Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 10.djvu/818

 806 FEDERAL REPORTER. �In State v. James, 80 N. C. 370, it is decided that a verbal order of a justice of the peace sending a prisoner to jail, whetlier made before or after the examination on a warrant, is not a suffi- cient authority to the ofSeer to whom such order is given. If a defendant, on a continuance, fails to give the bond required, then he may be eommitted to prison for such failure, but the examination must be had in a very short time, unless postponed at the request of the prisoner. I feel sure that a magistrate bas no right to commit to prison a defendant before time for examination, when the defend- ant is ready to give bail in «a bailable case, and when no sufficient cause of commitment judicially appears, and when the law requires every mittimus to show on its face a good cause of commitment. �If, thea, a defendant, on an examination before a justice of the peace on a charge of crime, is entitled to have time to make preparation for a full and fair investigation, and the right to give bail for an ap- pearance at a future day, the bail-bond thus given must be valid and enforceable, if there should not be a compliance with the condition of Buch bond. I deem it proper to have considered thus far some of the powers andduties of justices of the peace in criminal matters in this state, as commissioners are required to exercise many of these pow- ers in performing their duties in enforcing the criminal laws of the United States, and such questions have been brought to my attention by the marshal and commissioners in the course of officiai duty. �United States commissioners are not conservators of the peace and have no control of police regulations in their districts except where express powers are conferred by a statute of the United States. Their powers and duties in criminal matters are not, therefore, as extensive as those of justices of the peace, but are confined to those which they must necessarily exercise as examining and committing magistrates in enforcing the criminal laws of the United States, and within this limit of jurisdiction they must conform, as near as may be, to the forms and modes of procedure required by law of justices of the peace. They are not prosecuting officers, but exercise im- portant judicial functions in passing upon questions involving the rights of the government and the libeity of the citizen. The govern- ment bas appointed proper ministerial officers, and imposed upon them the duties of making diligent inquiry as to violations of law and bringing oiienders to justice. �I have heretofore given instructions to commissioners upon this subject by rules of court, and I will now only incidentally refer to matters embraced in such instructions. Some of the powers ami ��� �