The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-03-16 00:00:00

LIVERPOOL MARCH SESSIONS

Yesterday the March Sessions for Ow Borough com-
menced, before GILBERT HENDERSON, Esq., Recorder,
at the Sessions House, Chapel-street.
The Calender for the present Sessions is not so heavy
as that of the preceding ; but that, unfortunately, may be
ascribed to other causes than a decrease of crime ; the
time which has intervened between this session and the
last has been but short. There are 61 cases of felony, and
10 of misdemeanOur to be tried, 'making a total of 71 ; of
this number it has been ascertained that 34 read and *rite
imperfectly; 8 read only, and that imperfectly; 2 only
read well ; and there are 28 who can neither read nor

Shortly after ten o'clock the Recorder entered the
when, the following gentlemen were sworn as a

Timothy 'Abram Curtis, ironfounder, Love-.

Daniel Cdmeron, BuchanOn, Esq., broker, Dale-street; Robert
Bibby, Esq., sailmaker, Chapel-street ; William Claxton, Esq.,
cornmerchant, Lower Castle-street; John Campbell, Jun.,
Esq., merchant, King-street; William Dowson, Esq., mer-
chhnt, Goree Piazzas; John Lawrence, Esq., brewer, Great

George-square; James Perrin, Esq. Merchant, Goree
Piazzas; Thomas Priestley, Esq., merchant, George's Dock-
gates; James Springer, Esq., merchant, Tower Chambers;
Wm. Smith, Esq., merchant, Old Hall-street ; J. Hardly
Rigley, Esq., broker, Exchange-court, North ; John S. Wood,
Esq., cotton-broker, Exchange-alley ; David Lamb, Esq., mer--
chant, Union-street; Alfred Wm. Howles, Esq., merchant,
Water-street; James Henry Butler, Esq., mercant, Drnry-
lane ; Richard Alison, Lsq., merchant, Fenwick-street ;
Samuel Beckwith, Esq., broker, Tower Garden; Thomas A.
Bushby, Esq., broker, Dale-street.
The learned RECORDER then proceeded to address the
Grand Jury to the following effect :—Gentlemen of the
Grand Jury as the interval since the last sessions has been
but short, you will find the present calendar comparatively
light. There is only one case which will call for any
remarks from me ; that is a case where two thieves broke
into a shoe shop, it is thought with the view of stealing
some of the property therein contained. They were,
however, caught before they had taken away any of the
shoes ; and there rests the point for your consideration.
But your attention will be directed to the fact, as to
whether they entered the shop with the intention of
abtsracting any part of the property ; and if it appears
to you they did, you will have no difficulty in disposing of
the case, The other cases are altogether extremely simple,
and may, therefore, be left to your own discretion ; but
should you require any assistance from me, in the dis-
charge of your duties, I shall be most happy to give it to
you

Gentlemen, I do not know that I have another
word to say to you, except to notice the change which
will soon be brought about by Government in the mode
in which male prisoners are in future to be treated,
instead of being transported as heretofore. It is pro-
posed by Government to put them through three stages
of punishment : they will be first imprisoned, after
their trial, for 12 or 18 months in prisons, where the sepa-
rate confinement principle will be adopted : and secondly
they will be compelled to labour, during another portion
of their time, at task work on the public works, either at
home or abroad ;—and after that they will be banished for
the remaining period of their sentence to wherever it
may seem advisable to send them. It may be that some
doubts may arise as to how far this change may approach
the efficacy of transportation as a punishment, by lessen-r
ing the terror with which it is regarded by criminals.
From my position here I am able to state with perfect
confidence, that during the last three years, when
sentences of transportation were carried into effect,
by sending the parties, so sentenced, out of the country,
that such punishments were regarded with extreme terror.
Many criminals were, I am certain, prevented from com-
mitting crime by the terror of transportation which was
held over them ; and I know that many were kept within
the bounds of the law by that salutary terror, who would
not have regarded any sentence of imprisonment. But
whilst I say this, I must admit that the punishment now
proposed to be adopted, in place of the old system of
transportation, is one of no small severity. To pass 12
or 18 months, or more, perhaps, in the solitary gloom
of separate confinement within the narrow limits of a
prisons' walls ; and after that to be bound to work like a
malefactor on the public works of our own country, or
some of the colonies,—Gibraltar, Bermuda, or perhaps
the Cape,—and finally to be exiled from our native
country for the remaining portion of a term of seven, ten,
or fifteen years, as the case may be, is a prospect that
may well appal the strongest mind. To many persons
this mode of punishment will prove a greater severity
than the ordinary punishment of transportation, as
hitherto carried into effect, possibly could do. But,
gentlemen, it is not my province or intention to discuss
this question. I wish merely to explain- to you what
is intended to be done with those prisoners on whom
I may be called upon to pass that sentence. There is
also another Subject to which I would direct your atten-
tion. Government further intends to make some change
with regard to the mode of treating juvenile offences.
They wish to make some new provision for disposing of
them, and to relieve the judges from that embarrassment
which they have ever felt when disposing of such cases.
To illustrate this I will state a case :—There is a young
boy to be tried at the present sessions—his name I shall
not mention;—but he is so young that one would wonder

- -
how a magistrate could think of sending him for trial;
yet when I came to investigate the nature of his case,
I find that the felony with which he is charged could not
have been committed by a full-grown man : it must
have bees}, dono by a young boy. And on further
examination I found that he was before me for trial
twelve months ago ; and I also found that the magis-
trate did not send him here for trial until after he
had repeatedly tried the effects of a few days' impri-
sonment upon him. At the time this lad was previously
tried I was very much embarrassed by his case myself.
He was too young and too diminutive in size to be
transported* and besides T had no inclination to do so

would have sent him to Mr. Parkinson's prison, but I had
no law to enable me to do so. But if I had had a gaol
possessing the accommodation of separate confinement, I
should have sent him there for some lengthened period of
time; I would have had him placed under the due train-
ing of the schoolmaster, and, with the good advice of the
excellent and benevolent pastor, it is possible that a
change for the better might have been produced in him.
I would have sent him to an Industrial School, but I had
no power to do so, and, besides, if I had the power to do
so, his father or mother could at any moment claim his
liberty from such an institution. Well, under these cir-
cumstances, what did I do ? I sentenced him to be con-
fined for fourteen days, and to he once whipped, That
had the only effect that could be expected from it. It
caused him to abstain from vice for five months ; hilt at
the end of that time he returned to his old habits again ;
and. since that time he has been five times brought up be-
fore the magistrates for offences of a similar nature. It
is clear that his punishment then- produced but a tem-
porary cessation from crime : it did not go to the root
of the evil, and, therefore, could not cure it. It is the
intention of Government to provide schools for this class of
offenders, which are to be receptacles for them—institu-
tions that will partake more of the nature of asylums for
their reformation than prisons for their punishment. Yet
even in those places it will be necessary that the terrors
of the punishment . do not altogether disappear, as,
unless great care be taken in that particular, I fear
we shall uit find much diminution in the number
of commit from this class of offenders. At pre-
sent the full plan of Government has not been dis-
closed, and therefore, I will not dwell longer upon it.
With regard to female prisoners it is not intended that
any change shall take place in the law as it now stands.
Women who receive the sentence of transportation will
be sent out of the country as hitherto ; and I do hope
that they will take care by their conduct that they will not
merit such apunishment. I am sorry to say that in this town
the women are becoming even more degraded than they
were. Of the 61 cases of felony, to be tried at these Ses-
sions, 21 are women. And at each Sessions it is my pain-
ful duty to pass this awful sentence upon them. I hope,
however, that in future a better state of things will arise,
and that I shall never again be called upon to exercise
that power which is imposed upon me by the law of the
land, and the misdemeanours of the people. Gentlemen,
with these few observations, I will dismiss you to your
duties.
The Grand Jury then retired.