The Sun. — 1860-10-20 (London, England)

CRIME IN FRANCE.  The Tribunal of Correctional Police at Besancon, in Dec. last, condemned to imprisonment for robbery two females, who gave the names of Claudine and Philiberte Jacquis, and who represented themselves to be sisters. Subsequently the discovery was made that the first woman was no other than the notorious Catherine Minder, who in 1858 was tried, with several other pei sons bearing the same and other names, but all relatives, for the murder and robbery of a jeweller, named Pedlar& at Caen (crimes which excited immense sensation), but was acquitted. On her examination on the charge of robbery she signed the false name of Claudine Jacquis, and was in consequence ordered for trial before the Court of Assizes of the department for forgery. The trial took place the day before yesterday, and the offence was clearly proved. A singular account was given of the woman :—She was, it appeared, a foundling, named Dufour, but married to one of the Minders, who was condemned to 20 years' hard labour for participation in the Caen murder. She had at different times by the names of Jules, Roche, Laroche, Cerriere, and Wall, as also of Dufour and Minder, and had been condemned under each. The Minder family, to which she belongs, is notorious in the annals of crime ; the head of it, an old man, is unergoing a sentence of imprisonment for life for participating in murder, and would. be in the bagne if it were not for his age ; three brothers, his sons, have been condemned to death for murder ; another son, now deceased, was recently condemned ; old Minder's sister, and her daughter and the daughter's husband, are each undergoing sentences of hard labour, and lastly the prisoner's husband, as already mentioned, has been sentenced to twenty years of that punisment. It was stated that the prisoner has four children, two sons and two daughters, but that some .tharitable people have had them religiously educated, and placed out in respectable callings. The jury declared the woman guilty of the forgery, and the Court condemned her to five years' hard labour. The other woman, who was concerned with her in the Besancon robbery, really bore the name Philiberte Jacquis, which she gave ; but she had encouraged her companion to take the name of Claudine Jacquis, and had affirmed that that was her right name. This constituted complicity in forging, and Philiberte was accordingly tried for that offence, She was declared guilty, and sentenced to two years' imprisonment and five years' survei:lance of the police. It may be remembered that some few weeks back an account was given of a man having been condemned to imprisonment for having swindled extensively under the name of a well-known dramatic author. Yesterday another case of false assumption of a name came before the Court of Assizes. Some months since a young man, named Benech, proposed to enlist in the army, but when, as is usual, he applied at the Prefecture of Police for a certificate that he had not been condemned for crime or grave offence, he was told that it could not be granted, inasmuch as in 1856 he had been sentenced to imprisonment for robbery, and in 1860 for vagabondage. He protested that he was not the person referred to, but it was shown that the individual condemned not only resembled him, but had resided at the same place. He waited on an examining magistrate, and prayed that an investigation might be instituted. Just as he has leaving the office, a person who had been arrested for vagabondage was brought in, and he gave the name of Benech, at the same time admitting that he had been previously condemned. The real w Benech,ho had residedhow eve recognised him as one Vignon, the same lodging-house as himself in 1856, and with whom he had for some time been intimate. Vignon then admitted that he had falsely assumed the name of Benech, but why he had done so he did not explain. In the examinations which preceded his two condemnations he had always signed the name of Benech, This constituted forgery in the eye of the law, and yesterday he was tried for that offence. Being declared guilty, although with extenuating circumstances, he was condemned to five years imprisonment.  Mr. Abraham John Robarts, eldest son of the late Mr. A. G. Robarts, has been admitted a partner in the banking house of Itobarts, Lubbock, and co.