(3) The name or description of any person whom soever; (4) The name or description of any matter what soever; (5) Or in the ownership of any property (14 & 15 Vict. c. 100, s. 25). Q.-What is an information? A. By the term information is understood either a charge laid before a justice or justices of the peace with a view to a summary conviction, and which has been mentioned, or else a complaint exhibited by a common informer in one of the courts of law, to recover a penalty which some penal statute has made recoverable after the conviction of the offender by him who shall first sue or inform for the same, and that either on his own behalf or (more usually) on behalf of himself and the Crown jointly, or a complaint by the Crown in the Queen's Bench in respect of some offence, under the degree of treason or ordinary felony. Informations are of two kinds,-first, those which are truly and properly the suits of the Sovereign and filed ex officio by his own immediate officer, the attorney-general; secondly, those in which, though the Crown is the nominal prosecutor, yet it is at the relation of some private person or common informer; and these last are filed in the Queen's Bench by the Sovereign's coroner and attorney, usually called "The Master of the Crown Office," who is for this purpose the standing officer of the public. (See 4 Bl. 308.) Q.-For what offences does an information ex officio lie? A. For misdemeanors only, for in felonies no man is to be put upon his trial except upon the oath of a grand jury. The offences for which this form of information properly lies are such grave misdemeanors as peculiarly tend to disturb or endanger the government, or to interfere with the course of public justice, or to molest public officers; for example, seditious libels or riots, obstructing officers in the execution of their duty, and bribery by officials. Q. How does an information by the Master of the Crown Office differ from one ex officio? A.-Leave of the court must be granted for one by the Master of the Crown Office, which is obtained as follows: Application is made for a rule to show cause why a criminal information should not be filed against the person accused, this is supported by an affidavit giving all material facts; if granted this rule nisi may be discharged or made absolute as in ordinary cases. Q. What is meant by a coroner's inquisition? A.-By a coroner's inquisition is meant the record of the finding of the jury sworn to inquire super visum corporis concerning the death of the deceased. On this record a person may be prosecuted for murder or manslaughter without the intervention of a grand jury, for the finding of the coroner's jury is itself equivalent to the finding of a grand jury. Q.-By what act was the public prosecutor appointed, and what are his duties? A.-By the 42 & 43 Vict. c. 22, which came into operation on the 1st January, 1880, the duty of the public prosecutor is set forth to be to institute, undertake or carry on under the superintendence of the attorney-general, criminal proceedings (whether in the Court for Crown Cases Reserved, before sessions of oyer and terminer, or of the peace before magistrates or otherwise), and to give such advice and assistance to chief officers of police, clerks to justices and other persons, whether officers or not, concerned in any criminal proceeding, respecting the conduct of that proceeding, as may be for the time being prescribed under the act, or may be directed in a special case by the attorney-general. The regulations under the act shall provide for the Director of Public Prosecutions taking action in cases which appear to be of importance or difficulty, or in which special circumstances, or the refusal or failure of a person to proceed with a prosecution, appear to render the action of such director necessary to secure the due prosecution of an offender, and also shall fix the areas or districts for which the assistants of such director shall respectively be appointed to act. Where the Director of Public Prosecutions gives notice to any justice or coroner that he has instituted or undertaken, or is carrying on, any criminal proceeding, such justice or coroner shall transmit to the said director every recognizance, information, certificate, inquisition, deposition, document and thing connected with the proceeding: and the same shall be handed over by the said director to the proper officer of the court, and shall be under the same obligation on the same payment to deliver to an applicant copies thereof as the said justice, coroner or officer. And further, every clerk to a justice or to a police court is to transmit to the said director a copy of the information, and of all depositions and other documents relating to any case in which a prosecution for an offence instituted before such justice or court is withdrawn, or is not proceeded with in a reasonable time. Nothing in that act is to interfere with the right of any person to institute, undertake or carry on any criminal proceeding. When any criminal proceeding is undertaken by the said director, he is not to be bound over to prosecute, or to give security for costs; and if any person is so bound over to prosecute, or has given security for costs, he shall, on the said director undertaking such proceedings, be released therefrom, and the said director shall be liable for costs in lieu of such person. And now the person holding for the time being the office of the Solicitor for the affairs of Her Majesty's Treasury is to be the Director of Public Prosecutions, and have the powers of such director. (47 & 48 Vict. c. 58, the Prosecution of Offences Act, 1884.) Process. Q. When may a magistrate issue a warrant upon indictment found? A. By 11 & 12 Vict. c. 42, s. 3, it is enacted, that where an indictment shall have been found in any court of oyer and terminer, general gaol delivery, or general or quarter sessions of the peace, against any person then at large, a certificate of the fact shall be granted by the proper officer to the prosecutor, and upon production thereof to any justice of the peace for the place where the offence is alleged in the indictment to have been committed, or in which the person indicted is, or is suspected to be, the justice shall issue a warrant to apprehend such person and cause him to be brought up to be dealt with according to law; and upon its being proved that he is the person named in the indictment, shall, without further inquiry, commit him for trial, or admit him to bail. If the person against whom the indictment is found shall be in prison for any other offence, then, upon proof thereof, the justice shall issue his warrant to the gaoler commanding him to detain such prisoner in custody until by writ of habeas corpus he shall be removed therefrom for the purpose of being tried upon the indictment, or until he shall be otherwise discharged by due course of law. Q.—If a defendant cannot be found, what steps may be taken against him? A. He is liable to be outlawed. The first process for this purpose, in cases of treason or felony, is a writ of capias; but in misdemeanors the process is less summary, for here there is in the first place a writ of venire facias, which is in the nature of a summons to cause the party to appear; and if by the return to such venire it appears that the party hath lands in the county whereby he may be distrained, then a distress infinite shall be issued from time to time till he appears. But if the sheriff returns that he has no lands in his bailiwick, then, upon his non-appearance, a writ of capias shall issue; and if he cannot be taken upon the first, a second and a third shall issue, called an alias and a pluries capias; and after the several writs have issued in a regular manner according to the nature of the respective crimes without any effect, |