PARLIAMENTARY REPORTS. 369 



PARLIAMENTARY REPORTS. 



REPORT OF THE NORTHERN 

 CIRCUIT COMMITTEE. 



The Select Committee appointed 

 to consider tvhether any, and 

 •what steps may be necessary to 

 he taken, to give to the Counties 

 of Westmorland, Cumberland, 

 Northumberland, and Durham, 

 and Town and County of New- 

 castle - upon - Tyne, the same 

 advantages of Assizes tivice in 

 each year, as are now possessed 

 by all the other Counties in 

 £ngland and Wales, and to 

 report their observations there- 

 upon to the House ; and to 

 vihom the Petition of the Mayor, 

 Sheriff's, Citizens, and Com- 

 monalty of the City of Norwich ; 

 and also the returns of the 

 Calendars of the Prisoners, and 

 of the Lists of Causes tried 

 at the Assizes for the Counties 

 before mentioned, were referred i 

 ^—Have, pursuant to the Order 

 of the House, considered the 

 same accordingly ; and have 

 agreed to the following Report : 



Your Committee, on referring 

 to the different papers laid be- 

 fore them by order of the House, 

 find, that for several years past, 

 persons charged in the four 

 northern counti'^s with offences, 

 not ordinarily falling under the 

 jurisdiction of the general quar- 



Vot. LX. 



ter sessions, have continued in 

 prison previous to their trial for 

 seven, eight, and nine months, 

 and in many instances for a 

 longer period of time ; and they 

 cannot but direct the immediate 

 attention of the House to so 

 great a failure in the administra- 

 tion of criminal justice. 



The return of causes of the 

 respective counties, with the ex- 

 ception of that of Westmorland, 

 mark a large and progressive 

 increase of civil business. In 

 the marshal's paper at Carlisle, 

 for the year 1814, no less than 

 80 records were delivered, of 

 which four only appear to have 

 been withdrawn ; in the year 

 1815, 61 causes were entered; 

 and the two successive years 

 averaged not less than 50. At 

 Durham, in the year 1816, they 

 amounted to 51 ; and in 1817, to 

 S^. Northumberland (including 

 the jurisdiction of the town and 

 county of Newcastle-upon-Tyne) 

 furnished, in 1816, 42 causes; 

 for five of these causes special 

 juries had been summoned, three 

 of them were made remanets, and 

 consequently went over for 12 

 months ; in the following year 32 

 actions were entered, one only 

 of which was withdrawn. As 

 the returns themselves are in 

 their nature too voluminous for 

 2 B publication, 



