The Sun. — 1862-11-24 (London, England)

OLD COURT.  The November session of the Central Criminal Court commenced this morning before the Lord Mayor, Sheriffs, and other civic officers. The calendar contains a greater number of charges of violence to the person, accompanied by robbery, or attempts to commit that offence, than have been contained in any calendar fora very considerable time. The total number of pri •  stoners for trial is 125, of whom 102 are males and 23 females, and out of this number no less than 27 are charged with assaults for the purpose of committingrobbery—a description of offence that is now well knovin by the name of garotte robberies. In many of those cases the unfortunate persons who were attacked received very severe injuries, and in one instance such serious violence was used as almost to endanger the life of the party. The judges who will preside at this session are Baron Bramwell and Mr. Justice Byles, and it is understood that arrangements have been made for the whole of the cases of " garotte" robberies to be disposed of by the first mentioned learned judge. It may not be generally known that until a recent alteration of the law the offence of wounding in order to commit a robbery was a capital one, but within the last two or three years the punishment of death has been remitted for every offence except murder and high treason, but persons convicted of a crime of this description are now liable to be sentenced to penal servitude for life, or for a less period, or to be imprisoned and kept to hard labour for a lengthened time, at the discretion of the court. In addition to these cases the calendar contains 'several others of a very aggravated charater, and there are no leas than twelve charges of burglary, the act being aggravated in several instances by brutal violence being used towards the inmates of the houses that were broken into, upon their endeavouring to protect their property, This offence, until very recently, was also a capital one, but it is now no longer so, and any person convicted of it is only liable to be sentenced to penal servitude. Besides the cases above mentioned there are three charges of wilful murder, one of which, against a prisoner named Henry King, who is charged with the murder of a woman with whom he cohabited, by stabbing her in the stomach with a chisel, stands over from the October session. The other two are cases of child murder, It is very gratifying to find that in one respect the calendar for this session is very satisfactory, as it does not contain a single charge of stealing Post-office letters, an offence that had become very prevalent, but which, so far as the experience of the last three sessions goes, has been entirely put a atop to by the recent regulations of the Post-office autho. rities, by which every letter that apparently contains coin, or any valuable property, is registered by the different postmasters, whether the senders think proper to do so or not, and a double registration fee is charged to the person to whom the letter is addressed before he can receive it. Tne trial of William Bray, who was charged with an offence against the bankruptcy laws, was then proceeded ' with, but it did not possess any general interest.