The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1850-08-27 00:00:00

THE CHARGE.

The grand jury having been sworn, and the usual for-
malities gone through,
The RECORDER proceeded to deliver his charge. He
said the calendar on the present occasion was unusually
light, the number of prisoners appearing to be sixty. The
learned Recorder congratulated the jury on this circum-
stance, and considered that as the cases were simple their
services would not be required longer than a single day.
There were two cases of women luring children from their
homes, and then stripping them of their clothes. It
would be the duty of that court to treat such offences in a
manner that would effectually discourage the practice, if
it were not able to put an end to it. There was a case in
which the mate of a vessel was charged with selling loose
cotton, remaining on board after the cargo was supposed
to have been removed : at the last sessions there was a
mate of a vessel charged with selling bags of Indian corn
found on board after all the bags were supposed to be de-
livered. He ( the learned recorder) feared there were
persons who made it their business to go about
and induce persons of the class referred to to dispose of
such property fraudulently and feloniously : he said
feloniously, because it was quite clear that by their office
mates had no legal right to dispose of any portion of the
cargoes which were entrusted to them. He made this
observation in consequence of the defence which had been
set up there of the supposed right of mates ; but when
that defence was urged, it met with very little success
from the jury. A mate who set up this defence at the
last sessions is now undergoing imprisonment. It was
highly necessary that mates should be taught that such
practices were nothing less than felonious.—There were
some cases of persons having assaulted police-officers.
In certain parts of the town, Toxteth-park (the south),
and in some parts of that neighbourhood (the north),
it was clearly dangerous for the police to perform their
duty. At the last sessions a case was heard in which
an inspector had been called upon to take a prisoner
into custody ; the officer was mobbed and assaulted, and
even when assistance arrived, and the prisoner was being
conducted to bridewell, a second attack was made on the
police, and the inspector received a permanent injury
to his sight from a stone thrown by a woman : that
case had been tried and sentence passed upon the of-
fenders, but still it seemed to him ( the learned recorder)
that further examples were required. In one case a po-
liceman had been injured by his own stick : it frequently
occurred that the sticks carried by police constables were
wrested from their hands and used against themselves.
He ( the learned recorder) had sometimes felt a doubt
whether the system pursued in London and Westminster,
where police-officers go about apparently unarmed,
though they have a very formidable truncheon in their
pocket, might not with advantage be adopted in this town.
The learned recorder at some length discussed this sub-
ject : he thought there was one great advantage in the use
of the sticks, viz., that of signalling with each other by
striking upon the ground ; but the question was, whether
this preponderated over the disadvantages, which the
learned recorder explained by observing that the fact of
constables of Liverpool being provided with sticks seemed
to have impressed people with the notion that the police
were the enemies of peace and good order instead of the
reverse. It was not within his province to decide the
point, but he had considered it incumbent on him to draw
attention to the subject. The recorder proceeded. From
the depositions laid before him he was struck, and he felt
sure every other person who studied the subject must also
be, by the close connection which subsisted between
drunkenness and crime ; every one who felt the importance
of diminishing crime was aware of the necessity of induc-
ing sobriety : it was frequently a ground of defence with
prisoners that they were drunk at the time they committed
the offence. Prosecutors also who came to complain of
the loss of watches or money, frequently admitted that
they were drunk at the time of their being robbed; so
that habits of intemperance led in the direction to
crime. The jury would find, on inquiry into the subject,
that whatever tended to prevent drunkenness went to the
root of evil, it had a corresponding effect in diminishing
crime. He did not mean to say that none but the vicious
frequented public-houses, he was aware that many intelli-
gent persons might be found at times in these places, but
any stranger, who should walk through the town, must
be struck by the immense number of public-houses in
Liverpool; he, the learned recorder, thought there were
too many, and that where they were most numerous the
temptation to the commission of crime was the strongest
and the greatest porportion was committed. After a few
more general observations, the recorder dismissed the jury
to their duties.

THE POWDER MAGAZINES AT WALLASEY.

We noticed a few weeks ago the feelings of strong ex-
citement and terror with which recent serious calamities,
resulting from the explosion of large quantities of gun-
powder, had filled the minds of the increasing population
located in the vicinity of the Wallasey Magazines, and
that a committee of gentlemen representing the ratepayers
had been appointed to inquire into the subject. That
committee has now made its report, which has been
presented to the proper department of the government;
and we learn that, as the result of their representations,
an eminent officer of engineers has been appointed to
visit the spot, and examine into the correctness of the
committee's conclusions.

This is certainly a step gained ; but we think we shall
be able to show to the parties most interested in this
matter—and we do not confine ourselves to the inha-
bitants of Cheshire—that it is by no means an assurance
of success in their present efforts. In the memorial of
the committee, just publishe,i, we are reminded that
" early in the year 1836, in consequence of an urgent
appeal to the Town Council of Liverpool (the owners of
the Magazines) by the inhabitants of Wallasey, a survey
and report of the then state and condition of the Maga-
zines was, at the request of the Town Council, drawn- up
by Lieut. Robinson, of the Board of Ordnance." And
what was the result ? A speculative and merely theoretical
opinion was given by that officer as to the probable effect
of an explosion—an opinion which sad experience has
since shown to be erroneous; and some precautionary
measures recommended by him having been adopted, the
dangerous nuisance complained of was inflicted for a fur-
ther period upon the neighbourhood, by the Corporation
granting fresh leases of the warehouses. These precau-
tionary measures, boy/ever, the committee very properly
remark " are quite inadequate to provide even for the
ordinary class of accidents to which such a trade is una-
voidably exposed ; while Lieutenant Robinson has not
suggested any safeguard, nor is any provision whatever
made against one of the most obvious and formidable
dangers, that of lightning." Moreover, since the report
in question was made, a great change has taken place in
the circumstances of the locality on both sides of the river.
The population of Wallasey, including New Brighton, Egre.
mont, &c., has largely increased, and property built over
close to the magazines themselves. The Liverpool Docks
at that time had not extended as far as the shore opposite

the magazines. They now extent
within somewhere about a mile onl

muckfutther, t

date of Lieut. Robinson's report, the gunpowder deposited
in the magazines has doubled in quantity. It is now
about 16,000 barrels, or between 700 and 800 tons, against
half that quantity in 1836. The deliveries per week have
increased in a corresponding ratio, being on an average
1000 barrels, against half that quantity in 1837.

Amongst the other danger

rising from the storage of
Ito neigh-

'der in the imine

bouricOod of this port, is the absence of proper regulations
as to its shipment. The casks are often imperfect ; and
the vessels delivering them, having fires on board for
cooking, or being beached, are liable to the accidents
attending the presence of such combustible materials.
Smoking tobacco is with difficulty prevented in vessels so
far from the constituted authorities. No permanent
guard remains on board. Moreover, what the committee
have not reported, constitutes a serious damper. Ves-
sels are allowed to take in gunpowder, whilst a steam-tug
is in front, emitting cinders and sparks, sufficient to
ignite their inflammable cargo. It is indeed wonderful
that serious explosions have not already occurred.
With respect to the locality to which the magazines
ought to he removed, we may remark on a future occasion.
Sal lent it is to say that the present site is nct safe. No
n•rss a definite opinion as to an explosion on
site. It might even ruin Liverpool as a port.
the eft. et of a discharge of a few ounces of
r Halifax boats. It shakes the windows of
n boili the Cheshire and Liverpool shore.
eight hundred tons, and who can describe
may be destructive of haif the public build-
nd of a great portion of its shipping; and

be destructive of a great portion of the
property on the Cheshire shore. The vacuum created in
the atmosphere by such an explosion will possess a power
of destructiveness, scarcely appreciable, because we have
never as yet witnessed its effects.

The Earl of Clarendon has accepted an invitation to
visit Belfast. . . _

Three of the men concerned in robbing the German
emigrants from California, in London, was sentenced, on
Saturday, to ,ighteen months imprisonment and hard
labour. rwo ()theta were acquitted.
The tide of cmig'ation from Dublin and all the other
principal sea-port to% ns in Ireland has increased con-
siderably since the c( mmencernent of the present month,
owing, as it is belio i d, to the partial failure of the wheat
and potat crops.
The Times of yesterday, in noticing the tour of the
French President, says, " There is reason for presuming
that the duration of Louis Napoleon's Presidency may
equal the duration of the Republic; so that while his
chances, as regards a fresh revolution, are not worse than
those of his competitors, he has the
posaeseion in the meantime." peculiar advant eof
ag