42 INFORM ATIO N. 
fences againll ftatntes, whether mentioned or not in fuch 
ftatutes, where other methods of proceeding are not par¬ 
ticularly appointed. 2 Hawk. P. C. c. 26. § 1, 2. And, 
wherever a matter concerns the public government, and 
no particular perfon is entitled to an action, there an in¬ 
formation will lie. 1 Salk. 374. 
It is every day’s practice, agreeable to numberlefs pre¬ 
cedents, either in the name of the king’s attorney-general, 
or of the mailer of the crown-office, to exhibit informa¬ 
tions for batteries, cheats, feducing a young man or wo¬ 
man from their parents, in order to marry them againll 
their confent, or for any other wicked parpofe, fpiriting 
away a child to the plantations, refcuing perfons from le¬ 
gal, arrefts, perjuries, and hibernations' thereof, forgeries, 
confpiracies ; (whether to accufe an innocent perfon, or 
to impoverifh a certain fet of lawful traders, &c. or to 
procure a verdift unlawfully given, by cauling perfons 
bribed for that purpofe to be fworn on a tales-,) and other 
luch-like crimes, done principally to a private perfon : 
as alfo for offences done principally to the king; as for 
libels, feditious words, riots, falfe news, extortions, nui- 
fances; (as in not repairing highways, or obftrufting 
them, or flopping a common river, &c.) contempts, as 
in departing from the parliament without the king’s li- 
cenfe, difobeying his writs, uttering money without his 
authority, efcaping from legal inprifonment on a profe- 
cution.for contempt, neglecting to keep watch and ward, 
abufiag the king’s commiflion to the oppreflion of the 
fubjedt, making a return to a mandamus of matters known 
to be falfe; and in general any other offences againll the 
public good, or againll the firll and obvious principles of 
jullice and common honefty. See 2 Hawk. P. C. c. 26. § 
1. and the feveral authorities there cited ; and Finch L. 240. 
Show. 105. But in general the difcretion of the court in 
granting informations is guided by the merits of the per- 
ion applying ; by the time of the application ; by the na¬ 
ture of the cafe ; and by the confequcnces which may 
poflibly refult from the granting it. Per. Ld. Mansfield , 
Black. 542. 
It feems to be an eftabliflied practice, not to admit the 
filing of ,an information, (except thole exhibited in the 
name of his majefty’s attorney-general,) without firll 
making a rule on the perfons complained of, to fiiow caufie 
to the contrary ; which rule is never granted but upon 
motion made in open court, and grounded upon affidavit 
of fome mifdemeanor, which, if true, doth either for its 
enormity or dangerous tendency, or other luch-like cir- 
■cumftances, feem proper for the moll public profecution ; 
•and if the perfon, on whom fuch rule is made, having 
been perfonally ferved with it, do not, at the day given 
him for that purpofe, give the court good fatisfaftion by 
affidavit, that there is no reafonable caufe for the profecu¬ 
tion, the court generally grants the information; and 
fometim.es, upon lpecial circumilances, will grant it againll 
thofe who cannot be perfonally ferved with fuch rule ; as 
if they purpofely abfent tbemfelves, &c. 2 Hawk. P. C. c. 
26.' But it feems that in fuch-cafe the profecutor Ihould, 
on affidavit of the fact of abfence, move the court for a 
rule that leaving the fame at the laft place of abode Ihould 
be deemed good fervice. If a defendant (how good caufe 
to the contrary, as that he has been indiCted fot the fame 
caufe and acquitted, or that the intent is to try a civil 
rmht which luts not been yet determined, or that the 
complaint is trifling or vexatious, &c. or, where the mo¬ 
tion is for an information in the nature of a quo warranto, 
if he can fnow that his right hath been already determin¬ 
ed on a mandamus, or that it hath been acquielced in many 
years, or that it depends upon the right of his voters 
which hath not been tried, or that it doth not concern 
the public, but is wholly of a private-nature; the court 
will not gran); the information without fome particular 
circumftances, the judgment whereof lies in difcretion. 
a Hawk. P. C. c. 26. 
The compounding of informations upon penal flatutes is an 
©ffcr.cc, in criminal cafes, equivalent to maintenance or 
barretry in civil cafes; and i^, belides an additional hiif- 
demeanor againll public jullice, by contributing to make 
the law odious to the people. At once, therefore, to dif- 
courage malicious informers, and to provide that offences, 
when once difcovered, (hall be duly profecuted, it is en¬ 
acted by flat. 18 Eliz. c. 5. that if any perfon, informing 
under pretence of any penal law, make any compofitiou 
without leave of the court, or take any money or promile 
from the defendant to excufe him, (which demonftrates 
his intent in commencing the profecution to be merely to 
ferve his own ends, and not for the public good,) he (hall 
forfeit iol. (Hall Hand two hours in the pilloiy, and be for 
ever difabled to fue on any popular or penal ftatute, 
4 Comm. 136. 
Regularly, the fame certainty that is required in an in¬ 
diament, is required in an.information ; but it has been 
held not to be neceffary to repeat the words “gives the: 
court here to underftand, and be informed,” in the be¬ 
ginning of every diitina claufe, if the want of them may „ 
be Supplied by a natural and eafy conftruaion. Seethe 
article Indictment, p. 9. of this volume. In an infor¬ 
mation again ft Roberts the ferryman over the river Mer- 
fey, which parts Anglefey from Caernarvonlhire in Wales, 
it was moved in arreit of judgment, that the information 
was too general and uncertain, becaufe it did not alie°e 
that any particular perfon, or any certain number of cat¬ 
tle, were ferried over within the time laid in the informa¬ 
tion ; neither did it mention any particular perfon from 
whom the extorted rates were taken, which it ought to 
do, that the tingle offence might certainly appear to the 
court; after great deliberation, the whole court was of 
that opinion; and per Holt, chief jullice: In every fuch 
information a Angle offence ought to be laid and alcer- 
tained, becaufe every extortion from every particular per¬ 
fon is a leparate and diftinCl offence ; therefore they ought 
not to be accumulated under a general charge, as" in this 
cafe, becaufe each offence requires a feparate and diftinCl: 
punilhment according to the quantity of the offence; and 
it is not poffible for the court to proportion the fine or 
other punilhment, unlefs it is fingly and certainly laid. 
Carth. 226. 
If an informer dies, the attorney-general may proceed 
in the information for the king; non-fuit of an informer 
is no bar againll the king ; and, if the king’s attorney 
enter a nolle profequi, it is not any bar quoad the informer. 
Cro. El. 583. 1 Leon. 119. If two informations are had 
on the fame day, they mutually abate one another; be¬ 
caufe there is no priority to attach the right of the fuit 
in one informer, more than in the other. Hob. 138. 
If an information contain feveral offences againll a fta¬ 
tute, and be well laid as to fome of them, but defective 
as to the reft, the informer may have judgment for fuch 
as are well laid. Hob. 266. After a plea pleaded to an 
information for any crime, the defendant, by favour of 
the court, may appear by attorney; alfo the court may 
difpenfe with the perfonal appearance before plea pleaded, 
except in fuch cafes where a perfonal appearance is re¬ 
quired by fome ftatute; and it is the fame of indictments 
for crimes under the degree of capital. Hob. 273. 
Informations are not qualhed for infufficiency, like 
indictments; but the defendant mud demur to them. 
2 Lill. 59. Fines affeffed in court by judgment on ah in¬ 
formation, cannot afterwards be qualified or mitigated. 
Cro. Car. 251. 
In the conftruiftion of ftat. 4 & 5 W. & M. c. 18, it 
hath been holden, r. That, if procefs be iflued on fuch 
information before fuch recognizance is given as the fta¬ 
tute directs, the fame may be fet afide and difcharged on 
motion. 2 Hawk. P. C. c. 26. 2. That this ftatute extends 
to all informations, except thofe exhibited in the name 
of his majelty’s attorney-general ; lo that an information- 
in nature of a quo warranto, though a proper remedy to 
try a right, in rei’pect of which it may not in ItriCtnefs 
come within the words trefpajfes, &c. yet being alfo in¬ 
tended to punilh a mildemeanor, and alfo as the proceed¬ 
ings 
