The Sun. — 1858-09-20 (London, England)

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 manner 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 afterwards 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 respective journeys in safety. On the occasion of the accident 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.