Summonses (followed by warrants if necessary), may be issued to compel the attendance of witnesses for either party.
The information or complaint is to be beard and determined by such number of justices as the particular act of parliament on which it is founded may provide, or when there is no such direction, before any one justice.
The room or place in which the proceeding takes place is to be deemed an open court, to which the public are to have free access ; and the defendant may make his full answer and defence, and have the witnesses examined and cross-examined by his counsel or attorney.
When the justices have heard what each party has to say, and the witnesses, they consider the whole matter and proceed to convict, or make an order on the defendant, or to dismiss the information or com plaint ; every conviction or order being drawn up in a prescribed form, and lodged with the clerk of the peace, and a certificate of every order of dismissal beimg also given to the defendant.
It is competent to the court to award costs, either against the defendant or against the complainant, as the case may be ; and for the amount of such costs, or of any pecuniary penalty, to issue a distress warrant. When there is no distress to be found, or when the statute simply.,directs imprisonment, a warrant of commitment issues. If the
parties are satisfied that a warrant of distress would be ruinous to the defendant, or that he has no goods, the court is authorised to issue a warrant of commitment in the first instance.
It must be observed that the statute 11 & 12 Viet. c. 43, does not extend to infoimations, complaints, or proceedings relating to the excise or customs, stamps, taxes, or post-office, nor to the removal of paupers, nor to complaints or orders with respect to lunatics or bastards, nor to proceedings relating to the labour of children in mills or factories.
For the method of proceeding with respect to such offences, re ference must be made to the statutes on the subject.
Tho principal authorities besides the statutes of the re:dm which have been consulted in the preparation of this article, are Hawkins's Pleas of the Crown ;' Blackstone s Commentaries,' by Kerr ; Russell, On Crimes and Misdemeanors Chitty's Criminal Law ;' Starkie's Treatises 'On the Law of Evidence and On Criminal Pleading; Dickenson's Guide to the Quarter-Sessions,' by Talfourd ; the various Iteports of the Criminal Law Commissioners ; and Paley 'On Con victions; by Macnamara.