Vidian was well known to be a good clerk, and a curious observer of what past here.''45 But at the latter part of Charles II.'s reign and in James II.'s reign the procedure by ex officio information was used for purely political objects. There were the cases of Barnardiston, of Pilkington, Shute and others," and other similar cases; and it was upon an information that the Seven Bishops were tried." Naturally the nature of the cases in which these ex officio informations had been used called attention to the question of their legality; and it was pointed out that, besides the political objection based upon the use of them by Charles II. and James II., the procedure upon them inflicted many hardships on accused persons. Thus, the accused person, even if he were acquitted, could get no costs against the King, "but after an expensive troublesome suit must sit down contented with his own loss, and be glad he escape so. 1950 He must plead instantly, "though he cannot possibly be prepared for it, having never before heard the information'a hardship which was also experienced in the case of the procedure by indictment. The Master of the Crown Office did not follow the advice given by Style, and take care to see that the plaintiffs had a probable cause of complaint before he allowed them to exhibit an information.53 This want of care in effect enabled "all private persons to prosecute criminally any person who had offended them by any act which could be treated as a misdemeanour without the sanc 52 451 Shower at p. 111. 46 (1684) 9 S. T. 1334. (1683) 9 S. T. 187. 48 See Winnington's argument in 5 Mod. at p. 461; 1 Shower at p. 110. 49 (1688) 12 S. T. 183. 505 Mod. at p. 461. 51 Ibid. 52"The Clerk of the Crown ought not to set his hand to an information without examining the cause for which it is preferred. For if there be not (at least in probabilities) good matter in law to ground an information upon, the party that doth prefer it is not to be so assisted and encouraged in it; for the law doth abhor vexatious and causeless suits," Practical Register (Ed. 1657), 187. tion of a grand jury." And, as might be expected, litigants abused this power to prosecute. An information was exhibited; the defendant pleaded to issue; and then the prosecution was abandoned. 55 It is not surprising, therefore, that a party in the House of Commons should wish to end this procedure." In several cases an attempt was made to prove all criminal informations were illegal.56 The arguments used were in effect an expansion of the argument used in Eliot's Case. Like that argument it rested partly on the same erroneous construction of Edward III.'s legislation, partly on a misreading of inconclusive dicta in the Year Books, partly on a wholly erroneous assertion of the absence of precedents, and partly on quite baseless gossip that Hale considered informations to be illegal. The fallacies of these contentions were exposed in Sir Bartholomew Shower's very able argument which he had intended to deliver in Berchet's Case.58 But, even without the help of that argument, Holt, C.J., found no difficulty in exposing them. "The matter," he said, "truly seems not of any great difficulty, for we shall hardly now impeach the judgment of all our predecessors; it would be a reflection on the whole bar. In Lamb and Wingfield's information there were learned counsel who would certainly have taken exceptions to the information had they thought it did not lie. My Lord Chief Justice Hale complained of the abuse of informations, but not that they were unlawful." He pointed out that the repeal of the Act of 1495 did not affect the question. "Notwithstanding the repeal of 11 Hen. VII., c. 3 by the 1 Hen. VIII., c. 6, yet afterwards the statute 32 Hen. VIII., c. 9. of Maintenance, supposes that informations still lay; and if it had been a new thing, that statute would have said, that there 59 Stephen. Hist. Crim. Law, i 296. See the King v. Abraham (1690), 1 Shower 49 56 Ibid.; Prynn's Case (1691), 5 Mod. 459; the King v. Berchet (1691) 1 Shower 106. 57 Above. 581 Shower 106. shall be an information for that crime, and not that it shall be punished by information, which supposes informations to lie A man may make a better argument against writs of enquiry and new trials than against informations." This was really decisive. It is true that a Mr. Earbery wished in 1737 to contend that informations were illegal. His undelivered argument is published in the State Trials; but it is little more than a reproduction of the arguments which had been rightly rejected in 1691. But, though the legality of criminal informations was established, the legislature did something to mitigate the hardships which resulted from those exhibited by the Master of the Crown Office at the suit of private persons. For the future no such informations were to be exhibited without an express order of the Court, and without taking a recognizance for effectual prosecution. If the information was not effectually prosecuted within a year, or a nolle prosequi was entered, or the defendant got a verdict, the Court could award the defendant costs. A check was thereby imposed upon the exhibition of baseless or frivolous informations; for, as Stephen has pointed out,62 a motion for an information made to the Court in substance operates, like a preliminary proceeding before the magistrates, to stop at the outset merely frivolous prosecutions. But, of course, much depends upon the manner in which the Court exercises its discretion; and on this matter its practice has fluctuated. At the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth centuries its practice had come to be somewhat lax. But in the latter part of the nineteenth century there was a return to the stricter practice followed at the beginning of the eighteenth century.5 That practice was in substance described by Blackstone, when he said that the objects 63 14. 5 William and Mary c. 18. 62 Hist. Crim. Law, i. 296. 64 See the Queen v. Labouchere (1884), 12 Q. B. D. at p. 324. 65 Ibid. at pp. 326-7. of this species of information were the suppression of "gross and notorious misdemeanours, riots, batteries, libels, and other immoralities of an atrocious kind, not peculiarly tending to disturb the Government (for those are left to the care of the Attorney-General), but which on account of their magnitude or pernicious example, deserve the most public animadversion." This sentence was quoted with approval in 1884," and represents the modern law. It is perhaps hardly necessary to add that, throughout its history, the difference between the procedure by way of presentment and indictment and by way of criminal information in the King's Bench was only a difference as to the method by which the proceedings were initiated. "The same notice was given, the same process was issued, the same pleas were allowed, the same trial by jury was had, the same judgment was given by the same Judges, as if the prosecution had originally been by indictment. ''s ce Comm. IV 304-5. 7 12 Q. B. D. at p. 330. es Bl. Comm. IV. 305. PSYCHOLOGY AND CRIME. BY HERBERT L. STEWART, M.A. (OxoN.) PH.D. Professor of Philosophy, Dalhousie University. In England last year the mutual recriminations between men of medicine and men of law presented an unedifying spectacle to the laity. The Ronald True case supplied indeed excellent copy for the newspapers, but its effect was not excellent in any other sense. Jokes from the Bench against Harley Street and jibes by alienists at "the mixture of ignorance and superstition in the Courts," left an uneasy feeling that the public was being fooled by one or other-and perhaps by both of two learned professions. Ronald True was convicted on unquestionable evidence of murder. The plea of insanity was put forward, but failed to impress the jury. On appeal the decision of the Court below was upheld, but on petition to the Home Secretary a Commission of specialists in mental disease was appointed to investigate the mental state of the condemned man. The Commissioners unanimously reported that True was beyond doubt insane, and the Home Office commuted the sentence to one of detention during the King's pleasure. There followed a tremendous racket in the press about the alleged "influences" which had secured this exceptional interference. And the situation was complicated by the fact that a pantry boy of apparently weak mind --who could pull no social wires-was, about the same time, convicted and hanged. I do not propose to discuss the scandalous insinuations put forward with such freedom against the impartiality of the Home Office. If the impartiality of a Judge had been impugned in the same way, it is probable that the offender would have been punished for contempt. But those who are so jealous for the honour of Courts had no hesitation in suggesting to the |