§ LORD BRAMWELL,in presenting a Bill to extend the Jurisdiction of Justices in General and Quarter Sessions 2 of the Peace to cases of burglary and forgery, said, that neither of those crimes could at present be tried at Quarter Sessions, and that his proposal was that it should be permissible to try them at such Sessions, it being left to the committing magistrate to say whether a case should be tried at Sessions or at Assizes. There was no doubt there were many cases in which it was desirable that the accused should be tried by the best tribunal the country could afford; but, on the other hand, he might point out that cases of burglary often partook of a trivial character. For example, if a man should open a window, put his hand behind it, and steal a small piece of beef, his offence would amount to burglary, and, according to the present law, would of necessity be tried at Assizes.
§ Bill to extend the Jurisdiction of Justices in General and Quarter Sessions of the Peace—Presented (The Lord BRAMWELL); read 1a; and to be printed. (No. 112.)