The Atherstone, Nuneaton, and Warwickshire Times. — 1884-02-16 (Atherstone, Warwickshire, England)

THE CHARGE.  In charging the Grand-Jury, his Lordship sad that was not the first time by a great many that he had had to congratulate the county of Warwick win the really full attendance of gentlemen in their position to do duty as Grand Jury men. Such an attendance in full numbers bine testimony to their desire that in this county the law should be propel ly administered, and that those who were engaged in the administration of the law did not shrink from that duty whatever it might be. Perhaps there never was a time in the history of the country when it was more desirable that every person engaged in the administration of the law should show more vigilantly his great determination, zeal, aini desire to do his duty. He was able to say, with one exception, the caleniliir her their consideration was one upon which he was not bound to express any strong feeling. The calendar, as far as numbers were concerned, might fairly be stated to be below the average. He did not find that either in the number er the seriousness of the offences there was anything like au increase at all to make one despond for the progress of morality, sobriety, and the law-abiding qualities on the part of the populatioo of the county. Ile found that on the last occasion of a Judge attending at that time of the year there were no li ss than twenty five persons charged with the offence of burglary, whereas on the present occasion that offence —which was a very serious one, and calculated to create great alarm to those whose per-8,311.4 and property might be threatened—was represented only by five persons, uud that on the I whole was a very substantial and very important diminution in the number of persons charged with that offence. Proceeding, lila lordship said there were two serious charges in the calendar, viz., of murder. They were cases in which he feared lie could not counsel them tom: tertain any doubt in the case, as in both cases the facts were too clear to dispute for a single moment that there was a proposed killing of one liumau being by another. Both were cases of wife murder, or of persons who were passing as tile wives of the prisoners. Whatever might be the state of the mind of the prisoners, it would be the duty of the Grand Jury to find bills on the serious charge of murder. Last year there was one such charge, this year there were two. Murder was on the increase, and was an offence committed by persons under an exceptional state of excitement and wickedness, and, though such a state of things happened on a large scale in such a community as that of England, he did not think it was a rep:oich te the county because on that occasion there happened to be two instead of one. At the same time, it must be said that wife murder, whether committed by people under great excitelama or under the influence of drink, or when people were in their sober senses, indicated a bad state. In the country in which they were frequent --too frequent—it was the duty of gentlemen occupying such positions as those of the Grand Jury to see whether anything could be done by way of increasing provision for the people and improving their dwellings, and by reducing intemperance or by providing places of rational amusement on holidays anti on Sundays. In whatever way it might suggest itself to them the matter was well worthy of the consideration of people like themselves and of people who had to do with the administration of criminal justice whether such offences might not be greatly ditriistied and to a largo extent prevented by improvel arrangements of asocial character upon that which at present existed. He noticed that in acme of the large towns great efforts were being made to improve the sada' relations, and particularly to improve close nod unhealthy dwellings, and those efforts were greatly diminishing the kiwi of thing to which he liii referie I. though not wholly to the extent one would desire, lie expressed a hope, however, that greater success woniti be attained in this direction, and that ere long they would era-e to be iepreacheil by those who had come to live ionong them flora foreign countries —as they were sometimes reproached—smith iii it brutality amongst some classes of the pmpl which showed itself in violence, and which sometimes culminated in the offence of murder such as the two cases to which he hail been calling their attention. Hiving remarked upon several of the cases in the calendar, his loud-hip discharged the Grand Jury to their duties.