of trial.

TRIAL.

Obsolete forms IT will not be necessary to describe the various modes of trial which have long been abolished, namely, the ordeal, the corsned, trial by battle (d). The last of these was suppressed by 59 Geo. 3, c. 46, in consequence of a case (e) in which the person accused demanded the settlement of the question by a fight.

The existing forms.

The only modes of trial which now remain are :—

A. Trial of peers in the Court of Parliament or the Court of the Lord High Steward, of which enough has been said above.

B. Trial by jury (or by the country—per patriam)— the trial by his peers which every Englishman is entitled to claim (f). This of course is the ordinary mode of trial, both at the sessions, the assizes, the Central Criminal Court, and the Queen's Bench Division. It is this with which we have now to deal, taking the various steps in their order.

(d) A full account will be found in the various editions of Blackstone, Hallam's Middle Ages, Reeves's History of English Law, and the other works dealing with the history of the law.

(e) Ashford v. Thornton, 1 B. & Ald. 405.

(f) Nullus liber homo capiatur, vel imprisonetur, aut exulet, aut aliquo alio modo destruatur, nisi per legale judicium parium suorum, vel per legem terræ.-Magna Charta.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE PETTY JURY.

WHEN the prisoner has put himself upon the country,
the petty jurors are called by the clerk to answer to
their names.
The list which is thus called over is the

panel returned by the sheriff.

who are liable.

Who are liable to serve on the petty jury, and how are Petty jurors, they returned? The law on this subject is contained chiefly in two statutes, the Jury Act, 1826 (g), and the Juries Act, 1870 (h). The qualification of common jurors is the following:-Every man between the ages of twenty-one and sixty, residing in any county in England, who has in his own name, or in trust for him, within the same county, £10 by the year above reprises in lands or tenements, or in rents therefrom, or in such lands and rents taken together, in fee simple, fee tail, or for the life of himself or some other person or lands to the value of £20 a year held by lease for twenty-one years or longer, or for a term of years determinable on any life or lives; or who, being a householder, is rated or assessed to the poorrate or to the inhabited house duty, in Middlesex to a value of not less than £30, or in any other county not less than £20; or who occupies a house containing not less than fifteen windows-is qualified to serve on petty juries at the courts at Westminster, in the counties palatine, and at the assizes, and also at both the grand and petty juries at the county

(g) 6 Geo. 4, c. 50.
(h) 33 & 34 Vict. c. 77.

Exemptions from serving

sessions (i).

Every burgess is qualified and liable to serve on the grand and petty juries at the borough quarter sessions (k).

Certain exemptions from serving on juries are on petty juries. enumerated by the Juries Act, 1870. The following are amongst those exempted:-Peers, Members of Parliament, clergymen, Roman Catholic priests, ministers of any congregation of Protestant Dissenters or Jews. whose place of meeting is duly registered, provided they follow no secular occupation except that of schoolmaster; those actually practising in the law as barristers, solicitors, managing clerks, &c.; officers of the law courts, and acting clerks of the peace or their deputies; coroners; gaolers and their subordinates, and keepers in public lunatic asylums; physicians, surgeons, apothecaries, pharmaceutical chemists actually practising; officers of the navy, army, or militia, or yeomanry, if on full pay; pilots; certain persons engaged in the civil service; officers of the police; magistrates to a certain extent; burgesses as regards the sessions of the county in which their borough is situated (1).

The jury list.

These exemptions must be claimed before the revision of the list by the justices (m). Aliens domiciled in England or Wales for ten years or upwards may be jurors, if otherwise qualified (n). Convicts unless pardoned, and outlaws are disqualified (0).

The mode in which the sheriff's list of jurors is prepared is the following:-The clerk of the peace of every county, riding, or division, on or before July 20th

(i) 6 Geo. 4, c. 50, 8. I.

(k) 5 & 6 Wm. 4, c. 76, s. 121.

() 33 & 34 Vict. c. 77, s. 9. See also 34 & 35 Vict. c. 103, s. 30. (m) Ibid. s. 12.

of each year, issues a precept to the churchwardens and overseers of the poor of the several parishes, and the overseers of the poor of the several townships, requiring them to make out before September 1st a list of persons within their jurisdiction qualified and liable to serve on juries as above. The churchwardens and overseers make out the lists, affixing a copy to every public place of worship on the first three Sundays in September. The justices correct these lists at a special petty sessions held in the last week of September. The lists are then copied by the clerk of the peace into the jurors' book; and this is delivered to the sheriff for use during the ensuing year (p). Before each assizes or sessions a precept issues to the sheriff, requiring him to return a competent number of jurors from those whose names appear in the current jurors' book. The panel (an oblong piece of parchment) The panel. must contain the names of the competent number alphabetically arranged, with their places of abode and additions. The jurors must be summoned six days at least before they are required to attend (9). The names of the petty jurors who attend are registered, and each juror may require from the clerk of the peace a certificate of his attendance. This exempts Exemptions him from liability to serve again as a petty juror at service. on ground of the assizes for one year after he has served as such in Wales, Hereford, Cambridge, Hunts, or Rutland, four years in York, and two years in any other county, and from liability to serve again as a grand or petty juror at the sessions for one year after he has served as such in Wales or one of the four above-named counties, or two years in any other county. In Middlesex a person is exempted from serving as a juror at any sessions of nisi prius or gaol delivery, if he has served as such in either of the two terms or vacations next immediately preceding (r).

(p) v. 6 Geo. 4, c. 50; 25 & 26 Vict. c. 107; 33 & 34 Vict. c. 77. (9) 33 & 34 Vict. c. 77, s. 20.

(r) 6 Geo. 4, c. 50, 8. 42.

Fining jurors

for nonattendance.

Putting the

jurors into the box.

Giving the prisoners their challenges.

Jurors who have been summoned not attending, and not giving sufficient reason for their absence, and in court having been three times ordered to appear and save their fines, may be fined. Of course, no person who was on the grand jury by which the bill was found can sit upon the petty jury by which it is tried.

The names of the jurors summoned are written on tickets and put into a box. The twelve first drawn are sworn on the jury, unless absent, excused, or challenged, or unless a previous view of some matter connected with the subject in issue has been ordered by the court, in which case the jurors who have had the view are sworn first. The remaining jurors are either ordered by the judge to remain in attendance in case their services should be required, or are allowed to retire until another day, or are released altogether, according to the discretion of the judge.

The prisoner or prisoners, for usually a batch of them are brought up at the same time to appear before the jury, are apprised of their right to object to or challenge any of the jurors by the clerk of the arraigns or other officer of the court in the following terms:

Prisoners, these men that you shall now hear called are the jurors who are to pass between our sovereign lady the Queen and you upon your respective trials (or, in a capital case, upon your life and death); if, therefore, you, or any of you, will challenge them, or any of them, you must challenge them as they come to the book to be sworn, and before they are sworn, and you shall be heard." The twelve jurors are then called by the proper officer. Challenges may be made not only on behalf of the prisoner, but also on behalf of the Crown. They are of two kinds: (a.) For cause; (b.) Peremptory. The former are either :

i. To the array, when exception is taken to the whole panel.