The Sun.
London, England, 1835-04-11 00:00:00

CRIMINAL COURTS.

46. The majority of corporations in England and Wales
exercise a criminal jurisdiction within the limits of the bo-
rough ; in some no traces of any such powers can now be
found ; in others, it has long been disused ; in others, it is

but partially exercised. Many send all serious cases to the
county sessions or assizes. Some of those which formerly
exercised jurisdiction over capital offences have now
abandoned it ; others, as Salisbury, Southampton, and
Chichester, still try capital offences ; but when capital
punishment is expected to follow conviction, an arrange-
ment is made to prevent a trial before the corporate
authorities solely. Several corporations, as Berwick-upon-
Tweed, Bristol, Canterbury, Exeter, Rochester, still exer-
cise their chartered privilege of trying and executing crimi-
nals for capital offences. In a few cases, the criminal juris-
diction given by charter includes that of a court of admi-
ralty ; at Bristol, felonies committed on a part of the Bristol
Channel are triable at the ordinary court of gaol delivery,
not as a court of admiralty, but as committed within the
body of the county. At Marlborough, where the justices
are nominated by the mayor, felons were tried until 1824,
when it was discovered that the corporation did not possess
any such jurisdiction.
47. The ordinary criminal courts are those of gaol de-
livery, and of general and quarter sessions. The courts of
gaol delivery are found in very few places ; where they
exist, they are sometimes held under the charters without
any commission issuing from the Crown. In London, Ox-
ford, and some other places, they are never held without
such a commission. Where no commission issues, the cor-
porate magistrates are the sole judges. The time of holding
these courts is sometimes discretionary with the corporate
magistrates, sometimes regulated by the charter, as at Exe-
ter, where they must be held four times a year, and are in
practice opened at the same time as the quarter sessions.
The borough sessions seldom differ as to the times and
manner of holding them from the county quarter sessions.
In all the corporate courts some magistrates are specially
named, without whose presence the court cannot be held ;
these are usually the mayor or recorder, sometimes both.
Where the presence of the recorder is not necessary for
holding the courts, he sometimes does not attend ; the
whole business is often conducted before him. At Bristol,
the recorder tries the prisoners at the gaol delivery, but
does not attend the quarter sessions ; the prisoners at the
quarter sessions are tried before the mayor and aldermen,
hut virtually by the town-clerk, who is necessarily a bar-
rister.
48. The juries are generally summed from the inhabi-
tants at large, without strict reverence to any qualification ;

sometimes from the freemeii alone. In the latter case, the
number out of whom they are chosen is often inconveniently
small. At Pontefract the petty jury is always chosen from
the freemen, the whole number being only 26. The mem-
bers of the ruling body sometimes claim an exemption from
serving on any of the borough juries ; in other cases the
grand jury is summoned exclusively from them. In Lincoln
none are qualified to serve on the grand jury but those who
have served the office of chamberlain, the nomination to
which is in the mayor. At Scarborough freemen never
serve on the borough juries. In corporate counties the
lists are commonly made out by the sheriffs in the usual
manner ; in other boroughs they are commonly struck in.
the office of the town-clerk. In some towns, as Liverpool,
one of the judges of the court has the power of striking the
jury ; the mayor in several towns, as at Bristol, nominates
the foreman of the grand jury, and very frequently settles
the whole list after it comes from the town-clerk's office.
At Bristol, in consequence of the want of attention to the
local customs in the framers of an act of Parliament, a dis-
trict, now estimated to contain 5,000 inhabitants, never
furnishes any jurymen either to Bristol or the adjoining
county of Somerset.

49. In many boroughs no fund is provided for the pay-
ment of the expenses of prosecutions ; in some they are paid
out of the county-rate, in others out of a borough-rate, in
the nature of a county-rate ; in others out of the poor-rate.
In many of the principal towns, as Liverpool, Bristol,
Berwick-upon-Tweed, Hull, Leeds, Newcastle, and York,
the criminal courts are attended by barristers ; but in most
of the smaller places the business is conducted solely by
attornies.