earlier period than in the District in which the prisoner is in custody; but all additional expense thereby caused to the prisoner in procuring the attendance of witnesses shall be paid by the Crown.

Sub-sections 2 and 3 provide for the proceedings and transmission of indictment, and other papers upon such order.

JURISDICTION OF COURTS, ETC.

Sec. 12.-No Court of General or Quarter Sessions or Recorder's Court, nor any Court but a Superior Court having criminal jurisdiction shall have power to try any treason, or any felony punishable with death, or any libel.

So that, in Canada, the Courts of Quarter Sessions have jurisdiction in all cases, except in :

(1.) Treason: Sec. 12, Procedure Act of 1869, 31 Vic. ch. 69. (2.) Murder: 32-33 Vic., ch. 20, sec. 1. (3.) Administering poison or wounding with intent to murder 32-33 Vic., ch. 20, sec. 10. (4.) Rape: 32-33 Vic., ch. 20, sec. 49, as amended by 36 Vic., ch. 50. (5.) Carnally knowing a girl under ten years of age: 32-33 Vic., ch. 20, sec. 51. (6.) Libel: sec. 12, Proced. Act of 1869. (7.) Any of the misdemeanors provided for in sections 76 to 91, both inclusive, of the Larceny Act: 32-33 Vic., ch. 21, sec. 92. (8.) Any of the felonies provided for by sections 27, 28 and 39, of the Act respecting offences against the person : 32-33 Vic., ch. 20, sec. 48. (9.) Perjury: By common law; Dickinson's Quarter Sessions, 158. (10.) Subornation of perjury: By common law;

Dickinson's Quarter Sessions, 158. (11.) Forgery: By common law, loc. cit. (12.) Counterfeiting coin, which was treason by different statutes: 1 East, P. C. 158; 5 Burn's Justice, 1022; 2 Hale, 44, 45; 25 Edw. III., ch. 2, sec. 7, and 31 Vic., ch. 69, sec. 7. (13.) Bribery, personation or other corrupt practices in elections for the Dominion Parliament: 37 Vic., ch. 9, sec. 118. This clause is so worded, that it may, perhaps, be held to extend to elections for the local legislatures and the municipal elections. (14.) The offences punishable with death, provided for by "An Act to protect the inhabitants of Canada against lawless aggressions from subjects of foreign countries at peace with Her Majesty": 31 Vic., ch. 14, sec. 4; Proced. Act of 1869, sec. 12.

The following passage from Archbold's Quarter Sessions, p. 5, on the jurisdiction of the Courts of Quarter Sessions, explains fully what our law is on the subject, independently of our statutory enactments. It will be seen, in fine, that such enactments as the one contained in sec. 2, 31 Vic., ch. 15 of our statutes, do not take away the jurisdiction of the Court of Quarter Sessions.

"Some doubts were formerly entertained as to the construction that ought to be given to the words 'Felonies' and 'Trespasses' in the above commission; some held that they included only such felonies and misdemeanors against the peace, of which cognizance was given to justices of the peace by the express words of a statute or statutes; others held that as the commission was created by statute, namely, in pursuance of

Stat. 34 Ed. III., ch. 1, these words must be deemed to include only such offences as were felonies and trespasses at the time of the passing of the Act,and that if justices have jurisdiction of any offence created since, it must be given to them by the express words of the statute creating the offence. But these constructions seem very unsatisfactory, if, according to the first of them, we are to hold that the Courts of Quarter Sessions are to exercise jurisdiction only in those cases where cognizance of an offence is specially given them by some statute, the court will have cognizance of very few offences indeed, and no jurisdiction in most of the cases in which we see them continually exercise it; and if, according to the second construction, we confine their authority under the commission to offences which were felonies and trespasses at the time of the passing the Statute 34 Ed. III., ch. 1, then we shall have the absurdity of a commission being granted in the nineteenth century to justices giving them authority to hear and determine such offences only as were felonies and trespasses in the year 1360. There is nothing in the Act itself or the commission, which at all obliges us to give them so narrow a construction; and in modern times the general opinion of the profession, sanctioned by cases which shall presently be mentioned, is, that with the exception of perjury at common law and forgery, the Court of Quarter Sessions has jurisdiction by virtue of the commission of all felonies whatsoever, murder included, though not specially named, and of all indictable misdemeanors, whether created before or after the date of the ommission. In fact, the only restriction upon their jurisdiction up to the time of the

passing of the 5 & 6 Vic., ch. 38 (30th June, 1842), hereafter mentioned, appears to have been the proviso contained in the commission of the peace; but if they thought fit, even in capital cases, to proceed to judgment, such judgment would have been valid until reversed for real error in the judgment, or for substantial defect appearing on the face of the record. As to the word 'trespasses,' the word used, when the commissions were in Latin, was 'transgressiones,' which was a word of very general meaning, including all the inferior offences under felony, and also those injuries for which the modern action of trespass now lies; it was usually rendered into law French, by the word 'trespass,' and that is the word used in the original French of the above stat. of Ed. III., and it is there rendered into English by the word' trespasses.' In perjury at common law, it is indeed settled, that an indictment will not lie for it in a Court of Quarter Sessions; but perjury under the statute 5 Eliz., ch. 9, is within the jurisdiction of the sessions, by the express words of the Act. Forgery at common law also is not cognizable by the Sessions; nor is forgery by statute, as we shall see presently, when we come to consider the jurisdiction of the sessions by statute. Where an indictment for soliciting a servant to steal the goods of his master was removed into the Court of King's Bench by writ of error, it was argued that the facts charged in the indictment did not amount to an offence at common law, or if they did, still it was not an offence indictable at Sessions, as it was no breach of the peace.

As to the first point, the Court held clearly that the facts stated did amount to an indictable offence; as to

Stat. 34 Ed. III., ch. 1, these words must be deemed to include only such offences as were felonies and trespasses at the time of the passing of the Act,and that if justices have jurisdiction of any offence created since, it must be given to them by the express words of the statute creating the offence. But these constructions seem very unsatisfactory, if, according to the first of them, we are to hold that the Courts of Quarter Sessions are to exercise jurisdiction only in those cases where cognizance of an offence is specially given them by some statute, the court will have cognizance of very few offences indeed, and no jurisdiction in most of the cases in which we see them continually exercise it; and if, according to the second construction, we confine their authority under the commission to offences which were felonies and trespasses at the time of the passing the Statute 34 Ed. III., ch. 1, then we shall have the absurdity of a commission being granted in the nineteenth century to justices giving them authority to hear and determine such offences only as were felonies and trespasses in the year 1360. There is nothing in the Act itself or the commission, which at all obliges us to give them so narrow a construction; and in modern times the general opinion of the profession, sanctioned by cases which shall presently be mentioned, is, that with the exception of perjury at common law and forgery, the Court of Quarter Sessions has jurisdiction by virtue of the commission of all felonies whatsoever, murder included, though not specially named, and of all indictable misdemeanors, whether created before or after the date of the ommission. In fact, the only restriction upon their jurisdiction up to the time of the