The Sun.
London, England, 1855-09-17 00:00:00

CRIMINAL COURT.-(THIS DAY.)

The September session of the above court was opened
this morning by the Right Hon. the Lord Mayor, the
Right Hon. the Recorder, Alderman Farebrother, Hun-
ter, Sir R. W. Carden, and Kennedy, Sir H. Mug-
geridge and Sir C. D. Crosley, the Sheriffs, Messrs.
Farrer and A. Grosley, the under- Sheriffs, &c.
It appears by the first edition of the calendar that
there are at present 74 prisoners for trial.
The Recorder, in his charge to the grand jury, said
that although the number of prisoners entered in the
calendar was not greater than usual, yet he regretted to
say that there were a great many very serious cases to
be disposed of, and that there were two charges of mur
der among them. There was also one most remarkable
case of commercial fraud, which had attracted a great
deal of public attention. At the last session he had oc-
casion to call the attention of the then grand jury to an-
other case of a very extraordinary character, and of the
dame description, and at that time he observed that it
appeared to be one of a series of frauds affecting, in a most
important degree, the commercial character of the country.
The present case was one of even a more serious
kind. The parties accused were three persons named
Straban, Paul, and Bates, who were the members of one
of the oldest, if not the oldest, banking firms in the me-
tropolis, and who, up to the time of these transactions,
filled a high position, and enjoyed the utmost credit, and
carried on a most extensive drid important banking
business. The offence with which they were charged
was that of having appropriated to their own use cer-
tain foreign securities that had been entrusted to them

by Dr. Griffith, one of their customers, for security, to a
very large amount, and upon which they appear to have
raised very large sums of money. A special act of Par-
liament was passed to meet a case of this description,
by which it was enacted that if any broker, agent, at-
torney, or other person, should misappropriate any
chattel or valuable security intrusted to him for safe
custody the offence was destined to amount to rnis.-
demeanour, and subjected the party committing it to a
certain amount of punishment affixed by the act of Par-
liament. It appeared to him upon reading the deposi-
tions that, although possibly some question might ulti-
mately arise with regard to the share taken by
each of the partners in the transaction, or
whether they were all equally liable, the grand
jury would do well not to trouble themselves
with any of these matters ; but if it should be
made out to their satisfaction that the securities
were deposited with th© defendants, and that they
were afterwards supplied to their own purposes, they
would be justified in at once finding the bill, and all the
matters to which he had referred would then undergo
full inquiry before the judge and a petty jury. He
would also observe that it was within his knowledge
that a suggestion had been made that the prisoners had,
by a subsequent statement made by them before the ma-
gistrate, in which, in point of fact, they actually admitted
the dishonesty of their conduct, escaped from the con-
sequences by this admission of their guilt ; and he
thought it right to state that, although by one of the
clauses of the act in question, it was declared that a
person should not be liable for any acts of this descrip-
tion when, under any compulsory process, he made a
full disclosure of his proceedings, he was not prepared
to say that this applied to the present case, and the
grand jury ought not to take the fact at all under their
consideration. Theme learned Recorder concluded by
stating that he should be very slow in coming to the
conclusion that the law could be so perverted, and the
evident intention of the statute so defeated, as it would
certainly be if a statement of this description were to be
held to have the effect of shielding persons guilty of
such an offence from punishment.
The grand jury then retired.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.-(THIS DAY.

GUILDHALL.

VIOLET ASSAULT.—John Wrench, and William,
Stanner were charged before Alderman Farncombe
with a ♦iolent assault upon John Clambert, Poppin's

court, Fleet-street.
The complainant stated he was at Blackfriars'Aridge
yesterday afternoon, when the prisoners came up to
biro. and, without saying a words counsuood ''bou.