SECTION II.

The Administration of Criminal Justice.

THE whole system of the criminal law has of late years undergone great and important changes.

To Sir Robert Peel the public are indebted for the new criminal code, which he introduced in the year 1826, and completed in the year 1827.

This code is comprised in seven acts of parliament. He commenced with repealing, either wholly or in part, all the statutes relating to the criminal law.

His first act is the statute 7 Geo. IV. c. 64, intituled "An Act for improving the administration of criminal justice in England," in order, as the preamble states, to define under what circumstances persons may be admitted to bail in cases of felony, and to make better provisions for taking examinations, informations, bailments, and recognizances, and returning the same to the proper tribunals, and to prevent the technical strictness of criminal proceedings being relaxed, so as to ensure the punishment of the guilty, without depriving the accused of any just means of defence.

This act has been since partially altered by the statute 5 & 6 Will. IV. c. 76, s. 113, but only as regards the payment of expenses of prosecutions at the assizes: in all other respects it now remains in full force.

The second act is the 7 & 8 Geo. IV. c. 18, intituled

the person who appears to be its legal guardian. (See 3 Burr. 1434, where all the prior cases are considered by Lord Mansfield).—EDITOR.

"An Act to prohibit the setting of spring guns, mantraps, and other engines calculated to destroy human life, or inflict grievous bodily harm (1).”

The third act is the 7 & 8 Geo. IV. c. 27, which is the repealing statute, and is intituled "An Act for repealing various statutes in England relative to the benefit of clergy, and to larceny, and other offences connected therewith, and to malicious injuries to property, and to remedies against the hundred.”

The fourth act is the 7 & 8 Geo. IV. c. 28, intituled "An Act for further improving the administration of justice in criminal cases in England," with the view of abolishing forms used upon trials for criminal offences, which frequently impeded the due administration of justice, and also to abolish the benefit of clergy, and to make better provision for the punishment of offenders.

By this statute, any person (not being a peer of parliament) pleading "not guilty," is to be considered as having put himself upon the country for trial.

If a prisoner stands mute of malice, and will not answer, the court may order a plea of "not guilty" to be entered for him, and his trial may proceed accordingly.

Heretofore, when a prisoner stood mute, it was held equivalent to a conviction of guilty by confession, and execution might follow, as if convicted by verdict. This was the law under the statute 12 Geo. III. c. 20, and was substituted for the peine forte et dure, before then used to compel a prisoner to put in a plea of some kind. Two instances have occurred under this statute of persons, who, refusing to plead, were condemned and

(1) See Пlott v. Wilkes, 3 Barn. & Ald. 304.

executed; one for murder at the Old Bailey, in 1777, the other for burglary, at Wells, in 1792 (2).

By the recent statute, benefit of clergy is abolished; and it is declared, that no person should suffer death for felony, unless for some felony (3), excluded from the benefit of clergy, before the 8th February, 1827.

It is also declared, that the jury shall not inquire concerning the property, real and personal, of persons convicted of treason or felony.

The fifth act is the 7 & 8 Geo. IV. c. 29, intituled "An Act for consolidating and amending the laws of England relative to larceny and other offences connected therewith."

The punishment of death inflicted by this statute in certain cases was abolished by the statute 2 & 3 Will. IV. c. 62, and 3 & 4 Will. IV. c. 44, and other punishment substituted; and in some cases this punishment was again mitigated by the statute 1 Vict. c. 84, which abolishes the punishment of death in all cases of forgery, and inflicts other punishment in lieu.

This act is further amended by the statute 1 Vict. c. 87, intituled "An Act to amend the laws relating to robbery and stealing from the person." As the stat. 7 & 8 Geo. IV. c. 27, had previously repealed all the various statutes relative to larceny (4), and other

(2) See Blacks. Comm. 329.

(3) Felony originally meant any offence punished with death, forfeiture of goods, and corruption of blood; afterwards, it was applied to the state of the offender's mind at the time of committing the offence, and called a felonious intent.

(4) Larceny was decided by the judges, in Hammond's case, Leach, 1089, to be a felonious taking, or a taking with an intent to incur hanging, forfeiture of goods, and corruption of blood.

offences of stealing, and to burglary, robbery, and threats for the purpose of robbery or of extortion, and to embezzlement, false pretences, and the receipt of stolen property, it became expedient that the provisions contained in those various statutes should be amended and consolidated, to take effect at the same time as the repealing act; and this statute ordains the punishment of offenders.

This statute did not extend to provide punishments for malicious injuries to property; and, as all the statutes relating to such crimes had been repealed with the other statutes relating to larceny, &c., it also became expedient that the provisions contained in those repealed statutes should be amended and consolidated into another act, to take effect from the same time as the repealing act; and, to accomplish this end, another statute was passed, 7 & 8 Geo. IV. c. 30, intituled "An Act for consolidating and amending the laws in England relating to malicious injuries to property;" which is the sixth act.

This statute has been since amended by the 1 Vict. c. 89, intituled " An Act to amend the laws relating to burning or destroying buildings or ships;" and the sections 2, 5, 9, 11, 17, and 26, are repealed; and other punishments are substituted for the crimes to which those sections relate.

The seventh act is the statute 7 & 8 Geo. IV. c. 31, and is intituled "An Act for consolidating and amending the laws in England relative to remedies against the hundred." The statutes of Hue and Cry, or the Black Act, being repealed, those remedies are afforded to persons injured only by this act. Its provisions are extended by the 2 & 3 Will. IV. c. 72, intituled "An

Act to extend the provisions of the act relative to remedies against the hundred," and relates solely to damages done to threshing machines.

These acts of Sir Robert Peel tended greatly to simplify the administration of criminal justice: still, the want of general principles and rules defining and limiting the nature of offences was a subject of great complaint.

In 1833 a commission was appointed by the crown to inquire into the state of the criminal law; and a report has been made upon it, in which the commissioners confined themselves to the following particulars embraced by the commission:

1. The digesting into one statute the statutes touching crimes, and the trial and punishment thereof.

2. The digesting into one other statute all the provisions of the common or unwritten law touching the

same.

3. The expediency of combining both these statutes into one body of the criminal law, repealing all other statutory provisions, or of passing into a law the firstmentioned only of such statutes.

This report contains a digest of the law of theft. The commissioners made choice of this subject, because they considered that no other branch of the criminal law exhibited in so remarkable a degree the changes which the unwritten law had undergone, in consequence of its having been originally framed to meet less complicated circumstances, and having been afterwards adapted to the growing exigencies of society.

It is also in more common use than the other, not merely in the superior courts of criminal jurisdiction, but also by magistrates in the inferior courts, and upon