoking the license, and they might be returned
should
too
red thoseto
back to undergo the remainder of their punishment,—
and that without trial—because power was given to the
Secretary of State, it seemed to him rightly lodged there,
who, under the great responsibility that high office im-
poses, would have to satisfy his conscience by any means
he thought proper, that the parties were dangerous and
not taking that course which was safe ; and then, for the
safety of society, at her Majesty's pleasure, the license
would be revoked, and they would- be liable to be re-
arrested and remitted to undergo the remainder of -tlw,:r
punishment. As he lad stated, probably At that wart ,