The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-02-08 00:00:00

LIVERPOOL QUARTER SESSIONS.

The February sessions for the borough of Liverpool
opened yesterday (Monday), at the new Assize Court, St.
George's-hall, before Gilbert Henderson, Esq., Recorder.
There were 109 prisoners charged with felony, and 19
with misdemeanours. The prisoners contained in the
calendar thus amounted altogether to 128, of which two
could read and write well, 61 could read and write imper-
fectly, 21 could read but not write, and 44 could neither
read nor write.
The following gentlemen were empanelled as the grand
jury : _

Edward Grey, broker, Cook-street, foreman.
Edward Astley, merchant, Tower-chambers.
Bryce Allan, merchant, South John-street.
James Bell, broker, Exchange-street East.
Thomas Barton, tanner, St. Anne-street.
George Booker, merchant, Rumford-place,
James Cunningham, broker, Oldhall-street.
Henry Crane, shipbroker, South John-street.
Jonathan Cooke, drysalter, Batchelor-street.
Charles George Cowie, shipbroker, Tower-buildings.
Robinson Duckworth, merchant, Cook-street.
John Driver, wine merchant, Exchange-alley North.
Charles Faircloueb, broker, Lower Castle-street.
John Gerard Geller, merchant, Castle-street.
George Glynn, broker, Exchange-street, East.
Edward Jones, merchant, Castle-street.
John Owens Johnson, merchant, Cook-street.
Robert Nl'Andrew, fruit merchant, North John-street.
William Ridyard, corn merchant, Brunswick-street.
Wm. Henry Waddington, broker, Chapel-street.
The proclamation against vice and immorality having
been read,
The RECORDER, in addressing thegrand jury, said, they
would have to inquire into the circumstances connected
with 130 offences which would be laid before them. This
number, though large, was less than had come before the
court on former occasions, when it was considered that two
months had elapsed since the court last sat. Looking to the
calendar, the most prevalent offence in Liverpool seemed to
be that of picking pockets, for which cffence he found 21
prisoners had been committed. Formerly the commission
of such offence was chiefly confined to men ; but he was
sorry to say that women, who now formed a large propor-
tion of offenders in this town, had been parties to this
offence, nine women and twelve men having been
committed. There were also at present no less than
eight charges of uttering base money. It was an offence
which was becoming more prevalent, and consequently it
became the duty of that court to visit the offence with
severe punishment. There was a novel species of offence,
for which six persons had been committed. He alluded
to the case of omnibus conductors keeping back the
money with which they had been entrusted by passen-
gers. Now such an offence was highly criminal, and
required to be punished with much severity ; but at the
same time he might perhaps observe that it was not an-
tirely to the law that omnibus proprietors must look for
protection, seeing that these conductors were placed in a
situation of great trust, constantly receiving money,
which was passing through their hands, and for which
there could be but little check. It was, therefore,
important that those persons should be selected only
who were known to be of good character ; and that
they be so dealt with that they might be placed, in some
degree, above the temptation to which they were clearly
exposed by the trust reposed in them. There was a
case in which a very dexterous theft had been effected
in a bank, of no less than the sum of £3,000. The case
was not of a complicated nature as regarded the evidence,
and appeared to be one that would turn mainly upon a
question of identity. There was another case, in which a
number of writing desks, dressing cases, and various other
articles which had been stolen in this town were disposed of
at Wolverhampton by parties who received them, and the
depositions before him had been taken at Wolverhampton.
Now the jury were perhaps aware that the jurisdiction of
the court was limited to offences committed within the
limits of the borough ; but, under the auspices of one of
our first great criminal references, the late Sir Robert
Peel, an act had been passed, drawn up by Mr.
Gladstone, of this town, a clause in which gave
him (the Recorder) jurisdiction in the present case.
The offence of house-breaking, either by false keys or
by violence, was one of the most mischievous in its
character which fell under the cognizance of the court,
and when he found only two cases of that nature
in the present calendar, he was in hepes that the
severity with which the court had dealt with these cases
bad had some effect. He did not find either in the
calendar any cases of plunder, in which the victim had
been grasped by the throat, or treated with vio-
lence. The manner in which these offences had
hitherto beep dealt with had also had some effect.
Many persons were now under sentence of transporta-
tion. He might here say that transportation was a
punishment which had varied very much at different

times as to the manner in which- it had been-Carried

into effect. He knew that, generally, transimtaiiOn.
excited a feeling of dread in the minds of offenders,
and with great reason, but at the same time many
persons were of opinion that a party sentenced to
transportation was at once dispatched to a distant
country. Now, any person entertaining such an impres-
sion, would find, on being transported, that he was
grievously mistaken. As a general rule, he might say
that about half the term of the sentence was carried
out in this country, by separate confinement in the
first instance, and afterwards by hard labour. For
example, a person under sentence of transportation would
be treated in this way—the first year would be passed at
Pentonville, or same other prison adapted for solitary
confinement ; at the end of that period two years more
would be passed in bard labour in prison at the hulks at
Woolwich, Portsmouth, or elsewhere ; so that for the
shortest period of transportation he would be kept in
prison in this country to hard labour for nearly half the
period ; and after, he was sent to a distant country—it
might be to Bermuda, or to Gibraltar, where he would
still be subject to severe restrictions, and a long period
would have to elapse before he became, in the true sense
of the word, a free man. He had named this matter in
order to show that transportation was, as it ought to be,
a very severe punishment. Having made these remarks,
not so much for the jury as for the public generally, he
would now dismiss them to their duties.
The petty jury was then empanelled ; and the court pro-
ceeded to the trial of prisoners.
A DISHONEST SERVANT.—AIbert Price, 16, (read and
write imperfectly,) pleaded not guilty to the charge of
having feloniously stolen four half-sovereigns from Mr.
Joseph Fry, accountant and commission-agent, Lower
Castle-street, his employer, by whom he had been em-
ployed as an 'errand boy up to December last. It appeared
that the boy had been sent out with several letters, each
containing a half-sovereign, for the parties to whom they
were addressed. Instead of delivering the letters, it was
alleged that the lad appropriated the cash ; and next day
disappeared. Mr. Fry expressed a wish that the boy, even
if found guilty, might be dealt with as lightly as possible.
The jury found a verdict of not guilty, and the lad was
acquitted.

A. FEMALE ROBBER.—Mary Ann Macklin (read and
write imperfectly), pleaded not guilty to having stolen 20
yards of linsey, the property of John Hardy, formerly a
linen-draper in St. James's-street. The robbery was
committed on the night of the 18th of December last. It
was deposed by Hardy that the female rushed into the
shop, picked up the wolsev.and bolted, with the proprietor
at her heels. He however succeeded in capturing her
at the distance of about sixty or seventy yards
from the shop. The prisoner alleged, on the other hand,

that she had nicked up the article on the pavement ; but
she was found zuilty and sentenced to six months' impri-
sonment with hard labour. The prisoner is a married
woman, and has twice previously been convicted of felony.