GOVERNMENT AND LAW. 



81 



councils. These Vestries are elected on the same wide 

 suffrage as district councilors. Married women, prop- 

 erly qualified, have votes, and may now sit on them, as 

 '.veil as single women. 



IP all the great towns, including " county boroughs," 

 local business is administered by a municipal Corpora- 

 tion, which derives its authority from a charter granted 

 by the Crown. In 18J55 the municipalities of the country 

 were completely reorganized. A municipal Corporation 

 consists of the mayor, aldermen, and burgesses, and acts 

 through a Council elected by the burgesses practically 

 by the ratepayers. The councilors serve for three 

 years, one third retiring annually ; the aldermen are 

 elected by the Council, and the mayor, who serves for 

 one year, also by the Council. A municipal Corporation 

 has practically all the powers of an urban district coun- 

 cil, in addition to the privilege of electing a mayor and 

 corporation, and in some cases municipal boroughs 

 have a separate commission of the peace and maintain 

 their own police force. As to Poor Law and School 

 Board administration, see "Pauperism" and "Instruc- 

 tion." 



!<<-otlaiul. By the Local Government (Scotland) Act, 

 1894, a Local Government Board for Scotland was con- 

 stituted, its President being the Secretary for Scotland. 

 The Local Government Act, which was passed for Scot- 

 land in 1889, followed in its main outlines the English 

 Act of the previous year. The powers of local adminis- 

 tration in counties formerly exercised by the Commis- 

 sioners of Supply ami Road Trustees, were either wholly 

 or in part transferred to the new Councils, which took 

 over their duties and responsibilities in 1890. The Act 

 of 1894 provided that a Parish Council should be estab- 

 lished in every parish to take the place of the Parochial 

 Boards, and to exercise powers similar to those of the 

 Parish Councils in cost of administration. Such towns, 

 having over 1,500 inhabitants, may be constituted urban 

 sanitary districts. 



The/s?e of Man and the Channel Islands are not bound 

 by Acts of the Imperial Parliament unless specially 

 mentioned. The Isle of Man is administered in accord- 

 ance with its own laws by the Court of Tynwald, con- 

 sisting of the Governor, appointed by the'Crown; the 

 (Council for Public Affairs, composed chiefly of ecclesi- 

 astical and judicial dignitaries appointed by the Crown, 

 and the House of Keys, a representative assembly of 24 

 members chosen ou a property qualification for seven 

 years by the six " sheadings " or local subdivisions, and 

 the four municipalities. The Channel Islands are ad- 

 ministered according to their own laws and customs, 

 each by a Lieut. Governor, with judicial and other 

 functionaries ; and a " States " Assembly, partly elec- 

 tive. Jersey has a separate legal existence. Guernsey, 

 Alderney, and Sark have a Lieut. Governor in common, 

 but otherwise their governments are separate. 



Justice, England and Wales. The principal courts 

 having criminal jurisdiction are the petty sessional 

 courts, the general or quarter sessions, the courts of 

 oyer and terminer and gaol delivery, more popularly 

 known as "assizes," and the Central Criminal Court. 

 Two or more justices of the peace sitting in a petty 

 sessional courthouse, the Lord Mayor or any alderman 

 of the City of London, or any metropolitan or borough 

 police magistrate or other stipendary magistrate sitting 

 In a courthouse, constitute a petty sessional court. 

 The courts of quarter sessions are held four times a 

 year by the justices of the county. Similar courts can 

 be held at other times, and are then called " general 

 sessions." Two justices constitute a court, but usually 

 a larger number attend. Certain boroughs have a court 

 of quarter sessions, with similar jurisdiction to the 

 county justices in quarter sessions assembled, in which 

 the recorder of the borough is the judge. The assize 

 courts are held four times a year in various towns 

 throughout the country by " commissioners" nominated 

 by the Crown. These "commissioners are generally 

 judges of the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court 

 of Justice, but sometimes Queen's Counsel of good 

 standing are appointed. The trial takes place before a 

 single commissioner. The Central Criminal Court is 

 the court of oyer and terminer and gaol delivery for the 

 City of London and a large surrounding district. The 

 sessions of this court are held at least twelve times a 

 year, and more often if necessary. The Recorder and 

 the Common Sergeant; and, if the number of the pris- 

 oners makes it necessary, the judge of the City of 

 London Court, sit on the first two days, after which 

 they are joined by the judges of the High Court on the 

 rota, for whom the more serious cases are reserved. A 

 petty sessional court deals summarily with minor 



offenses. Cases of a more serious nature are usually 

 investigated by a petty sessional court before being 

 tried at the sessions or the assizes. To every session,' 

 assize, and to every sitting of the Central Criminal 

 Court, the sheriff cites 24 of the chief inhabitants of the 

 district, of whom not less than 12 and not more than 

 23 are sworn and constitute a grand jury. The grand 

 jury examines the bill of indictment against the 

 accused person, hears the evidence of witnesses for 

 the prosecution, and if they think a prlma fade case 

 for trial is made out they indorse the hill "a true bill." 

 All criminal trials, except those which come before a 

 court of summary jurisdiction, take place before a 

 judge and a petty ."jury of twelve men. Except on some 

 highly technical point of procedure there is no appeal 

 in criminal cases. No man can be tried again for the 

 same crime after a petty jury has found him "not 

 guilty." On a conviction the judge can, i* hethinklit, 

 reserve a question of law (but not of fact) for the Court 

 for Crown Cases Reserved. This Court is formed by 

 live or more judges of the High Court, and can reverse, 

 amend, or affirm the judgment. The only other method 

 of securing the revision of a sentence 'is by the royal 

 prerogative, exercised on the advice of the Home Sec- 

 retary, by which a sentence can be modified or annulled. 

 Nominally all the judges are appointed by the Queen, 

 but in practice the Lord Chancellor (who is a Cabinet 

 minister, ex officio president of the House of Lords, 

 and goes out with the ministry) and the Lord Chief 

 Justice are appointed on the recommendation of the 

 Prime Minister, and all the other judges on the recom- 

 mendation of the Lord Chancellor. 



Scotland. The High Court of Justiciary is the su- 

 preme criminal court in Scotland. It consists of all the 

 judges of the Court of Session, and sits more or less 

 frequently, as the number of cases before it may 

 require, in Edinburgh or in the circuit towns. One 

 judge can, and usually does, try cases, but two or more 

 preside in cases of difficulty or importance. It is the 

 only competent court in cases of treason, murder, rob- 

 bery, rape, fire-raising, deforcement of messengers, and 

 generally in all cases in which a higher punishment 

 than imprisonment is by statute directed to be inflicted ; 

 and it has moreover an inherent jurisdiction to punish 

 all criminal acts, both those already established by 

 common law or statute, and such as nave never previ- 

 ously come before the courts and are not within any 

 Statute. 



The sheriff of each county is the proper criminal 

 judge in all crimes occurring within the county which 

 infer only an arbitrary punishment, and if the case is 

 tried with a jury the High Court has no power of review 

 on the merits. Even in cases indicted to the High Court 

 the accused is, under the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) 

 Act of 1887, regularly asked to plead in the sheriff court, 

 and minor objections to the indictment can be wholly 

 or in part disposed of there. Borough magistrates and 

 justices of the peace have jurisdiction in petty cases 

 occurring within the burgh or county, and in a number 

 of minor offenses under various statutes. 



Ireland. In Ireland persons charged with crime are 

 first brought before the petty sessions court, which 

 must consist of at least two ordinary justices of the 

 peace, one of whom may be a stipendary commonly 

 called a resident magistrate. Then if the charge be 

 trifling it may be disposed of, the prisoner, if convicted, 

 having a right of appeal to the quarter sessions or 

 recorder's court (according as it is in a borough or in 

 the county), provided he is fined more than twenty 

 shillings or sentenced to a longer imprisonment than 

 one month (Petty Sessions Act, sec. 24). If the charge 

 be of a more serious character it must either be dis- 

 missed or sent for trial to the quarter sessions or 

 recorder's court, or to the assizes, as in England. There 

 is this difference, however, between quarter sessions in 

 Ireland and in England : in England they are presided 

 over by an unpaid chairman, who need not be a lawyer, 

 and who is elected by his fellow justices of the peace 

 for the county ; while in Ireland they are presided over 

 by a paid official, who must be a barrister, whose de- 

 cision on points of law binds the court, who is appointed 

 by the Crown, and who is also judge of the civil bill 

 court of the county, which corresponds to the English 

 county court. The assizes are presided over by one of 

 the common law judges of the High Court of Justice. 

 In the quarter sessions, recorder's court, and assizes 

 the trial is by jury in all cases save appeals from petty 

 sessions. Under the Crimes Act witnesses and persons 

 suspected of crime may be interrogated before a secret 

 court of inquiry; but admissions then made are not 



