writ of certiorari, and tried either at bar, or at nisi prius, by a jury of the county out of which the indictment is brought (9). The judges of this court are the supreme coroners of the kingdom. And the court itself is the principal court of criminal jurisdiction (though the two former are of greater dignity) known to the laws of England. For which reason, by the coming of the court of King's Bench into any county, (as it was removed to Oxford on account of the sickness in 1665,) all former commissions of oyer and terminer, and general gaol delivery, are at once absorbed and determined ipso facto: in the same manner as by the old Gothic and Saxon *constitutions, "jure vetusto obtinuit, quievisse omnia inferiora judicia, dicente jus rege (z) (10) (11).” () Stiernhook, l. 1, c. 2. (9) Informations filed in the court of King's Bench, and indictments removed there by certiorari, if not tried at the bar of the court, which rarely happens, are tried at the assizes by writ of nisi prius. On which occasions the judges of assize had, till very lately, no power to pass sentence upon the parties convicted before them, that power being confined to the court when sitting in banc at Westminster, before whom the parties so convicted were obliged to appear, upon notice, to receive judgment, often at very great inconvenience and expense. To remedy this evil, it was enacted by statute 1 W. IV. c. 70, § 9, that upon all trials for felonies or misdemeanors upon any record of the court of King's Bench, judgment may be pronounced during the assizes or sittings, as well upon the persons who shall have suffered judgment by default or confession upon the same record, as upon those who shall be tried and convicted, whether such persons shall be present in court or not, excepting when such prosecution shall be by information filed by leave of the court of King's Bench, or information filed by the attorney-general, wherein he shall pray that the judgment may be postponed; and the judgment pronounced shall be endorsed upon the record of nisi prius, and afterwards enVOL. IV. tered upon the record in court, and shall be of the same force and effect as a judgment of the court, unless the court shall, within six days after the commencement of the ensuing term, grant a rule to shew cause why a new trial should not be had or the judgment amended. And the judge before whom the trial was had, may either issue an immediate warrant for committing the defendant in execution, or respite the execution of the judgment, upon such terms as he shall think fit, until the sixth day of the ensuing term; and if imprisonment shall be part of the sentence, may order the same to commence on the day the party shall be taken to prison. (10) By ancient custom, all inferior jurisdictions ceased, when the king was sitting in judgment. (11) The court of King's Bench has no authority or jurisdiction to interfere in the regulation and management of the gaols of the kingdom. Where a person guilty of a misdemeanor, and confined in a county gaol under sentence of that court, prayed to be allowed the same indulgences as prisoners confined for felony, the court refused to make any order upon the gaoler for that purpose; Rex v. Carlile, 1 D. & R.. 535. The court of K. B. cannot grant D D [*266] into which all that was good Into this court of King's Bench hath reverted all that was of the star-cham- good and salutary of the jurisdiction of the court of star chamber, camera stellata (a): ber jurisdiction has been removed. (a) This is said (Lamb. Arch. 154,) to have been so called, either from the Saxon word toepan to steer or govern; or from its punishing the crimen stellionatus, or cozenage; or because the room wherein it sate, the old couneil-chamber of the palace of Westminster, (Lamb. 148,) which is now converted into the lottery-office, and forms the eastern side of New Palace Yard, was full of windows; or (to which sir Edward Coke, 4 Inst. 66, accedes) because haply the roof thereof was at the first garnished with gilded stars. As all these are merely conjectures (for no stars are now in the roof, nor any are said to have remained there so late as the reign of queen Elizabeth,) it may be allowable to propose another conjectural etymology, as plausible perhaps as any of them. It is well known that, before the banishment of the Jews under Edward I. their contracts and obligations were denominated in our ancient records starra or starrs, from a corruption of the Hebrew word, shetar, a covenant, (Tovey's Angl. judaic. 32. Selden. tit. of Hon. ii. 34. Uxor. Ebraic. i. 14.) These stars, by an ordinance of Richard the first, preserved by Hovedon, were commanded to be enrolled and deposited in chests which was a court of very an under three keys in certain places; one, and the most considerable, of which was in the king's exchequer at Westminster; and no starr was allowed to be valid, unless it were found in some of the said repositories. (Memorand. in Scacc. P. 6 Edw. I. prefixed to Maynard's Year-book of Edw. II. fol. 8. Madox. Hist. Exch. c. vii. § 4, 4, 5, 6.) The room at the exchequer, where the chests containing these starrs were kept, was probably called the starr-chamber; and, when the Jews were expelled the kingdom, was applied to the use of the king's council, sitting in their judicial capacity. To confirm this, the first time the star-chamber is mentioned in any record, it is said to have been situated near the receipt of the exchequer at Westminster: (the king's council, his chancellor, treasurer, justices, and other sages, were assembled en la chaumbre des esteilles pres la resceipt al Westminster. Claus. 41. Edw. III. m. 13.) For, in process of time, when the meaning of the Jewish starrs was forgotten, the word starchamber was naturally rendered in law French, la chaumbre des esteilles, and in law Latin, camera stellata; which continued to be the style in Latin till the dissolution of that court (12). a mandamus to the justices of sessions, to compel them to allow untried prisoners any other food than the ordinary gaol allowance; Rex v. Yorkshire Justices, 3 D. & R. 510; 2 B. & C. 286. The court of K. B. cannot grant a writ of habeas corpus to bring up a prisoner under criminal process in the House of Correction, for the purpose of his being charged in the custody of the marshal upon a bailable writ, and recommitted to his former custody, so charged; Guthrie v. Ford, 4 D. & R. 271. See post, 300. Offences committed out of England are not cognizable by the court of K. B., unless there is a special Act of parliament for the purpose of giving them jurisdiction; Rex v. Munton, 1 Esp. 62. The court of K. B. will not mitigate a fine imposed by an inferior court, the record whereof is removed there by certiorari; Rer v. Loveden, 8 T. R. 615. The court of K. B. has no jurisdiction to review the judgment of a court of quarter sessions, unless there be a case sent up for their consideration; Rex v. Carnarvon Justices, 4 B. & A. 86. Where there is any evidence tending to prove an offence over which a magistrate has a summary cient original (b), but new modelled by statutes 3 Hen. VII. c. 1, and 21 Hen. VIII. c. 20, consisting of divers lords spiritual and temporal, being privy counsellors, together with (b) Lamb. Arch. 156. jurisdiction by conviction, the court of K. B. cannot judge of the degree of it, or control the determination of the magistrate upon that evidence; Rer v. Davis, 6 TR 177: If justices acquit a defendant against whom an information is laid before them for a penalty, the court of K. B. cannot reverse the judgment; Rex v. Reason, 6 T. R. 375. But that court has a general jurisdiction over all acts contrary to good morals and public decency; Jones v. Randall, Lofft, 383; which cannot be ousted but by express words or necessary implication; Cates v. Knight, 3 T. R. 442. If an indictment for felony has been removed into the court of K. B. from an inferior court, in order to issue process of outlawry upon it, and the party accused come in, the court will send the record back; Rer v. Perry, 5 T. R. 478. Where a prisoner was convicted of perjury in an inferior jurisdiction, and sentence of transportation was entered on the record informally, the court of K. B. on error brought, commanded the court below to pronounce the proper judgment; Rer v. Kenworthy, 3 D. & R. 173; 1 B. & C. 711. The court of King's Bench has authority to order the sheriff of any county, or the marshal of the court, to carry into execution a sentence of death, pronounced by a judge under a commission of oyer and terminer and general gaol Concerning the accounts of the proctors at the end of the accounts there shall be made an inventory in the manner of a dividend, in which shall be comprised all things remaining in the common chest,, as delivery; Rex v. Garside, 4 Nev. & Man. 33. The attorney general, upon motion, is entitled, as of course, to a habeas corpus and certiorari to bring up a prisoner and the record of his conviction in a case of felony; Id. Ibid. In a case of a conviction for murder in which the prisoners were brought up by habeas corpus, and the record by certiorari, the court gave the prisoners three days' time to examine the record, and instruct counsel to shew cause why execution should not be awarded against them; Id. Ibid. See further as to the jurisdiction of this court, with reference to the writ of certiorari, post, 320. (12) In one of the statutes of the university of Cambridge, the antiquity of which is not known, the word starrum is twice used for a schedule or inventory. The statute is intitled, De computatione procuratorum, and it directs that in fine computi fiat starrum. per modum dividendæ, in quo ponentur omnia remanentia in communi cistâ tam pignora quam pecunia, ac etiam arreragia et debita, ita quod omnibus constare poterit evidenter, in quo statu tunc universitas fuerit quoad bona, &c. Stat. Acad. Cant. p. 32. Such inventories would be made at the king's exchequer, and the room where they were deposited would probably be called the starchamber.-CH. well securities as money, and also all arrears and debts, so that it may be made evident to all persons in what state the university is with respect to property, &c. [*267] 4. The court of chivalry, the au has fallen into total disus two judges of the courts of common law, without the intervention of any jury. Their jurisdiction extended legally over riots, perjury, misbehaviour of sheriffs, and other notorious *misdemesnors, contrary to the laws of the land. Yet this was afterwards, as lord Clarendon informs us (c), stretched "to the asserting of all proclamations, and orders of state: to the vindicating of illegal commissions, and grants of monopolies; holding for honourable that which pleased, and for just that which profited, and becoming both a court of law to determine civil rights, and a court of revenue to enrich the treasury: the council-table by proclamations enjoining to the people that which was not enjoined by the laws, and prohibiting that which was not prohibited; and the star chamber, which consisted of the same persons in different rooms, censuring the breach and disobedience to those proclamations by very great fines, imprisonments, and corporal severities: so that any disrespect to any acts of state, or to the persons of statesmen, was in no time more penal, and the foundations of right never more in danger to be destroyed." For which reason it was finally abolished by statute 16 Car. I. c. 10, to the general joy of the whole nation (d). 4. The court of Chivalry (e), of which we also formerly thority of which spoke (ƒ), as a military court, or court of honour, when held before the earl marshal only, is also a criminal court, when held before the lord high constable of England jointly with the earl marshal. And then it has jurisdiction over pleas of life and member, arising in matters of arms and deeds of war, (c) Hist. of Reb. book 1 and 3. (d) The just odium into which this tribunal had fallen before its dissolution, has been the occasion that few memorials have reached us of its nature, jurisdiction, and practice; except such as, on account of their enormous oppression, are recorded in the histories of the times. There are, however, to be met with, some reports of its proceedings in Dyer, Croke, Coke, and other reporters of that age, and some in manuscript; of which the author has two; one from 40 Eliz. to 13 Jac. I. the other for the first three years of king Charles: and there is in the British Museum (Harl. MSS. vol. I. No. 1226) a very full, methodical, and accurate account, of the constitution and course of this court, compiled by William Hudson, of Gray's Inn, an eminent practitioner therein (13); and a short account of the same, with copies of all its process, may also be found in 18 Rym. Foed. 192, &c. (e) 4 Inst. 123; 2 Hawk. P. C. 9. (f) See vol. III. page 68. (13) Hudson's Treatise of the Court of Star-Chamber is now published at the beginning of the 2d vol. of Collectanea Juridica.-Cн. as well out of the realm as within it. But the criminal, as *well as civil part of its authority, is fallen into entire disuse: there having been no permanent high constable of England, but only pro hac vice at coronations and the like, since the attainder and execution of Stafford duke of Buckingham in the thirteenth year of Henry VIII.; the authority and charge, both in war and peace, being deemed too ample for a subject: so ample, that when the chief Justice Fineux was asked by king Henry the eighth, how far they extended, he declined answering: and said, the decision of that question belonged to the law of arms, and not to the law of England (g). [*268] Admiralty hav over all offences sea. 5. The high court of Admiralty (h), held before the lord 5. The court of high admiral of England, or his deputy, styled the judge of ing jurisdiction admiralty, is not only a court of civil, but also of criminal ju- committed at risdiction. This court hath cognizance of all crimes and offences committed either upon the sea, or on the coasts, out of the body or extent of any English county; and by statute 15 Ric. II. c. 3, of death and mayhem happening in great ships being and hovering in the main stream of great rivers, below the bridges of the same rivers, which are then a sort of ports or havens (14); such as are the ports of London and Gloucester, though they lie at a great distance from the sca. But, as this court proceeded without jury, in a method much conformed to the civil law, the exercise of a criminal jurisdiction there was contrary to the genius of the law of England; inasmuch as a man might be there deprived of his life by the opinion of a single judge, without the judgment of his peers. And besides, as innocent persons might thus fall a sacrifice to the caprice of a single man, so very gross offenders might, and did frequently, escape punishment: for the rule of the civil law is, how reasonably I shall not at present inquire, (h) 4 Inst. 134, 147. (g) Duck. de authorit. jur. civ. (14) The jurisdiction given to the court of Admiralty by the 15 R. II. c. 3, in cases of mayhem, &c., is only concurrent with that of the common law courts, 1 Hale, P. C. 16; and, it seems clear, that the court has no jurisdiction in rivers, or arms, or creeks of the sea, within the bodies of coun ties, though within the ebb and flow statute. |