40

taining those persons, who could depart, exposed to the noxious air which is the principal cause of the dreaded malady, as well as by turning the attention from those means of prevention which are appropriate and efficient.

The real causes of epidemic diseases being properly understood, and the public being at liberty, in times of pestilence, to consult their own safety in their own way, there can be no doubt that those who now shut themselves up would remove into another atmosphere; and that such part of a community as cannot go to the expense of a removal, and upon whom pestilences most heavily fall, would be removed by their governments or municipalities.

It being no part of my object to treat of the means of prevention, medically considered, I here limit myself purposely to a view of those measures which depend upon popular belief, municipal regulations, and legislative enactments; and now therefore conclude.

N.B. It will be observed, that, in the foregoing summary, I have, with a view to propitiate enquiry by avoiding matters which might, by admitting of a political interpretation, have created opposition, wholly abstained from, discussing one of the chief causes of the fever of the United Kingdom, viz. the absence of the accustomed occupations of the laboring classes of the community. Its introduction was the less necessary, on this occasion, that the plague of the Levant was the subject professedly under discussion. But think it right to observe, that this frequent cause of disease was neither overlooked nor omitted from inadvertency; as well as to announce that it is my intention at an early period to treat fully of this matter, as connected with the prevailing epidemic of Great Britain and Ireland, in order that, as a result of this controversy the questions at issue, may, in respect to all future epidemics, be for

ever set at rest.

Bucklersbury, October, 1819.

CHARGE;

DELIVERED ON THE 9TH OF MARCH, 1820,

ΤΟ

THE GRAND JURY

OF THE

County of Westmeath,

AND PUBLISHED AT THEIR UNANIMOUS REQUEST.

DUBLIN:

VOL. XVI.

Pam.

NO. XXXI.

N

TO THE HONORABLE

SIR WM. CUSACK SMITH, Bart.

My Lord,

Mullingar, March 10, 1820.

As Foreman of the Grand Jury, I have the honor to inform you, that on retiring from the Court yesterday, the Grand Jury came to an unanimous resolution, that I, as their Foreman, should respectfully request of you to publish the admirable Charge, delivered to us by your Lordship, when we were sworn in.

I have the honor to be,

My Lord,

Mos respectfully,

Your obedient servant,

H. R. PAKENHAM.

ALTHOUGH the Calendar may not be as light as we could desire, it would yet appear that the state of your County may afford matter for congratulation, when compared with that of others; where the daring spirit that prevails must be met with a strong hand; and where there seems too much reason to apprehend, that in mercy to the public, it may be found necessary to deal out rigor to not a few.

Be this however as it may, towards the discharge of your ordinary, though momentous duties, as Grand Jurors, you require neither exhortation nor instruction, from the Bench. I am confident you will discharge them, as I trust I shall perform mine, with diligence, integrity, and firmness; and possibly, at the same time, with an ability and skill, exceeding any to which I could justly make pretension.

I am too little acquainted with your County, to know exactly, either how you are situated, or what you may intend, with regard to those public buildings contained within it, with which you and may be said to have concern.

I

I feel it to be of consequence, that the edifice in which justice, in its highest departments, is dispensed, should contain sufficient accommodation for all those, who are concerned in its administration. It seems, also, desirable that appearance should be con

sulted; and that this should be, in a reasonable degree, handsome and imposing. Every court may be considered as one of the palaces of law and justice; and a degree of respectability, at least bordering on sober grandeur, suits the dwelling of inmates, whose dignity is so truly paramount; and to whom, be our condition high or low, we all are subject. But in aiming at thè attainment of these desiderata, economy ought not to be forgotten cast aside. We ought not to transgress that frugality, in managing a public purse, which, being less selfish, is therefore more generous and praise-worthy, than any domestic parsimony which may regulate the disbursements from our own. In short, it is not at the expense of justice, of which public economy is a branch, that justice ought to be accommodated or adorned.

or

There is, within each county, another public building, of a very different, though of an appurtenant description; of whose magnitude and extent we may be allowed to feel ashamed, even in the moment in which we are raising the funds that shall produce them ashamed, however, that such spaciousness was wanting; not that we have freely given what was indispensably required. I advert of course to the County Gaol; and participate in a feeling, which is now become very general, that it is to the last degree important that our gaols should be well administered; and that every necessary arrangement should be made, and every practicable facility be afforded, towards the maintainance of a prison discipline and regulations, improving the habits, and corrective of the morals of those confined.

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I will say for the Judges, (if I may infer the feelings of others from my own,) that their situation, with reference to the state of too many prisons, has been not a little embarrassing and irksome. In those cases, where the discretion committed to the Bench embraces a range of penalty, from short imprisonment to transportation, to be too lavish of this latter, would be to adopt a culpably rigorous and indiscriminate course; confounding various shades of guilt, by involving all in one common punishment. I pass over the subordinate, though not unimportant consideration, of those heavy demands upon the public purse, which this punishment notoriously and unavoidably induces.

Again, criminality short of what might be thought to merit exile, may well deserve some length and severity of confinement; and not to inflict this, may give encouragement to guilt; by withholding the dissuasive efficacy of expiation and example.-Besides, by not proportioning the duration of imprisonment to the enormi ty of offence, we again become indiscriminate; and fail to graduate punishment; as we ought, if possible, to do. Yet how was a Judge to act? He knew that prisons were too generally seminaries