The Express.
London, England, 1850-07-08 00:00:00

CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT.

The Jelly PIPOSiOII of the above eourt was opened to-day,
Wen the Right Hon. the LIM Mayor, the Recorrter,
Al lemma Ferebrother, Sir C. bluebell, Hunter, and S.r J.
Duke, the Shelia. Uir'er-Sh, riff., &e., ett.
Toe Kra; eddies of the calendar contains the tames of 130
privontre.
The Recorder, in his charge to the gramd jury, said that
the number of prisoners for trial was smaller an usual at
the j r.ventllll46:on ; bat this was owing to the-short period
that had elapsed sins the adjournment of the court. There
were several cLargea of personal violence entered in
the cal:odor; but the one which wag of the greatest
interest, and which at the same time raised tha utmost sym-
pathy end the deepest indignation in the breast of every
loy.l subject, was one of striking the person of her Majesty
the Q men, and, with regard to this charge, he said be
shoeld colt their attention, in the course of the Our.
h, should address to them, to the very wholesome
statute that hen been posed wish a view to the repression
of t eta of this description. His lordship then referred
to some of the eases of cutting and wounding,
and said he regretted to see that the nee of the
knife was becoming very pree.,!en*, and that in England at
the present time, where such an offence was formerly almost
unknown, person, upon very slight /rosette Won, resorted to
the use of this description of weapon, end very frequently
the mos; deadly injuries were inflicted by melt means. The
Recorder then said that, basing referred to these charges, it
now became hie duty to refer to the can which no loyal
subject of the ream could advert to ninon.: feelings of
pan acdindignation. It was known to everybody that the
calendar contained • charge against a person in a better
condition of life than thcae usually 'we re against whom
each charges had heretofore been preferred, of having with a
nkling-cane nr wick actually struck the person of her Ma-
' piety and inflicted some personal injury upon her, and at the
game time deranged some portion of her Majesty's dress by
the violence made use of. It appeared that although actet
bodily injury, in the ordinary sense of the term. was not
occasioned by the rot, yet it was not altogether unprodui-
' ties of injury, because itappearcd that blood actusliy flowed
o d that her Mejesty's forehead was very moth swollen from
the t fleets of the blow. If these frets should be established
as they appeared in the depositions, it was his duty to
itefoim them that they had no power to speculate upon the
state of mind or the sanity or insanity of a person who had
committed such a strange and extraordinary sot ; but, es he
hid before stated, if the fact. should be established by the
evidence of the witnesses, their duty would be to send the
ease for inquiry before the judge and a petty jury. The
grand jury might very naturally come to the conclusion
that there must be some defect in the mind or under-
standing of a man who had committed an act so repugnast
to thne feelings of loyalty which reigned paramount in
the breast of every man in this country, and par-
ticularly when it was remembered that this dastardly
act had been perpetrated against the most constitutional
a- vertign that they had ever perhaps had the happiness of
living under in this country. He bad therefore telt it neces-
airy to caution them that they were precluded by the law
from giving effect to any such impression, and that the
question as to the sanity or insanity of the prisoner could
alone properly be disposed of by the pettyj ur ',under a statute
expressly ref rring to that subject. The 'cured recorder
then proceeded to mete that, it having appeared that persons
of a diseased mind, but not to an extent to render them ir-
responsible for their acts, had, for the purpose of obtaining
notoriety, or from some other equally mischievous and
ale .urd notion, thought fit to dialing° loaded fire-arms near
her Majesty, without, however, entertaining any lnteneion
to do injury to her pantos, and, in order to prevent the re-
petition of such acts, the legislature bed passed the very
wholesome statute to which he should new all their anew
tino. His lordship then referred to the statute of the 6th and
6th Vic., e. hl, e. 2, by which it was enacted, among other
acts that were enumerated, that if any person should
strike or strik- at the person of her Majesty, with Intent to
injure or to alarm her Majesty, or to cause • breach of the
peace., he should be guilty of a high mldemeanour,
and be liable, at the iihmodes of the court, to be transported
for seven years, or to be Imprisoned and kept to hard labour
for three years, and le be thrice ptintely whipped during
that period.
. . . .

1 R-and then retired, and the court procoede4l to
dispose of theme's of the 114Y/iOll.