The Sun.
London, England, 1853-10-24 00:00:00

CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT.
(THIS DAY.)

OLD COURT.

The October Sessions of the Central Criminsl Court,
being the twelfth and last of the prevent mayoralty,
were opened this morning before the Right Hon. the
Lord Mayor, the Recorder, Aldermen Musgrove,
Lawrence, Moon, and Carden, and the new sheriffs, Ald-
erman Wise and Mr. Wallis.
The first edition of the calendar contains the names
of 83 prisoners, being 25 from London, 42 from Mid-
dlesex, 1 from Essex, 2 from the Admiralty, 6 from Kent
and 13 from Surrey.
. The grand jury having been sworn and empannelled,
The Recorder proceeded to deliver his charge, which
was somewhat more:leng;thy than usual. He said he
regretted that he could not address the grand
jury in terms of congratulation upon the lightness of the
business this session, for although in point of numbers
the calendar was, comparatively speaking, light, there
were yet eases of great length and importance to be dis-
posed of, which he was afraid would render the labours
of the Court and the grand jury exceedingly heavy.
There were two charges of murder, besides other cases
of less magnitude, which he felt it to be his duty to
touch upon with the view of explaining the law that
bore upon them. The first case of murder was not one
of an unusual or extraordinary character, inasmuch
as it was a case of child murder, which, 1. e was sorry to
say, was not a rare occurrence in this eeurt. The case
depended a great-deal upon the medics : evidence, as the
child was alleged to have died wher7lnobody was pre-
sent but the mother, and it would the duty of the
grand jury to determine whether the medical testi-
mony, as disclosed in the depositions, was sufficient to
justify their returning a true bill for the capital of-
fence. The second case of murder was rather of a
complicated nature. It was a charge against the
captain and mate of the Queen of the Tyne, who
were accused of having murdered four Malay seamen
upon the high seas. At the examination before the
magistrate, there seemed reason to suppose that at the
time the offence was supposed to have been committed,
the crew were in open mutiny, and accordingly three of
the crew who survived the revolt had been committed
for attempting to stab the captain and mate. Now if
it should turn out upon investigation that the violence
which resulted in the death of the four Malays was called
forth by their own mutinous acts, the grand jury would
not be justified in finding a true bill; but if, on the other
hand, it should appear that no mutiny was contemplated or
attempted, the grand jury would have no alternative but
to return a true bill for the capital charge, as it was at
all times desirable to protect the lives and persons of
sailors from the unnecessary violence of those who were
placed in command over them. There were several
other cases involving the destruction of human life, but
fortunately none of them amounted to the crime of
murder. One of these cases was rather of a peculiar
character. Two omnibus drivers were charged with
having caused the death of an old man by driving upon
him and forcinghim againsta post in the street. It appeared
by the evidence that the prisoners were racing their two
omnibuses, and on turning round the corner of a street,
the inner omnibus, in order to prevent a collision, was
compelled to go so close in upon the pavement, that the
vehicle struck the deceased, and, dashing him against a
post, caused his death almost upon the very spot. The
grand jury, in deciding upon this case, would have to
determine whether the inner omnibus was forced in by
the conduct of the second or outer driver, but if it should
transpire that each was designedly racing against
the other, then both would be liable for the
offence. Another peculiar case was that of a charge of
manslaughter, which would be preferred upon the ver-
dict of a coroner's inquisition, against a person named
Abrahams, a surveyor, in considerable practice. This
gentleman had been concerned in the building of a house
in the Strand, where a lamentable accident, involving
the death of more than one person, recently occurred ;
but, in order to found a charge of manslaughter, it must
be distinctly shown that the accused party had been
guilty of some act of commission. The mere
failure to do something was not sufficient to
maintain the charge sinless the failure was in an act
which the law imposed upon the party, and unless this
unfortunate accident could be traced to the express di-
rections of Mr. Abrahams, who was not present at the
time, the grand jury would hardly be justified in re-
turning a true bill against him. The only remaining
case which called for any remark from him was of very
great importance indeed. It was a charge of conspiracy
against a body of printers to prevent their master from
employing a person named Spence. Formerly it was
considered illegal to combine for the purpose of
raising or depressing wages, but the Legislature,
believing this to be an unjust and unsatisfactory
state of the law, an act of Parliament was passed
in 1826 which enabled either masters or men to
combine together for the purpose of raging or lowering
wages, and at the present time when "strikes " were so
rife, it was of the greatest importance that this act should
be thoroughly understood. It allowed the men to com-
bine and agree not to work, or the masters not to employ
men except at certain wages, and on certain conditions.,
but it did not authorise either the masters or the men to
interfere or resort to any violence, threat, or molestation
of any kind for the purpose of preventing the employment
of any class of men in particular, or to prevent any
individual from taking employment at less wages than
they chose to accept themselves. Now in this case a
person named Spence, who had been in the employ of
Messrs. Tallis, the printers, entered the service of a Mr.
Jackson, another printer, but he had scarcely been in
this new service a week before the other workmen held
what was called a " Chapel," and came to the resolution,
which they communicated to the foreman, not to asso-
ciate with Spence, if he was allowed to remain on the
establishment. This was the conspiracy charged against
the defendants. It was erroneously supposed by the
workmen that so long as they abstained from personal
violence in their combinations they committed no offence
against the law, but the fact was, if they conspired to-
gether in any way, no matter what, to prevent another
from being employed, they were guilty of a misde-
meanour. These were all the cases that called for any
remark.
The grand jury then retired.