RELEASED BY THE LAW SOCIETY OF B. C. 1952 PRINCIPLES 162 OF THE CRIMINAL LAW. A CONCISE EXPOSITION OF THE NATURE OF CRIME, THE LAW OF CRIMINAL PROCEDURE, AND THE LAW OF SUMMARY CONVICTIONS. WITH TABLE OF OFFENCES, THEIR PUNISHMENTS AND STATUTES: BY SEYMOUR F. HARRIS, B.C.L., M.A. (Oxon.) AUTHOR OF A CONCISE DIGEST OF THE INSTITUTES OF GAIUS AND JUSTINIAN." EIGHTH EDITION. BY CHARLES L. ATTENBOROUGH, OF THE INNER TEMPLE, AND OF THE MIDLAND CIRCUIT, BARRISTER-AT-LAW. LONDON: STEVENS & HAYNES, BELL YARD, TEMPLE BAR. PREFACE TO THE EIGHTH EDITION. THE only Statute of great importance in the department of Criminal Law which has been enacted since the publication of the last edition of this work is the Criminal Evidence Act, 1898. Concerning the results of that Statute there were many prophecies for good and for evil. It is, of course, premature to pronounce definitely as to its ultimate success or failure, but it is perhaps not going too far to say that during the short time which has elapsed since the Act came into operation no cases of injustice caused by it have been made public, while, on the other hand, the Act has worked as smoothly, and apparently as beneficially, as its most sanguine supporters could have expected. The passing of this Act has rendered necessary the re-writing of much of the chapter on Witnesses, and many alterations throughout the work. In the same Session were passed two other Acts, each of which may be said to indicate a new departure-the Vagrancy Act, 1898, which enabled men who lived by peculiarly disgraceful means to be dealt with as rogues and vagabonds, and the Inebriates Act, 1898, which will empower the court to commit a criminal habitual drunkard an inebriate reformatory established or certified by the State. The former Act has already done something to remedy the evil which it was intended to meet. The latter is not yet in force; the probability of its success in |