The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-04-16 00:00:00

Brought forward.

s. (1.
Ashton-under-Line 925 10 8
Accrington 135 6 1
Bolton, Great& Little 2,888 10 31
Bury 1,348 17 11
Blackburn 1,481 18 9
Burnley 559 0 41
Chorle 879 15 61
Colne fawn 128 13 0
Clitheroe 2Ol 3 9
Garstang 43 13 6
Haslingden lOl 13 3
Kirkham 278 0 0
Liverpool 47,640 13 51
Lancaster 2,706 1 101
Layton. 283 18 lo
Lytham....,.... 205 0 0
Manchester ...20,457 2 21
Middleton. 2OO 18 11

£ s. d.

Newiim 69 8 3
Ormskirk 5BB 11 71
Oldham,above&belowl,oB2 17 6
Over Darwen 95 16 9
Poulton 65 9 2
Preston 4,993 3 9i
Prescot 426 3 5
Rochdale,comprising
Wardlesworth, Cas-
tleton & Spotland... 1,939 10 2
Salford 3,696 13 31
Ulverston 5BO 5 81
Wigan 1,758 14 111

Walton-le-Da1e..... 302 16 6
Warrington ...... 1,778 5 4
Rest of the County 55,212 9 4

133,056 3 51

It is singular enough that with the exception of Bath,
which is rated at £48,184, Liverpool contributes more
to this tax than any town unconnected with the metro-
polis, and more than double the amount levied upon
Manchester including Salford. In fact, Liverpool pays
nearly as much as the whole county of Devon, more
than the county of Essex, about one-half as much as the
extensive county of York, and fully more than North-
umberland and Nottingham united. The most extra-
ordinary fact of all is, that the metropolitan county, in-
cluding the borough of Southwark, contributes a much
larger sum than all the other parts of England, being
£1,060,997.

'WE refer our readers to a case of forgery, tried before
Mr. Justice Park, at the Taunton assizes, which will be
found in another part of our paper, and more particularly
to the observations of that learned judge in passing sen-
tence on the prisoners. Here we find, that one of the
parties, scarcely a responsible agent, and the mere tool
of his elder brother, is subjected to the same punishment
as the more guilty offender, and to the heaviest that the
law can now inflict.

All laws are intended to prevent rather than punish
crime; and the question to be considered is, whether
transportation for life in all cases, instead of executing
the most atrocious offenders, will have a tendency to ar-
rest or increase the progress of forgery. Since the pas-
sing of Lord Chief Justice Denman's act, we have almost
daily experience that this crime is on the increase, and
we see no reason to suppose, however rigorously the law
as it now stands may be enforced, that it ever will ope-
rate as a preventative. To those who declaim against
the sanguinary character of our criminal code, we answer
that this is a necessary consequence of the spirit of our
constitution, which, by giving to every man a greater
degree of personal freedom than is known under any
other form of government, by prohibiting the interference
ofjustice until the law has been violated, by presuming
every man innocent until a verdict of guilty has been
pronounced; and, lastly, by requiring the accuser to
prove an affirmative, offers facilities, and almost a tempt-
ation to the commission of crime. Hence, as we cannot
without sacrificing this great franchise, (which we de-
voutly hope no Englishman will ever think of,) have an
efficient preventive police, our criminal code must ne-
cessarily be one of great severity. Two parties are ac-
tively agitating this subject from very different motives,
but unfortunately leading to the same result. The radi-
cals, by gradually undermining, seek to destroy the whole
fabric of English jurisprudence, in which they are unin-
tentionally aided by certain sectarians, whose mistaken,
but conscientious zeal, outruns their discretion, and whose
objections to the infliction of death are based upon a
wrong foundation. At present they all agree'that death
should be the punishment for murder, but here they for-
get the intimate connection between life and the means
of living. Shakspeare glances at this subject in the
person of Shy/ock, who, on being told that his life would
be spared, but that half his property would be confiscated,
exclaims—

" Nay, take my life and all, pardon not that:
You take my house, when you do take the prop
That doth sustain my house; you take my life,
When you do take the means whereby I live."

Transportation, as a secondary punishment, is but of lit-
tle use, because it does not operate as an example. The
convict "goes hence, and is no more seen;" however
terrible his 'sufferings, they are unknown to the com-
munity, and the chances of escaping detection and con-
viction, and from the effects of the sentence When carried
into execution are so numerous that they never will de-
ter the daring and the profligate. We suspect, too, that
if these persons are treated, as convicts, with greater se-
verity than other criminals, it will not be long before we
shall hear of another crusade for the liberation of the
white slaves of that new holy land—Botany Bay !

Forgeries increased in number from the tine that. it

became fashionable to exclaim against
death as barbarous and inhuman, and
told that judicial perjury was only " op
that the great check to this crime h;
they have increased in a tenfold ratio.
In all punishments the degree of gu.
mine the amount of punishment, for thi
frequently perpetrated under very di
moral twpitude. After guilt has been
a great N degree of uniformity in 01
court of revision, composed of the j:
collectively pass sentence, might be a
We question, very seriously, whether
tioned individuals who have lessened
prisonment, and,irt some instances dis
of its terrors, by Making it a sort of
bliss, have not, to use a homely phr
harm than good." At any rate, we
amelioration, as it is called, of our crii
sure of very doubtful policy.