The Sun.
London, England, 1858-09-20 00:00:00

OLD COURT.

The September sessions of the Central Criminal Court
commenced this morning before the Right Hon. the Lord
Mayor (Sir R. W. Carden), Aldermen Gabriel, Lawrence,
and Salomons, and the Sheriffs.

The calender contains the names of about 160 persons,
and the offences with which they are charged are of the
ordinary description.
During the swearing of tho grand jury a gentleman of
the Hebrew religion rose and took up the Bible, next to
him stood a gentleman of the Protestant faith, and upon
the chief usher repeating the words of the oath he, at its
conclusion, altered the termination only in the usual man-
ner by saying " So help you Jehovah," upon which the
Jewish gentleman kissed the book.
The Lord Mayor—l think that a very improper way to
administer the oath, it is disrespectful to both parties. The
oath ought to be repeated separately.
The Usher—lt is the way it has always been done, my
lord.

The Lord Mayor—That does not alter the matter. I
think the whole of the words ought to be repeated, and not
merely the last sentence, " So help you Jehovah."

Alderman Salomons—The oath as it stands needs no
alteration. It is equally binding one way as the other.
The Lord Mayor, addressing the juror—Do you consider
the usual form of the oath as binding as the alteration just
made P

The juror—Yes, certainly, my lord.
The Lord Mayor—Then, for the future, I see no reason
why the form of the oath should be altered.

The remainder of the jurors having been sworn,
The Recorder then addressed the grand jury. He said,
that although a great many cases appeared in the calendar,
they were not calculated to call for any special remark on
his part, or to occasion any great trouble to them in the
discharge of their duty. It was, however, a very serious
circumstance to find that above one-fourth of the persons
mentioned were charged with uttering counterfeit coin,
and he noticed this circumstance in order that public
attention might be drawn to the fact. It was a
curious thing that persons to whom the counterfeit
coin was tendered never tested the spurious money in the
presence of the customer, but immediately after the person
had left the shop and got into the street the coin was tested
and discovered to be bad, and great difficulty was after-
wards occasioned in securing the offender. If, when there
was a doubt about the genuinenesss of any money it was
submitted to a test in the ,'presence of the party great loss
amongst the poorer shopkeepers, who were generally those
upon whom the fraud was perpetrated, would be prevented,
and this course would, he felt assured, put down, or to a
certain extent greatly mitigate, the evil which had now
arrived at so great a height. The only case to which he
need call attention was one of manslaughter. Henry Lamb
stood charged with that offence, and the grand jury would
have to ascertain whether death had been caused
by his negligence. It appeared that the prisoner
was a pointsman on a railway, and it was his
duty to see that the points were properly arranged, so
that two different sets of engines might pass on their re-
spective journeys in safety. On the occasion of the acci-
dent it appeared that the points were open instead of
locked, and the consequence was that the train ran on a
wrong line of rails, and the carriages came into collision
with some luggage vans, and the death of the engine-driver
of the train was thereby occasioned. The only duty that
devolved upon the grand jury was to ascertain whether the
death of the man was occasioned by the collision, and
whether that collision was caused through the prisoner's
negligence. It appeared that there was a white mark
upon certain of the engines, to indicate to which line of rails
the trains were to be transferred, and this mark, it was said,
could be seen by the pointsman 400 yards off; but as there
was some difference about the state of the weather, which,
it wls said, rendered the mark very indistinct, the jury
could return a true bill if they thought there was sufficient
evidence, and thereby give the prisoner an opportunity of
showing that the death of the man was not owing to his
neglect. There was one charge of murder, but it appeared
that the depositions had not been returnedi- and therefore it
called for no remark. If any unforeseen difficulty should
arise to any gentleman on the jury the presiding judge
would give them every assistance.
The grand jury then retired to their room.