Again, the term " pr.eleunire" was originally applied to offences which consisted in the Introduction of any foreign jurbaliction, more especially the asithority of the see of Rome, into the kingdom, but has eubsospaently, to use the language of Mr. Serjeant Dawkins e Pleas of the Crown,' b. 1, c. 19), " been applied to other heinous crimes, for the meat part having relation to the offences originally coming under the notion of prietnunire, but in some instances none at all." The Habeas Corpus Act (31 Car. II. c. 12) contains an instance of the latter mode of application. By the 12th section of that Act it is made a praimunire to send any inhabitant of England, Wales, or the town of Berwiek-upomTweed, a prisoner beyond the scan in defiance of its provisions to the contrary.
The term " prannunire" was adopted from the first word of the original writ on which the subsequent proceedings were founded : " Praansinire (for prcenioner) facies A. B. quod sit coram nobis," &c. [Pniemuainr..] The Criminal Law Commissioners proposed to abolish priemunires as a class of crimes. (Seventh Report) The crime of felony had its origin in very remote times, and was founded upon feudal principles. Its incidents were not formerly, as they are now, of a mere arbitrary nature, peremptorily annexed to certain criminal acts without reference to rule or principle. The crime originally consisted in a violation of the feudal contract by tho mis conduct of the lord 'or of the tenant ; and where committed by tho tenant, occasioned as a consequence the forfeiture of his fend to the lord. (4 Black. Cumin.; p. 96; 4th and 7th Repts. of Cries. Law Comnirs.') Those crimes, therefore, which induced such forfeiture, and, by a small deflection from the original sense, those which induced the forfeiture goods also, were denominated felonies; and afterwards, by long use the term fthmy came to signify the actual crime itself, and not the penal consequence. "So that upon the whole," to use the words of Mr. Justice Blackstone (4 Comm.; p.95), "the only adequate definition of felony seems to be that which is before laid down, namely, an offence which occasions a total forfeiture of either lands or goods, or both, at the common law; and to which capital or other punishment may be sup emddecl according to the degree of guilt." Where tho punishment is leas than capital, the offender loses his goods only ; -where capital, his lands as well as his goods. The crimes which occa sioned such forfeiture were originally, with one or two exceptions, capital ; but at the present day there are offences for which no greater punishment can be inflicted than imprisonment for a term not exceed ing three years, which are felonies, and consequently occasion the forfeiture of all the offender's goods and chattels]; whilst other crimes, for which the punishment may be as high as penal servitude, are mis demeanors only, and work no forfeiture. It is apparent from this that the present law is very defective, and that the amount of punishment is no longer the test of distinction between a felony and misdemeanor. It was proposed by the Criminal Law Commissioners (' Seventh Rep.' p. 16) to remedy this by making the liability to transportation the test of distinction, that is, that all offences liable to a less punishment than transportation should bo misdemeanors only.
The term" Misdemeanor" is used in the English system of Criminal Law to denote such indictable offences are of a lower degrco than felony.
We shall now point out the *peculiarities of punishment which distinguish ono class of crimes from another at the present day. In order to this, the penal consequences incident to the whole body of offences constituting each class will be first stated, and then in what respects those consequences differ from each other. The classes will be taken in the ammo order as above.
Treamns.—Treasons, with one exception mentioned below, are capital; but whether capital or not, the offender, upon conviction, forfeits to the crown the personal estate of every description, whether in action or possession, or settled by way of trust, which the offender has otherwise than as an executor (` Cro. Car.' 566), or a trustee, or a mortgagee (13 & 14 Viet. e. 60.) at the time of conviction ; and in tho case of capital treasons, upon attainder by judgment of death or out lawry, the blood of the offender is corrupted, but not so as to obstruct descents to such offender's posterity, when they are obliged to derive a title through such offender to a remoter ancestor (3 & 4 Will. IV. c. 105, a. 10), and all the freehold lands and tenements of inheritance in fee-simple or fee-tail, and all other hereditaments (except copyholds), whether in possession, reversion, or remainder; and all the rights of entry on freehold Lands and tenements which the offender has (other wise than as a trustee or mortgagee, at the time of the offence com mitted or at any time afterwards), and also the profits of all freehold lands and tenements which the offender has in his or her own right for life. so long as such interest ahall subsist, and, if the offender be a male, his wife's dower, are forfeited to the crown (4 Black. ' Comm.; 351; 26 Hen. VIII. c. 13, s. 5; 33 Hen. VIII. c. 20, s. 2; and 5 & 6 Edw. VI. c. 11, as. 9 & 13); and all the copyhold estates belonging to the offender at the time of the offence committed are forfeited to the lord of the manor (' Corn. Dig.' Copyhold (\I) I.). The above penal consequences ere general to n11 capital treaseua, unless, as is sometimes the case, the act which creates the particular treason expressly exempla from some of them. The before-mentioned non-capital treason renders the party guilty of it liable to these only of the above consequences which accrue upon conviction, since the others follow only upon the party's being attainted, that is, sentenced to death or outlawed, which latter, in the case of capital treasons and felonies, is of the same effect as being /sentenced to death. The existence of this non-capital treason would appear to be the result of inadvertence. By the Forgery Con solidation Act (11 Geo. IV. & 1 Will. IV. c. 66) it was declared to be treason and punishable with death to forge the great and other royal seals and the sign manual. By the 2 & 3 Will. IV. c. 123, the punish ment of death was repealed for forgery in all but the two cases of wills and powers of attorney to transfer stock (it has been since taken away in these cases also by the 7 Will. IV. & 1 Vict. c. 84); but the quality of the offences enumerated in thej Forgery Consolidation Act was left without alteration ; so that to forge the royal seals, &c, would appear to be still treason, though no longer a capital offence.