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THE

Magisterial Synopsis:

COMPRISING

SUMMARY CONVICTIONS,

THE OFFENCES, PENALTIES, &c. AND THE STAGES OF PROCEDURE,
TABULARLY ARRANGED;

INDICTABLE OFFENCES,

WHERE EACH IS TRIABLE, AS TO BAIL, COSTS, &c.;

AND ALL OTHER

PROCEEDINGS BEFÖRE JUSTICES OUT OF SESSIONS,

ADAPTED THROUGHOUT

TO THE LAW AS CONSOLIDATED AND ENACTED

BY

The Administration of Justice (or Jervis's) Acts,
11 & 12 VICT. CC. 42, 43, 44,

WITH

FORMS, COPIOUS NOTES, AND PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS,

ETC., ETC., ETC.

BY

GEORGE C. OKE,

ASSISTANT CLERK TO THE NEWMARKET BENCHES OF JUSTICES

CAMBRIDGESHIRE AND SUFfolk.

SECOND EDITION,

ENLARGED AND IMPROVED.

A

LONDON:

HENRY BUTTERWORTH, 7, FLEET STREET,
Law Bookseller and Publisher.

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PREFACE

TO THE SECOND EDITION.

NEARLY the whole of a large impression of the first edition of this Work having been disposed of in six months, and extensive alterations and improvements having been made in that branch of the Law to which it is devoted by the Administration of Justice (or Jervis's) Acts, 11 & 12 Vict, cc. 42, 43 and 44, which came into operation on the 2nd of October last, an entire new edition, adapted to the altered state of the Law, embracing the above Statutes, and excluding a variety of matter that has been superseded, has been called for by the Magistracy and the Legal Profession.

The present edition has been enlarged in some particulars by the addition of many new Titles, and condensed and simplified in others, in conformity with the new Law. Some valuable suggestions, with which I have been favoured by the Magistracy, have been adopted, and a more convenient arrangement of the three divisions of the contents has been made, with a view to increase the utility of the Work, the whole being brought down to the close of the last Session of Parliament.

The Work is still divided into three parts:

Part I. relating to Summary Convictions;
II. to Indictable Offences;

and

III. to other Proceedings before Justices in Special

and Petty Sessions.

Part I. is divided into three Chapters: Chap. I. is a Summary of the Practice from the laying the Information to the Appeal against the Conviction, subdivided into practical Sections, in the order in which the stages of the practice occur, containing all the necessary Forms, many of them not being given in the 11 & 12 Vict. c. 43; Chap. II. forms a Synopsis of Offences within the provisions of the 11 & 12 Vict. c. 43, in which reference is also made to the particular Form in Chap. I. to be used in enforcing the Conviction, &c.; Chap. III. comprises Offences exempted, and to which, according to the opinion of many writers, that statute does not apply (a).

Part II. is divided into two Chapters: Chap. I. is a Summary of the Practice previous to, and on the preliminary Examination in Indictable Offences, in practical divisions, and

(a) Since this portion of the Work has passed through the press, I think it right to mention that Mr. Archbold has, in a second edition of Jervis's Acts, given his opinion as to the applicability of the 11 & 12 Vict. c. 43, to complaints under the Servants Act, 4 Geo. 4, c. 34, and which I have placed (pp. 262, 264) with other offences in this Chapter, as they appeared, from various other previously expressed opinions, not to come within the operation of the first mentioned act. Mr. A. is of opinion (note, p. 137 of Mr. A.'s work), that, although the statute 4 Geo. 4, c. 34, s. 3, does not expressly make mention of any previous conviction or order before the issue of a warrant of distress or commitment, as it has been decided that there must be a conviction or order in this class of cases, they are within the 11 & 12 Vict. c. 43. The cases cited are, Lindsay v. Leigh, 17 Law J. 50m; 12 J. P. 151; and Re Hammond, 2 New Sess. Ca. 397. In vol. 12 of the "Justice of the Peace," pp. 636, 653, 667, an opinion in accordance with my own views on the subject is given, founded upon the words of the statute 4 Geo. 4, c. 34, which requires neither a conviction nor an order to be drawn up (vide p. 254), and to such cases only does the 11 & 12 Vict. c. 43, seem to apply (see sect. 1).

If Mr. Archbold's is the correct view, the Offences 1-8, pp. 262, 264, should have been placed in Chap. II. of Part I., as "Offences within the provisions of 11 & 12 Vict. c. 43," and costs could be ordered in each of them; but the divided opinion on the question leaves it for the present in doubt. The law of master and servant is in a most unsatisfactory state, independently of these doubts on the mode of proceeding before justices, and it is hoped that the suggestions at 12 J. P. 705, for its amendment, will receive the early attention of the legislature.

An opinion on other matters (treated of in Part III.) within the operation of the 11 & 12 Vict. c. 43, is also given by Mr. Archbold, which I have taken the liberty to refer to in corroboration of my own as the sheets were being corrected.

in the order of time, with all the Forms; and Chap. II. is a Synopsis of Indictable Offences, showing at a view where each is to be tried, the Practice as to Bail, the Costs of Prosecution, &c.

Part III. is divided into two Chapters: Chap. I. gives the Practice in Special Sessions, and Chap. II. that in Petty Sessions, or by one Justice, to which are added Forms applicable to each.

Thus forming an entire Compendium of the Duties of Magistrates out of Sessions, the Work being adapted throughout to the altered state of the Law. I have endeavoured to make the Work still more practically useful than in the former edition, and have devoted much care and labour to its revision and adaptation to the alterations in the Law, and to the preparation of a full Table of Contents, and a copious Index, in order to sustain, if not to enhance, the character given of the first edition, by every reviewer who has noticed it, of its being a Work of "great practical use" and "facility of reference." G. C. O.

Newmarket, December, 1848.

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