Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 08.pdf/443

 406

oner personally, and not merely against his trade or profession, a fair trial cannot be had on circuit, the Queen's Bench Division may, under the statute 19 Vict. c. 16, which was passed for the protection of William Palmer, the poisoner, in 1856, order the case to be removed to the Central Criminal Court: By a statute of 21 Henry VIII, the King was enabled to grant commission under the great seal to the Lord High Admiral and his depu ties to try certain, and, after 39 Geo. Ill, 137, all offenses committed on the high seas. This jurisdiction formerly exercised by the judge of the High Court of Admiralty is now practically vested in the Central Criminal Court and the judges of assize. In the case of foreign ships the Admiralty jurisdiction extends to all the territorial waters in Her Majesty's dominions, and includes the high seas to the distance of one marine league from low water mark. All British ships are within it, not only on the high seas but in the great foreign rivers as far as great ships go. Under the Merchant Shipping Act, 1854, sec. 267, the Admiralty jurisdiction extends to offenses committed by any master, seaman or appren tice who, at the time of, or within three months before the offense, was employed in any British ship ashore or afloat, out of Her Majesty's dominions.

cases to the assizes, and the statutes 5 and 6 Vict. ch. 38, excepted from their jurisdiction treason, murder, any capital felony, blasphe my, perjury, forgery, bigamy and many other offenses. Quarter sessions also hear appeals against very many summary statu tory convictions, have power to try minor offenses against the game-laws, and have also jurisdiction under the Debtor's Act, 1869. The qualification for a recordership is five years' standing at the Bar. The appointment is in the gift of the Crown, i.e., for this purpose, the Home Secretary. A recorder receives " such yearly salary, not exceeding that stated in the petition on which the grant of a separate Court of Quarter Sessions was made, as Her Majesty directs." The salaries of recorders are often very small (one of the largest, if not the largest, is enjoyed by Mr. Hopwood, Q.C., the present Recorder of Liverpool, who has;£iooo or £1500 a year — Mr. Hopwood is the chief apostle of the " short sentence" theory in England); but in spite of this fact these appointments are very much sought after, as they do not interfere with private practice, and usually lead to a higher judicial office. THE METROPOLITAN POLICE COURTS.

SESSIONS, QUARTER OR BOROUGH.

Quarter sessions are held four times a year at stated intervals by the whole body of the justices of the peace in a county, and by the recorder in a borough, to try certain indictable offenses and hear appeals from petty sessions. The jurisdiction of quarter sessions is civil and criminal, and arises from the commission of the peace itself, as settled by the statutes 18 Edw. Ill, ch. 2, and 34 Edw. Ill, ch. 1. Originally any felony or misdemeanor committed in the county in which the quarter sessions sat, fell within their jurisdiction. But it was the practice of the justices to remit the more serious

The history and literature of the Metro politan Police Courts — a remark which also applies, by the way, to the Old Bailey — have been admirably handled by Mr. Holloway in a recent number of the GREEN Bag, It may suffice therefore to state that besides the Mansion House and Guildhall in the city, there are a number of police courts in and about the metropolis, situated severally in Bow Street, Covent Garden, Vincent Square, Westminster, Great Marlborough Street, Clerkenwell, Dalston, Worship Street, Shoreditch, Kensington Lane, Lam beth, High Street, Marylebone, Blackman Street, Southwark, Thames Police Court at Stepney, Greenwich and Woolwich, Ham