The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-04-18 00:00:00

THE CORONER'S COURT

The Common Council, after discussing the subject, re-
cently required our respected borough coroner, (Mr.
Curry.) with a view to effect a saving in the annual cost
of holding inquests of some few hundreds a year, to aban-
don the system hitherto pursued, of holding all inquests
at his own office, in Lord-street. and to hold them in the
several districts in which deaths should occur, the cir-
cumstances attending which rendered proper his official
inquisition into the facts. Those in favour of the change
quoted the practice of Manchester and other inland towns,
in which the average cost of inquests is certainly smaller
than in Liverpool, arising from various causes, including
the necessarily greater expense of witnesses in the latter.
From what we can learn, however, Liverpool stands in a
position, as regards this subject, very different from those
towns, and it already appears the system pursued there
will, -if persisted in here, very considerably increase the
expenditure, in place of diminishing it, while, at the same
time, it is attended with several obvious disadvantages.

District inquests can only be held in inns or public-
houses, and the cost of a room in each would amount an-
nually to much more than the rent of the coroner's pre-
sent office : besides which, a suitable room, to accommo-
date the jury, and the coroner, and his clerk, (who has to
write out the depositions in a fair legible hand,) is not to
'be had in every locality. The county allowance for a
room is 3s. 6d. Now, we had last year no fewer than 678
inquests, and it is but fair to assume that, with our in-
creasing population, and the increasing number of street
and doek accidents especially, the number will, on an
average of future years, net fall short of 700. In each
case the 3s. 6d. at least must be paid, making the rent of
the rooms, or temporary courts, £122 10s. per annum.
The rent of the present coroner's court, which is commo-
dious and respectable, though rather small when serious
cases, reouirinmb numerous witnesses, are to be investi-
gated, is only £6O ; so that there is, on this item alone,
an additional annual cost of £62 10s., or rather more
than double !

The holding of inquests, too, at public houses is itself
of a demoralising tendency, by naturally leading witnesses,
jurors, and visitors to drinking, or to contact, if abstainers,
with drinking customers of the house. It, moreover,
militates against the dignity of any court, and ought not
to be resorted to unless it cannot be avoided, as may
,happen in country places. The evil, in fact, is complained
of by, nearly all country coroners.
Another circumstance is, that if the coroner be engaged
here and there throughout the town for a day, and has no
central office (for it is proposed to do away with it), police-
officers and others would be unable to find him, so as in-
stantly to hand in their reports of deaths,—thus causing
other improper and, it might be, dangerous delays.
One of the disadvantages to, we may say, the public,
will be, that half of the cases will not be reported in the
newspapers, and that consequently undetected or escaped
delinquents, who have caused grievous injury or even
death, may escape, no reports being published ; for it is
impossible for proprietors of papers to employ reporters
a whole ,day to run up and down the town in the wake of
the coroner in order to obtain the particulars of the cases
severally, and unless the informations are deposited in a
central office, and they have access to them, all notice of
the mass of them at least, must either be abandoned or
founded upon vague and uncertain rumours.
We could eularge.upon the subject, and point out what
we conceive would make the old system much more satis-
factory in some respects, and less expensive in others ;
as, for instance, by an improvement in the selection of
juries, and also in the law respecting post morteni exami-
nations, insisted upon.by some surgeons, when the cause of
death is sufficiently obvious, merely that they may pocket
their fee of £2 25.; but .we shall defer further remark until
another occasion.

WILKIE'S PAINTING .07 NAPOLEON COMMANDING
POPE Plus VII. TO SIGN TUE CONCORD. T.—olle of the
greatest treats provided of late by the spirited efforts of
Mr. R. IL Grundy, is the above fine picture, which is now
on view at his Repository, 26, Church-street. The sub-
ject is one which will be remembered by every reader of
modern history—the last eftbrt, or one of the last efforts,
of Napoleon Buonaparte to support his tottering throne
by annexing to the empire of France the ecclesiastical
patronage of the Roman pontiff, Pius the Seventh. The
painter has chosen for the subject of his picture the inter-
view between the Pope and the Emperor, at which the
latter insisted upon the Pope's signature to the Concor-
dat, giving him the powers required. It is beautifully
treated, and in every way worthy of the eminent artist.
The scene is the private apartment of his Holiness, who
is seated in his chair, whilst the Emperor, standing, is
extending towards him, with an air truly imperative, the
document required to be signed. The form and the face
are a little more juvenile than those which we are accus-
tomed to see as those of Napoleon;_but they are in every

respect characteristic. The decision and peremptory
feeling of the moment are displayed in the erect frame
and the firmly-compressed mouth, which has, however, a
spice of scornful expression and contempt about it.
The unhappy Pius is, if possible, more graphically
painted, the expression chosen by the artist being that in
which his penultimate and most feeble refusal was given.
The picture is finely engraved in line by J. H. Robinson,
engraver to her Majesty, and is well worthy of a place in
the gallery of every lover of art.

LORD BROUGDAM.—It now appears from the cor•
respondence printed in the French papers, that Lorc
Brougham really demanded his naturalization as a Frerieb •

Lord.3hhip " of the consequen
_ _

s that would
er sons. he wo

ue. If

him as

to be an tnglishrnan ; he would no longer be Lord
but Citizen Brougham. He instantly lost all his tales of
nobility, and all the privileges as an Englishman." Lord
Brougham then said, " I could only enjoy my privilegss
as an Englishman when in England—in France I should
be what- the laws of France grant to the citizens of
the Republic." The minister however pereMptorily
declines to grant his Lordship the request on these terms,
and adds—" France admits of no participation of rights ;
she does not admit a French citizen to be at the same

time a citizen of any other country. To become a French-
man you must cease to be an Englishman ; you cannot
be an Englishman in England and a Frenchman in France ;
our laws are absolutely opposed to such a thing, an abso-
lute choice must be made. It was for that reason that 1
wag careful in pointing out the consequences of net urali-
• .

LEADERS' OUT OF Woup

another turn to the proceedings, and tallied such nonsense
as the following':— . He thought they had been wasting
a great deal of time in talking about the press ; if the
editor of any paper had libelled them, why not order him
to the bar of that hall, the same as it was done in another
house?—(Laughter.) He regretted to hear the reporters
abused before their face, that was not his wish,( Hear.)
He would read a letter which this morning he had received
from CO. Sibthorp,—(Laughter.) It stated that he (Col.
Sibthorp) should be delighted to see Mr. and Mrs. Cuffev
to take tea with him at No. 27, Char!

treat, on any
be

day convenient to Mr. and Mrs. C. ; that there
Mr. D'lsraeli and a few select friends invited to Meet
them (loud laughter) [of course this letter was a forgery.l
Delegates might laugh; but that was not the only letti
he had received this morning; he I

guished literary lady, he woad mention her name, it was
Harriet Martineau. It began Dear Sir, I am sorry to
hear that you. are in such distress; but I promise that if
you will consent to giVe your wife eight days' washing
every week I will employ her.''—(Roars of laughter.)
THE BISHOP OF EXETER AND THE REV. MR. HORE.
—A public meeting was held on Friday, in Exeter Hall,
to hear from the Rev. J. Shore,. of Berrc Pomero-, a nar-
rative of the proceedings taken against him by his dioce-
san, the Bishop of Exeter. The spacious ball was densely
crowded in every part. On the platform were, the Hon.
Arthur Kinnaird, the Revs. Thomas Mortimer, T. Binncy,
Ebenezer Davis, Dr. Morison, Dr. A. Thomson,—Anslie,
James Sherman, Dr. Henderson' Dr. Conk Evans, Dr.
Jenkyn, Dr. Massie, Rev. J. Bakewell, J. Thomson,
Watson, J. Smith, and about 200 other ministers and
gentlemen. The lion. A. Kinnaird occupied the chair
and the meeting was addressed at considerable length by
Mr. Shore, and by several other reverend gentlemen.
The circumstances of the case, between the Bishop tif Exc.
ter and the Rev. Mr. Shore, which occupied exclusively
the attention of the meeting, are already familiar to our
readers. Several resolutions were adopted; and also a
petition to Parliament, praying tier such alterations or ti
law as..would prevent any recurrence of such

DUrFts a.

that followed hy the bishop on this ocealot). • The chair-
man in the course of the proceedings read a letter from
the Bishop of London, to the lion. and Bev. B. Noel,
forbidding him to attend.