CHAPTER VIII.
THE SUPREME COURT AND MINOR TRIBUNALS—(Continued).
Court of Quarter Sessions.
SYNOPSIS:— Mr. Edward J. Brewster, first Chairman. —The first Military and Civil Jury Panel. —First Criminal Trials. —First Sentence of Transportation. —First Female Tried. —First Perjury Prosecution. —"Pulling the Professional Nose." —First Conviction for Libel. —Sentence on Mr. George Arden. —Cremation. —Fawkner: Boniface and Library Proprietor. —Advocate Carrington's Supersession. —Military Juries Discontinued. —First "Strikes." —Mr. J. G. Taylor burned in Effigy. —The Insolvent Court. —Mr. Wm. Verner's Appointment. —The First Insolvent Estate. —A Payable Insolvency. —The Minimum and Maximum of Insolvent Estates. —M'Connell's Sufferings. —The Court of Requests. —Mr. E.J. Brewster, first Commissioner. —Mr. Richard Ocock, first Registrar. —Commissioner Barry's "Little-Go." —A Lady Litigant's Politeness. —Extension of Jurisdiction. —Augmentation of Salaries. —Marsden and Frencham. —The Rev. Mr. Barlow in Court. —Commissioner Barry's Retirement and Successor. —A Police Court and Lock-up. —The Stocks. —Petty Sessions. —First Magisterial Roll. —The Rev. E. J. Brewster. —From Bar to Pulpit. —St. John and the Reporters. —The Wolf and the Lamb. —"Watch-housing" the Newspapers. —Muzzling the Major. —St. John and "Garryowen." —Boniface Sibering and his Wife. —St. John's Peccadilloes. —A Court Squabble. —Finn's Note to the Major. —Unpaid for Whisky. —St. John's Transgressions Annotated. —The Major destroys Finn's Inventory of Accusations. —The Magisterial-cum-Reporter's Compact. —St. John on the Road to Ruin. —The Compact Inviolate. —"Jimmy Whistler." —The Evil Eye. —Forensic Birds of Prey. —"Staggering Bob." —Opening of the Police Buildings, Swanston Street. —Racy Scenes on the Bench. —Arson and "Shindyism." —The "Axe" of Parliament. —The "Scabbard" of the "Apple of Discord."
THIS was the first Criminal Judicature in Port Phillip, and was established under the Melbourne Quarter Sessions Act 2 Vic, No. 5 (15th August, 1838). It could try "crimes, offences, and misdemeanours" in addition to a small appellate jurisdiction from the Courts of Police and Petty Sessions. It was presided over by a Chairman, and in its jury system possessed the dual peculiarity, that a prisoner had the privilege of being put on his country before either a military or civil jury. This was a remnant of the old Penal Laws of New South Wales, and its origin may be thus traced. The New South Wales Constitution Act Geo. IV., c. 83, sec. 5, provided for the trial of offences before the Supreme Court, by a jury of seven commissioned officers of His Majesty's Land or Sea Forces, whether on full or half-pay, a species of semi-martial law, necessary, no doubt, in the infancy of a convict colony, where the material for civilian juries did not exist. The 10th Geo. IV., No. 7, establishing Courts of Quarter Sessions, passed some time after, extended this mode of trial to such Courts. As free settlement progressed an Act was passed in 1833 (4th Wm. IV., No. 12) modifying the original system so far as to make informations triable either by a military jury, or a civil jury of twelve inhabitants of the colony at the option of the accused; and Sec. 12 extended this sort of trial to Quarter Sessions. The military juries were abolished by the 3rd Vic, No. 11 20th September, 1839, from and after 31st October, 1839.
The first Chairman was Mr. Edward Jones Brewster, an Irish barrister, and the inauguration of the Melbourne Court was appointed for the 28th March, 1839, but it was adjourned to the 13th May, when the Chairman, having arrived from Sydney, business was commenced in the old Police Office, at the south-western corner of the Western Market Reserve. The names on the military and civil jury panel (previously compiled by a Mr. Michael O'Brien, a sheriffs officer), were called over. The military jurors were Captain Smith, commanding the military force; Smyth, of the mounted police; Scott (on half-pay), of Royal Marines; Mr. Howard, the Acting Commissary-General; Lieutenants Newton and Addis, R.N. (on half-pay), with Lieutenant De Vignolles, and Ensign M'Cormac, commissioned in the Regimental Detachment stationed in the town. Mr, H. N. Carrington, a solicitor, had been appointed Crown Advocate and appeared accordingly.
