this latter statute could not be found guilty of manslaughter, and, where the circumstances reduced the crime to manslaughter, were entirely acquitted, the same statute of Geo. 3 enacted that where persons tried for murder or manslaughter committed on the high seas were found guilty of manslaughter only, they should be subject to the same punishment as if they had committed such manslaughter upon the land. And the 7 & 8 Geo. 4, c. 28, s. 12, further enacted that all offences prosecuted in the high court of admiralty of England should, upon every first and subsequent conviction, be subject to the same punishment as if such offence had been committed upon the land. We may add that the statutes 28 Hen. 8, * c. 15, and 39 Geo. 3, c. 37, did not take away any jurisdiction as to the trial of offences which might before have been tried in a court of common law.

[*347]

Further provision has been made by various recent enactments for the trial of offences committed within the admiralty jurisdiction. By s. 22 of the stat. 4 & 5 Will. 4, c. 36, constituting the central criminal court (p), the justices and judges of oyer and terminer and general gaol delivery, named in and appointed by the commissions issued under the authority of that act, are empowered to inquire of, hear, and determine any offences committed or alleged to have been committed on the high seas, or other places within the jurisdiction of England, and to deliver the gaol of Newgate of persons committed thereto or detained therein for offences alleged to have been perpetrated upon the high seas, within the jurisdiction of the admiralty of England; and all indictments found, and trials and other proceedings had and taken, by and before the said justices and judges, are to be valid and effectual to all intents and purposes. Also by the 7 & 8 Vict. c. 2, s. 1 (q), all offences alleged to have been committed on the high seas, and other places within the Admiralty of England, may be enquired of, heard, and determined by the justices of assize, oyer and terminer, and general gaol delivery, and they are severally and jointly invested with all the powers which by any act are given to the commissioners named in any commission of oyer and terminer for the trying of offences committed within the Admiralty of England, and may deliver the gaol, in every county and franchise within the limits of their several commissions, of any person committed to or imprisoned therein for any offence alleged to have been committed upon the high seas. And by sect. 2, in all indictments preferred before the said justices and commissioners under that act, the venue laid in the margin shall be the same as if the * offence [* 348] had been committed in the county where the trial is had; and all material facts which, in other indictments, would be averred to have taken place in the county where the trial is had, shall, in indictments preferred and tried under that act, be averred to have taken place on the high seas. " And sect. 4 provides, that nothing in this act contained shall affect the jurisdiction belonging to the central criminal court for the trial of persons charged with offences committed on the high seas and other places within the admiralty of England, or to restrain the issue of any special commission under the 28 Hen. 8, c. 15, for the trial of such offenders, if need there be.

By the statute 18 & 19 Vict. c. 91, s. 21 (r), if any person being a British

(p) Post, p. 352.

.

(9) See Reg. v. Serva, 1 Den. C. C. 104.
(r) Reg. v. Lopez, Reg. v. Sattler, Dearsl. &

B. 525; Reg. v. Lesley, Bell, C. C. 220; Reg. v. Bjornsen, L. & C. 545.

subject charged with having committed any crime on board a British ship on the high seas or in any foreign port or harbour; or if any person not being a British subject charged with having committed any crime on board a British ship on the high seas, is found within the jurisdiction of any court of justice in her majesty's dominions, which would have had cognizance of such crime if committed within the limits of its ordinary jurisdiction, such court shall have jurisdiction to hear and try the case, as if such crime had been committed within such limits. By stat. 30 & 31 Vict. c. 124, s. 11, if a British subject commit a crime on board a British ship, or on board a foreign ship to which he does not belong, any court in the Queen's dominions which would have had cognizance of such crime if committed on board a British ship within the limits of the ordinary jurisdiction of such court, is clothed with jurisdiction to hear and determine the case, as if such crime had been committed within the ordinary jurisdiction of the court.

Lastly, the indictable offences mentioned in each respectively of the Criminal Law Consolidation and Amendment * Acts (s), when committed [* 349] within the jurisdiction of the Admiralty, shall be deemed to be offences of the same nature and subject to the same punishment as if they had been committed on the land in England, and may be dealt with, inquired of, tried, and determined, in any county or place in England in which the offender may be apprehended, or be in custody, in the same manner in all respects as if the offence had been committed in that county or place. (724)

V. Court for crown cases reserved.

V. The Court for the "Consideration of Crown Cases Reserved" was constituted by the statute 11 & 12 Vict. c. 78, (intituled an Act for the further amendment of the administration of the Criminal Law,) of which sect. 1 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 justices of the peace (t) before whom the case was tried, may, in his or their discretion, 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. By sect. 2, the

(8) 24 & 25 Vict. c. 96, s. 115; c. 97, s. 72; c. 98, s. 50; c. 99, s. 36; c. 100, s. 68.

As to the trial of an accessory to felony within the jurisdiction of the Admiralty, see 24 & 25 Vict. c. 94, s. 9-of offenders in the

colonies for crimes committed on the high seas, see 6 & 7 Vict. c. 94; 12 & 13 Vict, c. 96. (t) These words include the recorder of a borough, Reg. v. Masters, 1 Den. C. C. 332.

(724) The judicial power of the United States extends to all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction. Const. U. S., art. 3, § 2. And this jurisdiction is held to embrace locally not only the high seas, but all the internal navigable waters, as rivers and lakes, on which commerce is borne. Fretz v. Bull, 12 How. (U. S.) 466; Genesee Chief v. Fitzhugh, 12 id. 443.

The federal courts have jurisdiction by statute not only of all piracies, revolts, homicides, robberies, and malicious injuries to vessels, and of other crimes on the high seas, by all persons without regard to nationality, but of offenses committed in American ships in foreign ports. And the trial of crimes committed on the high seas, or in any place out of the jurisdiction of any particular State, shall be in the district where the offender is apprehended, or into which he may be first brought. Act of April 30, 1790; 1 Stat. at Large, 113, § 8. See Ex parte Bollman, 1 Cranch, 373; U. S. v. Furlong, 5 Wheat. 183; U. S. v. Palmer, 3 id. 610.

judge, or commissioner, or court of quarter sessions, is required to state, in a case to be transmitted to the judges, the questions of law (u) reserved, together with the special circumstances upon which they have arisen, and such case will be heard and determined by the court of criminal appeal constituted as below stated (z).

*VI. Courts of oyer and terminer, and general gaol delivery (a) [* 350] are held before the queen's commissioners, among whom are usually VI. Courts of oyer two judges of the courts at Westminster, twice yearly in every and terminer. county of the kingdom, except as hereinafter stated. We formerly observed (b), that, at the assizes, the judges sit by virtue of four several authorities: two of which, the commission of assize and its attendant jurisdiction of nisi prius, were then explained at large. According to the existing practice, a commission of association being issued, in lieu of the commission of nisi prius, and that of the peace. The third, which is the commission of the peace, was also treated of in a former volume (c), when we inquired into the nature and office of a justice of the peace. I shall only add, that all the justices of the peace of any county, wherein the assizes are held, are bound by law to attend them, or else are liable to a 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 probably been concerned, by way of previous examination (d). * But the fourth authority is the com[* 351] mission of oyer and terminer, to hear and determine all treasons, felonies, and misdemeanors. This is directed to the circuit judges and usually also to some serjeants at law, queen's counsel, or barristers with patents of precedence (e), who attend the circuit. The words of the commission are, "to inquire, hear, and determine:" so that by virtue of this commission they can only proceed upon an indictment found at the same assizes; for they must first inquire by means of the grand jury or inquest, before they are empowered to hear and determine by the help of the petit jury. Therefore they have, besides, fifthly, a commission of general gaol delivery; which empowers them to try and deliver every prisoner, who shall be in the gaol when the judges arrive at the circuit town, whenever or before whomsoever indicted, or for whatever crime committed. It was anciently the course to issue special writs of gaol delivery for each particular prisoner, which were called the writs de

(u) See Reg. v. Clark, 1 C. L. R. (C. C.) 54. By s. 4 of the above act the case may be sent back to be amended.

(z) The jurisdiction given by the act is to be exercised by the common law judges, or five of them at least, of whom the chief justices of the Queen's Bench or Common Pleas, and the lord chief baron, or one of such chiefs at least, shall be part, being met in the exchequer chamber, or other convenient place. Sect. 3.

(a) As to which, see 4 Inst. 162, 168; 2 Hale, P. C. 22, 32; 2 Hawk. P. C. 14, 23. (b) Ante, vol. iii. (c) Ante, vol. i.

(d) We find one of the judges (temp. Geo. I.) complaining to the then chancellor of the apathy evinced by justices of the peace in regard to the discharging of this portion of their duty; he says, (15 St. Tr. 1421-2) "that there was grown up a sort of general

neglect all over England of the appearance of the justices of the peace at the assizes, when the judges had often matters to inform them of by the king's command," he complains that "trials of felons were often imperfect by the non-attendance of the committing justices," he urges that their attendance is a respect due to the king, upon so solemn an occasion, certainly no hardship upon them, inasmuch as three grounds of excuse will readily be admitted if stated to the court: 1. That the justice is not fit to travel through age or ill-health; 2. That he is living permanently, or, 3, is casually out of the county in which the assizes are being held, and adds, "if justices of the peace will remain at home about their private affairs, or to avoid the trouble of attending at the assizes, this ought to be looked on as a neglect of the duty of their office."

(e) 13 & 14 Vict. c. 25.

bono et malo (f): but these being found inconvenient and oppressive, a general commission for all the prisoners has long been established in their stead. So that, one way or other, the gaols are in general cleared, and all offenders tried, punished, or delivered, at least twice in every year: a constitution of singular use and excellence. We may observe also that winter assizes are held when expedient to clear the gaols in counties where crime may have been prevalent, as also to prevent the undue languishing in prison of accused persons, and the charge for their support, which would be thrown upon the county rates. And that sometimes, upon urgent occasions, a special or extraordinary commission of oyer and terminer, and gaol delivery, is issued by the crown (g), confined to those offences which stand in need of *imme[* 352] diate inquiry and punishment: upon which the course of proceeding is much the same as upon general and ordinary commissions. Formerly it was held, in pursuance of the repealed (h) statutes 8 Ric. 2, c. 2, and 33 Hen. 8, c. 24, that no judge or other lawyer could act in the commission of oyer and terminer, or in that of gaol delivery, within his own county where he was born or inhabited; in like manner as they were prohibited from being judges of assize and determining civil causes. But that local partiality, which the jealousy of our ancestors was careful to prevent, being judged less likely to operate in the trial of crimes and misdemeanors, than in matters of property and disputes between party and party, it was thought proper, by the statute 12 Geo. 2, c. 27, to allow any man to be a justice of oyer and terminer and general gaol delivery within any county of England.

VII. Another important court of criminal jurisdiction is that established by the stat. 4 & 5 Will. 4, c. 36, and entitled the "Central Criminal Court." VII. The Central This court constituted as below mentioned (i) sits monthly (k) Criminal Court. 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 (1). We have seen that an indictment for felony or misdemeanor committed out of the jurisdiction of the central criminal court and removed into queen's bench by certiorari, may by that latter court be ordered [*353] to be tried there, and * that offences committed within the jurisdiction of the admiralty are also there triable. Persons moreover subject to the Mutiny Act may, under certain circumstances, be tried at the Central Criminal Court for the murder or manslaughter of any person subject to that act where the offence has been committed in England or Wales out of the jurisdiction of the court (m).

VII.* The court of quarter sessions of the peace (n) is a court that must be held in every county once in each quarter of the year. It is, by stat. 1 Will.

(f) 2 Inst. 43.

(g) As in the Case of Frost and others (1 Townsend's Mod. St. Tr. 1), who were tried before Tindal, C. J., acting under a special commission in the year 1840, or of the Chartist rioters, who were likewise tried under a special commission, A.D. 1842.

(h) See 26 & 27 Vict. c. 125.

The judges of the court are the lord mayor of London, the lord chancellor, the judges of the superior courts of common law, the judge of the admiralty, the dean of

VII.* Court of 4, c. 70, s. 35, appointed to be held in the first week after the quarter sessions. 11th of October, the 28th of December, the 31st of March, and the 24th of June in every year; and by a subsequent act (4 & 5 Will. 4, c. 47), provision is made for preventing the April sessions from interfering with the Spring assizes.

This court is held before two or more justices of the peace, one of whom by the terms of the commission must be of the quorum (o); and for the dispatch of business the 59 Geo. 3, c. 28 (p), empowers the justices to divide the court, whenever the business seems likely to occupy more than three days, including the day of their assembling, and to select two or more justices, to sit apart.

The jurisdiction of the court of quarter sessions was formerly very wide, extending under the statute 34 Edw. 3, * c. 1, to the trying and determining of all felonies and trespasses whatsoever, except new offences [*354] created by statute, for which another mode of trial might be directed, and of all offences less than felony, with one or two exceptions of little practical importance, and resting on a principle not easily to be discovered (q).

But though the justices in quarter sessions assembled thus theoretically possessed an ample jurisdiction, in practice they seldom, if ever, tried any offences greater than small felonies within the benefit of clergy (r); their commission providing, that if any case of difficulty arises, they shall not proceed to judgment, but in the presence of one of the judges of assize. And therefore murders, and other capital felonies, were usually remitted for a more solemn trial to the assizes. Nor, as above intimated, could this court try any new-created offence, without express power given them by the statute which created it (s). And recently the jurisdiction of the court of quarter sessions (t) in criminal cases has been much limited: the statute 5 & 6 Vict. c. 38, having enacted that neither the justices of the peace acting in and for any county, riding, division, or liberty, nor the recorder of a borough, shall, at any session of the peace or adjournment thereof, try any person for any treason, murder, or capital felony, or for any felony which, when committed by a person not previously convicted of felony, is punishable by transportation for life, or now by penal servitude (u); or for any of the following offences:-1, misprision of * treason; 2, offences against the queen's title, prerogative, person, [355] or government, or against either house of parliament; 3, offences. subject to the penalties of præmunire; 4, blasphemy, and offences against religion; 5, administering and taking unlawful oaths; 6, perjury and subornation of perjury; 7, making or suborning any other person to make a false oath, affirmation, or declaration, punishable as perjury or as a misdemeanor: 8, for

As to this court in general, see 4 Inst. 170, Com. Dig. Justices of the Peace, D. 1; Bac. Abr. Court of Sessions; Burn's Just. tit. Sessions, Justice of the Peace; Dalt. J. L. 185; 2 Hale, P. C. 42, 53; Hawk. P. C. b. 2, c. 8. As to the Middlesex Sessions, see stat. 7 & 8 Vict. c. 71; 22 & 23 Vict. c. 4.

(9) But this is rendered immaterial by stat. 26 Geo. 2, c. 27; and see 4 Geo. 4, c. 27. (p) See also the 5 & 6 Vict. c. 38, s. 4.

(8) 4 Mod. 379; Salk. 406; Lord Raym. 1144.

(t) By stat. 4 & 5 Will. 4, c. 36, s. 17, the quarter sessions of the cities of London and Westminster, the liberty of the Tower, the borough of Southwark, and the counties of Middlesex, Essex, Kent and Surrey, are restrained from trying all the higher classes of felonies and misdemeanors, when committed within the limits of that act, and by s. 16, in

(q) Dickinson's Quarter Sessions (edit. by dictments found at the sessions of the peace Talfourd), pp. 55, 291.

(r) As to which, post.

may be removed by certiorari before the justices of oyer and terminer and gaol delivery. (u) 20 & 21 Vict. c. 3, s. 6.

VOL. II.-71