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Fourthly, a search warrant, with a view to the prevention of crime and the detection of criminals, may be granted by a justice of the peace. Also a warrant may be granted to send for and seize property suspected to have been stolen, sufficient ground for suspicion having been shown.*

Justices of the peace, by virtue of their commissions, or those who are ex officio conservators of the peace, may bind all those to keep the peace who make any affray, or threaten to kill or beat another, or contend together with angry words or menaces, or go about with unusual weapons or followers, to the terror of the people.

The justices are also empowered to bind over to good behaviour towards the Queen and her people all who are not of good fame, wherever they are found. "Good fame" is an expression of great latitude, which leaves much to be determined by the discretion of the magistrate himself.

In default of finding sureties when required, the party may be sent to prison, subject to the restriction imposed by stat. 16 & 17 Vict., c. 30, s. 3, which enacts that no person committed to prison under any warrant or order, on account of not entering into recognizances, or finding sureties to keep the peace, or to be of good behaviour, shall be detained under such warrant or order for more than twelve calendar months from the time of such commitment.

A recognizance may be discharged by the death of the party bound thereby; or by order of the court, on sufficient cause being shown.

* For the several cases in which search warrants may be granted for the discovery and seizure of paper and implements employed for forgery, &c., see 24 & 25 Vict., c. 98, s. 46; 24 & 25 Vict., c. 99, s. 27; 24 & 25 Vict., c. 100, s. 65.

CHAPTER XIII.

COURTS OF CRIMINAL JURISDICTION.

The next and last object of our inquiries will be the method of inflicting punishments which the law has annexed to these particular offences; in the discussion of which let us briefly mention the several Courts of criminal jurisdiction wherein offenders may be prosecuted, and explain the proceedings therein respectively.

Mention briefly the several Courts of Criminal Jurisdiction, and Explain the Proceedings.

I. The High Court of Parliament.

The High Court of Parliament is the Supreme Court in the Kingdom for the trial of great offenders, whether Lords or Commoners, by a method called Parliamentary impeachment. The articles of impeachment are prepared and agreed to by the House of Commons, and afterwards tried by the Lords, who are in such cases of misdemeanor considered not only as their own Peers, but as the Peers of the whole nation. A commoner cannot be impeached before the Lords for any capital offence, but only for high misdemeanor; a peer may be impeached for any crime. Our Constitution deems it proper in such cases that the nobility should judge, to insure justice to the accused, and that the people should accuse, to insure justice to the Commonwealth.

II. Court of the Lord High Steward.

This is a court instituted for the trial of peers indicted for treason or felony, or for misprision of either. When, therefore, such an indictment is found by a grand jury of freeholders in the

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Queen's Bench, or at the Assizes before the justices of oyer and terminer, it has to be removed by a writ of certiorari into the Court of the Lord High Steward, which only has power to determine it. When the indictment is regularly removed by writ of certiorari, the Lord High Steward, who is appointed pro hâc vice, by commission under the great seal, directs a precept to the serjeant-at-arms, to summon the lords to attend and try the indicted peer. The decision is by the majority; but a majority cannot convict unless it consist of twelve or more.

During the Session of Parliament, the trial of an indicted peer or peeress is not properly in the Court of the Lord High Steward, but before the Court of our Lady the Queen in Parliament.

Upon conviction for felony or misdemeanor, a peer is now liable to the same punishment as any other subject of the Crown.

III. The Court of Queen's Bench.

This court, which was noticed in a former chapter,* is divided into a Crown side and a plea side. On the Crown side or Crown office it takes cognizance of criminal causes, from high treason down to the most trivial misdemeanor or breach of the peace. Into this court also indictments from all inferior courts may be removed by writ of certiorari, and tried either at bar, which rarely happens, or at nisi prius by a jury out of the county of which the indictment is brought. The removal, however, of an indictment by certiorari into this court can only take place where the indictment is against a body corporate, not authorized to appear by attorney in the court below; or else where it is made to appear to the court or to a judge thereof by the party applying for the writ, that a fair and impartial trial cannot be had in the court below; or that a question of law of more than usual difficulty and importance is likely to arise upon the trial;† or that a special jury may be required for the satisfactory trial of the case.

IV. The High Court of Admiralty.

The High Court of Admiralty, held before the Lord High Admiral, or his deputy, styled the Judge of the Admiralty, is a † See 19 & 20 Vict., a 16, s. 1.

* For further particulars, see p. 205.

court not only of civil, but also of criminal jurisdiction, but this latter branch is now usually exercised by other criminal courts, pursuant to divers statutes. By a recent statute, all offences alleged to have been committed on the high seas and other places within the jurisdiction of the Admiralty of England, may be inquired of, heard, and determined by the justices of assize, oyer and terminer, and general gaol delivery, who may deliver the gaol in every county and franchise within the limits of their several commissions of every person committed to or imprisoned therein for any offence alleged to have been committed upon the high seas.*

V. Court for Crown Cases Reserved.

This court was constituted by stat. 11 & 12 Vict., c. 78, for the further amendment of the administration of the Criminal Law, which enacts that when a person has been convicted of any treason, felony, or misdemeanor before any court of oyer and terminer, or gaol delivery, or court of quarter-sessions, the judge, or commissioner, or justice of the peace before whom the case was tried, may reserve any question of law for the consideration of the judges, and thereupon may respite execution of the judgment on such conviction, or postpone judgment until such question shall have been decided.†

VI. Courts of Oyer and Terminer.

The Courts of Oyer and Terminer and general gaol delivery are held before the Queen's commissioners, among whom are usually two judges of the Courts at Westminster, twice at least in the year in every county of the kingdom, with an exception as to the metropolis and parts of the adjacent counties. The judges sit by virtue of four several authorities, viz., the commission of the peace, the commission of oyer and terminer, the commission of general gaol delivery, and the commission of nisi prius.‡ All the justices of the peace of the county wherein the assizes are held are bound by law to attend them, or else are liable to a

* See 30 & 31 Vict., c. 124.

+ See Criminal Law Consolidation and Amendment Acts, 24 & 25 Vict., cc. 96-100. See page 209.

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fine, in order to return recognizances, &c., and to assist the judges in such matters as lie within their knowledge and jurisdiction, and in which some of them have most probably been concerned in their committal of prisoners. The commission of oyer and terminer gives the judges authority to hear and determine all treasons, felonies, and misdemeanors committed within the county. They have besides a commission of general gaol delivery, which empowers them to try and deliver every prisoner who shall be in the gaol when they arrive at the circuit town, whenever or before whomsoever indicted, or for whatever crime committed. So that, one way

or other, the gaols are in general cleared, and all prisoners tried, punished, or delivered, at least twice in every year. Sometimes, upon urgent occasions, the Crown issues a special or extraordinary commission of oyer and terminer and gaol delivery confined to the offences therein particularly mentioned.

VII. Central Criminal Court.

This is another important court of criminal jurisdiction established by stat. 4 & 5 Wm. IV., c. 36. It must sit at least twelve times a year, and oftener if need be, and has cognizance of all offences committed in London and Middlesex, and in certain specified portions of the adjacent counties of Essex, Kent, and Surrey, and now by statute has criminal jurisdiction in Admiralty cases for offences committed on the high seas. An indictment for felony or misdemeanor committed out of the jurisdiction of the Central Criminal Court, and removed into the Queen's Bench by certiorari, may by the latter court be ordered to be tried there.*

VIII. Court of Quarter Sessions.

The Court of General Quarter Sessions of the Peace is a court that must be held in every county once in each quarter of the year. By stat. 1 Wm. IV., c. 70, s. 35, the quarter sessions are appointed to be held in the first week after the 11th of October, the 28th of December, the 31st of March, and the 24th of June in every year. They are held before two or more justices of the peace, one of whom must be of the Quorum. The jurisdiction is

* See 19 & 20 Vict., c. 16, an Act to empower the Court of Queen's Bench to order certain offenders to be tried at the Central Criminal Court.

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