MISDEMEANOUR, the generic term used in English law to include all those offences against the criminal law which are not by common law or statute made treason or felony. In Russell on Crimes it is defined as a crime for which the law has not provided a particular name. The term misdemeanour includes not only all indictable offences below the degree of felony, some of them grave crimes, such as sedition, riot and perjury, but also the petty mis demeanours, which may be dealt with summarily by justices of the peace, and the most trifling breaches of local by-laws.
Numerous acts or omissions are punishable as "misdemeanours by interpretation." In other words, disobedience to the command or prohibition of a statute as a matter of public concern is indict able as a misdemeanour, even if the statute does not so describe it, unless the terms of the statute indicate that some other remedy alone is to be pursued. For some misdemeanours penal servitude may be imposed by statute. But as a rule the appropriate punish ment is by fine or imprisonment, without hard labour or both, at the discretion of the court unless limited by a particular statute.
The offender may also be put under recognizance to keep the peace and be of good behaviour.
At the present time the practical difference in English law be tween misdemeanour and felony lies in some matters of procedure, for instance, an arrest for misdemeanour may not be made with out judicial authority except under specific statutory authority. MISS, an Anglo-French term denoting originally a payment. The Rotuli Misae of John's reign, for example, record the king's current disbursements from day to day. In a more technical sense, the word is applied to the payments made by the county palatine of Chester to each new earl, and by the Welsh to each new lord of the Marches, or to a prince or king on his entry into the country. By transference of idea the word came early to mean the settlement of a dispute by arbitration or agreement, and in this sense is familiar in English history in the "Mise of Amiens," in January, and that of Lewes, in May