The Sun.
London, England, 1861-08-19 00:00:00

OLD COURT.

The August sessions commenced this morning, before
the Common Sergeant, the Lord Mayor, Aldermen Law-
rence, Gabriel, and Hall.
The Common Sergeant, in charging the grand jury, in
the absence of the Recorder, said the calendar, owing to
the time that had elapsed since the last sessions, contained
the names of a large number of prisoners for trial. Amongst
those three cases involved the sacrifice of human life—two
for manslaughter, and one for murder. With respect to
the case of murder, the prisoner was a soldier in barracks,
and during a fit of drunkenness he used threatening language
to one of the sergeants, and after the lapse of a short
time he became possessed of a crowbar and struck the
sergeant so severely with it that death ensued. As to the

fact there could be no doubt, and it would be for the petty
jury in this court to see whether any of the circumstances
reduced the offence to one of manslaughter. One of the
,cases of manslaughter was that of a lady of 40 years of age
who kept a lodging-house in which the prisoner lived. One
evening on the return from the opera with a friend a quar-
rel ensued between the prisoner and the deceased, and in
the course of it he threw a knife at her which struck her in
the abdomen and killed her. It was said that the prisoner
was gesticulating violently, and the knife left his hand by
accident. If that was the case, then the offence was
simply one of homicide by misadventure, and no crime.
The next case was that of the Baron de Vidil, who was
charged with making a murderous assault upon his son.
The son had refused to give evidence against his father,
but nevertheless there were other witnesses who saw the
assault. From the depositions it appeared that the Baron
invited his son to go on a visit to the ex-Queen of the
French at Twickenham, and it was quite clear that the father
took a wrong read, by going up and down various lanes,
not leading to the house of the royal lady. In one of these
lanes the assault was committed on the son by the father,
and as he had said before, the witnesses would be able to
explain. The prisoner said his son was thrown from his
horse and thereby received the injuries, but the evidence
of the medical man distinctly stated that the injuries were
of such a nature as would not arise from such a cause. The
prisoner had given altogether another version of the tran-
saction, but it would be for the grand jury to weigh
the whole of the evidence and to act accordingly.
There were no other cases of a particular nature, or that
required any particular observations from him, excepting
the great increase that had taken place in stealing letters,
the property of the Postmaster-General. There were no
less than eight cases of this description. He did not men-
tion these cases because they presented any difficulty, but
simply for the reason of publicly expressing a hope
that the public would not needlessly offer tempta-
tion to the letter carriers by transmitting valuables
through the post. The so doing was perfectly
lawful, but then 'as it was so dangerous it was a practice
that ought to be discouraged. He was glad to observe that
the tariff of salaries had been revised and increased, for it
had not unfrequently been said that the smallness of the
pay of the letter carriers tempted them to act dishonestly.
The grand jury then proceeded to their room.
With respect to the case of the Baron de Vidil, who is
indicted for feloniously wounding his son with intent to
murder him, it is usual to introduce other counts in
indictments of that nature such as charging with an in-
tent to maim and disable, or do some grievous bodily harm,
and also a count for a common assault, and upon the
trial of such an indictiucut the jury are empowered to re-
turn a verdict, if they think proper to do so, of unlawfully
wounding, which is only a misdemeanour, and the court
has the entire discretion of awarding the punishment for
such an offence. Mr. Sergeant Ballantine has been specially
retained to conduct the defence with Mr. Sleigh, and these
learned gentlemen have Leen in constant consultation with
Mr. Wontner, the solicitor for the Baron, during the last
week, in reference to the line of defence that is to be adopted.
It does not appear to be known whether any counsel are re-
tained to carry on the prosecution, and, as it was intimated at
the police-courtupon thelast examination offhe prisoner that
the family did not intend to interfere any further in the matter

it is probable that no special instructions will be given to any
learned counsel to conduct the prosecution, and that it will be
carried on in the usual course by the Solicitor for
the Treasury, under the instructions of the Commis-
sioners of Police, the nominal prosecutor bound over
to prosecute being an inspector of that body. It is
understood that the son, who is bound over to appear and
give evidence in support of the prosecution, still adheres to
his determination expressed at the police-court, not to give
any evidence against his father, and should he do so, it is
very difficult to say what course the case may take. In the
first place, in accordance with the recognizance he has en-
tered into, it would be the duty of the prosecutor to go
before the grand jury and give his evidence, but his
attendance might possibly be dispensed with by that
body, who probably would think themselves justified in
finding a bill upon the other testimony in the cause, but
when the case comes before the petty jury the counsel for
the Baron would doubtless insist upon their right to cross-
examine the prosecutor, in order to ascertain what amount
of provocation was given for the alleged assault, and which
possibly might be of such a character as to reduce the
offence to one of the most trivial character. The witness
Rivers, the young man who was represented to have seen
the assault committed, and whose evidence, it will be re-
membered, was taken from a sick bed from which he was
not expected to recover, is still, it appears, in a very dan-
gerous state, and there is no likelihood of his being able to
attend at the Court to be examined, and this is likely to
cause another difficulty in the investigation of this extraor•
dinary case. The inquiry before the grand jury will in all
probability not take place before Tuesday, and if they should
return a true bill an application will then be made to the
Court to fix a day for the trial.