The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-12-08 00:00:00

ss of the Corporation

'e in London

m they seldom saw—at
a conducted the business

Ir. Rust
,gretted when they

e the
ame to

advising him to accept this o
to follow up the splendid car
talking of an increase of a
this time, have had as many

v the leader
s. He (Mr.
hat he was instrumental in
ce. for if tie had continued

This is certainly the Ni
vision of Mr. Rushton's
adduced. That gentlerr
vote a portion of his tim

;pen for him, instead of
hundreds, he would, by

rgument against a di-
that could have been

add the remainder to cY

covery, h

n came to the office to de-
to the duties of the Bench
ber practice. The dis-
with the immense

business 1

ver, is made ti

gitimately before him, and the additional
I'intarily takes upon himself as
Corporation," his time is

mount which
"standing couru

fully occupied. Now, we remember a gentleman
somewhat similarly circumstanced. Mr. John Fre-
derick Foster, sitting magistrate at the New Bailey,
Salford, a gentleman equal in every respeet to Mr.
Rushton, entered upon his office upon the same
s to following
sterial duties
and encroach-

Nit}, a

thaulber practice.
sormously increa

ing upon the time allow
tice, which was also incr

i his mag
; hands,

friends for him, did
missioners of

r such chamber prac-

COMMIS-

to th

aloe of both s

h a 'demand equal
He

resigned 1/

y and practice.

rcise of I

Umself upon

mers of Manche
of the entire body of the i
with the recordership, as

COMMIS

support ; and the
h the approbation
its, presented him
ony of their sense

of his disint
Rnshton to make such a sacrifice; but we propose,
what ought to be a great boon to a man of talent,
to give him leisure to devote himself more to that
chamber practice of which he is at present deprived.
With the latter portion of Mr. Aikin's remarks we
have nothing to do. If Mr. Rushton, as he seems
to think, has made a mistake in accepting his pre-
sent office, and thrown away- " a splendid career,"
which would have brought him in by this time an
s instead of the proposed hun-

mduct. We -do not ask Mr,

rncrea .
drer's, t

of salary, we mus

Were we to re-
for an advance

men with

We shall have to r
string of fallacies and u'

.1 appointing gentle-

which the

very briefly the long
3rted assertions, with

remains apparentl

a divi§ion-Of the ma

--me only organ which
unconvinced of the necessity of
ht,sinesS of the borough
eyes of the public,
f this measure.

mpts to throw dust

propri

Our contemporary ch

on his estimate of the expense
of a new Police-court-125600—and say it is exces-
sive." We will do so. The item for the salaries of
two magistrates' clerks, £llOO, is excessive. £l2OO
are all that we pay now for the same functionaries,
who have to manage the entire business of the bo-
rough ; and £BOO would be ample for a new court.
£3OO, for two assistant clerks, is excessive. When
only a portion of the business is to be transacted
at the present court, a clerk or two might be spared
there. £l5O for two assistant fine collectors, is exces-

;es us to put our finger

upon a single item

sive, inasmuch as two do at present the whole busi-
ness of the borough for £2OO. An arrangement
might be made for one to sit in the north court, and
the other in the south. Stationery, £lOO, is excessive.
£lB7 paid the printing and stationery, for the whole
business last year; and we don't see how the new
arrangement can make it £lOO more. With respect
to the new stipendiary's salary, although it is true,
as our contemporary, urges that we ourselves sug-
gested £l5OO a year, on the presumption that the
two stipendiaries were to be equally well paid ; yet,
it is not at all necessary, that more than £lOOO
should be the sum, for a man of first-rate ,ability.

The expenses of a new main bridewell and staff are
equally excessive. In any case, a new and more
commodious bridewell, admitting of proper classi-
fication of prisoners, must be erected at the south
end of the town, notwithstandin4 our contempo-
rary's assertion that " a bridewell in the park was
abandoned as unnecessary ;" and such bridewell
may easily serve for the new arrangements of the
courts. Our contemporary puts down £BBO as the
expenses of a resident superintendent and his staff,
for the new court. We dare say, however, that one
of the present superintendents may be found capa-
ble, and willing for a proper remuneration, to under-
take the duties of Mr. Superintent Brown ; and at
the same time materially to aid the labours of Mr.
Dowling in the north division. Our original esti-

I mate of £3500 is, we repeat, although we are only
" civilians," the additional cost, which such an
arrangement will involve.
As we never advocated the location of the new

south court at the extremity of the park, or the
removal of the present court to Great Homer-street,
our contemporary will excuse our omitting to reply
to his badinage about the absurdity of dragging
suitors from the east side of Whitechapel and Para-
dise street, to a remote " Park-office ;" or from the
north and central docks, Dale-street, Castle street,
and the neighbourhood to Great Homer-street. It
may have been found " that a removal of the Police-
court, even to Shaw's-brow, would interfere with
the prompt administration of justice," As we are
not acquainted, however, with what is contained in
" the pigeon-holes of the watch committee," we are
not satisfied as to the precise wherefore. Perhaps

it is not convenient for some of our borough magi-
strates to he called very far from the immediate
neighbourhood of the Exchange flags, or their
office, to make up a bench, when summoned by
Mr. Rushton • and this reminds us of the objection,
that men of business cannot be expected to act effi-
ciently and regularly as magistrates. In that case,
we must look out for gentlemen, unconnected with
business affairs, to perform those duties. Clearly,
gentlemen ought not to accept of honorable offices,
which they intend to be merely honorary. We
must dignify with the position of magistrates', men,
who are capable and willing to give up a reasonable
portion of their time to the duties, which are in-
volved in their appointments ; not those who only
wear their office, as ladies wear feathers in their
bonnets, for show. The condemnation of Shaw's-
brow, however, was made at a time when a central
locality only was contemplated. The opinion of
the magistrates had no connection with the state of
things, as they will exist with two Police-courts
and two stipendiaries sitting. Nothing could be
gained then, so far as convenience is concerned, by
the removal of the present courts and bridewell.
But, with two courts, an arrangement might be
made which would not be open to reasonable
objection. _

The dock business will shortly extend much fur-
ther - orth than at present. It is a good mile and a
half from the present courts to the extremity of the
docks now forming at the north end; and-from the
mass of population which must congregate round
the coasting docks running up to Vauxhall-road.
Say, therefore, that we remove the present court to
some convenient site between the French prison and
Vavxhall-road. It will thus be placed nearer to

Everton, Kirkdale, Low-hill, and the outskirts than

the Sessions Courts are ; and will be at no incon-
venient distance from the densely-populated centre
of the town, north and east of Whitechapel and
Paradise-street. The south court might sit some.
where about St. James's market or Bridgewater-
street, which would accommodate the southern
docks, and the population south and east of Han-
over-street Ranelagh-street and Brownlow-hill, and
a portion of Edge-hill, to Windsor and the Park.
We do not pretend to draw the precise line of di-
vision. It is clear, however, that a convenient ar-
rangement can be found, which would involve not
the slightest complicity. If we have lines of division
between the out parishes and the borough, we can
have divisions within the borough.

The Journal itself advances strong reasons in sup-
port of the views which we have ourselves advo-
cated, as conclusive in favour of the beneficial oper-
ation of two courts. He says :
" It so happens that the largest number of prisoners is
`raised' within a radii extending not more than three guar.

ters of a mile from the Town hall. Of the 16,000 annu-
ally brought before the magistrates, 14,000, at least, are
captured within the circle intimated. For this reason
there are, every day and night, some ten constabl,s in this
neighbourhood, for one at Kirkdale or the Dingle."
Why we said as much • and for this very suf-
_ ,

ficient reason, which the editor of the Journal Knows
well. A policeman will not prosecute, and an indivi-
dual will not prosecute, when either have to throw
away an immoderate amount of time and leisure in
so doing. Again he says :
" The average number of cases from the Dingle and its
vicinity do not, we suspect, exceed half-a. dozen in a year !
Say there are a thousand cases. annually, in the Park, and
the proximate streets ; but what of that ? There are seven
thousand cases from Williamson•square, Lime-street,
&c., all much nearer to the Exchange than to Park-road,
or even to St. James's-place.

We do not wish to remove the opportunity of

prosecuting the seven thousand cases -much out of
the latitude of Williamson-square : at the same
time, we wish to give increased facilities for prose-
cuting the thousand cases occurring in the Park.
We assume that there are not above six cases per
annum from the Dingle. Windsor, however, is not
a very well-ordered locality. The Park-road is not
the least ordered in the world. Crown-street
is not exemplary; nor is Great Howard-street, the
top of Vauxhall-road, Shaw-street, or Brunswick-
road, Everton. We certainly do not, as our con-
temporary, in his funny style, imagines, want the
itinerating courts of Damascus to punish offenders
in these districts ; but we want proper protection
for them. And this they have not whilst the
amount of crime in them is estimated by the present
amount of convictions, and the impunity held out
to evil doers is held as guaranteeing the eNil which
that very impunity creates. If only one police case
originates in the Dingle for a thousand in Paradise-
street, it is not very improbable that the reason is
because policemen and complainants cannot so con-
veniently prosecute in the former locality as in the
latter.

With respect to our contemporary's argument
that it is not increase of informations that we want
but improved justice; and that such justice will not
he cheapened by the measure which we advocate,
we can only say this :—We don't want increased in-
formations, except so far as they conduce to in-
creased and more impartial justice. On the other
hand we do want increased advantage to the
public, to arise from cheapening the approaches to
justice. We don't want a criminal to escape be-
cause a "policeman cannot spare four hours of his
natural rest to prosecute him, nor do we want a
merchant to submit to an unjust fine because to pay
it requires a less sacrifice of the time of his clerks
than to substantiate a defence. We have no leaning

at all upon the question, except for the public good ;
and that will, we are more and more convinced, be
best advanced by following the course which we
:have humbly advocated.

WHERE ARE THE SOUP KII CHENS ?—The present, Ee-
were weather, combined with the high price of provisions,

suggests that some effort should be made to assist our
working poor, and to provide for them a supply of sub-
stantial and nourishing food at a cheap rate. We trust
that our fair fellow-townswomen, who are ever the fore-
most in works of charity, will set in motion the machi-
nery for this purpose.
A FACT FOR MR. EIRE EVANS.—It will be remem-
bered that, during the discussion of the question of the
Wapping purchase, Mr. Eyre Evans refused to acknow-
ledge that any advantage was to be gained, by the cir-
cumstance of vessels being enabled to get from north to
south, through a continuous line of docks, instead of, as
at present, being compelled to be towed into the river,
, after unloading, to effect that movement. Mr. Evans, we
think, added, that he never knew a case of a vessel sus-
taining any accident whilst making the transit from the
discharging dock to the loading or graving docks. We
give him an instance of such a catastrophe, which he will
find in our shipping intelligence of Wednesday :
" The Wa4efield, from St. John's. N. B„ which was on shore
in Bootle Bay, was got off this morning, after discharging, and,
while being towed up the river, fell over on her beam ends, and
was beached near Egremont."
We presume the same accident might have happened
had the Wakefield discharged in any of the new north
docks instead of a few hundred yards further north upon
Bootle sands.