touching any offence committed within the jurisdiction of the Admiralty 7 Geo. 4, c. 38. of England under the provisions of an Act passed in the seventh year of the reign of King George the Fourth, intituled An Act to enable commissioners for trying offences upon the sea, and justices of the peace, to take examinations touching such offences, and to commit to safe custody persons charged therewith,' if he or they shall see cause thereupon to commit such person to take his trial for such offence, shall commit him to the same prison to which he would have been committed to take his trial at the next court of oyer and terminer and general gaol delivery if the offence had been committed on land within the jurisdiction of the same justice or justices, and shall have authority to bind by recognizance all persons who shall know or declare anything material touching the said offence to appear at the said next court of oyer and terminer and general gaol delivery, then and there to prosecute or give evidence against the party accused, and shall return all such informations and recognizances to the proper officer of the Court in which the trial is to be, at or before the opening of the court; and every such offender shall be arraigned, tried, and sentenced, as if the offence had been committed within the county, riding, or division for which such court shall be holden. See vol. 1, p. 16, note (r). Not to affect Central Court, or pre vent the issue of special com missions. 4. Nothing herein contained shall affect the jurisdiction belonging to the Central Criminal Court for the trial of persons charged with offences committed on the high seas and other places within the jurisdiction of the Admiralty of England, or to restrain the issue of any special commission under the first recited Act for the trial of such offenders, if need shall be. Questions of law may be reserved at sessions of the peace for consideration of judges. Questions reserved to be certified to. the judges. 11 & 12 VICT. c. 78. An Act for the further Amendment of the Administration of the Criminal Law. [31st August, 1848.] 1. When any person shall have been convicted of any treason, felony, or misdemeanor before any court of oyer and terminer or gaol delivery, or court of quarter sessions, the judge or commissioner or justices of the peace before whom the case shall have been tried may, in his or their discretion, reserve any question of law which shall have arisen on the trial for the consideration of the justices of either bench and barons of the exchequer, and thereupon shall have authority to respite execution of the judgment on such conviction, or postpone the judgment until such question shall have been considered and decided, as he or they may think fit; and in either case the court in its discretion shall commit the person convicted to prison, or shall take a recognizance of bail, with one or two sufficient sureties, and in such sum as the court shall think fit, conditioned to appear at such time or times as the court shall direct, and receive judgment, or to render himself in execution, as the case may be. 2. The judge or commissioner or court of quarter sessions shall thereupon state, in a case signed in the manner now usual, the question or questions of law which shall have been so reserved, with the special circumstances upon which the same shall have arisen; and such case shall be transmitted to the said justices and barons, and the said justices and barons shall thereupon have full power and authority to hear and finally determine the said question or questions, and thereupon to reverse, affirm, or amend any judgment which shall have been given on the indictment or inquisition on the trial whereof such question or questions have arisen, or to avoid such judgment, and to order an entry to be made on the record, that in the judgment of the said justices and barons the party convicted ought not to have been convicted, or to arrest the judgment, or order judgment to be given thereon at some other session of oyer and terminer or gaol delivery, or other sessions of the peace, if no judgment shall have been before that time given, as they shall be advised, or to make such other order as justice may require; and such judgment and order, if any, of the said justices and barons, shall be certified under the hand of the presiding chief justice or chief baron to the clerk of assize or his deputy, or to the clerk of the peace or his deputy, as the case may be, who shall enter the same on the original record in proper form; and a certificate of such entry, under the hand of the clerk of assize or his deputy, or the clerk of the peace or his deputy, as the case may be, in the form, as near as may be, or to the effect mentioned in the schedule annexed to this Act, with the necessary alterations to adapt it to the circumstances of the case, shall be delivered or transmitted by him to the sheriff or gaoler in whose custody the person convicted shall be ; and the said certificate shall be a sufficient warrant to such sheriff or gaoler, and all other persons, for the execution of the judgment, as the same shall be certified to have been affirmed or amended, and execution shall be thereupon executed on such judgment, and for the discharge of the person convicted from further imprisonment, if the judgment shall be reversed, avoided, or arrested, and in that case such sheriff or gaoler shall forthwith discharge him, and also the next court of oyer and terminer and gaol delivery or sessions of the peace shall vacate the recognizance of bail, if any; and if the court of oyer and terminer and gaol delivery or court of quarter sessions shall be directed to give judgment, the said court shall proceed to give judgment at the next session. 3. The jurisdiction and authorities by this Act given to the said justices of either bench and barons of the exchequer shall and may be exercised by the said justices and barous, or five of them at the least, of whom the lord chief justice of the Court of Queen's Bench, the lord chief justice of the Court of Common Pleas, and the lord chief baron of the Court of Exchequer, or one of such chiefs at least, shall be part, being met in the exchequer chamber or other convenient place; and the judg ment or judgments of the said justices and barons shall be delivered in open court, after hearing counsel or the parties, in case the prosecutor or the person convicted shall think it fit that the case shall be argued, in like manner as the judgnients of the superior courts of common law at Westminster or Dublin, as the case may be, are now delivered. 4. The said justices and barons, when a case has been reserved for their opinion, shall have power, if they think fit, to cause the case or certificate to be sent back for amendment, and thereupon the same shall be amended accordingly, and judgment shall be delivered after it shall have been amended. 5. Whenever any writ of error shall be brought upon any judgment on any indictment, information, presentment, or inquisition, in any criminal case, and the court of error shall reverse the judgment, it shall be competent for such court of error either to pronounce the proper judgment or to remit the record to the court below, in order that such court may pronounce the proper judgment upon such indictment, information, presentment, or inquisition. 6. Every person who shall forge or alter, or shall offer, utter, dispose of, or put off, knowing the same to be forged or altered, any certificate of or copy certified by a chief justice, or any certificate of or copy certified by a clerk of assize or his deputy, or the clerk of the peace or his deputy, as the case may be, with intent to cause any person to be discharged from custody, or otherwise prevent the due course of justice, shall be guilty of felony, and being convicted thereof shall be liable, at the discretion of the court, to be transported beyond the seas for any term Quorum of judges; their judgments to be delivered in open court. Case or certificate may be sent back for amendment. When judg versed on writ of error, record may be remitted to ment is re court below for judgment. Penalty for forgery. not exceeding ten years, or be imprisoned for any term not exceeding three years, with or without hard labour and solitary confinement, both or either, at the discretion of the court before which he shall be tried. SCHEDULE. on Whereas at the session of the peace for the county of on before held here name and others their fellows [or at the session of oyer and terminer and gaol delivery held for the county of before, among others, Sir A. B., Knight, one of the justices of the court of and the quorum commissioners, justices of oyer and terminer and gaol delivery], A.B., late of labourer, having been found guilty of felony, and judgment thereupon given, that [state the substance] the court before whom he was tried reserved a certain question of law for the consideration of the justices of either bench and the barons of the exchequer, and execution was thereupon respited in the meantime : This is to certify, that the said justices and barons having met in the exchequer chamber at Westminster [or Dublin, as the case may be] on the day of it was considered by the said justices and barons there that the judgment aforesaid should be annulled, and an entry made on the record that the said A.B. ought not, in the judgment of the said justices and barons, to have been convicted of the felony aforesaid; and you are therefore hereby required forthwith to discharge the said A.B. from your custody. Conditional pardons to be the substituted Persons under sentence or order of penal servitude, how to be dealt with. 16 & 17 VICT. c. 99. Secs. 1, 2, 3, and 4 are repealed by the 20 & 21 Vict. c. 3. 5. Whenever Her Majesty or the lord lieutenant, or other chief governor or governors of Ireland for the time being shall be pleased to extend mercy to any offender convicted of any offence for which he may be liable to the punishment of death, upon condition of his being kept to penal servitude for any term of years or for life, such intention of mercy shall have the same effect, and may be signified in the same manner, and all courts, justices, and others shall give effect thereto and to the condition of the pardon in like manner, as in the cases where Her Majesty, or the lord lieutenant, or other chief governor or governors of Ireland for the time is or are now pleased to extend mercy upon condition of transportation beyond seas, the order for the execution of such punishment as Her Majesty, or the lord lieutenant, or other chief governor or governors of Ireland for the time being may have made the condition of her, his, or their mercy being substituted for the order for transportation. 6. Every person who under this Act shall be sentenced or ordered to be kept in penal servitude may, during the term of the sentence or order, be confined in any such prison or place of confinement in any part of the United Kingdom, or in any river, port, or harbour of the United Kingdom, in which persons under sentence or order of transportation may now by law be confined, or in any other prison in the United Kingdom, or in any part of Her Majesty's dominions beyond the seas, or in any port or harbour thereof, as one of Her Majesty's principal secretaries of state may from time to time direct; and such person may during such term be kept to hard labour, and otherwise dealt with in all respects as persons sentenced to transportation may now by law be dealt with whilst so confined. convicts sen able for 7. All Acts and provisions of Acts now applicable with respect to All Acts, &c. persons under sentence or order of transportation shall, so far as may be concerning consistent with the express provisions of this Act, be construed to extend tenced to and be applicable to persons under any sentence or order of penal servi- transportation tude under this Act; and all the powers and provisions contained in the made applic Act of the fifth year of King George the Fourth, chapter eighty-four, the purposes authorizing the appointment by Her Majesty from time to time of places of this Act. of confinement as therein mentioned for male offenders under sentence or order of transportation, and authorizing Her Majesty to order male offenders convicted in Great Britain and under sentence or order of transportation to be kept to hard labour in any part of Her Majesty's dominions out of England, shall extend and be applicable to and for the appointment by Her Majesty of like places of confinement in any part of the United Kingdom for offenders (whether male or female) sentenced under this Act in any part of the United Kingdom, and to and for the ordering of such offenders to be kept to hard labour in any part of Her Majesty's dominions out of England; and all the provisions of the said Act concerning the removal to or from and confinement in the places of confinement in or out of England, appointed under the said Act, of the offenders therein mentioned, and all Acts and provisions of Acts now in force concerning or relating to the regulation and government of such places of confinement, and the custody, treatment, management, and control of or otherwise in relation to the offenders confined therein, shall, so far as the same may be consistent with the express provisions of the Act, extend and be applicable to and for the removal to and from and confinement in the places of confinement appointed under this Act, of the offenders sentenced in any part of the United Kingdom, and otherwise be applicable to and in respect of such places of confinement and the offenders to be confined therein. state to be 8. Provided always, that all the powers vested under this Act expressly Powers of or by reference to any other Act, in one of Her Majesty's principal secretary of secretaries of state, shall in relation to places of confinement in Ireland, exercised in or where such powers are otherwise to be exercised in Ireland, be Ireland by exercised by the lord lieutenant or other chief governor or governors of lord lieuIreland; and where the signature of one of Her Majesty's principal tenant. secretaries of state would be necessary in relation to the exercise of such powers, the signature of such lord lieutenant or chief governor or governors, or his or their chief secretary, shall be sufficient in the case of the exercise of such powers by such lord lieutenant or chief governor or governors. at large to 9. It shall be lawful for Her Majesty, by an order in writing under Her Majesty the hand and seal of one of Her Majesty's principal secretaries of state, may grant to grant to any convict now under sentence of transportation, or who licences to be may hereafter be sentenced to transportation, or to any punishment convicts under substituted for transportation by this Act, a licence to be at large in the sentence of United Kingdom and the Channel Islands, or in such part thereof re- transportaspectively as in such licence shall be expressed, during such portion of his tion. or her term of transportation or imprisonment, and upon such conditions in all respects as to Her Majesty shall seem fit; and it shall be lawful for Her Majesty to revoke or alter such licence by a like order at Her Majesty's pleasure. 10. So long as such licence shall continue in force and unrevoked Holder of licence not to be imprisoned, &c., by reason of his sentence. If licence revoked, the convict may be apprehended and committed to prison. Queen's prerogative. Discretion of courts as to alternative punishments not to be affected. Transportation. Sentence of such convict shall not be liable to be imprisoned or transported by reason of his or her sentence, but shall be allowed to go and remain at large according to the term of such licence. 11. If it shall please Her Majesty to revoke any such licence as aforesaid, it shall be lawful for one of Her Majesty's principal secretaries of state, by warrant under his hand and seal, to signify to any one of the police magistrates of the metropolis that such licence has been revoked, and to require such magistrate to issue his warrant under his hand and seal for the apprehension of the convict to whom such licence was granted, and such magistrate shall issue his warrant accordingly, and such warrant shall and may be executed by the constable to whom the same shall be delivered for that purpose in any part of the United Kingdom, or in the Isles of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, or Sark, and shall have the same force and effect in all the said places as if the same had been originally issued or subsequently endorsed by a justice of the peace or magistrate, or other lawful authority having jurisdiction in the place where the same shall be executed; and such convict when apprehended under such warrant shall be brought, as soon as he conveniently may be, before the magistrate by whom the said warrant shall have been issued, or some other magistrate of the same court, and such magistrate shall thereupon make out his warrant under his hand and seal for the recommitment of such convict [to the prison or place of confinement from which he was released by virtue of the said licence] (a) and such convict shall be so recommitted accordingly, and shall thereupon he remitted to his or her original sentence, and shall undergo the residue thereof as if no such licence had been granted. 12 is repealed by the 24 & 25 Vict. c. 95. 13. Nothing in this Act contained shall in any manner affect Her Majesty's royal prerogative of mercy, or any prerogative of mercy vested in the lord lieutenant or other chief governor or governors of Ireland for the time being. 14. Nothing herein contained shall interfere with or affect the authority or discretion of any court in respect of any punishment which such court may now award or pass on any offender other than transportation, but where such other punishment may be awarded at the discretion of the court, instead of transportation, or in addition thereto, the same may be awarded instead of or (as the case may be) in addition to the punishment substituted for transportation under this Act. 15. For the purposes of this Act, the term Transportation' shall include banishment beyond the seas. 20 & 21 VICT. c. 3. An Act to amend the Act of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Years of Her [26th June, 1857.] Sec. 1 repeals secs. 1, 2, 3, and 4 of the 16 & 17 Vict. c. 99. 2. After the commencement of this Act, no person shall be sentenced transportation to transportation; and any person who, if this Act and the said Act had abolished, and not been passed, might have been sentenced to transportation, shall, after sentence of the commencement of this Act, be liable to be sentenced to be kept in penal servitude for a term of the same duration as the term of transportation to which such person would have been liable if the said Act and penal servi tude substi tuted. (a) The part within brackets is repealed by the 37 & 38 Vict. c. 66, the Statute Law Revision Act, 1875. |