The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1836-12-09 00:00:00

LIVERPOOL SESSIONS.

The intermediate sessions,
commenced on Tuesday last,
corder.

recently appointed to he held,
before James Clarke, Esq., Ite-

The following gentlemen were sworn on the grand jury:—
Richard Dawson, Esq., Foreman.
Thomas Bouch, Isaac Cooke,
George Quayle, John Shand,
Wm. Alexander Brown, James Flouibrook Smith,
Robert Wilson, John Goodwin,
James Brownell Boothby, Josh. Robinson Pim,
John M'Laurin, Thomas Martin,
John Davidson, William Ridyard,
John Wright, jun., William Field Porter, Esq.,
George Dickson, And
John Stewart, I Ralph Abraham, Esqrs.
After the usual proclamation against Vice and immorality had
been read,
The Reconoert proceeded to deliver his charge as follows,—
Gentleineu of the Grand. Jury, I am extremely gratified by
seeing your punctual attendance this morning. The state of
crime in the town or Liverpool absolutely calls for the Sessions
which are now convened ; because if we look at the calendar
and consider that it is only six weeks since the sessions and ge-
neral geed delivery was held here, and see 70 cases submitted.
for your consideration, it is quite alarming to think that each a
mass of crime exists, and your attendance becomes absolutely
necessary. I say 1 rejoice to see your punctual attendance to-
day, because [ find that in an adjoining district, at Kirkdale,
the Grand Jury does not attend in the way that the countrs,
would wish it to do—so I learn from the chairman of those ses-
sions. , I mini a little surprised at it, because the privilege of sit-
ting on-juries, by-Sir Robert Peel's jury bill, having been very
much extended, enables those who before were shut out from
the privilege nosy to possess it. As you well know, you and
various classes of the community, consisting of highly respecta-
ble classes of persons, were, before the operation of Sir Robert
Peel's bill, shut out from sitting on Grand Juries. What Sir R.
Peel's bill enacted for the country at large the municipal bill
has extended to you. The privilege of sitting on juries is now
extended to a vast number of persons, who have now an oppor-
tunity of taking a share in the administration of Justice ; the
community may now be said to be parties in the administration
of the law. And it is a great satisfaction that we have, when
we are surrounded by intelligent men whenever we coins to pro-
nounce sentence on the crimes brought against our fellow-sub-
jects, because their knowledge of the world brings to their minds
a degree of knowledge of men that a more retired and high de-
partineut of life cannot possess ; therefore it is a satisfaction to
see the class of which I speak attending on the Grand Jury as
you are this day. 1 have looked over the depositions and I
don't find any case requiring ninny observations. I perceive
they denote the crime of larceny in all its bearings ; larceny in
the streets, larceny in warehouses, larceny on the person, and
iu short larceny exists in all its ports, and you will have to ap-
ply your minds to the various cases that have to be brought be-
fore you. 1 don't think any of them will entangle you in point
of fact or in point of law, but if any case should di' so I shall
be happy to give you what assistance I can. Some cases will
coins before you for receiving stolen goods, and it will be proper
for you to observe whether they have been received at distinct
times or at several times, because the judges have held that if
the receiving be at four different times, for instance, or more
than one party be engaged in the receipt, the indictment must
be laid in these cases for separate offences. You cannot con-
vict two men of a joint receiving, but their crimes must be
viewed as distinct ; and I have given directions to the intelli-
gent kilicers here, to draw their indictments with that view of the
subject, and I hope the cases will come before you clearly and
correctly drawn. On looking over the depositions 1 find many
of the'prisoners say, " I am sorry for it, I was drunk ;" and
frequently the prosecutors also are in a state of intoxication.
So long as such intemperance does exist, that alone, I am
afraid, will prove a great source of crime. The learned
judge who presided here and at Lancaster during the last
assizes made this observation in both cases " that intem-
perance was the great source of crime; that many of the
cases in the calendar were to be attributed solely to intem-
perance." It he had sat here to day he would have found
abundant cause for that observation, for nearly every case
iu the calendar has grown out of intemperance. One great
misfortune in intemperance in prosecutors is this, that when
they come into the witness-box their minds turn out to be com-
pletely oblivious on the subject of their complaint, and their
evidence is confused and unsatisfactory. A man at the last
sessions was asked dim knew a person who hail robbed him of
50 sovereigns? His evidence was so embarrassed that I could
not rely on his testimony, and the jury were of that opinion
along with myself, and acquitted the prisoner of the crime. The
prisoner might have been guilty, or be might have been inno-
cent; but when a man puts himself in that state that his me-
mory must be imperfect, we must not trust on that account to
his evidence, however anxious we luny be to convict. A man
who cannot detail evidence with sufficient certainty puts himself
out of the pale of the law—the law cannot protect him. When
he comes as a witness and it turns out that he has this very im-
perfect recollection, the law cannot avail him, and he is actunliy
put out of the pale of the law. I mention this to show the evils
which result from intemperance. I ant glad to see that there
is a most earnest desire to promote temperance and habits of
morality throughout the country. Every institution that pro-
motes temperance, instead of being treated with derision, ought
to be respected fur its object. I think all institutions, whose
object is to recommend temperance, are entitled to the highest
consideration ; for if we keep men temperate, depend on it,
that instead of quarter sessions being required, sessions once a
year would be sufficient. One half of the crimes from which
society new suffers are owing to habits of intemperance. There
is one subject to which I would call your attention 1 find that
letters are lying before me which relate to the protection of
wrecked property, either on the Cheshire or on the Lancashire
shore, which state that such property is altogether unprotected,
unless it is preserved and watched by the police of Liverpool.
Letters are lying before me thanking the officers for their great
exertions, to which the writers attribute the protection of their
property. This is a state of thines which ought nut to exist. I
wish the merchants of Liverpool would unite and see if some-
thing could not be done to check this enormous offence. It is
discreditable to England to think that men not pressed on by
poverty, will come down deliberately, to seize what property
amidstlepe rs on
fur misfortunesthe m we
meaner
belonging to others they can
hfiunnida,
any humane
And I do think that if
purposeswouldn (e)
tl
mostthe avariciousheart ot apnl
there were a meeting well formed, with good and strong reso-
Intions to be passed, stating that these practices ought to be put
an end to—if such feelings were to be stirred up throughout the
country, emanating from Liverpool, I do believe that the tone
of the people with reference to this crime might be altered. If
these observations should be acted upon, I trust the means
taken may succeed, and that they may put an end to these dis-
graceful oractices. I have no other obseivatious to make to
you,gentlemen: and dismiss you to your duties.
heGrand Jury then retired to find true bills.
We are obliged to omit our report of the cases tried fur wan
of si a -e, until our next publication

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