INFORMATION. 
■which therefore it is fufficient in this place to obferve, 
that, by flat. 31 Eliz. c. 5, no profecution upon any penal 
ftatute, the fuit and benefit whereof are limited in part to 
the king and in part to the profecutor, can be brought 
by any common informer after one year is expired fince 
the commifiionof the offence; nor on behalf of the crown 
after the lapfe of two years longer ; nor, where the for¬ 
feiture is originally given only to the king, can fuch pro¬ 
fecution be had after the expiration of two years from the 
fommiflion of the offence. Cro. Jac. 366. 
The informations that are exhibited in the name of the 
king alone are alfo of two kinds ; firff, thofe which are 
truly and properly his own fuits, and filed ex officio by his 
own immediate officer, the attorney-general; fecondly, 
thofe in which, though the king is the nominal profecu¬ 
tor, yet it is at the relation of fome private perfon, or 
common informer, and they are filed by the king’s coro¬ 
ner and attorney in the court of King’s Bench, ufually 
called the mailer of the crown-office, who is for this pur- 
pole the Handing officer of the public. The object of the 
king’s own profecutions, filed ex officio by his own attor¬ 
ney-general, are properly fuch enormous mifdemeanors 
as peculiarly tend to difturb or endanger his government, 
or to molefl or affront him in the regular difcliarge of his 
royal functions. For offences fo high and dangerous, in 
the punifhment or prevention of which a moment’s delay 
would be fatal, the law has given to the crown the power 
of an immediate profecution, without waiting for any 
previous application to any other tribunal; which power 
thus neceffary, not only to the eafe and fafety, but even 
to the very exiftence, of the executive magillrate, was ori¬ 
ginally referved in the great plan of the Englifh confti- 
tution ; wherein provifion is wifely made for the due pre- 
fervation of all its parts. The objects of the other fpecies 
of informations, filed by the mailer of the crown-office 
•upon the complaint or relation of a private fubjefl, are any 
grofs and notorious mifdemeanors, riots, batteries, libels, 
and other immoralities of an atrocious kind, not peculi¬ 
arly tending to difturb the government, (for thofe are left 
to the care of the attorney-general,) but which, on ac¬ 
count of their magnitude or pernicious example, deferve 
the moll public animadverfion. 2 Hawk. P. C. c. 26. And 
when an information is filed, either thus, or by the attor¬ 
ney-general ex officio, it muft be tried by a petit jury of 
the county where the offence arifes; after which, if the 
defendant be found guilty, the court mull be reforted to 
for his punifhment. 
This mode of profecution, by information (or fuggef- 
tion) filed on record by the king’s attorney-general, or 
by his coroner, or mailer of the crowm-office in the court 
of King’s Bench, feems to be as ancient as the common 
law itfelf. 1 Show . 118. For as the king was bound to 
profecute, or at lead to lend the fanftion of his name to a 
profecutor, whenever a grand jury informed him, upon 
their oaths, that there was a fufficient ground for infti- 
tuting a criminal fuit; fo, when thefe his immediate offi¬ 
cers were otherwife fufficiently allured that a man had 
committed a grofs mifdemeanor, either perfonally againft 
the king or his government or againft the public peace 
and good order, they were at liberty, without waiting for 
any farther intelligence, to convey that information to the 
court of King’s Bench by a fuggellion on record, and to 
carry on the profecution in his majelty’sname. But thefe 
informations (of every kind) are confined by the confti- 
tution law to mere mifdemeanors only; for, wherever any 
capital offence is charged, the fame law requires that the 
accufation be warranted by the oath of twelve men, be¬ 
fore the party lhall be put to anfwer it. 
There is one fpecies of informations, Hill farther regu¬ 
lated by Hat. 9 Ann. c. 20; viz. thofe in the nature of a 
writ of quo warranto, which are a remedy given to the 
crown againft fuch as may have ufurped or intruded into 
any office or franchife. The modern information tends 
•to the fame purpofe as the ancient writ, being generally 
made ufe of to try the civil rights to fuch franchifes 5 
Vol. XI. No, 732. 
41 
though it is commenced in the fame manner as other in¬ 
formations are, by leave of the court, or at the will of the 
attorney-general; being properly a criminal profecution, 
in order to fine the defendant for his ufurpation, as well 
as to oull him from his office; yet ufually confidered at 
prefent as merely a civil proceeding. See the article Quo 
Warranto ; and 4 Comm. 308, 311. 
An information on behalf of the crown filed in the 
Exchequer by the king’s attorney-general, is a method of 
fuit for recovering money or other chattels, or for obtain¬ 
ing fatisfaflion in damages for any perfonal wrong com¬ 
mitted in the lands or other poffeffions of the crown. 
Moor, 375. It differs from an information filed in the 
court of King’s Bench, in that this is inftituted to redrefs 
a private wrong, by which the property of the crown is 
affefted ; that is calculated to puniffi fome public wrong 
or heinous mifdemeanor in the defendant. It is grounded 
on no writ under feal, but merely on the intimation of 
the king’s officer, the attorney-general, who “gives the 
court to underftand and be informed of” the matter in 
queftion ; upon which the party is put to anfwer, and 
trial is had, as in fuits between fubjefi and fubje£l. The 
moll ufual informations are thofe of intrufion and debt. 
Intrufion for any trefpafs committed on the lands of the 
crown, as by entering thereon without title; holding over 
after a leafe is determined ; taking the profits ; cutting 
down timber; or the like. Cro. Jac. 212. 1 Leon. 48. SaviL 
49. Debt upon any contracl for moneys due to the king, 
or for any forfeiture due to the crown upon the breach 
of a penal ftatute. This latter is moll commonly ufed to 
recover forfeitures occafioned by tranfgreffing thofe laws 
which are enabled for the ellabliffiment and fupport of 
the revenue; others, which regard mere matters of police 
and public convenience, being ufually left to be inforced 
by common informers, in qui-tam informations or adlions. 
But, after the attorney-general has informed upon the: 
breach of a penal law, no other information can be re¬ 
ceived. Hardr. 201. 
There is alfo an information in rent, when any goods 
are l'uppofed to become the property of the crown, and 
no man appears to claim them, or to difpute the title of 
the king. As anciently in the cafe of treafure-trove, 
wrecks, waifs, and eftrays, feized by the king's officer 
for his ufe. Upon fuch feizure, an information was ufually 
filed in the Exchequer, and thereupon a proclamation was 
made for the owner (if any) to come in and claim the ef¬ 
fects ; and at the fame time there iffued a commiffion of 
appraifement, to value the goods in the officer’s hands; 
after the return of which, and a fecond proclamation had, 
if no claimant appeared, the goods were fuppofed dere¬ 
lift, and condemned to the ufe of the crown. And when, 
in later times, forfeitures of the goods themfelves, as well 
as perfonal penalties on the parties, were inflicted by aft 
of parliament for tranfgreflions againft the laws of the 
cuftoms and excile, the fame procefs was adopted in or¬ 
der to fecure fuch forfeited goods for the public ufe, 
though the offender liimfelf had efcaped the reach of juf- 
tice. 3 Comm. 261, 2. 
An information is, in many refpefts, the fame as whaf, 
for a common perfon, is called a declaration. It ought 
to be certain, that the party may perfectly know what lie 
is to anfwer to, and the court what they are to give judg¬ 
ment on. Plowd. 329. 
Informations qui-tam will not lie on any ftatute, which 
prohibits a thing, as being an immediate offence againlt 
the public good in general, under a certain penalty, un- 
lefs the whole or part of fuch penalty be exprefsly given 
to him who will fue for it; becaufe otherwife it goes to 
the king, and nothing can be demanded by the party. 
2 Hawk. P. C. c. 26. 
It has been laid, that the king ffiall put no one to an¬ 
fwer for a wrong done principally to another, without in- 
di&ment, or prelentment; but this does not feem a prin¬ 
ciple adhered to ; and of common right, informations, 
or aftions ia the-nature thereof, may be brought for of- 
M fences 
