484 
JUDG 
be entered up. Where they may be entered after the party’s 
death, fee Annaly 1 58. But the rule does not hold in adver- 
l'ary fuits. Ibid. 183. If a feme foie gives warrant of attor¬ 
ney to confefs judgment, and marries before it is entered, 
the warrant is abfolutely countermanded: and judgment 
fhall not be entered againft hufband and wife. 1 Salk. 399. 
It is dangerous to take a judgment acknowledged in the 
vacation, as of the preceding term ; and, if any fuch judg¬ 
ment by taken, the warrant of attorney to confefs the fame 
muft bear date before, or in the term whereof it is confef- 
l'ed : but the fafeft way is to make it a judgment of the 
fubfequent term. 2 Lill. 103. By Holt, chief juftice, If 
one will enter a judgment as of a precedent term, he mull 
actually enter it before the effoin day of the fucceeding 
term : and if judgment be figned in Hilary term, and in 
the fubfequent vacation the defendant fells lands, if before 
the elfoin of Eafter term the plaintiff enters his judgment, 
it fhall affedt the lands in the hands of the purchafer ; 
(but fee 29 Car. II. c. 3 ;) and if one enters judgment 
io in vacation, when the party is dead, the judgment fhall 
be good by relation, if he was living in the precedent term. 
1 Salk. 401. As to complaints for delay of entering judg¬ 
ments, the fame fliall be examined into by commillioners, 
and ordered to be entered, See. See 14 Ed.. III. ll. 1. c. 5. 
Judgments in criminal Cases. When, upon a ca¬ 
pital charge, the jury have brought in their verdift, Guil¬ 
ty, in the prefence of the prifoner; he is either immedi¬ 
ately, or at a convenient time foon after, afked by the 
court, if he has any thing to offer why judgment fhould 
not be awarded againft him. And, in cafe the defendant 
be found guilty of a mifdemeanor, (the trial of which may, 
and does ufually, happen in his abfence, after he has once 
appeared,) a capias is awarded and ilfued, to bring him in 
to receive his judgment; and, if he abfeonds, he may be 
profecuted even to outlawry. But, whenever he appears 
• in perfon, upon either a capital or inferior conviction, he 
may, at this period, as well as at his arraignment, offer 
any exceptions to the indiiSlment, in arrefi or flay of judg¬ 
ment; as for want of l'uflicient certainty in fetting forth 
either the perfon, the time, the place, or the offence. And, 
if the objections be valid, the whole proceedings fliall be 
fet aiide ; but the party may be indidled again. 4 Rep. 45. 
And we may take notice, 1. That none of the ftatutes of 
jeofails, for amendment of errors, extend to indictments 
or proceedings in criminal cafes ; and therefore a defective 
indictment is not aided by a verdiCt, as defective pleadings 
in civil cafes are. 2. That, in favour of life, great ftrict- 
nefs has at all times been obferved, in every paint of an 
indictment. Sir Matthew Hale indeed complains, “ that 
this llriCtnefs is grown to be ablemifh and inconvenience 
in the law, and the adminiftration thereof: for that more 
offenders efcape by the over-eafy ear given to exceptions 
in indictments, than by their own innocence.” And yet 
no man was more tender of life than this truly-excellent 
judge. 
A pardon alfo may be pleaded in arreft of judgment; 
and it has the fame advantage when pleaded here, as when 
pleaded upon arraignment; viz. the laving the attainder, 
and of courfe the corruption of blood, which nothing can 
reftore but parliament, when a pardon is not pleaded till 
after fentence. And certainly, upon all accounts, when 
a man hath obtained a pardon, he is in the right to plead 
it as foon as poffible. Praying the benefit of clergy may 
alfo be ranked among the motions in arreft of judgment. 
See Clergy, Benefit of. 
If all thefe refources fail, the court muff pronounce that 
judgment which the law hath annexed to the crime. Of 
thefe fome are capital, which extend to the life of the of¬ 
fender, and confift generally of being hanged by the neck 
till dead; though in very atrocious crimes other circum- 
ftances of terror, pain, or difgrace, are fuperadded ; as, in 
treafons of all kinds, being drawn or dragged to the place 
of execution; in high treafon, affeCling the king’s perfon 
or government, difbowelling alive, beheading and quarter¬ 
ing; and, in murder, a public difteition. In cafe of any 
MENT. 
treafon committed by a female, the judgment at com¬ 
mon law was to be burned alive. But now, by ftat. 30. 
Geo. III. c. 48, it is enaCted, “that, in all cafes of con¬ 
viction of any woman for high or petit treafon, the judg¬ 
ment fliall be, that the fhall be drawn and hanged, and not 
burned; and, if any woman is convicted-of petit treafon, 
file fliall be liable to fuch further judgment as is directed 
by ftat. 25 Geo. III. c. 37, to be given upon perfons con- 
vifted of wilful murder.” Indeed the humanity of the 
Englifh nation has ever authorifed, by a tacit confent, an 
almoft general mitigation of fuch part of thefe judgments 
as favours of torture and cruelty; a fledge or hurdle be¬ 
ing ufually allowed to fuch traitors as are condemned to 
be drawn ; and there being very few inftances (and thofe 
accidental, or by negligence) of any perfons being dif- 
bowelled or burned, till previoufly deprived of fenlation 
by ftrangling. Some punifliments confift in exile or ba- 
niftiment, by abjuration of the realm or tranfportation; 
others, in lofs of liberty, by perpetual or temporary impri- 
fonment. Some judgments extend to confifcation, by for¬ 
feiture of lands, or moveables, or both, or of the profits 
of lands for life; others induce a difability of holding of¬ 
fices or employments, being heirs, executors, and the like. 
Some, though rarely, occalion a mutilation or difmember- 
ing, by cutting off the hand or ears; others fix a lading 
ftigma on the offender, by flitting the noftrils, or brand¬ 
ing in the hand or cheek. Some are merely pecuniary, 
by ftated or diferetionary fines ; and, laftly, there are others 
that confift principally in their ignominy, though 1110ft of 
them are mixed with fome degree of corporal pain; and 
thefe are inflicted chiefly for fuch crimes as either arife 
from indigence, or render even opulence difgraceful ; 
fuch as whipping, hard labour in the houfe of correction, 
or otherwife, the pillory, the ftocks, and the ducking- 
ltool. Dil'guffing as this catalogue may leem, it will af¬ 
ford pleafure to an Englifli reader, and do honour to the 
Englilh law, to compare it with that fnocking apparatus 
of death and torment, to be met with in the criminal 
codes of almoft every other nation in Europe. And it is, 
moreover, one of the glories of our Englifli law, that the 
fpecies, though not always the quantity or degree, of pu- 
nifliment is aficertained for every offence; and that it is 
not left in the breaft of any judge, nor even of a jury, to 
alter that judgment, which the law has before-hand or¬ 
dained, for every fubjeCt alike, without refpeCt of perfons. 
For, if judgments .were to be the private opinions of the 
judge, men would then be flaves to their magillrates, and 
would live in fociety, without knowing exaiffly the con¬ 
ditions and obligations which it lays them under. And 
belldes, as this prevents oppreflion on the one hand, fo on 
the other it ltiffes all hopes of impunity or mitigation, 
with which an offender might flatter himfelf, if his pu- 
niihment depended on the humour or diferetion of the 
court. Whereas, where an eftablilhed penalty is annexed 
to crimes, the criminals may read their certain confe- 
quence in that law, which ought to be the unvaried rule, 
as it is the inflexible judge, of his actions. 
The diferetionary fines and diferetionary length of im- 
prifonment, which our courts are enabled to impol'e, are 
an exception to this rule ; and the reafons for this excep¬ 
tion have been given under Fines for Offences, vol. vii. 
p. 380. But let us add, that, though it isYiot poffible to 
fix the quantum of fine and imprifonment by law, yet it 
might very well be determined by the jury in each par¬ 
ticular cafe, and included in their verdift, as in aftions 
for damages ; and we hope the legiflature will refume the 
fubjeft of profecutions for libel, and confider whether too 
much is not left to the judges with regard to the judg¬ 
ment pailed on the offence. ■ 
A perfon fliall not have two judgments for one offence; 
for in outlawry, which is a judgment, execution fliall be 
awarded againft the offender, but no fentence pronounced. 
Finch. 389, 467. But one convifted of a fcandalous libel, 
had judgment to pay a fine, and to go to all the courts in 
Weftminfter-Hall with a paper in his hat fignifying his 
i crime 3 
