The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1824-06-26 00:00:00

JURY LAWS CONSOLMATION !?ILL.

This Bill it Doer rioted. its importance induces us to give the
eellowing Aroma of its provisions. The pramble sets bah, as
the reason eu which the measure is founded, that the " laws rela.
tire to the qualification and summoning of Jurors, and the forma.
Lion of Juries is England and Wales, are tray numerous and con.
pleated," and that "it is expedient to consolidate and simplify
the same, and to increase the number of persons qualified to serve
on Juries, aad in Dome other respects to amend the said laws."
It then goes on to enact, that every man between the ages of
twentpone and sixty years, and having an income of ten pounds
yearly
_arieing from lands or tenements, whether of freehold,
copybOhl, or customary tenure, or ancient demesne, in fee simple,
or fee tail, or for his own life; or of twenty pounds yearly from
lands or tenements held by lease for the absolute term of twenty.
one years or longer, or fur any life or lives I or being assessed to
the duty on inhabited houses, in respect to the house in which he
dwells, at a sum not yet fixed; or to the rate fur the relief of the
poor, at a sum not yet fixed; or being the occupier of a house con.
taming a certain number of windows., not yet led—shall be qua-
lified and liable to serve on Juries in England, ip superior Courts,
Assizes, and Sessions of the Pow. The qualification for Juries
in Wales extends three-fifths of the foregoing.
The Clerk of the Peace is to Uses his warrants to the High Con-
stables within the first week of July In each year, commanding
them to issue their precepts to the Churchwardens and Overseers
of the poor, to make out, before the first day of September, a true
hat of all men qualified to serve on Juries, residing within their re-
spective parishes and townships. For this purpose the Clerk of
the Peace 311 tO annex to his warrants the printed for;ne of precepts
nodretarns which are subjoined in the schedule of the Hill. With.
in one week after the receipt of these warrants, the High Coasts.
hies are to issue their precepts to the Churchwardens and Overseers.
Justices of division may order any extra parochial place to be an-
nexed to any adjoining parish or township, for the purposes of this
Act; and parishes extending into more than one hundred, are to be
treated as entirely within the hundred where the parish church is
situated. The Churchwardens and Overseers are then forthwith,
an the teceipt of the precepts, to make out an alphabetical order or
tree list of the persons qualified to serve OH Juries, with their
places of abode, tide, quality, callitw, or business, and the nature
their ali fleations, according to the form of return in the ache-
e. Notice is to be given to every person included in the lists, in
ceder that his objections to save, it he have any, may be heard.
A Petty Satiate, for that purpose, will be held in the last week
of September; the lists will then be produced, considered, reform.
ed, and allowed; but no shmation is to be made in the lists with-
out notice to the party to be affected by it. After allowance, the
lists are to be delivered to the High Constables, and by him trans-
mitted to the next Quarter Sessions. These lieu are to be kept by
the Clerk of the Peace, among the records of the Sessions, and
copied into a book to be delivered to the Sheriff, which book shall
be called "The Jurors Book ;" and the Sheriff, on quitting his
office, shall deliver it to his suet:smog. The Jurors book shall be
brought loto use on the first of January following its delivery to
the Sheriff, and shall continue in use for one year.
Peen, Judges, Clergyman in holy mders,Teachen and Preachers
duly licensed-, and following no secular occupation, except that of
a schoolmaster, are absolutely exempted from serving on Juries.
Sergeants and Banisters at Law members of the Society of
Decton of Law, or Advocates of die Civil Law, Clerks of Assize,
Associates, Clerks of Indictments, Clerks of the Peace, Attorneys,
Solicitors, or Proctors' Officers of the Courts of Law, Coronae,
Gaolers, and Keepers of Houses of Correction, Physicians. Sur-
geone, Apothecaries. Officers in the army and navy, on full pay,
the household Servants of his Majesty, and Officers of Customs
and Excise, are all exempted, while actually proctising or following
those occupations, excepting where justice cannot be administered
without their service. None but natural-born subjects can serve on
Juries or Inquests, except in cases lc ateilietate, and men attainted
of treason or felony, or convicted of any infamous crime, or under
outlawry or excommunication, are disqualified.
Grand Jurors are also to be summoned from the Jurors' Book,
their qualificstion being that they shall be described as Esquires,
or of higher degree—provided always, that the Sheriff may sum-
mon the sons of any Peer, or the eldest son of any Baronet, residing
in the county, though his name be not inserted in theJurors' Book.
The form of the venire /brass, and of the precept for Jurors at
Gaol Deliveries and Sessions of the Peace, is next described.
If any man shall be returned as a Juror not being qualified, the
*ant of qualification shall be good cause of challenge. The
Sheriff, on his return of every writ of venire facias, shell annex a'
psoel of Jurors, of which a copy shall be hung up in the Sheriff's
Office. for the inspection of the pa. ties and their attorneys. If a
plaintiff or demendant shall sue forth a writ of venire Arias, in
order to trial, and not proceed. he may afterwards sue forth an-
other writ of remise facias, and try at any subsequent Assizes, and
the defendant may do the same. Jurors in all the Criminal
Courts are to be returned as before. Judges a Assize may direct
the same panel for the Criminal and Civil sides, and may direct
too sets of Jurors to be summoned, one to attend at the beginning
of each Assizes, and the other to attend the residue thereof, to serve
indiscriminately on the Criminal and Civil side. Where Jurors
ate to view the place in maiden, the Court may order special
writs fedi/fringes or habeas corpora ; and viewers, in case of ap-
pearance, shall be sworn on the Jury first. In these cases the
Judge shall appoint the trial during the attendance of the viewers.
Jurors are to be summoned ten days at the least before their at,.
tendance is required.
In civil causes the names of the Jurors are to be delivered to the
Marshal, written on distinct pieces of parchment or card, as nearly
as may be of equal sire, and put together in a box, from whence
• sufficient number shall be drawn out in open Court, until twelve
fair and indifferent men shall remain after all just causes of chal-
lenge shall be allowed; and they being sworn shall be the Jury to
ety_the cause.
The next Reties Metes to Special Juries. It enasts, " that it is
and shall be lawful for his lllajesty's Courts of King's Bench,
Coalmen Pleas, and Exchequer at Weetminater respectively, and
foe the said Courts of the three Counties Palatine and Courts of
Great Sessions in Wales, upon motion made on behalf of the ,
King, or upon the motion of any prosecutor or defendant, in any
indictment or information for any misdemeanor or penalty, or in
any Information in the nature of a quo warraitto, depending or to
be prosecuted in the said Court of King's Bench, or in any infor-
mation depending or to be prosecuted in the said Court of Ceche-
qua, or on the motion of any plaintiff or demandant, defendant or
tenant in any action or suit whatsoever, whether popular or private,
depending in any of the said Courts; and the said Courts are hereby
authorized and required, in any of the cases before mentioned, to
order, by a rule of Court, or by the order of a Judge in vacation,
• Special Jury to be struck before the proper officer of each re-
spective Court, for the trial of any Issue joined in any of the said
cases, and triable by a Jury in such manner as the said Courts have
usually ordered the same; and every Jury so struck shall be the
Jury returned for the trial of the wed issue."
The qualification of a Special Juror in England and Wales is
then stated to be, that he shall be described in the Jurors' book as
an Esquire or person of higher degree, er as a banker or merchant,
Of as a freeholder, copyholder, customary tenant, or tenant in an-
rent demesne, having above a certain yearly income not yet fixed,
either in fee 'diode, fee tail, or for his own life, or as being the
occupier of a house containing thirty windows ; and in the city of
isrodon, he shall be described as an Esquire or person of higher
degree, or as a merchant or banker.. The :sheriff shall extract from
the Jurors' book the names of all the persons qualified to serve as
Special Jurors, and shall write them all on distinct pieces of parch-
Mein or card, being all as nearly as may be of an equal size, and
put them in a box for safe custody. The officer of the Court is to
appoint the time and place for nominating the Special Jury. The
Ltider Sheriff or his agent is then and there to attend the office with
all the names. The officer is then, in the presence of all the parties,
to put them all into a box, and after having shaken them together,
shall draw out forty-eight of the said names, one after another, and
shall, as each name is drawn out, read the same aloud ; and if, at
the time of so reading any name, either party shall object that die
individual whose name shall have been drawn out is dead, or other.
wise incapacitated from serving on Juries, and prove the same to
the satisfaction of the officer, such name shall be set aside and ano-
ther drawn instead thereof. The officer shall afterwards deliver a
list of the forty-eight names to each party, which will be re-
duced as heretofore. The fees for striking a Special Jury,
and all the other expenses occasioned by this mode of trial, will '
main payable mat present, and the mode of striking Special Juries
in cities and towns will also remain unaltered.
When a full Jury shall not appear, or when, after appearance,
the Jury shall, by challenge, be reduced below tee requisite nun-
her, the Court, on request of either party, may order the Sheriff to
name so many of such other able men of the county then present es
shall make up a full Jury. In case of Special Jury, the taiesmen shall
be supplied from the Common Jury panel. Such tine may be set upon
Jurors making default as the Court shall think meet. The Sheriff is
idemnified for retuening any person whose mom is in the Jurors'
book, though he may not be qualified ; but if he return one not in
the book, or if the Clerk of Awdze record the appearance of a per-
son summoned who did not really appear, the Court may fine them.
'The Sheriff is to register the names of those who have served and
give them certificates, and the Clerk of the Peace is to make out a
list of all who save at Sessions, or Grand or Petty Juries, and
transmit the same to the Sheriff to be registered. Certificates of
*avian may be given by the Clerk of the Peace. Jurors arc not
to be summoned again within certain periods to the Assizes nor to
the Quarter Sessions. No money shall be taken to excuse persons
from serving as Jurors.
The penalties fur a breach of this Act are then fixed with respect
ale High Constables, Churchwardens, and Overseers, tic, for each
offence the forfeiture of a sum not exceeding ten pound'', nor has
than forty shillings. With respect to Sheriffs and Clerks of the
the Peace, the sum is not fixed. Aliens indicted for felony and
misdemeanor are not to be deprived of the rigl t of being tried by
a Jury de istedietate lingair. Justices are not to be summoned as
Jurors at Sessions, nor the inhabitants of Westminster to serve at
the Middlesex Sessions.
The qualifications of Juror in cities, boroughs, anti towns cor-
porate, will not be allowed, except that the Jurors at Westminster
must be householders within that city, and have lands, tenements,
Of personal estate of the value of 1001. ; ihd that no Juror shall
try any capital offence in any other city, borough, or town, who
shall not be a householder within the same, and have property to
the like amount. nor unless he be qualified to serve as a Juror in
civil causes. The qualification of Jurors on inquests before the
Sheriffs or Coroners is, that they shall be householders, and have a
yearly income of forty shillings arising front lands, or tenements,
or personal estate to tie value of one hundred pounds. Sheriffs,
Coroners, and Commissioners may fine Jurors for non.attendance.
Persons summoned to serve on Juries in inferior Courts not attend-
ing, shall forfeit not more than forty shillings, nor less than twat-
ey, unless the Court be satisfied with the cause of absence ; the'
fine may be levied by distress and sale. Convictions under this
Act shall not be quashed for want of form, and persons sued for any
thing door under this Act may plead the general issue ; the venue
shall be laid in the county where the fact is committed. The last
clause provides, that the Act shall commence and take effect on the
Ist et-January, 11025, and that eti Acts of Parliament, relating to
the qualification of Jurors now in farce, shall by repealed.