1835—At the Midsummer Sessions the magistrates agreed to a petition to Parliament against the Bill for permitting counsel for a prisoner in all cases to address the jury—a privilege hitherto confined to cases of misdemeanour. Mr. Temple, General Marriott, and Mr. Hanford were the only dissentients. The measure, it was said, would tend to defeat the ends of justice by the frequent acquittal of guilty persons, and to bring juries into discredit by inclining them to found their verdicts rather on the arguments of counsel than upon the facts. 1836—MAY 9—A Special Sessions held, Dr. Beale Cooper in the chair, to consider what was to be done about the New County Courts and Judges’ Lodgings, as the magistrates had expended the £25,000 they were empowered to raise by the first act. After a long discussion, it was unanimously determined to apply for a fresh act immediately, enabling them to raise £7,000 more. [Parliament refused to depart from its standing orders, and so the bill could not be introduced that session.] 1836—At the Michaelmas Sessions the Prisoners’ Counsel Act was first brought into operation; and it is strange how unanimously an arrangement—now admitted on all hands to be a good one—was condemned and found fault with. 1837—The Midsummer Sessions were held in the New Courts, though these were as yet scarcely completed. 1838—MAY 10—A Special County Sessions, to consider the Bill then before Parliament for Amending the Constitution of County Courts and Courts of Quarter Sessions—which proposed to compel the holding of eight sessions in the year, and the holding of courts in various parts of the county; it gave the magistrates the option of having a barrister as a salaried chairman; and proposed alterations in “county courts,” to enable them to be used for the easy recovery of small debts. Mr. Pakington moved a petition against the measure, which Mr. Holland objected to—it was, however, carried by a majority of 23 to 8. 1838—At the Midsummer Sessions the New Shire Hall and Judges’ Lodgings were reported as complete; and a vote of thanks was passed to the Rev. Thomas Pearson for his able and useful exertions as chairman of the building committee for the past five years. The salary of the chaplain was increased to £250 per annum. The court refused to insert the county advertisements either in the _Kidderminster Messenger_ or the _Worcestershire Chronicle_. 1839—The Epiphany Sessions adjourned to the 14th of January, and afterwards given up entirely, because no clerk of the peace had been appointed since the death of Mr. Blayney—Lord Foley, the Lord Lieutenant, being out of the country. 1839—FEBRUARY 5—A General Sessions of the Peace held in lieu of the Epiphany Sessions, which had been given up. The court petition for a change of law as regards beer houses. The enlargement of the County Gaol, at an expense of £2,100, agreed upon, to obtain sixty additional cells.