The Sun. — 1858-12-07 (London, England)

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE.  NORTHERN CIRCUIT.—LIVERPOOL, DEC. 6. The business of the winter assizes for the southern division of the county opened to-day before Mr. Baron Bram Well, who presided in the Nisi Prius Court, and Mr. Justice Hill, who presided in the Crown Court. This is the first winter assize at which civil business has been taken, and the number of causes entered for trial is considerable, litigants from all parts of the country taking advantage of this assize to settle the questions in dispute by the verdict of a jury. The calendar is unusually heavy, and contains the names of 115 prisoners, of whom 8 are charged with• wilful murder, 9 with manslaughter, 8 with stabbing, 18 with burglary, 11 with rape, 20 with robbery, 4 with bigamy, and the remainder with other offences. In charging the grand jury, of which Sir Thos. George•Hesketh, Bart., was foreman, Mr. Justice Hill said that the calendar of prisoners awaiting their trial, and touching whose offences it became their duty to inquire, was so heavy that he would not occupy their time more than a very few minutes to direct their attention to one or two of the more important cases. He deeply regretted to see the large number of cases of wilful murder, and alluded to one or two particular charges, pointing out that in one, where a woman had cut her child's throat, they would probably have no doubt that she had committed the crime, the only question which could arise being whether she was in a responsible state of mind. He recommended the jury to find a true bill, as, if the common jury found she was insane, she would be detained in custody during her Majesty's pleasure, and thus the public would be protected against her for the future. In another case two medical practitioners, in trying to procure abortion in the case of a single woraan,xho was pregnant, had caused her death by the means used. It was, said his lordship, a settled woposition, of law, and had been so for a great roaThy years, that where a medical man gave medicine or used instruments for the purpose of procuring abortion, he was doing an unlawful act, attended with risk and danger to the person concerned, and, if by these means he caused death, it was murder in the eye of the law ; this rule, therefore; would apply to the case of the present assize. .As a general- instruction his lordship mentioned that where the facts proved were of such a nature that if unexplained or unanswered there was a reasonable presumption of guilt, it was the duty of the jury to find a true bill. But if, on the contrary, there was not such reasonable presumption, they would not be doing their duty in finding a true bill, because by putting such a prisoner prematurely on his trial, should circumstances afterwards arise to show that he was guilty, they would prevent a future trial, and defeat the ends of justice. In conclusion, his lordship alluded to a class of cases of an ,immoral character, and remarked that the unnecessary exposure of such cases in courts of justice was a great scandal to society. The jury, would, in regard to these, if possible, observe a more stict rule than in other cases, and only find true bills where they were fully convinced that the crime charged against the prisoner had been committed. He then dismissed the jury to their duties. A