Star. — 1825-02-03 (London, England)

GENTLEMEN OF THE GRAND JURY—The forms of our laws call upon me to address You, and I find great satisfaction in having to inform you, that but little will be brooght before you that will require of me much instruction or admonition.—Your functions will be precisely the same in this Court as in a Court of general jurisdiction ; and from your habits of attendance in those Courts, you have that experience which renders unnecessary any particular notice from me as to your duties. There was in this Court, formerly, a law which made a distinction between the crime of murder, from what was the common law of the land in that respect. The common law established a distinction between the modes of persons being killed by another. To constitute murder—the common law required proof of previous malice existing in the mind of the parry charged again .t the party killed ; and where no such proof existed, the death was considered as having been casual, and the party causing it was deeated guilty of the minor offence of manslaughter. In regard to offences committed on the high seas, no such distinction as that to which 1 have just alluded existed, hut the ultimate verdict of a Jury in the case of a person being killed by another, was compelled to be either a conviction for the capital offence, or a total acquittal, the crime of manslaughter not existing. By a late statute, the law in this Court has been made similar to the common law, and your duties will be consequently the same as in other Courts. I mention these circumstances, because I understand that two, if not three bills for murder, will be submitted to your consideration. If such should be the case, you will adopt, the line of conduct which 1 have suggested to you. • T..ere is, I understand, also another offence of high malignity, which will also come before you-it is a case of mutiny on board a merchant vessel, a crime which, by the law, is termed piracy. I need not comment upon the dreadful consequences likely to result from such a crime, in a great commercial country like England—but the crime, great as it is, is generally connected with others of a still more malignant nature, for it often happens that it is committed for the purpose of turning the ship into a pirate vessel, for the object of plundering others, and is frequently attended by the murdering the Captain and other Officers on board, and carrying the property of the owners to places widely different to where they destined it for. If such Case should come before you, you will give it your careful attention. I have now only to inform you, that the attendance of the Learned Judges who were to have assisted me here to-day, has been necessary to meet their brethren in another place, in order to consider a questionuf very great importance. I therefore have thought it necessary to adjourn the Court, after you shall have considered your bills, until Tuesday, on which day, 1 hope you will all of you give your attendance; most probably it will be for the mere purpose of being immediately discharged. But as it is possible that circumstances may render it necessary that you should on that day resume your duties, in order to prevent a very long delay in administering justice Is parties charged with offences, I trust you will not drink much of this trifling trouble. I now recommend to you the Immediate discharge of your duties."—The Grand Jury then withdrew. CONtISTORY