The Sun. — 1858-12-03 (London, England)

PRICE 4D. • STAMPED, SD.  MIDDLESEX MAGISTRATES.  At the usual meeting the Middlesex magistrates, held at the Court-house, Clerkenwell-green, yesterday, Mr. Pownall in the chair, The report from the Finance and General Purposes Committee stated that a loan of £20,000 had been raised at 4 per cent. on security of the county rate, .E 16,000 of which was to be applied to Colney Hatch Asylum, and £5,000 to the:lndustrial School at Feltham.  There was a motion on the paper in the name of Mr. G. F. Young, on the subject of disputes arising between the coroners and the magistrates about the disallowance of fees in certain cases ; but when it wao called, Mr. Young was not present. The chairman said he regretted this the more, as the attention of the court might have been called to certain observations published by the Registrar-General, reflecting on the magistrates in their judicial capacity, in dealing with the coroners. The-CHAIRMAN also called attention to what had taken place in reference to a claim put forth by Mr. Wakley and a jury, to have a prisoner charged with homicide in custody brought before them. There had been for many years a dispute on this subject, but in this instance a new feature had been introduced. An application had been made to the Home Secretary to order the . prisoner charged with this murder to be produced before the coroner and jury, and Mr. Walpole, in reply;said there was no-objection to the prisoner's being taken before the coroner while on the way to the police court. The prisoner was delivered into the custody of the police, according to the magistrate's remaad, and on the way to the police court they took him in a roundabout direction to the coroner's inquest, so the responsibility was with the police, and not the prison officers. Mr. N. LAURIE sai4 he presumed it was not intended to ask the -Home Secretary what Act of Parliament gave hint the authority to makesuch an order, but if he should be called upon to specify it, the right honourable gentleman, he thought, would be placed in a very difficult position to answer. The Home Secretary had no power to make any such order.  The CHAIRMAN said that in consequence of what had now occurred, some magistrates might think that, as a matter of course, all applications for a prisoner to be taken before the coroner must be complied with. It was nothilig, of the kind, and the magistrates in performing their duty must well weigh the matter before they acceded to any such request. Mr. ROBINSON said the prisoner was given up to the police by the prison officer, in the regular way, on the expiration of the remand, and was then taken by the police to some place where an inquest was being held. The prisoner was not sent there by the magistrates, nor by their authority. They had to keep the prisoner in legal custody, and they haddone so.  Mr. N. LAURIE said the Secretary of State had no authority to make such an order, and had the man not been taken in due course before the magistrate there would have been an action for escape, and were the governor to obey an order to take a prisoner before the coroner while under a magistrate's committal, he would be dismissed. Lieutenant HILL, governor of the House of Detention, said the prisoner was not taken to the inquest by any of his officers, but by the police, and he should not have allowed him to leave the prison if the period of the remand not expired. The same course had been taken in the case of the foreigners lately charged with murder. Mr. N. LAURIE said the court had made an order upon the subject which must be carried out. The Secretary of State had n 9 authority to order otherwise.  The matter then dropped. Some ordinary matters were then disposed of, and the court adjourned.