husbands may be required to give security at the instance of their wives, and vice versa; infants may require security, and be compelled to give it, by their next friend.

Q. What difference is there in the proceedings when security is granted (a) by a justice out of sessions, (b) at the sessions?

A. (a) If no sessions are sitting, the person requiring immediate security goes before a justice and on oath makes his complaint, which is usually, though not necessarily, in writing. If the person complained of be present, he may be required at once to enter into the required recognizance; but if not present, the magistrate issues a warrant to bring him before himself or some other magistrate. If the delinquent refuses to go before the magistrate, he may be put in prison without any further warrant. When he comes before the magistrate he must offer sureties, or else he may be committed to prison for a term not exceeding twelve months. (16 & 17 Vict. c. 30, s. 3.) The form of the recognizance is chiefly in the discretion of the magistrate, both as to the number and sufficiency of the sureties, the amount of the sum and the period during which the party is to be bound.

(b) By the sessions, application is made by the party requiring security to the sessions. It should be made upon articles verified on oath showing the facts to warrant it. If the party refuses, or is not prepared to enter into the recognizance, he may be committed. (Har. Crim. Law, p. 290.)

Q. On what grounds may security to keep the peace be granted?

A.-Any justice may ex officio bind by recognizance

all who in his presence make any affray or threaten to kill or beat one another, or who contend together with hot and angry words, or go about with unusual weapons or attendance to the terror of the people; also all such as he knows to be common barrators, and such as break the peace.

Also, where any private man fears another will burn his house, or kill, imprison or beat him, and every justice is bound to grant such surety, if he who demands it swears that he is under fear of death or bodily harm, and, further, that he does not require such surety out of malice or pure vexation.

Q. How does security to be of good behaviour differ from security to keep the peace?

A. The former includes security for the peace and something more, and a magistrate may bind over to good behaviour all them that be not of good fame, which will include not only those who act contra pacem, but also those who act contra bonos mores, as for haunting bawdy houses with women of ill-fame, night walkers, eavesdroppers, drunkards, vagabonds, &c.

Note.-Provisions having the object of the prevention of the repetition or the commission of crimes, are contained in an "Act for the more Effectual Prevention of Crime" (34 & 35 Vict. c. 112), and have reference chiefly to convicts holding licences under the Penal Servitude Acts, the better identification of criminals, and the punishment of persons twice convicted of crime, but are not considered of sufficient importance for the student for insertion here.

PART II.

PROCEDURE.

Courts of Criminal Jurisdiction.

Q.-Give a list of courts exercising criminal jurisdiction.

A.-The High Court of Parliament, the Court of the Lord High Steward, the Court of Queen's Bench, the High Court of Admiralty, the Courts of Oyer and Terminer and Gaol Delivery, the Central Criminal Court, the Police Courts of London, the Quarter Sessions, and Petty Sessions.

The preliminary inquiry into indictable offences may be before one justice only, who may discharge the accused or commit for trial.

Q. Which is the highest court in England, and what are its functions?

A.-The High Court of Parliament is the supreme court of the kingdom, not only for the making, but also for the execution of laws by the trial of great offenders, whether lords or commoners, in the method of parliamentary impeachment. The judicial jurisdiction of the court is exercised in two methods:

(1.) By indictment.

(2.) By impeachment.

By indictment before the lords. By this method

are tried peers and peeresses against whom a true bill for treason or felony, or misprision of either offence, has been found by the grand jury, the indictment being removed to the House of Peers by writ of

certiorari.

By impeachment by the commons before the lords. The prosecution is undertaken by the commons as representing the people; the lords are the judges. The proceedings are shortly as follows:-the accused is charged with the offence by a member of the House of Commons, who moves that he be impeached; if this be agreed to, the member proceeds to the bar of the House of Lords, and impeaches the offender in the name of the House of Commons, and the Commons of the United Kingdom. Articles of impeachment are drawn up by a committee, and delivered to the lords, answer is made to the accusation, and a day appointed for the trial; the accused, unless admitted to bail, being retained in custody. The trial usually takes place in Westminster Hall; in case of a peer being indicted for treason under the presidency of a Lord High Steward specially appointed; but in other cases before the Lord High Chancellor. The peers, as a body, are the judges both of law and fact, the president having only a vote in right of his peerage; evidence is adduced, and then the president puts the question to each peer in succession, beginning with the junior baron, whether the accused be guilty or not guilty, upon each article separately. The peers, rising in their places, standing uncovered, and laying their right hands upon their breast, answer "guilty" or "not guilty upon my honour;" the president gives his opinion last, and when the numbers

are ascertained he declares them. Judgment is then pronounced by the president on the demand of the commons. (May, 660; 4 Steph. Com. p. 296; Har. Crim. Law, pp. 296 et seq.)

Q. What is the province of the Court of the Lord High Steward.

A.—It is a court instituted for the trial, during the recess of parliament, of peers or peeresses indicted for treason or felony, or for misprision of either; it is only in case the offence be of this description that the privilege of being so tried exists; for, if of any other kind, the peer

must be tried in the court in which the indictment is found. The Lord High Steward is not merely president, he is judge of law and fact, and, therefore, has

no vote.

By 7 Will. III. c. 3, upon all trials of peers or peeresses for treason or misprision of treason, all the peers who have a right to sit and vote in Parliament shall be summoned at least twenty days before such trial, to appear and vote therein; and every lord appearing and taking the proper oaths shall vote in such trial. The decision is by a majority; but a majority cannot convict unless it consist of twelve or more. (Kelynge, 56.)

Q. What are the functions of the Queen's Bench Division on the Crown side?

A.—It takes cognizance of all criminal causes-from treason down to the most trivial misdemeanor or breach of the peace. Its jurisdiction consists of two branches-original and transferred but the former is very rarely exercised; the transferred jurisdiction, however, is more extensive, thus, indictments from