The Sun.
London, England, 1848-09-18 00:00:00

SICILY..

The Constituzionale &hatpin° of Turin of the 12th
has the following details from Messina, up to the
4th :—" Two gun-boats had been sunk by the Sici-
lians, but Fort Marregr:.sso, recently added to the
new fortifications of Messina by the Sicilians, is said
to have been demolished by the troop. The Sena-
torial Palace was said to be in flames. The Swiss
made a sally from the citadel, but were repulsed with
loss. The struggle was said to be desperate on each
side.

The Marseilles Semaphore states that Messina
having been set on fire by the Neapolitans, was
abandoned by the inhabitants, who, however, had
mined it, and, after retiring from the city, sprung
the mines, and blew the Neapolitans into the air.

CRIMINAL COURT.—(THIS DAY.)
OLD COUR r.
The September session was opened to-day with the
usual formalities, before the Lord Mayor, the Recorder,
Alderman Gibbs, and the Sheriffs.
The grand jury having been sworn,
The RECORDER proceeded to deliver his charge. He
said the calendar contained a list of 176 prisoners, but
that that number would in all probability be increased to
200 before the termination of their labours. He should
allude in the course of his observations to the recent
amendments in the criminal law, more especially to the
" Act for the better Security of the Crown and Govern-
ment of the United Kingdom," as he collected from the
depositions that thirty persons had been committed to
take their trial under the provisions of that statute.
There were three charges of arson; and amongst the
offences against the person there was a charge of murder,
in which a question would arise whether the person
charged was insane or not at the time of the commission
of the act imputed; but it was bis duty to tell them it
the unlawful killing was proved, the question of the dis-
position of the offender must be reserved for another
tribunal, the law having made a wholesome provision
that a person found to be insane might be detained
during the pleasure of the Crown: also a charge of
manslaughter, ten charges of cutting and wounding,
three charges of rape, seven of robbery, fourteen cases
of larceny from the person, two charges cf de-
ft =ling money with threats, unaccompanied by
personal violence; in all there were 38 cases of offences
against the person, ranging from murder to larceny.
Then there were 31 charges against parties accused of
conspiracy to levy war against the Queen and her Go-
vernment. The Learned Recorder then adverted to the
11 and 12 Viet., c. 42, passed on the 14th of August,
1848, which authorises the committal of a person for
m selemeanour without requiring bail; and the 23d see.
vested in magistrates the discretion of either taking bail
Or not. By the 11 and 12 Viet., c. 78, justices were ern-
powered to reserve questions of law, in order that they
might be raised before the QU' en's Bench or the Barons
of the Exchequer, whose decision should be final,
respiting judgment in the meantime. Formerly the judges
who tried a ease consulted with the other judges and
advised them upon the matter. Now cases of the kind
would be raised before the judges in the ordinary mttn•
nor. In fact, the principle now in existence in the civil
would be applied to the criminal law. He apprehended
that great good would arise from this measure. The
11th and 12th Victoria, c. 46, made accessories before
the fact equally as punishable as the principal offender.
Now, all persons engaged in conspiring to further trea-
sonable or felonious objects were indictable as felons—
of an offence short of high treason. This brought
him to the " Act for the Better Security of
the Crown and Government of the United
Kingdom." It recited the 36th George 111., c. 7,
and repealed the provisions of that Act, and the provi-
sion making it perpetual, passed in the 57th year of the
same reign, except those relating to attacks upon the
Sovereign. The treasons repealed in the Act of George
111. were renewed as felonies in the Act recently passed.
The Act said that "conspiring to depose her Majesty or
her heirs, or levying war, in order by force or strength
to compel her or her Ministers to change their measures
or Zeouncils, or in order to put any restraint upon
them, or to intimidate or overawe either house
of Parliament, or invite any foreigner to
invade the United Kingdom, such compassing,
imaginations, intentions, devices, or intentions, or
say of there, or should express, utter, or de-
-0 Are such in advised writing or by advised speaking,
shall be guilty of felony, and on conviction shall in the
discretion of the Court be transported across the seas
tbr the term of his or her natural life, or for any term
not less than seven years, or to be imprisoned for a term
not less than two years, with or without hard labour, as
the Court shall direct." No doubt the peculiar phrase.
ology, the "compassing to depose the Sovereign," sounded
strangely to the jury, but the words were adopted from
a former statute, VI hich spoke of treason, compassing, or
imagining, were synonymous terms, and evidence of
either constituted the overt act, punishable now as a fe-
lony. Coke said in his institutes, that a person intending
tto overthrow or death of the Sovereign was by the old
Lew equally as guilty as if he had committed
homicide itself. The well being of the country
was bound up with the existence of the
Sovereign, and if the intentions of evil-disposed persons
against the Crown and dignity were not suppressed, the
consequence would be most disastrous to the country.
The punishment formerly was capital; now it was not
even capital, but a felony. By the Act from which he
had quoted, the Government, in prosecuting parties for
the offence recited, were relieved from many technicali-
ties and cumbersome machinery, which frequently
•• - embarrassed, if they did not oft en entirely
frustrate tho ends of justice. Under it offend-
ing parties could be more speedily and easily
brought to justice, yet, notwithstanding, the came deer
evidence was indispensable. Offences of this nature
• would for the future be inquired into in the same man-
ner as ordinary felonies. The " levying war" involved
itself in the same explanation; and the specific charge
against the thirty-one persons would, he believed, re-
- solve itself into an "intention to levy war." Mr.
Justice Bayley, addressing the grand jury on the trial of
James Watson for treason, observed that it was
not necessary to substantiate the charge, that an "or-
ganised force in military array " should be in existence
to accomplish the end accused parties were supposed to
have in view—intending an insurrectioa of a general
nature, was sufficient to constitute the offence. In the
course of his address that Learned Judge cited an in-
stance of a mob of 5,000 organising to put down brothels
and houses of ill-fame, and although the parties were
shown not to have acted from private feelings, but from
a sense of public good, they were held to
have committed high treason, or, in other
words, to have " levied war." The same result
followed the attempt to put down meeting houses
although the parties declared that they believed they,
• were doing a service to the Established Church in acting
in the way they had. So in the case of Lord George
Gordon, who with an armed mob made a crusade against
Popery. Mr. J ustice Bayley said in conclusion, that all the
Learned Judges agreed in this—not simply those called
occasionally to try cases of the kind, hut " judges calmly
deliberating in their closets and writing for posterity."
Mr. Justice Abbott and Lord Ellenborough were of the
same opinion, and Lord Te nterden, on the trial
of Arthur Thistlewood, laid it down as his opinion tine
the "intention constitutes the crime." Bayley said it
"persons met together to endeavour to effectuate a rit
i) compel his Majesty to change his measures and h's
councils" they were guilty of the offence imputed t(
the parties now in custody. Ile (the Recorder) under-
stood that there was much similarity between the cases
of these persons and that of Thistlewood,
am
other conspirators, since, he understood, that arms
were found in their meeting place, in their dwel-
lings, and also in their manegemtnt. It woule
be for the jury to judge whether the evidence
that would be adduced showed that the parties charged
intended to effect the objects stated in the Act—whetker
there was sufficient evidence of the overt act. Mtn
some observations with respect to the case of arson are,
some of the other cases, the Learned Recorder le mlttec
the jury to their duties.

Their Excellencies Uount Kielinansegge, Count
I evel, mid Baron Rehauscn have been sojourning dur
131 the put week at Tunbridge Wells.