The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-09-01 00:00:00

r c- street, et

Ice.ln tiyant y.
AI;NIT

U,'ANNAII. wife of ROBERT
n. West Derby.

Sane thy. n her ;..rd year
DUTTON, Es., , ut t ros •y-gtt
ame tlay. at I lantoio
FRANCE. h 1.1Z.a HETI!. w:dow uf the I
TA DDY, auciei.t bergeant and Attorney•Gcner..d to the Qt
Dow: girl'.

Same day. GRAS VILI E BURGESS, infant son of Mr
ALI, KED 4,GESS IIAYW u
Same day. ageu 57, Mrs. GIIkON, wicLw of Lieutenant R. S,

Gibson. k N

Same day. urea Pg Mr. B. JON- formerly of Manchester.
e y/5,1; n t nm. in Pam Wm ripiare, ftirke.head, alter SI
short ilhres..MCl,. wile .4f .1 1 ME- 'KIK.
:Same clAy, While on a visit tir ii r imete, Mr. .1.

of fixestt Net Aron tlfeet. utter a It w cla),'
IE eldest d uglder of .1r 'lllO AAS
Cectown.

M'Costrie,
aced 2.,

Same tiny, nt the house of Mr.. ET., Itarford..strect, aged
2!. CliAh I.Es CANII, only s-ti of the hitt• Mr. Juhn Cash, ct
this town, much resi.,ected hy al; who knew hint.
S:an.e nay, ,t Ventre, r,e,,r t atrcr a short illeenS,
nett ;7 Ng. JOHN sTOHY D. c, itse t w.,s an elder of the
Cali ist c Meth• dist cc.nt,exi h.r silty years, and the foandei

Wit in the city Ash',

Au 11,e coma stone of

tie firs; Ualvinist,e chafe
On the 26th a t me), ag fd 4 years and 5 T
ANN only daughter of Nit. (-.EOm6
Same d y. in Fir gre.ve, Veut.t hh ri y in hi Sslh y
WILKINSON, tsq foumerly ut lia ill. n, in this coat
s-tue day in her nth year. ANN, e.debt daughter
JOHN of Khig-41t ,treet.
Same ay, AI ICE M SONLEY,
Same day, ai Quarry Bank, lranmere, of dysentery,
years a d 6 mutates, S. PIIIA, daughter of Mr. KABUL/NO,
architect

LIMY U. 145, Vine

name day. aged 19 witch re reefed. 11ANNAIt, eldest daugPs-
ter d! JOSEPH sino 11ANNA11 Oldhall street.
Same nay. at tl e residebee at I.er iteplo w Vk'm Rigby, Esq,
of UPPer Cat.niitg stiert.i • her 6..1.1 )viir. ANN 11AKKISON.
Some day at O'd Warden, Beth. rdshire. in his 96th year, no
Hon. FRP DEKICK ONGLEY. (omit, surviving sonar the late
and Ca itther nt the I,rtsebt Lead Otneley.
On the :;1.1) ultimo Mrs. Mei of Vi'arertree,
of 13.1,1 again e, Cheater. in her VI t year.
Name day, in thiN twain, in the 11th year of his
JOSEPH oft viA y tiniest son of the late John
Esq., of Kirkland, ews- upon- Eden, Cumberland.
Same day. aged In mouths, JOSEPH, sun ot Mr. B
of Caner-street

formerly

Noi Man.

}d'bitiNethi-e"2(3thil'uoftihmem."lt:.gieedst)4Bl,etkoNsti:.'swile of Mr
JACKNON,..hd eldest daughter 0: the lute Mr. 1N illian
.ame day. 14 his residence, at Walton. aged 44. 1
VOn the 29 h ultimo. at
Blk T, Erq
On these th ultimo, at W
bFtai' kirv, erel e;rin;ell )en:r‘'iel ngClithehEetel7lidi'SrsttelPy'' YNIa
arlroi
ssad huisuer, of that 41uer. et
ANN, the he.oved wile of
her.

JONES,

%OBER?

UOM

1 her ■ge

LATEST DATES Al

ect I dust

'do knew

Aust rwis
fiHhiA.. ,

May l' Lima - '
275 :: [ SAita :311'1 Tikinl% ::
July 3 i Mliurit int.
June

In &les

Barbsd es.
Buthl..y
B. Ayrt.s..
Cult tr la ...
C. G. Ili p.
Charlestom
China

June I P
July 9

July 3 Moil Video.
Jul., 161 N.
Ame 11 few• 10. k,
Jnne 25 Pernaini oeff.
July 114 Kw
Amt. i avariliali .
Juiy 113 .
.. Yl, Vera Cm; ..•

Defile art
Jamaica..
La Guayra

fursciq

July 2
Jusig
Au e
Mayg 9
July 14

itibrrpaot

TUESDAY ZIORNING, sppr. 1, 1846.

We had exhibit: d, in our Crown Court, on Mon-
day week, a spectacle which we do not think can be
parallelled in any other land, whether for the magni-
tude and singularly horrifying circumstances of the
crime alleged to hove been committed by the prison-
ers tried on the occasion, or for the palient investi-
gation which the case received from the court and
jury, and the jealous fear displayed lest, under the
influence of feelings excited by the unusual horror
of the circumstances, the law should be permitted
to deal its blow upon heads which did not deserve
to suffer. We refer to the trial of the murder case
from Greenheys. Manchester. Two boys, one of
them a mere child, were arraigned for the murder of
a poor vender of blacking, about 15 years of age, '
the robbery, and subsequent disposal of the body.
The prisoners had no powerful friends to come for-
ward in- their behalf. They were of the humblest
class. The atrocity of the charge, their apparently
hardened conduct after the murder, compassion for
the parents of the unfortunate deceased, and the
powerful chain of evidence adduced against them
before the coroner and the magistrates, had pro-
duced in the public mind a feeling of personal de-
testation of the prisoners, and a conclusion of their
guilt. Yet, over the lives of these two boys, thus
predoomed by public opinion, British justice watched
with as much, or even greater, care, than it would
have displayed had the offenders been of a higher
gra le, with powerful friends
.and wealth to protect
thim. A learned sergeant-at-law was retained to
d3vote to the task of their defence his great eloquence
and legal acumen. The evidence of every witness
—and there was an array of thirty-two witnesses for
the crown—was sifted thoroughly. Their learned
counsel bestowed two hours and a quarter upon his
speech in their behalf; the learned judge spent above
an hour and a half in explaining to the jury the
bearing upon each other of the various links in the
chain of circumstantial evidence adduced ; and the
jury themselves were nearly half an hour in delibe-
ration, although they had already been sitting for
twelve hours upon the case. The evidence, they
felt, was but circumstantial—the most dangerous
evidence to convict upon;—the boys had borne a
good character up to the moment of the alleged
murder; and, for the credit of humanity, they could
not believe that they could have become all at once
such very fiends, as they must have been, had it
been possible to imagine them capable of all the
atrocity alleged agaimt them.
The tri;,l itself presents features well calculated to
make Englishmen proud of their country and its
institutions, which throw the same shield over the
defenceless which the powerful and the wealthy can
procure for themselves. A trial thus conducted, and
its result, assure the world that it is no mere formal
maxim of law—no cold and deluding abstractin—
which is proclaimed by our criminal practice, when
it says that even the guilty are to be assumed to be
innocent until their guilt is proved.
One feature of the case, however, disclosed dur-
ing the proceedings before the court, is, we regret
to say, not so creditable; nor is it at all consonant
with our notions of the spirit of British jurispru-
dence. We refer to the police interference shewn
to have been practised in the getting up of the case
for a jury, in hunting out evidence to fill up gaps in
the chain of circumstances, and apparently keeping
back any thing which tended to raise a doubt in
favour of the accused. We insert, in another
column, some remarks made by the London Times
upon the same practice, as prominently displayed in a
trial before the Central Criminal Court, which, sin-
gularly enough, took place on the same day, and in
which the police appeared in the character of publit
prosecutors, putting forth all their activity to pro-
cure a conviction. Many of the facts apply for-
cibly to the case tried in our own town. Such a
practice.is not English, and should be put a stop to.
The police have arduous and useful ditties to per-
form ; but their active interference should cease so
soon as the offender has passed through the hands
of the committing magistrate. They are then in the
keeping of the law, and the law will do justice to
them and to the community.

We are happy to observpi that the subject to
which we referred last week,'and which was so for-
cibly placed before the public by the letter of Dr.
Harbord, viz., the frightful amou t of disease en-
gendered in the town by the neglect of parties to
remove: nightsoil, the contents of cesspools, and
other impurities, has been warmly taken up by the
Health Committee of the Council and the authori-
ties generally; and that prompt measures are about
to be taken for the abatement of the evil. This
much is clearly practicable, at no very great cost to
the town. Its entire removal cannot perhaps be
accomplished until after the first of January, when
the pro Visions and powers of the new Sanatory Bill
will come into operation.
In the mean time, the attention of scientific and
practical men may be advantageously drawn to the
most efficacious mode of effecting the desired relief.
Something upon a comprehensive scale mast in the
first instance be done, to prevent the continual nui-
sance in every neighbourhood, caused by the mode
of removal of offensive substances by the. present
method, To obviate this is a grand desidera-
tum ; and a plan has been explained to us, and
is, we learn, highly approved of by several gentle-
men interested in the movement now making to
provide for the better sanatory regulation of the
town, which appears to us to possess many advan-
tageous features. We refer to the plan of Mr. W.
urray Ross, which, we understand, will he laid
before the Health Committee by Mr. 11..ithhone at
its next. meeting. The plan in question possesses
several important features. In the first place, it is
proposed by the aid of ingenious and powerful ma-
chinery, devised for the purpose, to dispense altoge-
ther with the use of the ordinary nightinan's bar-
row, and to avoid the annoyance created by the ne-
cessity, under the present system, of depositing the
offensive matter in the street, or on the parapets,
previous to its being shovelled into carts for con-
veyance into the country. If this can be accom-
plished, the effluvia emitted during the operation
will scarcely be felt, and much of the fertilizing
gases, which at present are allowed to escape,. will
be preserved. In the next place, it is proposed that
the cleansing should be done at stated periods, of
sufficient frequency to ensure the public against any
undue accumulation; and that a whole street or
court should be cleansed dt once. Thus the offen-
siveness and discomfort caused by the operation
will be'a rare occurrence in any neighbourhood, in-
stead of, as at present, a monthly, and sometimes a
weekly; infliction. Proper chemical means, as well
as the improved machinery to which tee have ad-
verted, will be used to make the removal as little of
possible ; whilst, a; the same time, the
value, as manure, of the matter removed, will be
greatly increased. Plans are also provided for the
final convey nce of the whole away from the town,
without the necessity arising from any centtal.,in-
termediate place of deposit, which would operate
to poison the atmosphere in its neighbourhood.
To effect the object here proposed is, however,
obviously beyond
,the means of any private indivi-
dual. It is therefore proposed to form a company
of periods for the purpose, who shall contract with
the corporation and give such security:as may be
deemed necessary for the effectual performance of
the task which they undertake. h is conceived
that the operations of such a company, by the aid
of scientific processes, can be rendered profitable to
themselves and advantageous to the• country, and
especially advantageous to the agricultural commu-
nity, by increasing the supply of the really valuable
fertilizing components which have hitherto been
allowed to escape or to be depreciated. UpOn the
question of profit, however, we cannot be expected
to offer an opinion. That must be a consideration
for the shareholders in such a company. We are
satisfied, however, that science can do much to aid
the farmer i i the mode proposed. It has been
shown that evert by improvements in the construc-
tion of his premises—his stables and farm yards—
the agriculturist can effect an infinite' amount of
saving; and if this can be done with the fertilizing
matter produced in large towns, anal at present
wasted, by any method which will not involve annoy-

aace anti injury to he“ith, the attempt ought to be
made.

The proposal, as a whole, is one which deserves
the serious consideration of the authorities. Let it
not be scouted because it is a new one and a bold
one. Let us not set our faces againat it because it
is pr: posed to be carried out by a company. All
great scheme; in the present age are thus originated.
It is the co-operative system which has given us
gas, provided us with water, and is forming for us
railways; and if the same system can give us im-
proved health and lengthen the duration of life in
our crowded marts of trade and industry, we should
bless it for the boon and accept its aid with thank-
fulness.

We are still not disposed to lose sight of the im-
portance of a better supply of water for cleansing
purposes—for street cleansing, for the promotion of
personal cleanliness, and for domestic purposes.
The want of this must be removed, as the cause of
half the sickness and mortality under which we
labour. Another cause of disease, also, to which
we have freqeently directed attention, the collection
of water in stagnant pits in the outskirts of the town
and even in some which are becoming central locali-
ties, must be attended to. We ask of those ladies and
gentlemen who attended, on Saturday, the ceremony
of laying the foun 'ation stone of the viaduct in
Boundary-street, if the effluvia which met them on
ascending the plat-form, or the sight of dead dogs
and cats rotting in putrid water, were very provo-
cative of appetite, even for the splendid Dejeuner
which the liberality of the Directors had provided
for them. Is the sickly artizan passing such loath-
some places, on his way to or from his humble meal,
very likely to enjoy it ? Can his children, breathing
its poison daily, escape sickness ? Such places
affect the health of the entire neighbourhood in
which, by some extraordinary want of proper super-
vision by the authorities, they are permitted to
exist. Of the place in question, it may he said that
the water is required for brickmaking. Then com-
pel the parties owning the pits to make the bricks
at once. If they are not ready to do so, or the
bricks are not wanted just yet, discharge the water
until they are. There are localities, however, in
which such sources of pestilence exist, where no
such excuses offer—places where the foundltions
have been got out for future buildings, and where the
water is permitted to remain, simply because the
owner of the land cares not to remove it until the
site is sold, or he is ready to build upon it. Such
places are generally in neighbourhoods of conside-
rable population ; and, when we know that in every
case they are surrounded with fever and other bale-
ful illnesses, we should promptly tell their owners
that the health of the public shall not be permitted
to suffer for the gratification of their own sifishness.

NJ one is more sensible than ourselves of the dif-
ficulties which, in a town like Liverpool, beset a
police magistrate in the discharge of his duties.
Those duties themselves are so extensive and so
complicated; the cases upon which such a magis-
trate has to decide are so varied in their character,
that he must occasionally appear to bestow upon
some too little consideration, to receive evidence
with too little scrutiny into its truth, and to err in
the judgment which he pronounces. One of the
greatest difficulties under which the chief magistrate
of this town labours, and which frequently brings
upon him odium, has been in part of his own cre-
ation. We refer to the difficulty which arises in the
case of informations where the police are the sole
witnesses on the one side, and their statements are
met by the counterstatements of disinterested parties.
Mr. Rushton appears to estimate, at too high a rate
the value of a policeman's oath. He regards every
man in the blue uniform as a miracle, impartially
promoting the ends of justice for itself alone, unde-
viatingly honest, and particularly candid. When
policeman A. or B. presents himself, to denounce
some unhappy carter, or to state his version of a
row, and has policeman C. or D. at his elbow, to
confirm his story, the Stipendiary, in regulating the
amount of credence to be given to theta, does not
appear to us sufficiently to bear in mind that there
may be some motive in the background to stimulate
these officers to magnify the offence alleged to have
been committed, so as to stand well on the police
books as vigilant officers. Hence, in some instances,
it happens that parties are convicted upon evidence
which, we suspect would, upon close examination,
prove utterly worthless, if not even such as would
entail upon themselves a reprimand as the slightest
penalty.
A case of this sort came before Mr. Rushton on
Tuesday, in which a carman was summoned on two
informations, one for creating an obstruction in
Lime-street, and the other for furiously driving
down Roe-street. The circumstances were these.
The carman was waiting outside the station in
Lime-street, at about half-past eleven p.m., on Mon-
day fortnight, for two gentlemen, one of them from
this office, to convey them, with the express parcel
from London, which we usually receive at that
hour, when he was desired by a policeman to re-
move his car, as obstructing the road. Having a
fare, of course the carman refused; and ais was
the subject of information the first. When the car-
man had taken up his fare, he drove in the direc-
tion of Castle-street. In Roe-street he was met by
another policeman 1l 1 with a charge of furious
driving ; and followed by that officer and another
nearly to our establishment, where he was stopped,
and the number of his car taken.

With respect to the first charge, it was proved, at I
the hearing, that the car was in its proper place, as
an engaged vehicle, and the information was dis-
missed. In the hearing of the other information,
the second policeman mentioned deposed to the fu-
rious driving, and his following the car, which he
stated was going with such rapidity, that when he,
ONE HUADRED AND ELEVEN, had got to
the end of Basnett-street, he saw the car before him
at the top of Lord-street, above North John-street.
Now, just for a moment examine the story of this
singularly discerning individual. To see the car at
the top of Lord-street, from the position mentioned,
he would have to look through the whole range of
building, from Church-lane to the middle of Lord-
street ! A person standing at the end of Basnett-
street, could not see a car more than a few yards
past the end of Whitechapel, as Mr. Rushton way
satisfy himself any day that he is passing the
locality. TO substantiate his charge, which was de-
nied by one of the gentlemen who had been in the
car at the time, another policeman was produced to
depose to the rate of driving up Lord-street; and
this itidiiidual, in reply to a question from the ma-
gistrdte, estimated the speed at twelve miles an
hour (0 How far Mr. Rushton may be learned in
hor,eflesh we do not know; but to those acquainted
with the ordinary speed of this quadruped, and how
much oftener we hear of trotting at the rate of twelve
mileo an hour in harness, up hill, with a heavy four-
wheeled car, and three persons of respectable weight
to drag, than see the feat performed, it would be
rather staggering. To add to the improbability of
the feat in the present case, the horse alleged to
have performed it has attained the venerable age
of twenty years, for the last seven of which he has
been knocked about in the shafts of a hack car, on
the stones of Liverpool, having previously been dis-
missed by an eminent surgeon as past service
Notwithstanding these allegations, information the
. second was dismissed.'

1 But how ? Why just in the way, we conceive,-to
encourage attempts, on the part of the police, to
annoy individuals, and to impose upon the credulity
of the bench. Mr. Rushton intimated to our pro-
fession, that he was aware we were occasionally so
circumstanced as to render rapid transmission of
despatches desirable • but he could not allow us to
peril: the limbs of her Majesty's lieges by driving
furiously, thus assuming us to have been guilty of
such: an offence. With respect to the carman, he
said that he should not inflict a,fine this time; but
if he was ever again brought .up, similarly charged,
he should fine him forty shillings and costs, and the
Stinindiary wound up by saying, that he could
easily see bow the charge of furious driving had
arisen. An uneasy feeling had been created in the
minds of the police by the occurrence in Lime-street
Whit a strange admission is here. Policeman A.
stops a man for some imagined offence, and dis-
covers that he has committed himself. An " uneasy
feeling" immediately prompts his brother policeman
B. to bring another charge. Preserve us from cre-
ating an " uneasy feeling" in the minds of police-
' meni
Ittwould suggest itself to most persons, that the
officials, thus admitted to have been prompted to
bring a charge against an unoffending man by the
'inffuence of an "uneasy feeling," would at least be
warned not again to allow such an influence to lead
themselves astray, and put other people to unde-
served trouble and expense. But not so on this
occasion. Not a word of warning or reproof was
uttered. On the contrary, their " uneasy feelings"
are gratified by the intimation, that the innocent

party—who for this heavy offence against the dig-
nity of a policeman will probably be henceforth a
marked man—will, next time he is brought before
the magisterial bench, be treated with the rigour
meted out to an old offender !

We observe, by a notice on the paper, that Mr.
Tinne will, to-morrow, bring before the Council a
motion for the establishment of an additional num-
ber of baths in the town, for the accommodation of
the working classes, upon the plan of those whose
operation has been so successful in the south end of
the town. We hail this movement as a step in the
right direction ; and its proposal does infinite credit
to the gentleman who has originated it, and whose
efforts are unceasing to ameliorate the condition and
improve the health of his less wealthy townsmen.
We trust the Council will meet the motion with a
ready affirmative. It is one dictated not more by
motives of humanity than by sound wisdom; and
will carry along with it the hearty sympathy of the
public.
Whilst upon this subject, we cannot abstain from
congratulating* Mr. Tinne upon the acquisition
which, through him, the Health Committee have
made, by securing for themselves and the town the
services of Mr. Nicol and Mr. John Stewart. Both
these gentlemen will bring to their aid a vast mass
of useful information and active zeal. Neither ought
we to omit recording our meed of thanks to Messrs.
A. Lace, W. Rathbone, H. Hornby, J. Lawrence,
and other members of the Health Committee—we
scarcely ought to particularize any—for the ardent
efforts which they have been, and are making, for
the promotion of the great object committed to
them,—the securing for all classes of their fellow-
townsmen, and the poor in particular, a purer at-
mosphere, better cleansed streets, better dwellings,
and, as the result of these, better morals.