The Sun. — 1847-10-25 (London, England)

CRIMINAL COURT.—(THIS DAY.) OLD COURT. The twelfth session of the present mayoralty was opened this morning by the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor, Alderman Hooper (the Lord Mayor elect), Sir Chapman Marshall, and the new Sheriffs, Messrs. Cubitt and Hill.  The calendar contains a list of 247 cases, some of them of a very serious nature. The grand jury having been sworn, The Learned RECORDER proceeded to deliver his charge. The number of prisoners appearing on the calendar amounted to 247. There was no doubt that a considerable addition would be made to that number during the progress of their labours. Among the cases which would be brought before their notice were cases of murder, rape, and robbery, several cases of manslaughter, of cutting, wounding, and other serious offences. The great point for the consideration of the grand jury would be to decide whether there were sufficient evidence adduced to ju,tify any further inquiry being proceeded with. With respect to the two charges of murder, the great point for them to decide was, whether the fact of the killing, and of course whether the party who stood charged with that crime, was the party against whom sufficient evidence could be adduced. There were other circumstances to be considered such as the mental condition of the party who stood charged, and also whether the crime was committed under the influence of passion or serious provocation, because the law always presumed that the act of killing had been committed in malice, in the absence of proof to the contrary. If the jury considered that the party deceased had come to his death by violence, it would then be their duty to return a true bill, in order that the case might be further inquired into. Whether the case should eventually turn out upon inquiry to be of a lower class, such as manslaughter or homicide, would be a point for the petit jury to decide. One of the cases of rape, which would come under their notice, was of a peculiar character as there were two persons charged with committing the act. In such a case the juries were less likely to be influenced in their decision by the opinion that the female might have resisted wherethere was only one person who committed the offence, because when assaulted by two persons combined together for the acomplishment of the crime resistance would be 4 ineffectual. The crime of rape was formerly punishable by death, but an alteration had of late been made in the law. It would be the duty of the grand jury, as in the case of murder, to satisfy themselves that there was sufficient evidence to warrant a further inquiry, and in such cases to return a true hill. There were cases of cutting and wounding with intent to do bodily harm, and there was one case of shooting with the same intent. There were sixtyeight cases of ordinary larceny, sixteen of larceny from the dwelling-house, nineteen of larceny from the person, and sixty-one of larcennyishnen servants.byit the cases He s deeply lamented that lenient punishment of larceny by servants did not accomplish the object which the Legislature had in view ; for the crime had of late years been considerably on the increase. It often happened that patties who