The Sun.
London, England, 1848-06-15 00:00:00

CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT.

OLD COURT.
THE CHARTISTS.—The grand jury, in the course o,
yesterday, returned true bills against Joseph Irenmus
John Fussell, described as a jeweller, Joseph Williams,
Ernest Jones, barrister, and William John Vernon.
,
lecturer, and also against several of the Chartist pri-
soners who are charged with misdemeanours. The offence
alleged to Fussell, Williams, and Jones, is with unlaw.
-
fully, in the presence and hearing of divers subjects of our
Lady the Queen, uttering, pronouncing, and publishing
certain scandalouß, wicked, and seditious words against
our said Lady the Queen, and her government, with
intent to excite tumult and disorder among the liege
subjects of our said Lady the Queen. The charge
against Vernon is of unlawfully, with others, attending
an unlawful assembly. and joining and proceeding with a
tumultuous procession along divers public streets, to the
terror and alarm of all peaceable inhabitants then and
there being.

NEW COURT.
(Before the COMMON-SERGEANT.)
John M'Gee, aged 32, sailor, was indicted for fele.,
niously being at large without lawful excuse before the
expiration of a sentence of transportation passed upon
him at a general court-martial, held at Woolwich, on the
11th of May, 1840.
Mr. Bodkin and Mr. Clark prosecuted for the Trea-.
sury. The Learned Counsel, on opening the case for
the prosecution, said that it might be as well for him to
explain how the law stood with regard to the peculiar
circumstances under which the prisoner was indicted.
He had been tried by a court-martial, and sentenced to
fourteen years' transportation, under the Mutiny Act;
and the law required that when a prisoner was so con-
victed the particulars of the trial and the record of the
conviction should be laid before one of the judges; and
upon his certificate the sentence was carried into effect,
and the production of the certificate at any subsequent
period was deemed evidence of its contents. He then
proceeded to state the circumstances of the case as they
were detailed by the following witnesses:—
Mr. John Hayward, the clerk to the solicitor to the
Treasury, produced a certificate signed by Mr. Justice
Coleridge, confirming the conviction of the prisoner by
the court-martial.

William Carr deposed, that in 1840 he was a drummer
in the ]9th Regiment of Foot, and the prisoner at that
time had been a private in the same regiment for seven
years. On the 11th of May, while the regiment was
stationed at Woolwich, the prisoner was tried for deser-
tion and general bad conduct, and sentenced to be trans-
ported for fourteen years. The sentence was read upon
parade, and the prisoner was marched out of the bar-
racks under an escort. He did not see the prisoner
again until a fortnight ago. when he was in custody.
Devereux, a police officer at Portsmouth, said that
in February last the prisoner came t6the police station and
gave himself up as a returned transport, stating at the
same time that he had been a soldier, and was sentenced
to transportation for desertion, and had made his escape
from N.?%v South Wales. The prisoner added that he
had worked his way to England in the hope of seeing.
his wife, but that he found her and all the rest of the
family were dead, and this being the case he wanted to
get back aE,,iin to New South Wales. The prisoner was
taken before a magistrate at Portsmouth, where he made
the same statement, and it was taken down in writing,
and the prisoner signed it.
The prisoner, in his defence, stated with great vehe-
mence that the story he had told the officer was false,
and he asserted that he had never been a soldier, but
that, in point of fact, he was a seaman, and he said he
could prove that during the period in question he had
served on board several vessels in the whaling trade.
The jury found the prisoner Guilty.
The Commas SERGEANT, in passing sentence, said
that, as the law formerly stood, it was compulsory upon
a judge to pa=s a sentenc, of transportation for life upon
persons convicted of this offence; and although by a sub-
sequent statute a power app(iared to be given to reduce
that punishment, yet, as he knew nothing of the circum-
stances, he thought he had better pass that sentence;
but, as he considered there were some mitigating cir-
cumstances, he thought they should be laid before the
Government, who' would ultimately dispose of the case as
they thought fit. The prisoner was then sentenced to
one month's imprisonment, and to be afterwards trans
ported for life.
Mr. BODKIN said he wotiAd take care that the obser-
vations of his Lordship, and all the circumstances of the
case, should be laid before the Secretary of State, and
there was no doubt that due effect would be given to tiny
mitigating circumstances in the conduct of the prisoner.
The prisoners Elliott trici who were yester-
day convicted of a street rob bery, were brought up for
judgment, ,and sentenced to be imprisoned for twelve
months.

• ROBBERY' AT TUE Hon' SE OF ITUE RUSSIAN AM-
EX S ADV/t'..":jini.or Olive, a.; ud 21, a servant, was in-
dicted for stealing a purse, containing five sovereigns,
the property of Christian do Koudriatisky, a gentleman
attached to the Russia's Emh assy, in the dwelling-house
of Baron Brunow. He was als o charged, on a 5, cond in-
dictment, with stealing a pent il-case, value 21., the pro-
perty of the same gentleman.