A prisoner or defendant, charged with a felony or a misdemeanor, cannot have the assistance of counsel to examine the witnesses, and reserve to himself the right of addressing the jury. But if he conduct his defence himself, and any point of law arises which he professes himself unable to argue, the court will hear it argued by counsel on his behalf.
II. The quarter-sessions have an ori ginal jurisdiction in all matters required to be done by two or more justices, except in cases in which a power is given of ap pealing to the sessions.
III. Statutes which give summary ju risdiction to one or more magistrates, in most cases allow their decision to be brought before the sessions by way of appeal. Notice of appeal is generally re quired, and the court is precluded from entertaining any objections not specified in the notice. Subject to this restriction, the case is heard as if the question were raised for the first time. When questions of difficulty in matter of law present themselves upon the hearing of an appeal, the party against whom the sessions decide frequently applies for leave to state a special case for the decision of the Court of King's Bench : the majority of the justices may either grant or reject the ap plication; and if no special case be stated, the judgment of the quarter-sessions upon an appeal, or upon any other matter in which they proceed in a course prescribed by statute, different from the course of the common law, cannot be reviewed by any other court. Where the quarter sessions act as a court of criminal juris diction under the powers given by the commission, and according to the course of common law, a writ of error lies upon the judgment of the sessions to the court of King's Bench, and from that court to the Exchequer Chamber, and ultimately to the House of Lords.
IV. The quarter-sessions have juris diction over the appropriation of the county stock, an annual fund raised prin cipally by county rates. This part of the business of the court is usually disposed of before any other, and in practice the first day of the sessions is exclusively de voted to what is called " the county busi ness." V. In common with other courts of record, justices of the peace, whether as sembled in sessions, or sitting as indivi dual magistrates, may fine and imprison for contempt. No superior court can in
quire into the existence or non-existence of the fact which has been so treated as a contempt, or into the reasonableness of the fine imposed or imprisonment awarded. The court of quarter-sessions has no power to punish contempta or other of fences committed by one of their own body.
The justices being assembled in ses sions elect a chairman. The grand-jury being sworn, the royal proclamation against vice and immorality is read by the clerk of the peace. The chairman delivers his charge to the grand-jury, in which, as he is in possession of the depo sitions taken when the prisoners were committed, he calls their attention to such cases as appear to present any difficulty, and explains such points of law as are necessary for their guidance. The grand jury then retire to their room to receive such bills of indictment as may be brought before them.
When the business of the sessions is such as to be likely to occupy one court more than three days, it is usual to ap point a second chairman to preside in a separate court, under the authority of 59 Geo. III. c. 28. The bills of indictment for offences to be prosecuted at the ses sions being prepared, the witnesses in support of the charge are sworn in court. The bills of indictment on parchment, with the names of the witnesses indorsed thereon, are taken to the grand-jury. The form of proceeding before the grand-jury is explained under Jtray.
The bill, being indorsed by the grand jury, is brought into court by the grand jury, and delivered to the clerk of the peace, who reads the indorsement with the name of the prisoner and the nature of the charge. The prisoner is then ar reigned, and the trial proceeds in the same manner as at the assizes. If the prisoner be found not guilty, he is immediately set at liberty, unless there be some other matter before the court upon which he ought to be detained. If a verdict of guilty be returned, the sentence is pro nounced by the chairman, such sentence, where the amount of punishment attached to the offence is not fixed, being first de termined by the opinion of the majority of the justices present.