The Sun. — 1852-12-16 (London, England)

AFFECTING SCENE IN COURT.  (From Tertian's Autobiography.)  I have elsewhere given one of my yet regretted comrade, William Pollock's, amusing tales, and I will take leave not to dismiss this volume without (as well as I can) repeating another of a more affecting nature, and which to hear him tell would beguile even the careless and callous of their tears. In his clerkship he was travelling to Winchester Assizes, and made acquaintance with two young men, officers in the army, who were going to surrender and take their trial on a charge arising out of a duel in which they had been secondl One of the principals was killed, and the survivor, Captain Sooper, was also to be tried. It was understood at that time (a year or two before 1817, when William 'died), that the attention of the judges had been called to the frequency of duelling, and the Government were determined to make an example, in order to put a stop to this prevailing evil. The seconds surrendered. Captain Sooper was already in custody. The grand jury threw out the bill against the seconds altogether, and did not put them on their trial even for manslaughter ; but they found a true bill against Sooper for murder. At the trial the case was fully proved, that is, that Sooper and his antagonist met in the field of honour, so called, and the result was the death of Sooper's opponent. Justice Dampier presided, and laid down the law with more than usual firmness and severity. Sooper listened to his charge with great interest and anxiety. Ho was a married man with a family of children. He had watched the earlier proceedings with some indifference. He knew the grand jury hid thrown out the bill against the seconds, and, in his own ease, he expected the common result, either a verdict of acquittal, or, at most, of manslaughter, followed by a short imprisonment. But the tone of the judge's summing up roused him from his dream. He fully understood the import of every word that fell from the bench, and he listened with increasing alarm. Sometimes there was even a slight movement in his face. as of a spasm ; but in all other respects he maintained his perfect composure. At length the jury were dismissed to consider their verdict, and were absent about half-an-hour, a delay which led to the hope of a favourable result. Their names were called aver, there was the deepest silence, every one in the court was interested, and the verdict was waited for with breathless expectation. It was pronounced, " Guilty of Murder ! " and the moment Sooper heard it he fell down las if shot with a mortal wound, and, amid the profoundest silence of the audience, uttered one loud, long groan. It occupied several minutes to restore the prisoner , but, in a short time, he was sufficiently recovered to receive the sentence of the court, and was called upon in the usual form to say, ,‘ Why sentence of death should not be passed upon him according to law ? " He began by apologising for the interruption he had given to the business of the court, which he said he hoped would not be imputed to the fear of death, which he had faced unmoved in the field of battle, and the more fatal climate of the West Indies. But, he had a wife and children, to whom he had trusted to bequeath his only fortune, the unstained character of a soldier and a man of honour ; but now ho was to die the death of a felon, and to leave to his children the infamy of a murderer.