crimes merited the most heavy condemnation—
men who, as being better taught, should
set examples of well-doing to their fellows.
Against the poor and ignorant it was so
hardly pressed, that it was made an offence
in gaolers to teach prisoners to read, as the
unknown tongue had it, "per cause de salvation
de leur vie et desturbation de la common
ley, en deceit del roy."

How well due hearing is secured to every
Englishman charged with offence for which
he is liable to forfeit life and character, we
shall see best by briefly following the course
of an English criminal trial. Let us begin
with the captured man. Except he be
seized in the act of crime, no officer of
police or constable can arrest any man in this
country without warrant from a magistrate;
no magistrate can keep an untried
man, after the fashion of despotic
countries, rotting in gaol; over the magistrate
there hangs the terror of an action for false
imprisonment; and, any subject being
deprived of liberty may, by a statute passed in
the thirty-first year of Charles the Second,
upon simple complaint, or upon demand of
counsel, have a writ for the bringing of his
body (Habeas Corpus) within three days
before the Court of Queen's Bench or
Common Pleas in order that the high
officers of the law may pronounce whether
his committal has been just. Sometimes,
in case of any prevalent sedition, it has
been found desirable that this statute of
Habeas Corpus should be for a short time
suspended; but it is a most essential part of
the existing constitution of the country, and
one of the surest guarantees of a system of
public justice opposite to that now practised
in Naples. It is an odd fact that this essential
statute owes its place in the history of England
to a practical joke. When the vote was taken
on it in the House of Lords, Lord Grey and
Lord Norris being appointed tellers, "Lord
Norris," Burnet relates, "being a man
subject to vapours, was not at all times attentive
to what was passing; so a very fat lord
coming in, Lord Grey counted him for ten, as
a jest as first, but seeing that Lord Norris
had not observed it, he went on with this
misreckoning of ten, and by these means
the bill passed; though the majority was indeed
on the other side."

The prisoner, held prisoner under restraints
of law that secure him perfectly against
tyrannical detention, having been examined
before lesser magistrates, is referred—if the
case seem to be proved against him and the
charge be heavy—for solemn trial at assizes
by the Judges of the land. To save the
great expense and inconvenience of bringing
all criminals for trial to a central court, and
at the same time to allow everywhere solemn
hearing, judges and barristers travel at fixed
and frequent intervals in circuit from town to
town. This travelling of justice is a very
ancient English custom; but the travelling
judges who used in old time to be called
Justiciarii in itinere, made their circuit to
try causes only once in seven years; and,
during the interval, accused men were left
wasting in dungeons. Remedy for this
came in Edward the First's time ; and, it is
from a statute of the thirteenth year of that
king's reign, that the present system of assize
and nisi prius is derived.

There are now seven circuits in England
and Wales, the Midland, Norfolk, Home,
Oxford—which is the one that includes
Staffordshire—Western, Northern, and Welsh.
In each circuit there are certain principal
towns appointed assize towns, to which the
judges and barristers who take charge of the
justice of that particular district repair
periodically, pursuant to their commission
of oyer and terminer, which is by interpretation
to hear and determine causes, and of
general gaol delivery, or of liberation of all
innocent persons, and sentence upon all guilty
persons, lodged in gaol under suspicion of
offence.

The judges entering any assize town to fulfil
their commission, represent the highest
majesty of law, and it is therefore required
that the sheriff—the shire-reeve or chief
officer of that shire or division of the county
—shall advance with javelin-men to meet
them, and escort them with all honour to
their lodgings. It is also required by ancient
custom, that if there be any troops stationed
in the town, they march out of it when the
judges enter, so showing that the civil power
is to be unhindered and supreme.

Upon the opening of the commission, the
two judges of circuit take their seats, one in
the criminal, the other in the Nisi Prius
Court. The Nisi Prius Court is so called
from the form of the writ issued to the sheriff
before the arrival of the judges, commanding
him to empanel a jury to appear at
Westminster, unless before that time (in Latin,
nisi prius, with which words the writ begins)
the Queen's justices come to the assizes, and
require them there. On matters of weight
coming before the nisi prius court, the
judges have power to retain causes to be
tried at bar in Westminster. It is of the
criminal court only that we here propose to
speak; although, between the two, the difference
is rather in the matter tried than in the
way of trying it.

After formal preliminaries a grand jury is
sworn, which may consist of any number of
freeholders in good position, but they may be
of good position and not freeholders; not less
than twelve or more than twenty-three.
Properly there should be twenty-three, which
ensures that, upon every division of opinion
among them, there can be no majority of less
than twelve; and twelve of them at least,
whatever their number be, must be agreed
on any finding they declare. The duty of
those gentlemen is to read all the bills of
indictment against persons to be tried, and