and other waters therein, not embraced within the limits of any organized county, or within any provisional judicial district, may be laid and charged to have been committed and may be enquired of, tried and punished within any county of such province; and such offences shall be within the jurisdiction of any court having jurisdiction over offences of the like nature committed within the limits of such county, before which court such offences may be prosecuted; and such court shall proceed therein to trial, judgment and execution or other punishment for such offence, in the same manner as if such offence had been committed within the county where such trial is had.

2. When any provisional judicial district or new county is formed and established in any of such unorganized tracts, all offences committed within the limits of such provisional judicial district, or new county shall be inquired of, tried and punished within the same, in like manner as such offences would have been inquired of, tried and punished if this section had not been passed.

3. Any person accused or convicted of any offence in any such provisional district may be committed to any common gaol in the province of Ontario; and the constable or other officer having charge of such person and intrusted with his conveyance to any such common gaol, may pass through any county in such province with such person in his custody; and the keeper of the common gaol of any county in such province in which it is found necessary to lodge for safe keeping any such person so being conveyed through such county in custody, shall receive such person and safely keep and detain him in such common gaol for such period as is reasonable or necessary; and the keeper of any common gaol in such province, to which any such person is committed as aforesaid, shall receive such person and safely keep and detain him in such common gaol under his custody until discharged in due course of law, or bailed in cases in which bail may by law be taken. (Code, Art. 555).

Offences Committed in Gaspé Whenever any offence is committed in the district of Gaspé, the offender, if committed to gaol before trial, may be committed to the common gaol of the county in which the offence was committed, or may, in law, be deemed to have been committed, and if tried before the

Court of Queen's Bench, he shall be so tried at the sitting of such court held in the county to the gaol of which he has been committed, and if imprisoned in the common gaol after trial he shall be so imprisoned in the common gaol of the county in which he has been tried. (Code, Art. 556).

Offences Committed out of Magistrate's Jurisdiction.—The preliminary inquiry may be held either by one, justice or by more justices than one: Provided that if the accused person is brought before any justice charged with an offence committed out of the limits of the jurisdiction of such justice, such justice may, after hearing both sides, order the accused at any stage of the inquiry to be taken by a constable before some justice having jurisdiction in the place where the offence was committed. The justice so ordering shall give a warrant for that purpose to a constable, which may be in the FORM A IN SCHEDULE ONE of the Code, (1) or to the like effect, and shall deliver to such. constable the information, depositions and recognizances, if any, taken under the provisions of the Code, to be delivered to the justice before whom the accused person is to be taken, and such depositions and recognizances shall be treated to all intents as if they had been taken by the last mentioned justice.

2. Upon the constable delivering to the justice the warrant, information, if any. depositions and recognizances, and proving on oath or affirmation, the handwriting of the justice who has subscribed the same, such justice, before whom the accused is produced, shall thereupon furnish such constable with a receipt or certificate in the FORM B IN SCHEDULE ONE of the Code, (2) of his having received from him the body of the accused, together with the warrant, information, if any, depositions and recognizances, and of his having proved to him, upon oath or affirmation, the handwriting of the justice who issued the warrant.

3. If such justice does not commit the accused for trial, or hold him to bail, the recognizances taken before the first mentioned justice shall be void. (Code, Art. 557).

(1) For Form A, see p. 135, post. (2) For Form B, see p. 135, post.

Laying Information.-Any one who, upon reasonable or probable grounds, believes that any person has committed an indictable offence against the Code may make a complaint or lay an information in writing and under oath before any magistrate or justice of the peace having jurisdiction to issue a warrant or summons against such accused person in respect of such offence.

2. Such complaint or information may be in the FORM Cin SCHEDULE ONE of the Code, (1) or to the like effect. (Code, Art. 558).

By Article 534 of the Code no civil remedy for any act or omission is to be suspended by reason of such act or omission amounting to a criminal offence.

The information and complaint should contain the Informant's or Complainant's name, occupation and address, (2) the date and place of preferring it, with the name and style of the justice before whom it is laid or made, (3) and the name and description of the person charged. (4)

If the Act under which the proceedings are taken extends only to persons of a particular class, office, or situation in life, the party charged should be shown to come within the description of such persons, bearing in mind the broad rule, for construing statutes, as laid down by Lord Tenterden, that, "where general words follow particular ones, the rule is to construe them as applicable to persons ejusdem generis. (5)

The prosecutor may prosecute all or any of the parties, and the omission of a particeps criminis cannot, as in cases of joint contracts in civil actions, be taken advantage of by those who are prosecuted. (6)

The above Article 558 requires the information or complaint to be in writing and under oath, and to be in the form in schedule

(1) For Form C. see p. 136, post.

(2) R. v. Stone, 2 Ld. Raym. 1545. (3) R. v. Johnson, 1 Str. 261.

(4) R. v. Dobbin, 2 Salk. 473.

(5) Sandiman v. Broach, 7 B. & C. 100.

(6) R. v. Brown, 26 L. J. M. C. 183.

one of the Code or to the like effect; but form C. does not show how the offence is to be described. For examples of the manner of stating offences, see pp. 143, et seq., post.

The description of the charge in the information and complaint should include, in express terms, every ingredient required by the statute to,—or a statement of facts which-constitute the offence. (1)

It is, however, provided by Article 578 of the Code, post, that no irregularity or defect in the substance or form of the summons or warrant, and that no variance between the charge contained in the summons or warrant and the charge contained in the information or between either and the evidence adduced on the part of the prosecution at the enquiry shall affect the validity of the proceedings at or subsequent to the hearing. The possibility of taking technical objections either to the information or complaint or to the case as made out in the evidence adduced at the preliminary investigation of an indictable offence is thus done away with. The information or complaint in the case of an indictable of ence is taken merely for the purpose of enabling the justice to judge whether or not he should interfere, and to guide his discretion as to the propriety of issuing a summons or a warrant ; (2) so that after the summons or warrant issues the information or complaint ceases to be of any importance, and it necessarily follows that if the evidence taken before the justice reveals an indictable offence as having been committed by the party summoned or apprehended, though it may not be the same offence as the one charged in the information or complaint, he is bound to adjudicate upon the evidence and to discharge, bind over, or commit the accused, as directed by Articles 579, 586, 587, 594 and 596, post.

Hearing Information.-Upon receiving any such complaint or information the justice shall hear and consider the allegations of the complainant, and, if of opinion that a case for so doing is made out, he shall issue a summons or warrant, as the case

(1) R. v. Denman, 1 Chitt. Rep. 152: Ex parte Askew, 15 J. P. 485. (2) Saunders' Prac. Mag. Cts. 5 Ed. 212.

may be, in manner hereinafter mentioned, and such justice shall not refuse to issue such summons or warrant, only because the alleged offence is one for which an offender may be arrested without warrant. (Code, Art. 559)

This Article expressly provides that the justice shall hear and consider the allegations of the complainant, before issuing a sum

mons or warrant.

The summons or the warrant, as the case may be, should be issued by the magistrate who hears the information. The Courts disapprove of the practice of the magistrate's clerk hearing the complaint and filling up the summons or warrant and getting it signed by the magistrate, without the latter having personally heard the party complaining. (1)

The information should be taken as nearly as possible in the language of the party complaining; (2) and a magistrate should not place upon the complainant's words a legal construction which they do not bear. If, for instance, the complainant's statement shows only a civil trespass, it should not be construed by the magistrate as an indictable offence, nor should he so describe it in the information. (3)

If the information discloses no offence in law, it will not authorize the issue of a warrant, as it contains nothing to found the magistrate's jurisdiction. (4) But, if it can, by reasonable intendment be read as disclosing a criminal offence, the rule is to so read it. (5).

There are cases, occasionally, in which it may be thought advisable to issue merely a summons; but it is very seldom that this process is deemed sufficient upon an information being laid for an indictable offence. The usual course is to issue a warrant of apprehension.

Warrant in Cases of Offences Committed on the High Seas, Etc.-Whenever any indictable offence is committed on the high seas, or in any creek, harbor, haven or

(1) Dixon v Wells, 25 Q.B.D. 249.

(2) Cohen v Morgan, 6 D. & R. 8.

(3) Rogers v. Hassard, 2 App. Rep. (Ont). 507.

(4) Stephens v. Stephens, 24 U.C.C.P. 424..

(5) Lawrence v. Hill, 10, Ir. C.L.R. 177.