Part 32 (2/2)

Such a burden imposed upon the subject, in addition to the losses already sustained, in a case too where the offence is of a public nature, is certainly not easily reconcileable with that spirit of justice, and attention to the rights of individuals, which forms so strong a general feature in the Jurisprudence of the Country.

From all these circ.u.mstances it happens that innumerable felonies are concealed, and the loss is suffered in silence as the least of two evils; by which means thieves are allowed to reign with impunity, undisturbed, and encouraged to persevere in their evil practices.

Nothing, it is to be feared, can cure this evil, and establish a general system of protection, but a vigorous Police; strengthened and improved by the appointment of Deputy-Prosecutors for the Crown, acting under the Attorney-General for the time being. An establishment of this sort, even at a very small salary, would be considered as an honourable _entre_ to many young Counsel; who, in protecting the Public against the frauds, tricks, and devices of old and professed thieves, by which at present they escape punishment, might keep the stream of justice pure, and yet allow no advantage to be taken of the prisoner.[123]

[Footnote 123: The propriety of this suggestion is sanctioned by the recommendation of the Finance Committee of the House of Commons in their 27th and 28th Report; and forms part of that System of general controul and arrangement for the prevention of crimes, stated more at large in a subsequent Chapter.]

As it must be admitted on all hands, that it is the interest of the Public that no guilty offender should escape punishment;--it seems to be a position equally clear and incontrovertible, that wherever, from a defect in the system of prosecutions, or any other cause, a prisoner escapes the punishment due to his crimes, substantial justice is wounded, and public wrongs are increased.

It has been already stated in the preceding Chapter, that there are five separate Jurisdictions in the Metropolis, where Magistrates exercise limited authority.--Of course, there are five inferior Courts of Justice, where lesser offences, committed in London and its vicinity, are tried by Justices of the Peace.

1. The general and Quarter Sessions of the Peace; held eight times a year, by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, at Guildhall--_for the trial of small Offences committed in London_.

2. The Quarter Sessions of the Peace; held four times a year at Guildhall, Westminster, by the Justices acting for that City and Liberty--_for the trial of small Offences committed in Westminster only_.

3. The General and Quarter Sessions of the Peace; held eight times a year, at the New Sessions House on Clerkenwell-Green, (commonly called Hicks's Hall) by the Justices only of the County of Middles.e.x--_for the trial of small Offences committed in Middles.e.x and Westminster_.

4. The General Quarter Sessions of the Peace; held in the Sessions-House in Well-Close-Square, by the Justices for the Liberty of the Tower of London--_for the trial of small Offences committed within the Royalty_.

5. The Quarter Sessions of the Peace; held by the Justices for the County of Surry, at the New Sessions House at Newington, Surry, in January;--At Reigate, in April;--At Guildhall, in July;--and Kingston-upon-Thames, in October, each year;--_where small Offences committed in Southwark and the Neighbourhood are tried_.

These five inferior Courts of Justice take cognizance of _Petty Larcenies, Frauds, a.s.saults, Misdemeanors, and other offences punishable by fine, imprisonment, whipping, and the pillory_:--and in certain cases, the power of the Justices extends to transportation.

The higher and more atrocious offences committed in London and Middles.e.x, are tried at the Justice-Hall, in the Old Bailey; by a special commission of Oyer and Terminer to the Lord Mayor, and a certain number of the Judges, with the Recorder and Common Serjeant of the City of London.

Offences of this latter degree of atrocity, perpetrated in that part of the Metropolis which is situated in the Borough of Southwark and County of Surry, are tried at the a.s.sizes, held twice a year at _Kingston-upon-Thames_, _Croydon_, or _Guildford_.[124]

[Footnote 124: Considerable inconvenience arises (and, indeed, great hards.h.i.+p, where prisoners are innocent) from the length of time which must elapse, where offences have been committed in Southwark, before they can be brought to trial; either for inferior or more atrocious crimes. In the former case, prisoners must remain till the Quarter Sessions, (there being no intermediate General Sessions of the Peace) and in the latter case till the a.s.sizes, held only twice a year; this occasions a confinement, previous to trial, lengthened out, in some instances, to three, four, five, and even nearly to six months.]

Thus it appears, that five inferior and two superior Tribunals of Justice are established for trying the different crimes committed in the Metropolis.

As it may be useful, for the purpose of elucidating the suggestions already offered upon this branch of the subject, that a connected view of the result of these _Trials_ should make a part of this Work;--the following Abstract, (including the discharges of Prisoners by Magistrates) has been made up for this immediate purpose: from authentic doc.u.ments obtained from the keepers of the eight different prisons and houses of correction in the city of London, and in the counties of Middles.e.x and Surry.

It applies to the period, from September, 1794, till September, 1795, which is chosen as a sort of medium between Peace and War.

It is impossible to contemplate this collected aggregate of the prisoners annually discharged upon the Public, without feeling a strong anxiety to remedy an evil rendered extremely alarming, from the number which composes the dismal catalogue of Human Depravity.

Every inquiry in the progress of this Work proves a radical defect somewhere.

While the public tribunals are filled with Judges, the purity of whose conduct adds l.u.s.tre to their own and the national character, why should not every subordinate part of the Criminal Jurisprudence of the Country be so organized, as to co-operate, in the greatest possible degree, with the efforts of those higher orders of the Magistracy in accomplis.h.i.+ng the purposes of substantial justice?

Nothing could tend more to promote this object, than the appointment already proposed of a Public Prosecutor for the Crown.

An inst.i.tution of this kind would terrify the hordes of miscreants now at open war with the peaceable and useful part of the Community, in a greater degree than any one measure that could possibly be adopted.

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