606 Provincial Occurrences : Northumberland, Herefordshire, $ 



NORTHUMBERLAND. The Newcastle and 

 Carlisle rail-road will shortly be commenced. Mr. 

 Giles, the engineer engaged to conduct the under- 

 taking, is at present in the north. 



HEREFORDSHIRE. Sentence of death was re- 

 corded against 10 prisoners at these assizes; 3 were 

 transported, and 22 awarded to imprisonment. 



HAMPSHIRE. A petition to Parliament has 

 been voted at a meeting held at Southampton rela- 

 tive to negro emancipation. It was also proposed 

 to indemnify the West India landholders against the 

 loss arising from the emancipation of their slaves. 

 Hampshire Telegraph, April 12. 



The new cattle-market commenced at Botley 

 under the most favourable auspices. It is to be held 

 every fortnight on the alternate Monday with the 

 cattle-market at Fareham. 



The number of children belonging to the Ports- 

 mouth Sunday schools, nearly 5000, attended their 

 annual sermon on Good Friday. In the Portsmouth 

 parish account for last year there is a curious item 

 of 51. 5s. paid to the Rector for tythes on the Poor 

 House Garden ! Hampshire Telegraph. 



HUNTINGDONSHIRE. A county meeting 

 has been held at the Court House in Huntingdon, 

 to consider the propriety of petitioning Parliament 

 for the total repeal of the malt tax, which was 

 unanimously agreed to, after a variety of speeches 

 made upon the occasion.* 



CHESHIRE. A public meeting of the bankers, 

 merchants, tradesmen, and other inhabitants of 

 Chester, was held at the Exchange, April 8, pur- 

 suant to a requisition to the mayor, numerously 

 and respectably signed, to consider the propriety of 

 petitioning both Houses of Parliament against that 

 partof the Attorney General's Bill, by which it is in- 

 tended to destroy not only the. jurisdiction of the 

 Court of Session of the County Palatine of Chester, 

 but also to deprive the County of the City of Chester 

 of its local courts, when several resolutions were 

 entered into, and a petition unanimously voted to 

 parliament. f Chester Chronicle . 



15 prisoners were recorded for death at the assizes 

 and sessions for this county and city, besides several 

 transported and imprisoned; the melancholy pic- 

 ture of the state of crime exhibited in the calendar- 

 excited feelings of the deepest regret both in the 

 judge and recorder, and is particularly alluded to in 

 the local press. 



* One of the speakers, Mr. Day of St. Ives, said 

 " that by rigid economy, and the abolition of sine- 

 cures, a considerable reduction might take place. 

 They now asked for what they were prepared to 

 prove could be done by lopping off pensions ; there 

 was the Duke of Manchester receiving 4.000/. a 

 year for doing little more than seclude himself in 

 Kimholton Castle. Let any person take up the Red 

 Book, and read what is there detailed, and then put 

 his hand on his heart and say, if he can, that it is 

 impossible for ministers to" repeal taxes!" Cam- 

 bridge Chronicle. 



f Mr. Granville, having given the matter his best 

 consideration, said, he could not but regard that 

 part of the bill , which proposed the abolition of the 

 local courts of the County Palatine and of the City 

 of Chester, not as a i eformation, but as a change of 

 the most objectionable and injurious tendency to 

 the inhabitants of those places; inasmuch as they 

 would be thereby deprived of the means of obtain- 

 ing cheap and speedy justice at their own doors an 

 advantage which ought rather to be extended to 

 every part of this kingdom than taken away from 

 any portion of it! ! ! 



SHROPSHIRE. At the Lent assizes for this 

 county 7 prisoners received sentence of death; 8 

 were transported, and a few imprisoned. 



SOMERSETSHIRE. At these assizes 26 pri- 

 soners received sentence of death, 8 were ordered to 

 be transported, and about 30 imprisoned. 



DEVONSHIRE By the last statement of the 

 Devon and Exeter Savings' Bank, it appears that 

 1.262.996/. 15*. id. have been received since its ori- 

 ginal institution ; and that the total in-payments 

 made, amounts to 5S8.254/. 15*. 7d., so that the sum 

 of 675,776/. 19*. 3d- remains in hand. The number 

 of accounts opened, 31,285, and the number of de- 

 posits received 114,513. 



At the last Report published of the state of the 

 Devonport Union Savings' Bank, the sum paid in by 

 5, 188 depositors, since its commencement, amounted 

 to 288,134?. 14*., out of which payments have been 

 made of the sum of 46,4677. 1'6*. sd. ; remaining ba- 

 lance 243, 314?. 9*. 8d. 



WORCESTERSHIRE. The petition in the 

 course of signature at Worcester relative to the 

 revisal of the criminal laws, states that on an 

 average of 7 years ending with 1826, 75 executions 

 took place annually in England and Wales, and the 

 capital convictions to 1003 ! * 



WARWICKSHIRE. The assizes for this county 

 were heavy and laborious, and the number of pri- 

 soners was about 230 ! sixty-nine of whom received 

 sentence of death .'!! Between 40 and 50 were con- 

 signed to various periods of transportation. An 

 analysis of the calendar exhibits in a melancholy 

 point of view the prevalence of juvenile delin- 

 quency ; of the total number of prisoners, one was 

 of the tender age of twelve !.'.' 27 from 12 to 1 5 ! 81 

 from 16 to 20 ! 60 from 21 to 25 ! 24 from 26 to 30 ; 

 and about 40 from 31 to 52 and upwards f. 



* " Sanguinary law's are a bad system of the dis- 

 tempsr of any state," says Blackstone; and for 

 the wisdom of our ancestors, in making lots of acts 

 of Parliament, some idea may be formed by com- 

 paring theimportant changes that have taken place 

 in the statute law of the realm, from the numner of 

 statutes that have been cither wholly or partly re- 

 pealed within the last seven years (from 4th to 10th 

 Goo. IV. inclusive). It appears that during the 

 above period, 1,126 Acts of Parliament have been 

 wholly, a-d 443 partly, repealed, making a total of 

 1.569 : of these, 1,344 relate to the empire at large, 

 and 225 solely to Ireland ! ! ! Mr. Peel's reform re- 

 lative to forgery will reduce 360 acts to 10, and that 

 in the customs only ! ! ! 



t Sixty-nine prisoners cast for death in one county, 

 and that too the midland county of this once boasted 

 humane and civilized England ! Well may foreign- 

 ers taunt us for our sanguinary code, for we doubt 

 whether there are as many criminals at present lying 

 under sentence of death in the whole of continental 

 Europe, as there are in three of our counties, to say 

 nothing on the horror of having a few of them un- 

 der the tender age of twelve ! ! ! Most of the cul- 

 prits tried at Warwick are from Birmingham, many 

 of whom have been lingering in prison, waiting 

 their six months day of trial. Whatever might have 

 been the arrangements of our tvise ancestors during 

 the barbarous period of the feudal system, surely 

 the great population, overwhelming taxation, and 

 civilization of these latter times, entitle that town to 

 a more convenient, cheap, and speed?/ dispensation of 

 justice, and its consequent extirpation of crime, 

 "which may be also mightily assisted," as Dr. 

 Johnson remarks, " by looking out upon the Intel- 

 lectual World, and extending the power of Learning 

 over regions yet undisciplined ; or by surveying 

 more exactly our ancient dominions, and driving 

 ignorance from the retreats where she skulks unde- 

 tected and undisturbed." 



