The Sun.
London, England, 1856-10-27 00:00:00

CRIMINAL COURT.—(This Day,)

The October sessions of the Central Criminal Court
commenced this morning at the 01,1 Bailey, before the
Right Hon. the Lord Mayor, the Recorder, Alderman
Finnis (Lord Mayor elect), Alderman Sir J. Musgrove,
Alderman Sir F. G. Moon, Alderman Kennedy, Alder-
man Hale; Sheriffs Mechi and Keates, and Under-
sheriffs Crossley and Anderton.
The Recorder in charging the grand j ury, said he re-
gretted to find that the printed caiendar was in point of
numbers unusually heavy, and that he could not hold
out to them that their labours were likely to be light.
The number of prisoners in the calendar amounted to 161,
which in all probability would be increased by the num-
ber committed on the first two days of the session to
180 or 200. He was unable to suggest any particular
cause for this increase of numbers, and he was inclined
to attribute it to accidental catu:es rather than an indi-
cation of an average increase of crime. The calendar
though heavy in number was not so in the character of

theeffences. There was one charge of murder and one of
manslaughter. There were comparatively few cases on
the calendar involving charges of either destruction of
life or severe injury to the person, but there was a con-
siderable number of charges of burglary. These charges
were generally more numerous at this season of the year
than in summer, from the long nights affording facilities
for their perpetration ; and they also increased in spite of
the severity with which the perpetrators were treated in

_ .
that court when charges were di,tiretly proved against
them. He regretted much to find that larceny by ser
vants, whose duty it was to protect the property of their
employers, did not decrease. The charge of murder in
the calendar was one of a peculiar character, and was a
charge of murder against a husband, arising from the
death of his wife from taking medicine to procure abor•
tion. The learned judge then detailed the circumstances
of the case, which, it will be recollected, occurred
a few days sinoe at Hackney, and said that he
feared there would be a difficulty in proving the charge
of murder, and that a legal difficulty existed in convict-
ing the prisoner of being an accessory before the fact.
He advised them to well attend to the evidence, and, if
it did not warrant them returning a bill for murder, to
return a bill charging the husband as an accessory before
the fact, in order that the statutes on this point, which
it was feared were defective, might undergo revision.
After referring to other cases in the calendar, the learned
Judge said that the case of Robson was one that had
created much attention, from the nature of the charge
and the prisoner's connection with the Crystal Palace
Company. The prisoner was charged with two offences
—one for stealing a number of certificates of shares, the
property of his employers, and the other with having
forged the name of a person to a transfer of shares. If
the prisoner forged the name it was an indictable of-
fence ; and if he dealt with the certificates entrusted to
him by his employers, either by selling them, obtaining
money on them, or giving them to a friend to obtain a
loan of money on them, it was in either case a dealing
with the property of his employers, and amounted to
larceny.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE. —(This Day).