The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-05-18 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

has been thrown upon them ; and that, in their endeavours
to do all that was necessary, they have been thwarted only
by the stringency of the law, and—we must say it—by the
tardiness of government to afford them the aid reasonable
which they asked, and which government had it within
their power to give at first as completely as when, without
the grace of giving, it was at length extorted from them.
Whilst saying this, and giving the Vestry and the au-
thorities due credit for such efforts as have been made to
protect the ratepayers of Liverpool from most onerous
burthens, so far as the expenditure of money is concerned,
and from still worse evils so far as the introduction of
pestilence amongst our population is concerned, there was
one sentiment expressed by some of the speakers, and
particularly by Mr. Rushton, which strikes us as quite un-
called for. We refer to the censure cast upon persons out
of doors for having created " unnecessary alarm by dis-
cussions about the fever sheds," and otherwise by ex-
pressing doubts whether the authorities were sufficiently
energetic in their proceedings. Whether Mr. Rushton,
or the other gentlemen who have thus complained, referred
to any portion of the press of the town, we know not.
We may fairly presume, however, that, in part, they did
so. is it the fact that any alarm, which has proved to be
" unnecessary," has been attempted to be created ? The
reverse has proved to be the case, presuming that proper
and energetic steps to provide for the possible and too
probable spread of fever were not being. taken in time.
There was alarm. We ourselves expressed it ; and months
before any fever, more than is ordinary, approached the
town—when members of the Select Vestry were debating
upon the proper sites for the erection of additio-al fever
sheds—we urged the selection at once of 'proper buildings
already erected, or the erection of temporary wooden sheds
in salubrious localities for the reception of the immigrant
poor, or to be convertible, if required, into fever hospitals.
Were we wrong in doing this ? Let the fact that those
immigrant poor have since set the sanatory act at defiance
by the occupation of the condemned cellars and court
houses, be the reply.
At the same time, and long before the subject had been
mooted from any other quarter, we urged the fitting up
of the quarantine hulks as fever hospitals ; and, subse-
quently, the enforcement of the quarantine laws them-
selves towards infected vessels. We were met, from the
very parties who are now congratulating themselves upon
the late adoption of these very measures, with the diffi-
culties with which we would be met in carrying them out,
and the same fears, which we now hear, of their adoption
creating " unnecessary alarm." Yet, we ask, would not
prompt steps in tnis direction, taken at the moment when
we urged them, have saved to the parish an outlay of
thousands of pounds, to our immigrant Irish poor thou-
sands of cases of disease and death, and to the inhabitants
of Liverpool the loss of many most valuable lives ? At
the same time the community would have been satisfied
that their representatives were doing their duty, and that
both in purse and in health they were being sufficiently
protected.

EXPERIENCES OF A LIVERPOOL SURGEON.

LIVERPOOL MAY SESSIONS.

The Court of Sessions for the trial of prisoners con-
fined in the Liverpool Borough House of Correction, com-
menced yesterday, before Gilbert Henderson, Esq., the
Recorder. There were in the calender the names of 119
prisoners, of whom 106 were charged with various felons,
and 13 with misdemeanours and assaults. Of the whole,
10 can read and write ; 43 can read and write imperfectly
—none superiorly, and 15 can neither read nor write ; 15
can read imperfectly.
The usual proclamation having been read, the following
gentlemen were sworn in as the

GRAND JURY,
Richard Wheeler Preston, Wine Merchant, Water-street,
Foreman
William Bowman, Merchant, Fenwick-street
James Bold, Merchant, Water-street
George Campbell, Jun., Merchant, Water-street
William Rushton Coulburn, Merchant, Brunswick-street
George Cram, Shipbroker, South Castle-street.
_ .

Edwiid Finch, Jun., Met Chant, Sir Thomas's-buildings
John Francis Goodwin, Corn Merchant, Lower Castle-street
Edmund H ore, Corn Merchant, George's Dock Gates
Thomas Irlam, Broker, Dale-street
Ho' ace Jee, Broker, Exchange-street East
Edward Tertius Kearsley, Merchant, Shaw-street
. .

Thomas Littledale, Jun., Broker, Exchange-buildings
Jaines Greensbield, Merchant, Water-street.

The RECORDER, addressing the Grand Jury, said that
the calendar on this occasion contained the names of 119
persons, who had been sent for trial within the last nine
weeks. The enquiries they would have to make into the
several cases, would naturally draw their attention to the
state of crime in the borough ; and he should therefore
offer a few remarks.on the subject founded upon the police
returns. Before the end of 1845, he had observed symp-
toms of an increase of crime, which had been diminishing
during the two 'previous years, and the apprehensions he
then entertained, appeared from the returns to be well
founded ; for the number committed for trial to the assizes
and the sessions had increased from 643 in 1845, to 852 in
1846. Impressed with this view of the subject, that court
had taken every possible means, by preventive ex-
ertion and adequate punishments or conviction to
prevent any further increase of crime. He had rea-
son to believe that the flood of crime had reached its
height in 1846, and doting the last three or four
months, it had become stationary, if it had not, in-
deed, subsided. The number of prisoners committed
to that court from the 18th of December to the 11th
of the present month was 313, whereas 344 were com-
mitted in the 'last corresponding period ending in the
yi.ar 1845. This diminution of crime, of about 10 per
cent, was the more creditable, as we had had a greatly
increased population in the town during the latter period,
and, moreover, a season of great distress and destitption.
But he more particularly placed dependance upon further
amendment from the returns of the number of persons
charged with drenkenness. In 1845, the number of per-
sons so charged was 8,888, and this number MI to 7,599,
in 1846 The number of men charged with intoxication
in 1845 was 5,821, and that was reduced to 4,876 last year.
The number of women was, in 1845, 3,067 ; in 1846, 2,723.
He did not, therefore, think that it was too much to
assume that this change indicated an improvement in the
morals of the lower classes. The subject was, it was true, a
trite one but he could not help reverting to it, as he con-
sidered that drunkenness was always one of the parents
of crime. From what he bad stated on the diminution
of crime, he did not mean that the magistrates would re-
lax in their.endeavours to diminish it; on the contrary
they would go on; and he adverted to the facts to show
that they had cause for encouragement, and might yet hope
for further success. The calendar, he proceeded to say, con-
tained the names of several strangers from Ireland, from
Manchester, Glasgow and other places ; also of several
thieves, who went prowling about the country for
,the
purpose of committing depredations. It might be that
several of the cases had arisen from the influx of the
swarms of Irish who had recently taken refuge in
this town, from famine and pestilence in Ireland.
But they ad reason to be gratified that the parochial
officers had, by great exertions, so far relieved and dis-
posed of them, as to have tended to prevent the com-
mission of crime that would otherwise have become
manifest.' Nevertheless, he looked to the matter with
some degree of apprehension. If the Irish who came to
the town brought with them some capital, or skill and
industry, or any of those elements that' would be useful
to society, and enable them to earn a livelihood, the case
would assume a different aspect. But he feared that few
of them did so ; and if any large number of them
were to remain, they would retard the progress of im-
provement amongst our own working population,- by
drying up (as we understood him to imply) the resources
of native exertion ; the calender in that court, would also,
he apprehended, be lamentably increased. In fine, if
some decisive step was not taken, he feared that we
might experience severely the ill effects of the immigra-
tion to which he had adverted. He then requested the
grand jury to retire to their duties, without referring to
any particular cases in the calendar, the whole being of
the ordinary kind.
Several true bills having been found, the trials of pri-
soners were proceeded with, but no case of general inte-
rest occurred during the day.