The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-12-05 00:00:00

LIVERPOOL DECEMBER SESSIONS.

The sessions of the peace for the trial of prisoners con-
fined in the Borough House of Correction, commenced
yesterday, before Gilbert Henderson, Esq., the Recorder.
The calendar contained the names of 106 prisoners charged
with felony, and 12 charged with misdemeanour. Of the
whole number (118) it appears 18 can read imperfectly ;
41 can read and write imperfectly ; 52 can neither read
nor write ; and 7 only can read and write well.

The following gentlemen were sworn to constitute
THE GRAND JURY :

henry Jenkins, merchant, Goree-piazzas, Foreman,
Robert Coleman Crosbie, merchant, Cook-street,
Charles Fairclough, cotton broker, Lower Castle-street,
John Finch, jun., iron merchant, Rumford-place,
Charles Groves, merchant, 8, Goree-piazzas,

Wm: Lindsay, merchant, New-quay,
Thos. Marshall Myers, accountant, Exchange-alley, East,

Vm. Nesiic

oroker, Hackin's-hey,
Wm. Rotherham, merchant, Exchange-street East,
Samuel F. Symonds, wine merchant, Lower Castle-street,
—1 Withers. share broker, Royal Bank Buildings,

Henry Curry, broker, Rum.
L. IL Baily, 21, Exchange Buildings,
T. B. Blythe, merchant, Rumford-street,
J B. Cooper, broker, Rumford-street,
Robert Higgin, merchant, Rumford-place,
Wm. Moore, merchant, Chapel-street.
D 4

ord-place,

.
it. A. McFie, sugar refiner, Bachelor-street,
James Livesey, cotton broker, Rumford-place,
J. T. W. Leyland, merchant, Exchange-street East,
S. Taylor Hobson, gentleman, Catherine-street.
The proclamation against vice and immorality having
been read,

The RECORDER addressed the Grand Jury. He said
that, though six weeks had not quite elapsed since the
last sitting of the court, the juries of the borough were
called upon again to discharge heavy duties. I find in
my calendar (which is more complete than the printed
list) the names of 128 prisoners for trial. He remarked
that there was an enormous increase in the number of
female offenders. Out of 103 names in the present list,
49, or nearly one half, were women, the number being
nearly double'the usual average. The evil was increasing
in this town, and he found, by a careful examination of
the prison returns, that there was no town in the kingdom
where the sex was more degraded, and so steeped in
crime. This was the more painful, inasmuch as it was an
evil to a great extent beyond the controul of the court ;

auld be hoped for in such cha-

)y imprisonment in a gaol in which there was no
means of separate confinement. And what amendment
could be hoped for in the punishment of such persons,
when it was known that their places were filled up bynew
corners from Ireland ? This, was an evil which would, he
feared, continue in the town, until as was probable, some
experiment were made to arrest it. He thought some
controul should be put upon that class of women; that
they should be so restrained that their number would be
reduced ; and that some degree of punishment should be
inflicted upon those who harboured them. With regard
to the other cases in the calendar—he might remark that
the offences of picking pockets, stealing lead, &c., from
warehouses, carters carting away stolen property—he had
latterly punished such offenders with severity, including
corporal punishment. The Grand Jury would find, by the
calendar, that the severity of the court had been followed
by good results, as there were few or any of these classes
of crime. It was certainly something, if they could not
reduce the number of crimes, that they could decerase
their atrocity. The cases were generally of a light de-
scription ; but there was one case of oitaining money
from a burial society, on pretence of the death of a child.
On reading the depositions, he was struck with the great
facilities with which the names of children could be en-
tered in such societies' books ; and knowing, as he did,
what had recently transpired in a court of justice, and
what had taken place elsewhere, he did hope that parlia-
ment would interfere, and would take such measures as
would prevent the strong temptations offered to parents
by these societies, which gave them a pecuniary interest in
the death of their children. The system had, in some
instances, led to the greatest crimes. He thought that it
would be well if some plan were adopted by which the
parents would receive no share of the money, or by which
the societies only would attend to the burial of the chil-
dren. He made these remarks generally, without in the
slightest degree impugning the conduct of those whom he
brought before them in the case alluded to. He con-
eluded by saying that the Grand Jury were perfectly
competent to the law affecting the cases that would be
laid before them, and also to judge of the facts. With
these sentiments he dismissed them to the discharge of

their duties.
Several true bills having been found, the trials pro-

ceeded

A PEW MORE NUTS FOR THE BULLIONISTS
TO CRACK.

" The
_Construction of Railways has been the

cause of the present national yeering.".

Yet, we have in reality been increasing the national ca-
pital by creating a mass of property, which will pay, on
the average, from five to ten per cent. annual interest,
whilst it contributes incalculably to the developement of
the resources of the country and to the convenience and
cheapness of locomotion, both for passengers, merchan-

. .
dise, and produce.
This plea is urged against railway investments, whilst
we have been converting land, much of which is scarcely
worth the cost of cultivation, into highly remunerative

lines of road;

have been extracted fro

he bowels of the earth,

from five to ten per cent. interest on the cost of the labour
employed in getting it, and converting it into rails, &c:.
No. 2.—" The conversion, by means of the railways, of
floating into fixed capital, is the cause of the present
national distress."

What is " floating capital" but money currency ; which
is either deposited at your bankers, bringing in a small per
centage of interest, locked up in your till, or employed in
your ordinary business?

You don't bury this "floating capital," in the shape of
bank notes or gold, in tunnels or embankments.
It is not abstracted from circulation ; but pays the
navvy" to-day, goes to the' baker, or the beer shop-
keeper to-morrow, and into the bank at the end of the
week. It is " floating capital" all the while.

The same sort of conversion of floating into fixed capi.
tal takes place when a man buys a house, a mill, an es-
.

tate,. a horse, or a new hat ; but we never heard of any
amount gf such conversions creating national distress !
No. 3.—Anomalous results of the causes of national
distress above pleaded.

.ed agricultural labourers earn-

From three to five hund
ing 9s. per week, or supported,
union workhouses, converted into "navvies" earning 20s
a week, spending that sum with the butcher, the baker
the grocer, &c., and yet causing national distress!
Miners, smiths, artizans, &c., receiving a similar ac-
cession to the amount of their employment and its pay,
and yet causing national distress.!. •
Money in more active circulation, and a large portion
of the community with increased means of consuming ;
and yet the manufacturer and the merchant selling their

produce at ruinous prices, and bankruptcy impending over
their heads !

A an East India merchant, B a grocer, who has had the
increased custom of the well-paid navvies ; and C. the
landowner, who has got a hundred pounds an acre from
the railway proprietors for a slip of land intrinsically
worth only one pound,—none of whom ever held a share
in any line, suffering because 1), E, and F have been en-

,
gaged in converting capital at their bankers, paving only
21 per cent., or consols paying 3 per cent., into railway
property, which will pay ten per cent. !___ _ _

in temporary want of currency