The Sun. — 1867-11-18 (London, England)

OLD COURT.  The November Sessions of this Court commenced to-day before the Lord Mayor and Recorder, the number of prisoners for trial being 52 males and 7 females. The Recorder, in charging the jury, remarked upon the fact that there was only one case in which human life had been sacrificed; one in which a German, named Ernest Roder, accused of the murder  of the child of a woman with whom he cohabited at Woolwich. The case of Edgeley, the city merchant, charged with defrauding the Leeds Bank of £lOO,OOO, was also adjourned to these sessions. It will be remembered that the trial was postponed from the October sessions on account of the absence of Mr. Greenland, the manager of the Leeds Bank, through whose intrumentality the money was advanced to the defendant, and who is at present at Geneva. It is doubtful whether he will be in attendance at these sessions, and as the counsel for the defence rely upon his evidence to show that there was no fraud on the part of Mr. Edgeley in the transaction, it is probable that, if he be stAl absent, the trial may be again postponed. Another case of considerable importance was the charge against Mr. Robert Short Waters, the former steward to the Earl of,Shaftesbury, of having einb,;zzle I and applied to his own use a large su:n of money-belodging to the noble earl, and which he hal received on his account in his capacity of steward. There was a charge of a very serious nature against a late police-constable named Richard Swith, of having, with another person, wilfully set fire to premises that were on his beat while on duty, either for the purpose of showing his supposed diligence, he having been the first parson who gave the alarm, or with some other mischievous object. There was also a charge of a similar character against a person named Richard Morris, who kept a public-house at the east end of the town, and who is accused of having attempted to destroy his premises by igniting a quantity of gunpowder in a tin-case by means of a fuse attached to it. The powder exploded, but fortunately without doing any serious mischief, and the offence imputed to the prisoner was, that he wilfully caused the explosion, which might have been attended with the most disastrous results. There were several cases of forgery, and among them was one of a very peculiar character against a young man of fashionable appearance, named Walter White, who was said to be very respectably connected, and who was charged with having become associated with some of the stylish prostitutes living at the West-end, and giving them cheques for different amounts, receiving money in change, the cheques turning out to be utterly worthless. There are no less than four charges of this descriptio❑ against the prisoner, and he appears to have carried on a regular system of fraud of the kind referred to upon " ladies" of this particular class. The case of the fashionable swindler calling herself the Hon. Geraldine Maurice and Lady Maurice, which was postponed from the previous sessions, will also come on at these sessions. The grand jury having returned, the trials shortly afterwards commenced, the first being the case of Eustace and another, who stood charged with the unlawful possession of a quantity of carpet.