The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-10-26 00:00:00

LIVERPOOL MICHAELMAS SESSIONS

The Quarter Sessions of the peace for the borough of Li-
verpool, commenced yesterday, before JAMES CLanicE,
Esq. The Court having been opened with the usual formali-
ties, the following gentlemen were sworn the Grand Jury:
Maximilian Fischer, merchant, Harrington-street, Foreman.
Raynes Waite Appleton, merchant, Temple-court.
Jonathan Cook, druggist, Canterbury-street.
Edward Cox, broker, Old Hall-street.
Robert Dixon, merchant, Upper Parliament-street.
Hewson Dutchman, merchant, High Park-road.

John Fox, wine merchant, Water-street
Isaac Fletcher, merchant, Irvine-street.

John Finch, jun., iron merchant, Park-lane.
Duncan Gibb, merchant, Strand-street.

William Hill, chemist, Roscommon-street.
Isaac Hadwen, jun., merchant, Tithebarne-street.
Richard Eddleston Hyde, merchant, Old Hall-street

John Hore, merchant, Canning-street.
Michael Humble, shipbuilder, Queen's Dock

John Audley Jee, broker, Hargreave's-buildings.
John Job, jun., merchant, Pownall-Square.
James Lee, broker, Childwall.
John Leyland, merchant, Queen Anne-street.
Mr. Hadwen being a member of the society of friends
made the usual affirmation.

The RECORDER, in his charge to the grand jury, said he
was happy to inform them that though the calendar was very
heavy in point of numbers, yet, as far as he had made himself
acquainted with the facts in each case, each case seemed so
extremely simple that they would have very little difficulty
in coming to a right conclusion. Indeed, as he had observed
to the gentleman who put the depositions into his hand, the
premises and the conclusion, of each case, seemed to jump
together. He was not surprised at the great number of
offenders brought here, because he agreed with the intelli-
gent magistrates who had lately been sitting in the county of
Middlesex, that the time was now arrived for the truth to
come out, that imprisonment was quite ineffective. It did
not seem to arrest the evil in the smallest degree ; and when
he mentioned that one-half of the prisoners for trial at the
presenit sessions had been convicted over and over again, he
thought he was justified in saying, that imprisonment' did
not work well. A few years ago there was a great mania
upon the subject of prison discipline ; we were all quite mad
upon it ; every county would have its prison ; but the system
had, as he had already said, proved inoperative, therefore we
must come to the old subject again, namely, that of education.
Education was slow in its progress ; it was very slow in its
operation; still it was better add cheaper to build places of
worship and devotion than prisons. We must improve the
people as well as we can, by giving them sound moral and
religious education. It certainly operated slowly, but he be-
lieved it was operating at this present moment, and, where-
ver it did operate, it was, unquestionably, for the benefit of
the public. Several of the cases to come before them pre-
sented no difficulty whatever ; still, however, he could not
but regret that young men were to be found going through
the streets, with large sums of money in their pockets, who
had robberies committed upon them through their own im-
prudence. There were forty cases of this description—of
property being taken from young men, to a great extent ; but
it was a grievous thing that the public were to be charged
with the expense of prosecutions, through their imprudence
and improvidence ; and the time had now arrived, he thought,
when something should be done to prevent this practice. I
The number of cases against women of the town was quite I
frightful—uo less than from 40 to 50; but though the number
was heavy, he was not prepared to say that the police were at
all to blame. Some people complained of there being a great
deal of crime, and asked what the police were about to permit
it. He did not think there was much force in the observation,
because two-thirds of the cases in the calendar consisted of
crimes with which the public had nothing to do. Young
men running into the habits of improvidence to which
he had alluded —could any police correct that ? Cer-
tainly not. The various frauds by young men in shops upon
their masters—could the police correct that? No; and if
people expected the police so to abridge crime they were
much mistaken. The value of the police to this town, never-
theless, was immense. They kept the peace admirably,
and whenever criree was committed, they almost always
succeeded in detecting the criminal, and recovering the pro-
perty. Those rash persons, to whom he had already refer-
red, seemed to put themselves out of the pale of the law by
their own imprudence, yet the police, by knowing the haunts
of the thieves, in almost every case, recovered the stolen
property back, sometimes in a most extraordinary way.
There was one circumstance which he would mention, though
perhaps it might be thought he was going a little out of'his
way in alluding to it. The brightest feature in the English
law was the anxiety it had for the preservation of human
life. We could not open our law books without discovering
that. He thought the public were much indebted to her
Majesty's government for attending to the safety of travelling
upon the different railways throughout the kingdom. There
was at present scarcely any other mode of travelling, and
therefore it was essential that her Majesty's subjects using
them should at all times have a certainty that they were
safe—that the carriages should be constructed upon the best
principles, that the roads and gates upon the line should be
carefully watched, and not the slightest error in the machi-
nery. On these accounts he was gratified to find the atten-
tion of the government devoted, to this important subject.
After a few further observations, the recorder dismissed the
grand jury to their labours.
The trials commenced shortly after twelve o'clock, but
none of any interest took place during the day.
THE CALENDAR.—As the Recorder observed, the calendar
at these sessions is very heavy. It contains the names of
191 prisoners for trial on charges of felony, and 11 for mis-
demeanors and assaults—total, 202. Education appears to
be in a very low state indeed among the parties charged, as
there are only 13 who are able to read and write well, whilst
the very large proportion of 58 have never learned either.
There are 131 prisoners who can read imperfectly, very few
of whom are able to write. It is among the second class
that the largest number of re-commitments occur.

THE SOCIALIST COMMUNITY