The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-05-17 00:00:00

LIVERPOOL BOROUGH SESSIONS.

THE RECORDER ON JUVENILE CRIME, AND
LADIES' DRESS POCKETS.

aßergecdorwdeitrh.
The Borough Quarter Sessions commenced yesterday
feTlohneyr,eawnedrefourwithin the new Assize Courts. St. George's-hall, before
Gilbert
misdemeanours. Of the prisoners for trial none had
received a superior education ; five could read and write
ninety-
five
prisoners Henderson,
for
t r
iEa
ls qc.
h,
well ; forty-six imperfectly ; twelve could read, but not
write ; and thirty-six could neither read nor write. The
following gentlemen were sworn on the grand jury :—John
Mether, lead and copper merchant, Back Goree, foreman;
Samuel Beckwith, broker, Tower-buildings ;. Wm. Barry,
merchant, Exchange-buildings ; Edward Brodripp, tea
merchant, North John-street ; Christopher Bushell, wine
broker, North John-street; Robert C. Crosbie, merchant,
Tower-buildings ; Win. Leigh Clare, broker, Exchange-
buildings ; Frederick Chapple, merchant, Water-street ;
Samuel Cherry, corn-broker, Fenwick-street ; John
Finch the younger, iron-merchant, Cook-street ; Thomas
Froste, merchant, Castle-street ; John Lord Howard,
broker, Dean-street, Fairfield ; James Little, rectifier,
Vernon-street ; Ed ward Johnstone, merchant. Tower-
buildings North ; Wm. Griffith Leete, broker, Sweeting-
street ; Wm. Jeffery Lockett, merchant, Islington ; R.
A. Macfie, sugar-refiner, Bachelor-street ; Robert Mason,
broker, Tithebarn-street ; Henry Newman, merchant,
Canning-place ; Daniel Powell, corn-merchant, North
John-street.
The RECORDER, in addressing the Grand Jury, said
that the calendar on this occasion contained the names of
100 persons sent for trial, who had been committed
within two months ; this, therefore, would be at the rate
of 600 prisoners a year—a number less than were sent to
the Sessions last year, and considerably less than in the
four years preceding, when the number averaged 900 an-
nually. He might add that the cases were also of a lighter
character than before. If these indications might be
trusted, there was much ground for satisfaction, because-
it would seem that, at a time when the commerce of this
port was beyond all parallel, and when the imports and
exports exceeded those of the metropolis, the benefits of
commercial enterprise extended themselves to the hum-
bler classes, and acted as a. preventative of crime. He
hoped this was the state of the case at the present time
in this town, but, even if- it was, still we must not
rest satisfied on the subject, nor relax in the least, in our
efforts for the repression of crime. This borough had
always laboured under this disadvantage, that the arrange-
ments of our prison were of such a kind as to render the
indiscriminate association of prisoners unavoidable ; and
although the gentleman who acted as chaplain pursued his
labours with an almost unparalleled zeal, his efforts, as
well as those of the governor, were prevented from having
their due effect. It was, therefore, with great pleasure
that he now saw the new prison drawing to a completion,
so as to admit of the introduction of the separate system.
As tar as he (the Recorder) had been able to form an-
opinion, the evidence was very strong in favour of the
separate system, and he did not think that the adminis-
tration of justice would be fully provided for until they
saw the separate system carried out. He some years
ago assisted the Council in providing the prison which was
now erecting, and he hoped that every exertion would be
made to bring it to an early and a successful completion.
Now, although it was a frightful thing for people to get
themselves into prison, he had more anxiety about those'
out of prison than the offenders within its walls. They
found some people often corning to prison, it was true,
and eventually getting transported. Still, he could not
doubt that imprisonment, and a rigorous administration
of the law, had a good effect upon a community. Sup-
pose that, for a week, there was no provision made rot
the administration of justic _—that the police did not inter-
fere with criminals, and that there was no restraint, no•
doubt a sense of moral restraint
would
prevent the mass
of our population from committing crime, but there would
be those—afraid of the law—whorin this case, would break
out into the most frightful excesses against society, and it
!must therefore be seen that the due administration of the

law did a great deal for the safety and decent regulation
accede to the terms named, as being excessive, and
' of society. Nevertheless, he by no means overlooked the
very great importance of reformatory establishments in
having no reference to the real value of the pro-
such a town as Liverpool.- No doubt it was highly desir-
perty to which those terms refer." This result is able to have such institutions, but he was afraid they
to he regretted, not only on account of the trade of must provide in order to preventcem
beforee' Forim example,
the were not to be considered the only advantages which they
1 quantity of money, and was'
the port, which might be materially benefited by
having dock accommodation on both sides of the penitent. He admitted the
would
and expressed
tu hhis
remenetaimtteesmadionugnfomaatneawaas brought
Mersey, under one management, but also on ac-
young
gw
man,for it.,
' GNoowandesinwonno mwore,"g byutsaif hoe dide so,a
count of the town of Birkenhead, which is suffering what might be thought by other young persons viciously
from the evil of having several companies, whose
person. disposed ?ffeHme
might
te
htecgoiradde Recorder) couldsee hLo t dischargepentent )suchuth a
interest is to act in unison, but whose practice must inflict a punishment on him as an example, and for
seems to be to destroy one another. The disputes
deterring others. - The calendar, on the
present occasion, contained
h he was glad to say not so many as on
the cases of several juvenile
and litigation which appear so rife between the
ot bffee
neduerreso, saeltolfiodueg
Birkenhead Dock Trustees and the Dock and Ware- some former occasisns. Latterly- much attention had been
house Company afford strong evidence of the neces-
given in this town to the establishment of a reformatory
! institution, and the subject had been urged on the atten--
sity of placing all the interests under one manage- tion of Government. That some such institution was
required he was ready to admit, at the same time it was
went, or they will succeed in driving from the clear to him that they must not rest satisfied that that was
place every one who would be of most advantage to 1 the
ih
only
the'ha
ton ordertodoiT tostay
There were other points
rise in the
it. Mr. LAIRD, by his skill and enter must
linquency.7 In Liverpool, 400 fresh juvenile
adle d
eunvdeenrisweree-
p
building of iron steam-ships, has done much to yearly added tot the list of crime.
forSutposing they put all
improve the neighbourhood by the employment of athnod%rciansgesthienmo a
up. reformatory,
.:very t
desirable three fonuor
dynenag,
a large number of workmen, whose wages circulate But would it stop the flowing of the stream ? As it•
seemed to him, it would hardly have any tendency that-.
in the locality, but obstacles are thrown in his way way. For why should there not next year be a similar
which may result in driving him elsewhere. The number of new cases ? Nay, more, when they knew that
Patent Candle Company, who were about to i'n one district alone in the town it was ascertained
that there were 2,000 poor children unprovided for,
establish a factory which would give employment to might not the providing of a reformatory alone ac-
eight hundred workmen, have prudently withdrawn qtunaelnly,. t,en‘tboati increase
wtlaise
thatnum ibterdidoLiiugvnetnnil
the
d el in-
from the scene of senseless litigation, and gone of the evil. Suppose thid
ey put 400 children into a ererfonort.
several miles further up the river; and any similar
matory next year, 400 the year afterwards, and 400 the
year after that again, what did it all amount to, if they did
attempt to benefit Birkenhead will be hopeless, so not go to the root of the evil? The question' was, what
long as the representatives of the several Dock wer e th
te. causes
grapple
with
the juvenile
causes
delinquencyseso c
rim?e .
they would
t endea-
vouredlnterests are acting in antagonism to one another, much more effectual good. Upon inquiry he frouwinl dthdaot
in the defence of pretended rights. Litigation on one cause was that children were sadly neglected by their
parents. It was found, upon visiting their houses, that
,such subjects is bad enough when confined to in- the father was a drunkard, neglecting his family, and that
,dividuals, but it is infinitely worse when carried on was one cause why the child became a juvenile thief. Any-
by public bodies, whose interests ought to be thing they couldb do to stay the progress of drunkenness
identical, and the only solution of the difficulty is to
was'
-1 ofe
i then t I !lei g c :lsetada importance.
coul e
d b ntreacmedigltint say that every
place the whole under one management, as was Having referred to a case of wounding in the clanrlasra.
sought to be done by the proposed transfer of the in which a man had nearly lost his life, and which origi:
whole of the Dock property to Liverpool. It may nated in a public house, the Recorder said he lamented
'be,remarked that one of the principal causes of the the inordinate number of licensed public houses and the
commercial greatness of our town arises from the free trade in beer, which enabled men, without character,
t
simple fact of the whole of the Dock property being .iciabkitese po f such
parents houses.wu s
onleie had
said that the drunken
under the same control. Had the several Docks improper exposure of causeproperty at oft
be juvenile
shops crime.wgs
been the property of individual companies, the con- cause. Children, living in country villages, had not the
sequence might have been ceaseless disputes and same temptations as they had in this town, where shop-
litigation, from which we are happily free; and if keepers were in the habit of blocking up their' doorways
Birkenhead would share in our advantages, and with theiri ipiroperty. This was no fancy of his. There
attain that position, to which, by her favourable 7haesina isn'oeponeneepireiornnwith one
hwehcoaswesouwldhiccloime theybe before
locality she is so well entitled, it can only be to investivite. Now he (the Recorder) had recently
effected by pursuing a similar course, and entrusting ascertained that no less than ten persons had been
her Dock property to a management which has convicted for stealing exposed at his door. This
worked so well, and produced such magnificent gentleman
ortune i n titre
was a
business,vea
man,and i t who
perhapshad, he
rn believed,ight
namadercat.
results. With reference to the a f
value of the ac ter to him that ten or fifteen young persons had been con.
sition, we may observe, that Liverpool has, from victed for stealing from the doors of his premises, who
necessity perhaps,, neglected a branch of trade which would, very likely, not have been convicted at all had he
might have been carried on to a considerable ex-
kept his property inside his premises. He could name
tent, and under much more favourable circum- rmeanryn he wascases of
in possession
asiila
similar kind.
of,
he found I riethnd
e y e
that
218 N, from a
return stances than attach to most ports. While our
offenders were brought before the magistrates for juvenilesn
Docks have been crowded with the shipping of all from shop doors, a very large proportion of the whole!
nations, but little has been done to add to the In the same year, 73 children were brought before the
Mercantile Marine, and our Shipowners have been magistrates for stealing cotton, the great staple of this
compelled to go to distant places to purchase ships, town ;
uait3ildkany person whos had seen the carters stepping
which might have been built at home, and furnished lonwoingP their- hooaurstess,nowehdilntotrafgesgrdsuchilsduren i wcrte
threes
to a large additional population. This robberies. This cotton was taken toy therigaszlnle-storeeef
has arisen, in a great measure, from the want of dealers, wino readily purchased it. Now, if the carters
available space, which is still being required for paid any attention to their duties, a simple crack of the
Dock extension ; but much would be gained from whip might prevent many of these offences. Then there
an acquisition of the other side of the Mersey, and into
another species stteiscites of offence that seemed fast coming
we might then reasonably anticipate as rapid a wearingg pockets in
town, and all in consequencei of women
e found that in the
progressive increase for the future, as has taken year 1850, 163 children wereessu.
brought before the inagis-
place within the last ten years. trates for picking pockets. In the present calendar, out
of the 100 cases, there were eleven arising out of picking
women's dress-pockets. There was a time when it was
a very rare thing for women or children to be pickpockets
at all, but now we had an abundance of them, both
1 women, and boys, and girls. Now it was all very well
for a lady who sat in her drawing-room or who rode in
, her carriage to have a dress pocket as they were now
worn, but when shopkeepers' wives and small trades-
men's wives went about the streets and to the markets
with these pockets in their dresses, these children knew
it, and they lifted up the dress, and robbed them with the
greatest ease. He had done an he could to discourage the
practice by disallowing the costs in all eases where ladies
had come before him to prosecute, under the impression
that it might have a tendency to check or prevent this par-
ticular species of crime. There was another kind of
crime, peculiar to children in this town, to which he
would advert. It was very common for children of twelve
or thirteen years of age to run away from their parents,
and go to reside in a certain class of lodging-houses.
Theywerereadily received at these houses where they were
harboured, and where they paid their lodgings by stealing.
He had made enquiries about this kind of offence ' A
fter
with the last sessions but one, he communicated •
Captain
GI-, ig on the subject, and the result of those communica-
tions left no doubt whatever on his mind that there were
many such dens in the town. He regretted that, ac-
cording to the present state of the l
power to punish those who so harbouredaw, he had not the
children, even if they were b these young
:ought before him, al-
though it was of the great '
should be suppressed, in greatest Importance that such dens.
order to prevent, in some de-
gree, juvenile crime. After some further remarks, the
learned gentleman
repeated
with placing juvenileoffenders in a reformatory, but go
to the root of the evil, and see what Iwe could do to pre-
vent crime, and thus render unnecessary, to a great
extent, these reformatories at all. We must put drunk-
enness amongst parents down, and look for a remedy for
that state of things where parents did not educate or look
after their children. It was in vain to attempt to stop
crime by merely local treatment, and we should simply be
doing that by erecting a reformatory, and not taking
means to arre-,t the sources of crime. At the same time
he was decidedly in favour of a reformatory, because he
knew many cases in which imprisonment was of no avail,
where a reformatory might have been of service , • still
he
knew that that mode of meeting the evil had its limits,
and that other means of prevention must not be neglected.
The trials were then proceeded with.

THE ROMISH CONTROVERSY

A meeting on this subject was announced to be held on
Tuesday last, in the Tabernacle, Bispham-street ; but
the owner of the building would not allow it to be used
for the purpose, and, in consequence, the proceedings
took place in Circus-street, Mr. HUGHES in the chair.
Mr. O'DONNELL was the first speaker, and commenced
by directing the attention of the meeting to the letters to
and from Dr. 1414/CEILE in the Liverpool Standard of
that day. Mr. Jorrx MACDONALD afterwards addressed
the meeting. We have notes of all the proceedings by our
own reporter, but the speakers indulged in such extraor-
dinary statements, couched in such extreme language,
that a regard fcr our readers prevents us from doing more
than referring to the fact. It has, however, removed any
doubt of Dr. WNEILE having arrived at a correct con-
clusion in deciding not to consent to oral discussion.
Some allowance might be made for party zeal, but when
the warmth of debate melts all the barriers which are
ordinarily imposed by civilisation to preserve the decencies
of society, the partisans are better confined to the colder
proprieties of written language. Some further corres-
pondence on this subject will be found in another column.

tr
intention
yu ssater sections
wait.tiGe en-
gaged
MR. CARDWELL' SwtrhiinnaSggtHscienllaatPmouPseleinlelr Gm
88. ILLS.
4s.
Thursday next is the day appointed fosituhled
nHoouse of
Commons to go into committee on the Merchant Shipping
Bill, and also on the Pilotage Bill ; hut, as the details of
the Chancellor of the Exchsesgeuleseisnßidlgiceht httaiiveeestyn o?st sye
re-t
Severalbeen
mthrough, v
ethe i v
eSnob
finphopetiirncgpe
present
teetnrhteesi‘i
o
move amendments, so that the discussion on these mea-
faidylfueieeoeadalnvlrtlet itow' tbe lawful for
mea-
sures is likely to occupy some time. With reference to
the enlistment of Merchant Seamen in the Royal Navy,
longer
igbAlfael2grt,pie.
hed:Hrhm7f7luoheliTreittitboeeiejapdfesrrtioehpopipuetodereisapesi eliogeseeshdxretttp;oieet
vice, be it enacted, that the fiftieth and fifty-first
ajesty, chap.
no
any

A TRIP TO DUBLIN.