The Sun. — 1850-12-16 (London, England)

CRIMINAL COURT-(THIS DAY.  OLD COURT.  The December sessions, being the second of the present mayoralty, were opened this morning in the Old Court, before the Right lion. the Lord Mayor, the Recorder, the Common-Sergeant, Aldermen Gibbs and Challis, Mr. Sheriff Carden, and Mr. Sheriff llorlgkinson, attended by their respective deputies and other civic authorities.  The first edition of the calendar contains the names of 131 prisoners, of whom 20 are fur London, 78 for Middlesex, 7 for Kent, and 26 for Surrey. The grand jury having been sworn and empanelled, The Learned RECORDER proceeded to de'iver his charge to them as folic .vs:—lle said he vt as happy to inform thcm that their duties were likely to be exceed ingly light, since the offences embraced in the calendar were neither numerically heavy nor of that atrocious nature which had too often characterised some -of the cases that had been the subject of pair:fill investigations i❑ this court. He was rejoiced to observe upon looking over the summary of the present calendar a total absence of a charge of either murder or manslaughter, or in fact of any eliarg,e which related to the destruction of human lib. Nor were there many of those serious cases which came under the denomination of cutting and wounding; indeed, he believed there was only one. To some extent therefore they might congratulate themselves upon the circumstance of the calendar indicating an improvement in the habits and conditions of the people, and if it should fortunately happen that future calendars shall present a similar diminutio❑ in the extent of crime prevailing in the metropolis, they might then hope that education and religious instruction were producing their natural effects, of softening and humanising those violent passions which were generally found raging amongst the lower orders of society. The majority of the cases entered in the calendar were composed of charges of simple larceny, but ho regretted again to perceive that not a few of them were charges also of stealing from masters. A large proportion of the thefts which came before this Court were of that serious class, a somewhat strange fact, because the parties immediately aggrieved by such cases had a remedy in their own hands, if they would only take care to have a character with all parties whom they took into their service. Most of those robberies were committed by servants who had been engaged without any recommendations or characters, and where wages were so extremely low that they could not resist the temptations which came in their way; and he hoped, after this information, employers would see the expediency of paying their servants a fair remuneration, and of employing none who could not produce a good character from their previous masters. One case in the calendar called for a more particular notice than the others, it was a charge against five or six persons of breaking into a shop in the Strand, and stealing a large quantity of jewellery and plate. Now, the proof of the charge mainly depended upon the evidence of an accomplice, and it was right that he should tell them that, although the law looked upon the evidence of an accomplice as equivalent to that of any other man, yet the practice of this and other criminal courts, which was confirmed by a long series of cases, required that the evidence of the accomplice should be corroborated i❑ some material particulars before the accused parties could be legally convicted. It was not necessary that he should be confirmed i❑ all the details of his evidence, but  if ho were corroborated in any material fact which connected the prisoners with the robbery, the jury would be justified in sendirg the case for trial. These were all the remarks that he felt called upon to make now; and again congratulating them upon the lightness of the calendar, it only remained for him to dismiss them to their duties. The grand jury then retired, and shortly afterwards several true bills were returned into court, when a petty jury was empanelled and the trials proceeded with.