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THE

CRIMINAL LAW CONSOLIDATION
AND AMENDMENT ACTS

OF THE

24 & 25 VICT.

WITH

NOTES, OBSERVATIONS, AND FORMS

FOR SUMMARY PROCEEDINGS

BY

CHARLES SPRENGEL GREAVES, Esq.,

ONE OF HER MAJESTY'S COUNSEL.

PARIBUS LEGIBUS.

SECOND EDITION.

LONDON:

V. & R. STEVENS, SONS, AND HAYNES,

H. SWEET, AND W. MAXWELL.

1862.

LONDON:

BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS.

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

A LARGE Edition of this little work has been disposed of since the 22nd of last October, and this has induced me to prepare a Second Edition for the press, and I rejoice very much that I am by this means enabled to answer and remove every objection and doubt which has to my knowledge been raised, either to any enactment or as to the meaning of any clause in these Acts, except indeed such as were of too frivolous a nature to deserve any notice whatever. To me it would have been a matter of sincere pleasure to have been able to say that every one had edited these Acts with great ability, learning, and diligence, and that wherever any doubt or difficulty might be supposed to arise, an anxious desire had been shown to smooth the difficulty and do away with the doubt,—in a word, to do as much as reasonably might be in order to secure the well-working of these very important Statutes. I very much regret that such a pleasurable task should not have fallen to my lot, and that on the contrary I have felt it incumbent on me to answer objections that never ought to have been raised, and to remove doubts that never ought to have been started. My primary object in the First Edition was to explain the effect and operation of the new matter contained in these Acts, and to place it in its proper light, and the primary object of the additional remarks in this edition is to answer objections and to remove doubts; and I rejoice to say that I am not aware of a single objection or doubt that has not been completely

answered or removed. It may be that objections and doubts have been noticed, which might well have been passed over in silence, or that too great pains have been taken to answer or explain what hardly deserved any notice at all. If so, the error is at least on the right side, and it must be attributed to the anxious desire I have that these Acts should have their very useful provisions fairly understood, and that their well working should not be impeded by objections and doubts that have no substantial validity whatever. It was no desire of mine to find fault with the works of others that has led to the observations in these pages; but it seemed to me but right that I, the preparer and earnest supporter of the amendments contained in these Acts, should defend them against every attack which was erroneously made upon them. I have reason to believe that the former edition did much to place these Acts in their proper position, and I trust that the additional matter in this edition may have a similar effect.

I have carefully reconsidered all the notes to the former edition, and have made such alterations in, and additions to, them as seemed to be in any way expedient.

The former edition was confined almost entirely to pointing out the alterations effected by these Acts and the reasons for them. I have been induced in this edition to add an Appendix, containing plain and concise directions as to such of the summary proceedings under these Acts as seemed to require them. The reason for my doing this is, that I have understood that such directions were desired by some magistrates and their clerks; a very erroneous opinion appears to have existed, even in quarters where greater knowledge might reasonably have been expected to be found, as to the effect of these Acts on summary procedure, and this will be found to be wholly removed in the Appendix.

I have also given forms for summary proceedings under the Larceny and Malicious Injuries Acts, which alone require any new forms. These forms are framed from

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