The Sun. — 1827-04-12 (London, England)

VAUGUAN.—It affords me peculiar satisfaction to 'Aare the honour of meeting so full and respectable aa assembly of magistrates and g-mtlemen convened on this solemn and most important occasion. It would have been consolatory to me at the close of a circuit, laborious beyond all example, to have found a less numerous calendar, but I am not disappointed, for it is a melancholy truth that in every county through which we have passed, crime has been more prevalent and the gaols more crowded than on any former occasion. It is in vain to inquire into the causes. Large and populous as this county is, and comprehending such masses of manufacturing, commercial, and agricultural people, subject to so many different influences, it is not surprising that the calendar should be so large. Its number is not owing to any want of activity and intelligence in the discharge of the various and complicated duties of the Magistrates, or to the want of vigilance in the police, or to the relaxation of prison discipline, or to any want of that attention to the moral improvement of prisoners, for which this county (knowing it is better to prevent than to punish crime) has been so honourably distinguished. I have cursorily looked over the great mass of depositions; I have not been able to do more, and I am sorry to observe that some are not returned. Mr. Peel's bill directs the depositions to be returned at or before the openingof the Ccurt. I beEeva there has existed some misconception about this act. It is extremely desirable that the Judges should have the depositions before their arrival in the town. There are three commitments under Lord Ellenborough's Act, but the depositions Ita.ve only been delivered in one case, that of firing a pistol. I observe two persons are implicated in it. If they were both present aiding and abetting, there is the same construction in law, whether the pistol is fired by the hand of the one or of the other of those persons. The act makes the offence capital, but it contains a proviso, restraining it to cases only where the circumstances are such, that if death were  to ensue, if would arno:;:nt to murder, and you will use care and cireumspeetion before you send to trial persons accused under so penal a statute. In every case where the evidence shall appear to be of a nature, character, and description such as will not in your judgment warrant the conviction of the prisoner before the petit jury, it is better to forego the finding of the bill, because it often happens that evience is discovered afterwards, and the not finding the bill gives the country any opportunity of eventually obtaining justice. Monza: Gyde, aged 26, was indicted for stealing, on the 9th of December, in Painswick, five pigs, the property of Samuel Gyde. Mr..lusTicE.—The prosecutor is the father of the prisoner, and by the bad conduct of his son he has been compelled to institute this prosecution, with the sincere conviction that it is the only means of reclaiming him.  Samuel dyde.—The prisoner is my son. I made him weekly allowance of Ss.; and I ceased doing so in the beginning of December, and sent him away. I had five pigs, worth about 11. each. On Saturday morning, the 9th of December, I went to Glocester market, and retn:ned at six o'clock in the evening, when they were all gone. The next Tuesday I saw two at Samuel Gardner's. I met with ;mother at Frankis's house, and another at Stroud market. I never got any of them again. I knew them directly I saw them, by a scissors' mark. Prisoner.—Father, you do not know where they are marked.  Samuel Gyde.—They were =eked on the forehead; he bought them and I paid for them. I told him on the 6th of December, and again afterwards on the Bth of December, he should never do any thing for me again, or touch any thing of mine. By the