Page:The Justice of the Peace and County, Borough, Poor Law Union and Parish Law Recorder, Volume 1, 1837.pdf/14



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VOL. I.

LONDON: SATURDAY, JANUARY 28, 1837

And on every alternate Saturday, and sent free of postage ''to all parts of the country.-Subscription 17s. per annum.''

8d.

offering this paper to the attention of that Body to whose service it will be exclusively devoted, it is incumbent upon the Publisher briefly to explain the purposes it is designed to answer. While the agency of the press is resorted to by several of the other orders of society, as the clergy, the medical, and a branch of the legal profession, for protecting their interests, and supplying the information properly belonging to each of them, it is a matter of some surprise that so large and influential a part of the community, as that, comprising justices of the peace, clerks of the peace, clerks of petty sessions, town clerks, and parochial officers, is yet without this universal medium of communication; especially when it is considered, that to most of them, it is of primary importance to be furnished with the earliest and most correct intelligence upon the many, and often complicate questions with which they have to deal.

To supply this deficiency, it is proposed to establish this paper, which, to enumerate some of its advantages, holds out to, and , the certainty of the speediest information upon all subjects falling under their respective cognizance, of the decisions which take place in the courts at Westminster, and of quarter sessions, throughout the Kingdom; of reports of cases in petty sessions, where such may be of any utility; of other matters of an interesting or important nature in either of those courts, as well as in their respective counties at large; and in addition, during the sitting of parliament, an outline or analysis of every bill introduced there, affecting their judicial, or ministerial functions and duties : to , besides such of the matter it shall contain as may be useful to them, every timely information that may be deemed serviceable towards the effectual discharge of their office, with notices of all controverted cases in the courts at Westminster and elsewhere, in any way connected with Borough affairs, and the decisions thereon: to , and , reports of all transactions and decisions as well under the poor law commission, or otherwise, relating to the management of the poor, or to their respective offices.

To the foregoing will be added, accounts of the proceedings of the tithe commissioners for England and Wales, and any practical matter under the registration, marriage, highway, and enclosure acts, together with accurate reports of the decisions of the revising barristers upon points under the reform act.

And from time to time will be given every important proceeding respecting Savings’ Banks, Friendly Societies, Government Annuity Societies, and Loan Societies, with notices of the formation of new societies under the different statutes relating to them, and decisions upon practical points that have been submitted to the certifying barrister.

lt will also be the aim of this paper faithfully to bring to the notice of its readers, such new publications as may appear, upon any of the subjects within its sphere of enquiry, and generally to become a vehicle of the most extensive, correct, and useful intelligence to that part of the public whose interest it espouses.

Having thus briefly explained the views and objects of this undertaking, the Publisher respectfully hopes to receive, from an order of men so considerable and intelligent, that countenance and support, which its utility may deserve.

We have inserted some rernnrks made by the judges and barristers at the last session of the central criminal court, respecting the depositions returned there by magistrates, for the purpose of founding a few observations upon them. From the tone of some of these remarks, we might be induced to believe, that the exact duty of a magistrate in taking and putting into writing these depositions, is not always kept in mind. The 7th Geo. 4, c. 64, which is founded almost word for word upon the 1 & 2 P. & M, c. 13, and 2 & 3 P. & M, c. 10, requires the justices, in cases of felony, to take the examination of the person apprehended and the information of them that bring him, of the facts and circumstances thereof, and the same, or so much thereof as shall be material to prove the felony, to put into writing and certify the same to the proper court. It appears, therefore, that so much only of the evidence adduced before the justices as shall appear to him to be necessary to prove the felony shall he put into writing and returned, and the justice is thus by virtue of the statute, made the sole judge of what and how much is material for that purpose. He must, of course, be governed by the legal rules of evidence, and observe the necessary forrnalities in taking it; but these done, his duty is at an end; nor can we conceive what occasion there is, or ought to be, for further reference to the depositions. They were originally intended to contain the proof of the offence wherewith the prisoner stood charged in the warrant of commitment, and by shewing that he had not been illegally committed, to serve as a justification to the magistrate, and a protection to the accused. But the proceedings in the higher court, (unless a formal confession had been sent up) are afterwards founded on the indictment, to the proof of the offence thereby charged the evidence should tend, and the court has the same means of examining the prisoner and witnesses to support the indictment, which the magistrate had to substantiate the charge contained in his commitment. Indeed, before and for a long time after the framing of the two last-named statutes, no depositions were sent up at all, but the court was left to the charge contained in the warrant of commitment, for the information upon which to found the indictment, and to this day, so little are the depositions and commitment necessarily connected with the indictment, that the latter frequently charges the prisoner with a different offence from that contained in the former documents. The departure from the original intent, the attempt to make the depositions answer a purpose for which they were never intended, we cannot but think have led to the evil complained of, such as it is, and it is, of course, the business of the prisoner's counsel to seize hold of any discrepancies in the testimony of a witness,—discrepancies mostly incidental to human testimony, in order to lessen its weight with the jury. Mr. Justice Park, the most experienced criminal lawyer on the judicial bench, has frequently, as in the present instance, explained the true state of the case, and deprecated the practice of using these inevitable discrepancies for the purpose of confounding or discrediting a witness. To obviate this difficulty, several suggestions have been offered, which we will consider in our next number. VOL. I. B