The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-08-18 00:00:00

Prius Court,

The Crown Cotirt was opened at eleven o'clock with
the usual formalities, and the following gentlemen were

THE GRAND

Wm. Entwistle, Esq , M.P., Rusholme Hall, Manche

ter, Foreman.
Peter Ainsworth, Esq., M.P., Smithills Hall, Bolton
Thos. Thornely, Esq., M.P., Liverpool.

Thos. Weld Blundell, Esq , Ince Hall, Liverpool.
R. B. B. H. Blundell, Esq., Daysbrook, Liverpool.
Wm. Clayton, Esq., Lostoek Hall.
J. C. Ewart, Esq., Liverpool.
John Fenton, Esq., Crimble, Rochdale.
Wm. Gale, Esq., Lightburne House, Ulverston.
Robertson Gladstone, Esq., Liverpool.

Ford Holton, -Newbronk House, Bolton

George Leea, Esq., ISTlneth,Oldham

Thopc.' Littledale, jun., Esq., Claremont, Liverpool
Danl. Maule, Esq., Manchester.
_

Richard Christopher Navler, Esti., Walton Hall, Liverpol
Robert Neilson, Esq., Halewood, Liverpool.

Joseph Ridgway, E,q., Wallsuches, Bolton
Thos. Rodick, Esq., Gateacre, Liverpool.

. .
Clement Rovds, Esq., Rochdale.
Humphrey De Trafford, Esq., Trafford Park, Manchester
Geo. Johnson Wainwright, Esq., Liveryool.
The Learned JUDGE addressed the following charge to
the Grand Inquest. I regret I cannot congratulate you
upon the state of the calendar. It is exceedingly heavy,
both as respects the numbsr of prisoners and the offences
with which they are charged. It is indeed one of the
heaviest, if not the heaviest, that has occurred since the
assizes were removed to Liverpool, at least at the Sum-
mer Assizes. There are the names of 92 prisoners in the
calendar as it stands ; there are, I understand, five or six
other cases, who do not appear yet to be added to it : and
the number will probably be increased before your labours
are over. Of the ninety-two prisoners, whose names ap-
pear in the calendar, six are charged with wilful murder,
12 with manslaughter, 13 with malicious injuries to the
person, 16 with burglary, and 8 with highway robbery ac-
companied with violence to the persons of those attacked.
Many of these are aggravated cases ; and there are be-
sides, in the calendar, as I believe, instances of every
other offence contained within the catalogue of crime.
It is-not—surprising, that in the southern division
of this great county, containing as it does the two
populous and commercial towns of Manchester and
Liverpool, that the calendar should be heavy; but
it is not easy to assign a cause for its being so
unusually heavy at this particular time. It may be acci-
dental. Bat, at all events, I do not think I should
occupy your valuable time by speculating upon causes
which probably, after all, may not be the true causes, and
without any sufficient materials to hazard an opinion with

confidence. I find, however, from a perns4 of the depo-
sitions, one unfailing cause for four-fifths of these crimes
is, as it is in every_ other calendar, the besetting sin of

drunkenness. In almost all cases of personal violence
and injury, the scene is a public-house or a beershop, and
the parties are exasperated and inflamed by intoxication.
So long as the habits of fhe common people are those of
intemperance whenever an opportunity is afforded—so
long as they are incapable of recreation and social enjoy-
ment, except that of drinking to excess in a public-house,
much improvement can hardly be expected. It is, how-
ever, earnestly to be hoped the efforts which have been
made and are making in the right direction—by the en-
couragement of temperance societies, and inducing a
taste for other recreations in 'the intervals of labour than
the erroneous and degrading one of intoxication, will
gradually effect a change in the national character in
this moat important particular. Ido not purpose to com-
ment to you in detail upon each of the cases in this calen-
der, nor indeed could I do so even if I were so disposed;
for, as you may easily believe that with such a mass of
more than 90 depositions, and some of them very long, I
have been unable to do more than make a hasty perusal
of those which appear to me of the greatest importance.
I regret this the less as I am aware I am addressing gen-

tlenien, many of whom have bad very great experience as
magistrates, and to whom the points occurring in the
great mass of cases will be perfectly familiar. One of the
most remarkable cases in the calendar is that of two lads,
one 17 and the other 12 years of age, named Joseph
Dean and James Seddon. They are charged with the wil-
ful murder of another boy of 12 years of age. The cir-
cumstances stated in the depositions are such that if C,ere
is sufficient reason for believing the death of the deceased
was occasioned by the injuries received from the prisoners,
there is nothing to reduce the charge below that of wil-
ful murder. With regard to one of the prisoners, Dean,
who is only twelve years of age, it will be a question for
the jury who try the case whether there be such a degree
of intelligence, or the power of distinguishing between
right and wrong, as would constitute tbat discretion which
the law requires to make him a responsible agent. Under
seven years of age, the presumption of law is, there is
not sufficient discretion to constitute a responsible Agent;
but between seven and fourteen, it is a question for the
jury who try the case; but upon which it sill not be ne-
cessary for you to enter. There is a charge against
Robert Parmes No. 55 in the calendar, for the murder of
a woman, named Beteson, who was found dead in a pond,
at Aintree, under circumstances somewhat extraordinary,
as the place where the body was found was within a few
yards of several booths in whieh mere a number of per-
sons. The case against the prisoner rests mainly, if not
entirely upon 11;s having been the last person seen in her
company, and giving some equivocal, and, as it appears,
false,
,account of what had become of her. If the evi-
dence is such as to lead you to the conclusion that the
prisoner might be convicted of the charge, if nothing more
appears, it will be tiroper to Sod the bill ; but if the evi-
dence appears to you such that though it may raise strong
suspicions it will not be sufficient to warrant a conviction,
it is better not to find the bill; because, if the bill is found
the prisoner must be tried, and if the evidence is insuf-
ficient, be acquitted, and he never can be tried again if
further evidence should afterwards be found; whereas, if
the bill is not found, and further evidence should arise
hereafter, a fresh bill may be forced and the man put upon
his trial, and so a failure of ju'tice may probably be
avoided. A man of the name of Richard Wignall, N. 86
in the calendar, is charged with the wilful murder of his
wife. If the evidence appears before you, as it is stated in
the depositions, you can hardly do otherwise than return
a bill for wilful murder, as there does not appear to be any
such provocation upon the part of the wife as would re-
duce the case to one of manslaughter. In the case of
William Clapham, No. 53 in the calendar, who is charged
with the wilful murder of Abraham Tweedalq, you
will have to consider whether there were any cir-
cumstances which reduce the offence to manslaughter
only. If great and unnecessary violence be used, and with
a deadly instrument, the party using such violence, and
such instrument, will not, if be occasion death, they'

_.eby
be guilty of less than murder, though be may have re-
ceived some provocation from the deceased. The only
provocation in the present case was an endeavour by the
deceased to save another person from an unprovoked at-
tack by the prisoner with the same dangerous instrument
If tf.- -q to th

,nere is any question as ae state of the prisoner's
mind, that is not for your consideration, but for the jury
which will have to try him. There is a case in the ca-
lendar, No. 54, where a woman, named Davidson, is
charged with the wilful murder of her infant children. 1
have c-Irefully perused the depositions, and I do not think
there is sufficient ground for the charge of wilful murder.
The prisoner appears to have been delivered of one child
in a cab, and of the other in a field immediately after she
had quitted the cab; and one of them, the weaklier of
the two, was deposited under a hedge, in such a situation
that had it remained there it would have died ; but it
was found, and taken away within about an hour
after the delivery, and it ultimately died in about a
week. The surgeons can not, they say, attribute the
death either to the exposure, or to any act done by
the mother. I, therefore, recommended that the
should be sent to you for exposing the child w;.l-
- cause its death, and not for murder. -
sides, in the calender, no fewer than eight cases of
bigamy ; and I cannot but suspect, from circumstance
stated in some -f

There are

4e o..ne depositions, that many persons be-
lieve that, if the separation takes place by consent, and
the'parties live apart for several years, and have no in-

...,6cturi again, eacn la at liberty to
If such be the case, the sooner such an erro-
neous and most mischievous opinion is corrected the
better. By an exception in the statute for the punish-
ment of bieamv. it i. .

„ „ •••••••••..., OIMIA IlUt l cases
where the parties, having•.• livedl, apart fora seppvey nto years,
without hearing of each other being alive, each may
marry again ; but it matters not how long the separation
has been, if the party marrying has reason to believe the
other is alive. It is probable there are many other cases
in the calender upon which, under other circumstances. I
might feel it, perhaps, important to make some remarks ;
but, having drawn your attention to the most prominent
cases, and being unwilling, with so much business as you
aye