The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-10-27 00:00:00

LIVERPOOL OCTOBER SESSIONS.

Yesterday the Sessions were opened before Gilbert Hen-
derson, Esq., Recorder. The calendar contains the
names of 77 prisoners for :felonies, and 9 for misdemea-
nour,—in all N. Of this number only 7 can read and
write well, 16 can read imperfectly, 31 can read and write
imperfectly. and 32 can neither read nor write. The fol-
lowing gentlemen were sworn of

THE GRAND JURY :
W.Rotheram, Esq., merchant, Exchange-st. West, (Foreman
Thomas F. Bennett, merchant, Castle-street.
James Brelmer, merchant, Water-street.
Edward Chaloner, timber merchant, Sefton-street.
James Cunningham, cotton broker, Oldhall-street.
John Carlisle, merchant, Chapel-street.

,
Robinson Duckworth, merchant, Cook-street,
James Haryeyt gentleman, Catharine-street.

John Jerdein; himker, Huskisson-street.
Edward Langsdale, gentleman, Shaw-street.
Frederick Lapage, merchant, Dale-street.
John Mather, lead and copper ore merchant, Goree,

John Woolfall Mullineux,-rectifier, Dale-street
Thomas Mather, corn merchant, Drury-lane.

Charles Wm. Newman, jun., cotton broker, Tithebarn-st.
Nicholas Roskell, merchant, Fenwick-street.
Richard Rathbone, merchant, South Castle-street.
Joseph Shipley, merchant, Chapel-street, and
Richard Withers, sharebroker, Royal Bank Buildings, Esqrs.
The RECORDER addressed the Grand Jury as follows.
He said—Gentlemen of the Grand Jury, the calendar will
apprise you that 83 prisoners have been committed for trial
within the last seven weeks, but if we would form any
estimate of the movement of crime our view must be ex-
tended over a more extensive period. It is a gratifying
fact that the commitments for trial throughout England
and Wales have been annually diminishing since the year
1842. In 1843 there was a decrease equivalent to five per
cent., followed by a decrease of ten percent. in 1814, and
again by a diminution of eight per cent. in 1845; so that
31,303, the number sent for trial in 1832, had declined to
24,303 in 1845. The returns of offences in the borough
correspond in some degree with this statement ; the num-
ber committed here reached a maximum or 846 in 1812,
which fell to 754 in 1843, fell again to 566 in 1814, but
rose again to 643 in 1845. This rise took place wholly
during the last six months of last year, and has continued,
without interruption, up to the present sessions, when a
slight improvement appears, but it is to be feared that
eventually the number committed for trial i❑ the present
All exceed that of any former year. The proceedings in
this court have frequently afforded ground to suppose that
this increase may be ascribed in a considerable degree to
excess of drinking—a vice which too frequently attends the
prosperity of the poorer classes; and the fact of 8,324 com-
mitments for drunkenness having taken place last year, is
strong evidence that intemperance did prevail during that
period to an unusual extent. These are also peculiar diffi-
culties with which those who administer the penal law have
to contend in this borough, owing to the fluctuating ele-
ments of which the population is composed. The increase
of the commerce of the port in a ratio beyond the increase
of the population, constantly calls for great accessions of
labour from other quarters. The proximity, too, of Ire-
land and and Scotland, and the facilities of communication
with all parts of England, expose this town in an unusual
degree, to the visits of itinerant depredators. The result
is, that, on some calculation lately made, there seems
reason to think that, at a recent sessions, one-fifth, if not
fourth, of the offenders, consisted of strangers or
new comers. Another remarkable feature in the criminal
classes here is the large proportion of females. The most
casual observer must know that men violate the laws
more frequently than women ; but the influence of sex on
the commission of crimes has been carefully noticed and
observed in this and other countries, and is now ascer-
tained with tolerable accuracy. It has been found that
the proportion of female to male offenders, committed
for trial, has progressively advanced in England and Wales
during the last ten years; having increased from exactly
20 per cent. in 1835, to 25 per cent in 1845, when of
24,303 persons sent for trial, 4,962 were females. The
general result, therefore, throughout England and Wales,
gives one female to four male offenders; and bearing this
in our recollection, let the returns of the relative propor-
tion of the sexes committed for trial at Liverpool be ex-
amined. It will appear that there were committed in _

Females

Males. Nemales

1842 .. .. 519 .. .. 317 1844 .. 381 181
1843 .... 513.. 1.. 241 lBl5 .... 459.... 190
Again, the return of persons committed on chlrges of a
felonious nature in Liverpool, during 1845, shews 1102
men and 5!9, or nearly half women. This disposition is
great, and probably without a parallel. I have not the
means of instituting a complete comparison of all the
commitments at different places, but the gaol returns
skew the number of prisoners in every gaol in the king-
dom at Michaelmas last, and there were at that time in
Males. Females.
Liverpool Borough Gaol .... 307 . 202
Kirkdale „ 248
Manchester or Salford , .... 405
Cleerskentminwsetlelr.... 4
.. 403C9 .... 6
) 11611
Metropolis )W

From these last returns it is clear that the females im-
prisoned in Liverpool were in the proportion of two-thirds
to the men, but did not, in any other prison, nearly ap-
proach the proportion of one-half. I have made use of
figures which you will appreciate as more convincing
than any general statement to prove the state of females
in respect to the penal laws. The causes which have so
deplorably lowered the sex, and the remedies which may
assist the improvement which has taken place, are sub-
jects well worthy of attentive consideration. The Re-
corder then referred to the acts passed dnring last ses-
sion, and one for appointing a Receiver of Drafts of Ad-
miralty, and applying to cases of wreck and salvage ; and
the other for regulating sea going steamers, requiring cer-
tificates of the sufficiency of their hull and machinery,
and also requiring every vessel going to sea with more
than ten passengers to carry a boat fitted up as a life
boat.

A meeting of the supporters of Mr. Walthew, candidate
for Everton Ward, was held at the Derby Arms, Kirk-
dale, last night. Mr. Joseph Hornby took the chair.
Mr. Charles Robertson proposed Mr. Walthew as the
candidate, which was seconded by Mr. M'Crea. Mr.
Thornhill, member for Scotland Ward, was present.
LORD MORPETH.—Lord Morpeth, on Friday last. was
present at some private experiments in Mesmerism at the
house of Mr. Braid, the surgeon, in Manchester. Yes-
terday (Monday), the noble lord, in his capacity of Chief
Commissioner of Woods and Forests, paid a visit to
Birkenhead, where he inspected the dock works and those
portions of the shore which are within the category of
crown lands." _

---
CHESTER AND SHREWSBURY RAILWAY.—The first
general meeting of the Shrewsbury and Chester Railway
Company was held in the Royal Hotel, Chester, at one
o'clock yesterday (Monday) for the purpose of receiving
the report and the election of directors. This undertak-
ing as the railway world are aware, is formed by the
amalgamation into one company of the North Wales
Mineral, the Shrewsbury, Oswestry and Chester, Rail-
ways, and their several branches, for which an act was
obtained in the late session. The attendance of pro-
prietors was very numerous. Mr. Wm. Ormsby Gore,
M.P. presided. The report which was of enormous
length, commenced with a detail of the objects of the
several lines and branches now amalgamated. The total
capital on which a dividend will have to be paid, when
the lines and branches are made, will be £1,046,000,
for which expenditure the company will possess a line
61 miles and 37 chains long. Then followed a stasement
of the progress of the works, in which it was mentioned
that arrangements had been made with the Holyhead,
and the Chester and Birkenhead Companies. The whole
line would be opened in the Autumn of 1848. There
would be four means of communicating with Liverpool,
competing for the traffic of this line, viz, the Chester
and Birkenhead Railway, the Ellesmere Canal via Elles-
mere Port, the River Dee, for the improvement of which
an extensive project was in contemplation, and lastly the
Cheshire Junction Railway and the bridge over the Mer-
sey at Liverpool. After a statement of the accounts,
then followed the engineer's report, which was exceed-
ingly favourable. This document stated that taking
the line as a whole, including the branches, the
avarage amount per mile would be £15,500 per mile.
The Chairman, in moving the adoption of the report,
stated it bad been inspected by General Pasley, who, in a
letter received that morning, mentioned that he had
made a very favourable report of the works. Amicable
arrangements had been made with the Holyhead and
Chester and Birkenhead Railway Companies; and as the
I,ne was now in union with all the lines between the Se-

vern and the Mersey, it bad a prospect of as great a traffic
as the country could produce. Since the sth October,
£20,125 of arrears on calls had been paid up ; and he
was happy to say that, until the whole line was opened
from Chester to Shrewsbury, no more would be called
than £6 per share; and on the North Wales Mineral Old
Stock only an equalizing call of £1 per share. The
Chairman concluded by stating that the line from Ches-
ter to Ruabon would be epened to the shareholders and
their friends on Monday next, and to the public the fol-
lowing day. The following gentlemen were then re-
elected directors :—W. Ormsby Gore, W. Wardell, Sir
R. Jenkins, R. A. Slaney, Thos. Dixon, C. Wardell,
J. Rogers, Wm. Brown, John Williams, avid Hasson,
J. B. Ross, John Royle, Geo. Macsatedn, Wm. Bevan,
and T. R. West. Auditors were appointed at £2O salary
each, and Mr. Roy was continued secretary at the salary
of £5OO. The usual thanks were voted by 111 r.
Jackson, chairman of the Chester and Birkenhead Rail-
way Company, and being seconded by Mr. Christopher
Bentham, were carried, nuanimmly. The proceedings
then terminated,