Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (4th ed, 1770, vol IV).djvu/395

Ch. 30, WRONGS. 383 CHAPTER THE THIRTIETH.

OF REVERSAL OF JUDGMENT.

WE are next to confider how judgments, with their feveral connected confequences, of attainder, forfeiture, and corruption of blood, may be fet afide. There are two ways of doing this; either by falfifying or reverfing the judgment, or elfe by reprieve or pardon.

A JUDGMENT may be falfified, reverfed, or voided, in the firft place, without a writ of error, for matters foreign to or dehors the record, that is, not apparent upon the face of it; fo that they cannot be affigned for error in the fuperior court, which can only judge from what appears in the record itfelf: and therefore, if the whole record be not certified, or not truly certified, by the inferior court, the party injured thereby (in both civil and criminal cafes) may allege a diminution of the record, and caufe it to be rectified. Thus, if any judgment whatever be given by perfons, who had no good commiffion to proceed againft the perfon condemned, it is void; and may be falfified by fhewing the fpecial matter, without writ of error. As, where a commifiion iffues to A and B, and twelve others, or any two of them, of which A or B fhall be one, to take and try indidiments; and any of the other twelve proceed without the Rh