The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-03-05 00:00:00

LIVERPOOL INTERMEDIATE SESSIONS.

The sessions for the borough commenced.on Tuesday, be.
fore James Clarke, Esq., recorder. The calendar conttury
the names of 90 prisoners for felony, and six for misde-
meanours.

The following are the names of the gentlemen composing
the grand jury. •
Wellwood Maxwell, Esq., foreman ;
Amos Bigland, Gerard Lynch,
John Barnes Brancker Charles S. Middleton,
,• Thomas Dodson, John P. Matthew,
James Currie Duncan, Daniel Moore,
Edward Gibbin, • Thomas C. Molyneux,
Joseph Gibbins, Robert Mather,
Edward Humble, W. P. McGregor,
John Judein, • James Mulleneux,
Matthew Lee; William Nichol,
Edward Ward Jackson, James Powell, and
Harold Littledale, Hugh J. Sanderson, Esqrs.
The grand jury having been sworn, and the proclamation
against vice and immorality read by the Clerk of the Peace,
the recorder addressed the grand jury to the following effect :
The grand jury, the learned reco-der said, were no doubt
aware, that it was but eight weeks since that court last met to
administer the law. A desire had been very generally enter-
tained, that the sessions should be held more frequently,
and certainly the present calendar showed the expediency of
compliance with thnt desire. He was glad of the opportu-
nity of stating, in the presence of the mayor, that, having
been requested to exercise the power vested in him by the
law, he bad readily acceded, not less from a conviction that
it was desirable to hold the sessions more frequently, than
from his readiness to comply with a request coming from so
influential and respectable a quarter. The calendar, in point
of number, was by no means light; but there were many of
the offences which were not of the most serious nature as re-
spected the amount of property stolen: A few of the cases,
however, were of a serious nature. There were two of a de-
scription which required some slight comment. That which
stood 59 in the calendar was a very serious case. The charge
against the prisoner was not for the embezzlement of, but for
stealing, his master's property. The magistrate, in commit-
ting the prisoner on this charge, and in directing that the
indictment should be so framed, had acted quite correctly,
for when the money was once deposited in the counting-house
it was then to all intents and purposes as much the master's
property as any other thing of value that was in his posses-
sion, as the commodities that were deposited finis warehouse,
or any article that was delivered at his office. At the first im-
pression the offence looked like embezzlement, but it was
undoubtedly larceny. The facts in the depositions were
exceedingly strong as to the intention. The prisoner, it
appeared, was about to proceed to a foreign country with the
money, but, after some time had elapsed, he was seized with
compunction, and a desire to make reparation, which led to
disclosures which would prevent them from having any diffi-
culty in finding a hill. There was a very serious case, No.
14, of breakin,g into a warehouse in Suffolk-street. The
learned recorder discoursed on the chief point:, in the case,
and said it was apparent from the procedure of the party,
locks having been broken, &c., that it was intended to plun-
der the warehouse to a great extent. He was sorry to say
that only one individual had been taken, though it appeared
evident that there had-been a number of persons concerned.
No doubt the prisoner was the principal. There was a case
against a man named Riding, who had stolen a quantity of
cotton, and who, being in a confidential situation, ought to
have known better. There were other cases of a description
to which they could not allude without great pain; he meant
those of stabbing. .This would not exactly be called a new
crime, but it certainly had greatly increased of late, and it
was necessary to do the utmost to put it down. In one of
these cases the offender was quite a lad, only sixteen years of •
age. He had received no provocation, but had pulled out a
knife, and inflicted a severe wound. The case would be
brought forward as one of felonious stabbing, and the law,
as it applied to cases of this description, had been well ex-
pounded in the recent case of Lord Cardigan. After some
remarks on the bearing of the statutes in regard to cases of
wounding, the learned recorder again recurred to the neces-
sity of puttir.g a stop to a practice,. which, if not discouraged,
would lead ignorant youths- on every real or imagined provo-
cation to make use of knives and inflict injuries more
or less serious. The learned recorder said he was glad to
hear, from every quarter, of the great efficiency of the police
of this borough, which was organised on the most admirable
and correct principles. Those who had the government of
it knew the wants and requirements of the town of Liver-
pool, and the police was regukt3d and adapted to those
wants, and it worked admirably. He was sorry to say, that
in the rural districts, this was not the case, the operation of
the rural police being anything but satisfactory. In South
Lansdale, for instance, which consisted of fifty townships,
how many men would it be supposed had been raised under
the act of parliament' Only eleven men to superintend
these fifty townships. If an offence were committed in that
district, the police-officer might be twenty miles off. As
regarded this measure, he thought the county ought to
retrace its steps. There was a bill at present passing through
parliament, which was deserving of the attention of agricul-
tural districts, as it regulated the divisions of the hundreds.
Each division knew best its own particular wants, and what
force, and what regulating it required. Let each hundred
then raise its own force and pay for it. If this plan were
adopted, be thought it would be perfectly satisfactory.