The Sun.
London, England, 1860-02-27 00:00:00

EVENING, FEBRUARY 27, 1160.

21118 DAY'S MARKETS.

CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT—(This Day.)

OLD COURT.
(Before the Recorder.)
The March sessions of the Central Criminal Court com-
menced this morning before the Lord Mayor, Aldermen Sir
R. Carden and Hale, and the Sheriffs.
The grand jury having been sworn,
'The Recorder said he was happy to inform them that the
number of prisoners for trial this session was smaller than
it had been for many previous sessions. The calendar con-
tained the names of 48 persons, and the crimes charged
against them were of the ordinary description. There
was but one charge of murder, and the person charged
was a female named Smith. The deceased was her illegiti-
mate child, and if they should be of opinion that the child
had been born alive and death had been occasioned by vio-
lence, the question for them to decide would be was the
death occasioned by the prisoner. The evidence to prove
the case would all be laid before them, and upon that
evidence they would have to decide whether or not a
true bill could be returned against her. There were two
cases of manslaughter, the first of which was that of Thos.
Barnard. The unfortunate deceased was engaged looking
at an omnibus on the near side of the road when the pri•
soner's horse and cart came furiously up and passing be-
tween the curbstone and the omnibus, the man was knocked
do-vn and killed. The prisoner was on the wrong aide of
the road, and the evidence showed that previously to
his coming up he flogged the horse most violently. Bar-
nard however said the horse had ran away, and at
the time the unfortunate accident occurred he had no con-
trol over the animal. They would have to decide whether
or not there was sufficient to justify the finding of a true
bill against the prisoner. The next charge of a similar
nature was that against John Fox, and death in this
case occurred during the attempt of the unfortu-
nate man to stop a fight in a public house. The case
did not present any difficulty, and the question for
them to decide was whether, in their opinion, the
evidence sustained the charge against the prisoner.
There was a serious charge against a prisoner named 'Wil-
liam Downes, of feloniously assaulting Clara Mary Ann
Langlois and carnally knowing and abusing her, and also
for unlawfully taking the said Clara Langlois out of the
possession of her parents, she being under the age of 16.
The evidence, as was usually the case in charges of this do-
se' iption, rested entirely upon that of the girl herself and
the medical man, and it would be for thorn to say whether
a prima facie case had been made out against the prisoner.
The girl alleged that the prisoner effected his purpose
whilst she was in a state of insensibility, produced by some
narcotic introduced into some drink the prisoner had given
her. With respect to the latter part of the charge, it was
not necessary, in order to enable them to return a true bill
against the prisoner, that the girl should be in the actual
possession of the parents ; because in this case the prisoner
met the girl in the street, while she was engaged on the
business of her parents, and persuad ed her to accompany him
to the theatre, and after that induced her to go to a place
with him, where he falsely represented she would meet her
uncle and aunt. If from the evidence they should be satis -
fled that the girl was under the age of 16, and was,induced
by the prisoner to leave her home, it would be their duty to
return a true bill against him. There was nothing that
he thought called for any remark, but in the event of any
assistance being required that aid would be most readily
granted by the court.
The grand jury then retired, and in a short time returned
into court with several-true bills, and the trials proceeded.