The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-03-28 00:00:00

CROWN COURT-MONDAY, MARCH 27.

Mr. Baron PAiticit took his seat on the bench shortly after
twelve o'clock. The roll of county magistrates was first cal-
led over, after which followed the list of mayors and coro-
❑ers. The following gentlemen were sworn of the

GRAND JURY :
lon. R. B. Wilbraham, M.P., of Blythe-hall, Foreman.
James Aspinall, Esq., of Liverpool.
Richard Watson Barton, Esq,, of Springwood.
Richard Birley, Esq., of Chorley.
John Ireland Blackburne, Esq., M.P., of Hale-hall.
Peter Whitfield Brancker, Esq., of Wavertree.
Elias Chadwick, Esq., of Swinton.
Chisenhale Chisenhale, Esq., of Arley-hall.
Thomas Drinkwater, Esq., of Irwell-house.
Richard Earle, Esq., of Edenhurst.
John Fletcher,' Esq., of Haulgh.
John Frederick Foster, Esq., of Sale Priory.
Robertson Gladstone, Esq., Mayor of Liverpool, of Court
Hey.
James Collier Harter, Esq., of Broughton-hall.
Sir Benjamin Heywood, Baronet, of Claremont.
David Hodgson, Esq., of Everton.
William Ford Hutton, Esq., of Lomax Fold.
Edward Loyd, Esq., of Green-hill.
Clement Royds, Esq., of Falinge.
Samuel Taylor, Esq., of Eggleston.
James Hibbert 'Wardlyn, Esq., of Crumpsall Lodge.
John Bradshaw Wanklyn, Esq., of Salford.
The Queen's proclamation against vice and immorality hav-
ing been read,
Mr. Baron PARKE proceeded to deliver his charge to
the Grand Jury. He regretted to find that their labours,
and his own, in administering the criminal justice for this
great and populous county, would, upon the present occasion,
be by no means light; but although they would have a great
number of cases presented to them for their consideration—
more, indeed, than he ever recollected since he had had the
honour of presiding in that place—and though many of them
were of a serious character, many of a painful nature, and
some also of a most aggravated and atrocious character, yet,
still he did not believe that they stood in much need of any
remarks from him in order to guide them as to matters of
law, which it was his promise to state to them, nor to assist
them in matters of fact, which belonged exclusively to them-
selves. Though the calendar which lay before him contained
a great number of offences, and a great number of a serious
class, yet, unhappily, they were for the most part of frequent
occurrence; and he was well satisfied they must all of them
be well versed in the mode of examining the evidence upon
which the proofs of each might depend. There were a great
number of burglaries, of cases of cattle stealing, and of
highway robbery. Upon these it was not necessary for him
to make a 'single observation. There were also too many
charges of rape, and attempts to commit rape, with reference
to which they were aware they would require the exercise of
the greatest caution. In these cases they must, necessarily,
hear the story from the injured party, who was most frequently
the least guilty, but was not always perfectly innocent. They
would form-their opinion with such allowances as the case
deserved; and look at all the circumstances before they found
the billfor that serious offence, because although it was not now
liable to the punishment of death, it was punishable by trans-
portation for life. There were also in the calendar a great num-
ber of cases of stabbing, with intent to murder, with intent
to do grievous bodily harm, or with intent to maim and dis-
figure. There were a great number of cases of this descrip-
tion, which he was very sorry to observe; and he was afraid
that that crime was greatly upon the increase, both in this
part of the country and in others in which it had fallen to his
lot to administer criminal justice. Upon the other hand it
was satisfactory to find that, so far as he was acquainted with
the depositions, and he had had an opportunity of reading the
most of them, there was no case of death or serious injury
occasioned by the practise which heretofore had been so com-
mon in this and the adjoining county of fighting with and in-
juring each other by the heels and the teeth. He was not
aware of a single charge of that kind. Society, in that re-
spect seemed to have gained a little ; but instead of that it
seemed as if recourse had been had to the knife or other dan-
gerous instruments. He should call their attention to this
circumstance with regard to that numerous class of cases—
they were first made punishable as felonies in the beginning
of the present century, and a clause in the act of Parliament
making them so highly penal, enacted, that in case of death
not ensuing, the crime was not murder, and the prisoner was
entitled to be acquitted. It consequently became frequently
a very nice inquiry whether or no the circumstances occur-
ring when the wound was inflicted would have prevented the
offence being of that aggravated nature ; but by an alteration
in-the present reign, the punishment of death for the most
part had been mitigated, and it was no longer capital except
where the wound was given with intent to murder; and there
wart no provision of the sort which exempted the prisoner
froth punishment in case it was not murder. Therefore they
were spared the necessity of inquiry whether or not the offence
would be murder or manslaughter in case death had ensued.
If it should appear, though' it was not likely it would, that the
wound was inflicted in self-defence, or from an accident,
still, by law, it was punishable ; and in cases where the
offence would be manslaughter it would be their duty to find
the bill. He had now to direct their attention to what was
always in this county a very numerous class of offences,
manslaughter, where the deceased had come by death in con-
sequence of some neglect, improper; or wanton act. There
were many cases of this kind in the calendar; but he pro-
posed to call their attention merely to three of them, because,
with regard to each of them, there appeared to him to be
some circumstances with regard to the investigation of
which there was a doubt in his mind—but it was a doubt
which 'arose. only upon the depositions, and which further
investigation might clear up. There was a case charged
again'st a person in this town who, whether he was a shop.
man to a druggist, or had taken upon himself the situation
of master, because it appeared he was under contract to
take the business of the shop, in which he unfortunately
supplied a quantity of laudanum instead of tincture of
rhubarb which was wanted to be administered to a sick
child. According to the statement of the accused—and they
of course would look at all the facts in the case—the
laudanum, or opium, was kept in a bottle with a glass de-
scription upon it; the tincture of rhubarb was kept in a bottle
upon which there was a label in writing, describing it to be the
tincture of compound rhubarb. When he was called upon.
somewhat upon a sudden, to give what was required by the
customer,—namely, tincture of rhubarb,—he put his hand
to the place in which the tincture of rhubarb was always
placed, and where, by the mistake of another person in the
same establishment, the bottle of laudanum had been placed.
That other shopman had substituted the bottle with the
written label for the other. It would therefore be a question
for them, the grand jury, whether the party, in such a case
as that, could .be considered guilty of that clear negligence
which would alone make him liable as for a felony. By law
no one could be guilty of the crime of manslaughter, except
by his own personal negligence. The master was responsible
civilly, no doubt, for the conduct of his servant, but he
could not be made liable to the charge of felony by the neg-
ligence of his servant; therefore, though it might appear
that:the person who placed the bottle in the situation it oc-
cupied was the servant, that circumstance would not make
him responsible, in point of law, as the guilty person. The
question then was, were these facts true ; and, supposing
them to be true, did the grand jury think it was a case of
negligence so clearly made out as to cause the person to
stand,his trial upon so serious ,a charge. Of course, how-
ever, the grand jury would exercise their own judgment upon
the matter. There was also another case, in which a father
was accused of taking the life of an infant child, by adm

. .
mstermg to it some ruin.. The child was sick; the father
gave it some rum, what quantity did not appear, and the sur-
geon had given it as his opinion that the child had lost its
life. in consequence of the administration to it of ardent
spirits. If this had been done, not in wantonness, but for
the purpose, as he thought, of doing good to the child, which
had had disordered bowels, be (the learned Judge) thought
that the jury .would not he justified in finding a bill against
,the prisoner. lie was not in the situation of a man who
~.undertook the treatment of a child, being supposed to have
.competent skill in the subject ; for if a man professing to
he skilled in medicinee,, undertook to administer to a
patient, and acted so ignorantly that death ensued he was
guilty of manslaughter. Or if a man administered a danger-
ous rpedicine, without knowing anything of its properties, he
was guilty of manslaughter ; but if he honestly gave that which
he thought best for the health of another, and it turned out
to be a fatal dose, that was not sufficient to constitute the
offence of manslaughter. The jury would consider, therefore,
whether the father hail acted honestly and fairly by his child,
and if they were of opinion that he had done so, of course
they would not find the bill. There was another case, in

which it appeared doubtful whether the act of manslaughter
had been committed. A man got up into a cart to be driven

by a carter. Now, if a carter was guilty of negligence, and

death ensued to a person whom he had taken up as A Wasen-
ger, the offence was manslaughter; for a driver awed the
passenger a duty, when he took him up, to drive him care-
fully, and if he did not so drive, and death ensued, he was
guilty of manslaughter. There were circumstances, however,
which induced him to believe that the deceased himself was a
party to the bad driving, and if that were so, he did not see
how they could find him guilty of manslaughter. The grand
jury, however, would exercise their own discretion, after
having heard all the facts of the case. These were the only
cases of this class that he thought it necessary to make any
observations upon. In the next place, there were tin ee
charges of the awful crime of wilful murder. Lt ono of these
cases, which rested upon circumstantial evidence, the pri-
soner was charged with having taken the life of his wife, by
cutting her throat ; but it appeared that he had made a de-
claration to a witness, as well as before the magistrates, which
would leave the jury no alternative. With regard to the two
other cases, which were of an aggravated character, they were
charges against two women, one for the murder of her children
and stepson, and the other for the murder of her husband, by
poisoning him with arsenic. These were all cases of cir-
cumstantial evidence, as well as others, in which there were
charges against two persons for setting fire to their premises,
with the intention of defrauding the insurance office. As,
in all these cases, the charges were sought to he brought
home by circumstantial evidence, he would make a remark
with regard to that, which was perhaps necessary for their
guidance, namely, that, although it was, generally, of a
description that would convince the human mind, it required
very careful consideration ; and his advice to the grand jury
was, that they should ascertain what facts were clearly and
distinctly proved, and then see whether all those facts were
consistent with the supposition that the prisoners were guilty
of the crimes laid to their charge, and consistent with no
other supposition; for if they were, a jury would not find a
verdict, and the grand jury ought not to find a bill. It was.
not necessary to arrive at anything more than a moral cer-
tainty, for that was all that a human tribunal could acquire.
With these observations, the grand jury were discharged to
their labours.