OF THE INNER TEMPLE AND WESTERN CIRCUIT, ESQUIRE, BARRISTER-AT-LAW JOINT AUTHOR OF "The Law relating to Maximum Rates and Charges on Railways." 86 LONDON: SWEET & MAXWELL, LIMITED, 3, CHANCERY LANE, Law Publishers. 1898. ил 898 THE present book is mainly intended as a handbook for those who are engaged professionally in criminal Courts, and it is hoped that it may serve as a guide to those who have not yet made a special study of the provisions of the new Act. It endeavours to point out clearly the changes effected by the Act in the conduct of criminal trials and proceedings, and to suggest the solution of doubts that have already arisen, or that may arise, as to the construction of some of its provisions. When the Act passed, it occurred to me that as I had had considerable experience of the practical working of a somewhat similar Act passed in 1891 in New South Wales (where I held during several years the office of Crown Prosecutor, and was therefore familiar with many of the points which had arisen under that Act) I could write some notes on the English Act which might prove useful to those who had to make acquaintance with its provisions. The present book is far larger than was originally intended, but, although the new Act is short, it makes so radical a change in the criminal procedure of this country that I felt it worth while to discuss its main provisions at some length. Wide as may seem to be the range of the questions discussed in the notes, an endeavour has been made to restrict them to matters immediately connected with the provisions of the Act. I have attempted not to shirk any point of doubt or difficulty that has occurred to my mind, entertaining, as I do, a lively sense of the perplexity caused to the reader by the familiar expedient of the author who adjusts judicial differences by interposing the conjunction "but" between two irreconcilable head-notes! Frequent references have been made throughout to the works on Criminal Evidence of Archbold and Roscoe, as I have assumed that any one wishing to make use of this book in Court will have one of those works at hand to refer to. The appearance in the Appendix of a number of Colonial enactments is calculated, I fear, to cause a shock to the practical lawyer, which even the explanation that the author is a humble member of the Society of Comparative Legislation will not prevent. But the interest in these enactments is not purely historic. In this as in other matters legislation in the Colonies has preceded that in England, and reference to these Acts may become necessary in order to follow the decisions of the Privy Council, and even the arguments that may be raised in other Courts. 7, FIG TREE COURT, A. R. B. THE TEMPLE. |