equally distant murmur of the sea; you watch her I thus stood watching a big steamer making her way-not ghostily, but very noisily, like a stylish lady marching majestically on, in considerable hurry, but having no small opinion of herself-up the river towards Liverpool. With her long high hulk, far out of the water, her enormous paddle-wheels, and her low masts, all dressed with flags, she made a sufficiently prominent object between me and the sun to catch the notice even of a lazy landlubber, to whose unpractised eye everything from a lighter to a man-of-war was a 'ship,' and nothing more. BROTHER JONATHAN'S PET. WHO, living within reach of that big town, the inhabitants of which you may hear speaking condescendingly | going to. of London as 'our southern metropolis,' does not know the long low line of the Mersey shore, ending, or rather beginning, in the interminable sandy flats of Waterloo ?-Waterloo, called by courtesy a sea-bathing place; and so it might be, for an infantile population, which didn't object to salt water, or to scudding a mile across wet sands to get to it, and another to get overhead in it. For all that, it is not a bad place, nor an ugly place, especially to run down to by rail, for a smell of the sea,' half a mile off. And if, by the luckiest chance, you happen to catch the tide at highwater-as I did the other day-and, for a few minutes, the leagues of sand become sea, and the sea becomes a flood of silver, and gold, and diamonds under the paly sunshine of a December afternoon-why, then, Waterloo is not far from being pretty. . Ay, even to an eye that hates flatness as it hateswhat you please; and would object to paradise itself, unless satisfied that it was not a level country. But, viewed with a pardoning pity, there is something tolerable, and even interesting in the determined flatness of this region-its leagues upon leagues of satisfied monotony-sea, sky, sand-hills-sand-hills, sea, and sky, in everlasting repetition; no foreground, no distance, no horizon, making you feel something like the frog in the fairy tale-'he gaed on, and he gaed on, and he gaed on, till he cam to the well o' the warld's end.' You have a conviction that you might find the 'well o' the warld's end' somewhere beyond -if there be a beyond to the sand-hills of Waterloo. One variety it has, something alive and stirring or the great expanse of uniformity. Generally, there is a dreary look about ships out on the sea; not passing and repassing busily, as at or near a seaport town, but peered at telescopically from an idle shore. They glide so ghostly, silently, solitarily, like unquiet souls adrift upon space-unknown dots upon the unknown sea, watched for a little and speculated upon, then dropping down over the horizon, and vanishing-you know not where. But at Waterloo, the ships are not spectres. You have there, softened into picturesque form, the full benefit of the Mersey commerce, the flocks' of sailing-vessels outward or homeward bound, the long fairy-like threads of smoke cast across the horizon by innumerable passenger steam-boats; and when some fine liner' passes up or down Channel, she sometimes comes near enough for you to hear the distant whir-whir of her machinery, above the almost And so, when finally she steamed out of sight into that misty forest of masts to which the Mersey narrows, above-or, qy., below?-Bootle, and I had taken my saunter over the sand-hills-the particulars of which do not matter to the present article-the big steamer still lingered sufficiently in my mind for me to make a careless remark to a non-landlubber concerning her. Attention was roused immediately. "A"big" steamer. Very big, was she? Paddles or screw?' With a great effort of nautical memory, I replied decisively, 'Paddles.' 'Long hulk? High out of water?' 'Very high-in fact, with her low masts, I might almost say clumsy.' 6 Clumsy!' half-pitying. Why, she was the Adriatic. seen the Adriatic!' Ah, you know nothing! I humbly suggested that this fact, apparently so overwhelming, and implying so great a privilege, did not impart any information to my benighted self; that except certain vague reminiscences of the doge, combined with that ever-memorable riddle of, 'What sea would you choose for your bed-chamber?' the Adriatic conveyed to me no definite idea at all, except a ship's name. 'Not know the Adriatic, the great American liner, built to sail against our Persia!-hitherto the biggest steamer afloat except the Leviathan.' ('Which isn't afloat yet,' I suggested.) 'Why, the Adriatic is Brother Jonathan's last pet, meant to beat us all hollow-got up regardless of expense-fitted up like a palace; and her engines-they boast that her engines are the grandest ever manufactured-I'd like to have a look at them!' Here the professional mind became absorbed, at times giving vent to its ecstatic meditations thus: Only think, 2800 horse-power!-so I've heard. What cylinders!-what boilers! Oh to see her paddles working!' (I hinted I had heard them, and they made a tolerable noise.) 'Of course, they did. What a sight she must have been coming up the river! I wish I had run down to the landing-stage-thousands did it was crammed with people, watching her. She has been expected ever since spring; and this is her first voyage. You are sure you saw her?' Yes; and I began to plume myself on the fact accordingly. 'She hasn't beat us yet, though; she was a day or two overdue-perhaps her engines were too new to work. She and the Persia will have a nice race for it back again, for they both sail for New York next week. Won't the captains clap on steam and go-ahead, rather! I wonder which will beat!' Here the British mind became excited and enthusiastic. It certainly was exciting to think of, this racing on a grand scale, with iron steeds of from 2000 to 2000 horse-power, and the race-course the wide Atlantic. As for the stakes-a few hundred lives, more or less, to say nothing of money and propertythese seemed supernumerary trifles. 'I should like to go aboard of her, and get a look at her engines,' was the prevailing sentiment of the next day or two, till it came at last―triumphant possibility! -to, 'Should you like to go aboard of her?' Could a British woman resist such an invitation, following that of the Yankee captain to an enlightened British public?-which an enlightened British public had taken advantage of, and, in the most amiable manner, had gone by thousands, in river-steamers and row-boats, and all sorts of crafts, to examine our beautiful enemy, as she lay off Rock Ferry, alongside her rival the Persia, during two December days. You would not have thought it was December, though, as we paced up and down the landing-stages, that curious trysting-place, whence, as has been proved from accurate data, 40,000 people cross the Mersey every day, and the whole population of Liverpool cross in the course of a week. The new landingstage, especially, forms an admirable promenade of a thousand yards long, with one trifling objection-the bridges which connect it with the quay are so short, that at low-water they slope in an angle of 45 degrees, down which an adventurous truck sometimes darts, to everybody's imminent danger. Once a commercial traveller's gig performed that feat with such an impetus, that it dashed right across the landing-stage, and popped into the river; whence it had to be fished out again, some wit recommending the owner to bait with a horse.' To-day, being nearly high-water, no such accident diverted the incessantly changing swarm of all sorts of people which makes a Liverpool crowd a perpetual study-landsmen and seamen, big country farmers, men on 'Change, thin wiry Yankees, semi-gentlemanly bearded Jews, foreign sailors and sea-captains, with olive faces and gold ear-rings; women, too, of all sorts-from the handsome, overdressed 'Lancashire witches,' to the grimy old Irishwoman, a pipe in her mouth, and a load of herrings on her head, perfuming her whole route as she passes. A selection from these filled the Rock-Ferry boat, as we slowly steamed away up the river to the immortal tune of-may our transatlantic brethren appreciate the compliment!Bobbing around-around. It was an exquisite afternoon-full of that quiet all-permeating sunshine which, when you do get it, makes a December day the pleasantest of any for sight-seeing. The air was so clear, you could have counted every window in the houses along either shore ; and the vessels, as we passed them by, seemed to stand up spar by spar, and rope by rope, cut out sharply against the cloudless sky. They seemed to me all alike; but some of our party talked learnedly of schooner-rigged,' 'brig-rigged,' 'clippers,' &c.; seemed to have a personal acquaintance with every ship on the river: fought energetically over the sailing merits of the James Baines and the Maggie-something or other-and what had been the very shortest passage ever made between here and Australia. They pointed out, a short distance astern, a vessel-small enough she seemed with her decks crowded, and lines of cabbages hanging to her lower rigging, being towed out by one of those sturdy little steam-tugs. 'She's an emigrant-ship, bound for Australia.' "They'll be singing Cheer, Boys, Cheer,' said one, who knew all about it-at least for the first hour or two. Poor fellows! they'll need to sing it pretty often between Liverpool and Melbourne.' And just then the echo of a faint dreary 'Hurrah!' | came over the water, as if the poor fellows were trying hard to bid anybody and everybody a jolly good-bye, and start with a good grace for the 'new and happy land.' Of course, the earth must be covered and civilised; and those who find Europe too full to hold them, are right to go forth into a new land, to replenish and subdue it; but to any with strong home-instincts, who feel that if native land held not a tie, they should still cling to the mere sod, to these-an emigrant-ship is one of the very saddest sights in the whole world: sadder far than one which met us shortly--a boat, pulled by ten boys in regulation nautical costume. 'Ah, that's the Akbar's boat, and there she is lying just off the quarantine station. Look at those lads now; how cheerily they pull, and what nice faces they have! You would never think they were all criminals.' No. Certainly not. Round, rosy, honest, happy faces as ever I beheld! And yet these were, every one of them, belonging to what is called 'the criminal class,' vagabonds, if not thieves, who, coming under the lash of the law, had been sent, not to prison, where reformation would have been hopeless, but to this marine reformatory, where they are kept in safe custody, educated, taught a trade, or made sailors of. I do not know enough of this reformatory to write about it; but I know the sight of these ten applefaced lads, pulling away merrily through the salt water, instead of skulking in a jail-yard-of the Akbar, rocking lazily, with long indefinite lines of boys' shirts flapping over her clean decks and ornamenting her useless rigging, instead of the stern stone-walls of your model prison or penitentiary—is a remembrance hopeful and pleasant to any one who thinks at all of that great question, to which no legislation has yet found an answer: What shall we do with our criminal classes?' And now we came in sight of 'Jonathan's Pet'that is, we had been in sight for ever so long, but my inexperienced eye had never detected her, or distinguished her from half-a-dozen other 'big ships.' 'Don't you see her? just athwart that old-fashioned, clumsy-built trader-wonderful craft that! Would do actually sixteen knots in sixteen hours! ha!'-and modern superiority laughed heartily at the respectable 'slow coach' that no doubt was thought an astonishing ship in her day. That's the Persia to leeward, and there's the Adriatic. How small she looks!' This certainly was the first impression she gave. To hear afterwards of her real proportions-354 feet in length, 32 feet broad, and 50 feet in depth, seemed perfectly ridiculous. No doubt it is her exquisite symmetry that takes from the sense of size, and makes her huge bulk look as graceful as a yacht. Seen foreshortened, sitting on the water as lightly, as airily as a swan on a stream, the slight clumsiness of build which struck me when I saw her longitudinally, steaming up the river, was not visible at all. There are few things, of man's handiwork, more CHAMBERS'S JOURNAL. beautiful than a ship afloat-even a steamer; and probably the Adriatic is one of the finest specimens of ship-building extant. The eye perfectly revels in her harmonious curves; not a line, from stem to stern, in which Hogarth's 'line of beauty and grace' does not soothe and fascinate one's organ of form. She is said to have been built after quite a new model, of which the only other specimen is the United States steam-frigate Niagara-her shape being studiously adapted to the course of the water when cleft by, the ship's prow. Her chief peculiarity is the exceeding delicacy with which she tapers up to this prow, which, from her very small bowsprit, appears almost like a sharp point. As one of our party said: 'She looks as if after every voyage she would have to sharpen her nose upon a grindstone.' As we neared her, and noticed how high she stood We cherish all our firsts throughout our lives- And truly Captain James West-can that be he lean- We were on board at last. Most people, in those travelling days, are familiar with the interior of the magnificent ocean-steamers, where every luxury of furniture, living and sleeping accommodation, is provided for a fortunate passenger-subject only to the slight drawbacks of sea-sickness, drowning, burning, famishing, or blowing up. Those splendid cabins, all velvet and mirrors-where you might have every opportunity of becoming acquainted with your own personal appearance between here and America-those dainty, tiny, bed-chambers, so well-lighted and ventilated-those long dinner-tables-and the steward's pantry, where a most intelligent but thin Yankee stands, with an air half civil and half condescending-You may walk in, ladies;' and watches with a grand indifference our admiration at the beautiful crockery' and glass, packed so ingeniously, that one imagines the fiercest hurricane of the Atlantic could not crack a single plate. Truly a voyage in the Adriatic would be exceedingly pleasant, if all things were warranted-weather included-to be always as they appear when she lies in the Mersey river. But her engines. The scientific mind evidently thought every minute lost that was not spent in the examination of her engines. So we hurriedly ran through the passenger domains, first and second class -the second-class berths and cabins being, by the way, uncommonly comfortable-brushed past the stewardess, who, immersed in a pile of haberdashery, we overheard giving a mild order for four hundred and sixty pair of blankets!'-paced rapidly from end to end of the upper or spar deck-peered down the hold, an awful cavern, fifty feet in depth-and finally made our way into the engine-gallery. Perhaps, of all human handiwork, there is nothing grander than a fine piece of machinery-especially a steam-engine. I own to have been literally awed at sight of this one-this dumb monster of shiny brass and dark solid iron-with its enormous cylinders moulded as accurately as a silver flower-bell ornamenting a tea-pot, and as bright as the best housewife's best 'family-plate:' with its crank-after looking at which, as some one said, the adjective 'cranky' appeared an extraordinary misuse of words; and its piston-rod, which, moving up and down, must look as terrible, remorseless, and unswerving as the great arm of justice. 6 'Oh, to see it working!' was the sigh of enthusiastic professional appreciation: with those eight boilers, and those forty-eight furnaces-and all that mass of machinery! Working-working night and day like a blind giant, who doesn't know what he is, or why he is, or where he is going, but just goes labouring on, till something or some one brings him to a dead stop. Really, I think we have a good many points in common with a big steam-engine.' I hinted that we were not quite such irresponsible machinery; that we at least knew the Hand that built us and set us agoing. But contemplating this great mass of inert matter, which a few breaths of vapour would make all alive and instinct with power, for good or evil, set afloat on the wide ocean, where it became a mere atom of nothingness; yet had to hold on its way, labouring in darkness, but labouring ever-verily, the steam-engine did seem not very unlike us. The Novelty Works, New York'-so said a brass inscription over its head-have need to be proud of this their magnificent monster, every inch of which is as daintily finished as the workmanship of a lady's watch. It is contrived, they say, with great saving of space and economy of fuel-the 1400 tons of coal which it has to devour in a single voyage, being considered quite a light provender. In return, the quantity of fresh water which it produces by condensation of its steam, supplies the ship abundantly. All that seemed wanting was, that it should manufacture its own gas; and various admirable schemes to that effect were started by our party, wanting only two qualities, practicability and safety. It did strike a non-professional auditor, whose two great terrors in life are gas and the stormy ocean, that to be exposed to the perils of both would a little detract from the pleasures of the trip; but that idea was scouted contemptuously by all the rest. No doubt those labyrinthine passages of cabins, so exactly similar, that No. 150 must find his or her berth, if found at all, by the merest accident, will ere long be illuminated like our streets and squares; and instead of 'Douse the glim,' the word will be: Turn off the meter.' Strange to think of that huge floating castle-quite a little town-steaming on through the darkness, with all its sleeping freight, of which even the list of the crew reads as follows: '1 commander, 4 mates, 1 surgeon, 1 purser, 4 quarter-masters, 2 carpenters, boatswain, 36 seamen, 1 engineer, 3 assistants, 6 superintendents of fires and boilers, 4 oilers (!), 2 engineers' storekeepers, 24 firemen, 36 coal-passers, 1 steward, 3 assistants, 36 waiters, 3 stewardesses, pastry-cooks, 2 engineers' 2 storekeepers, 1 bar-keeper, 1 barber, 1 chief-cook, 1 assistant-cook, 1 baker, mess-men, 2 keepers of lamps and oil, 1 hose-keeper.' And the safety of all, with indefinite passengers It had need be a 6 one commander." besides, dependent, humanly speaking, on that one head of the sound head and a steady one, and deserves a comfortable berth to rest in; which it evidently has, judging by the elegant appearance of the captain's state-rooms, into which we peered. Then we wandered up and down desultorily, wondering where on earth all this crew of 188, and all the hundreds of visitors that we knew were on board, had vanished to. The great ship had swallowed them up, and they only appeared as stray groups here and there, or solitary sailors leaning over the side. No bustle, no confusion, and yet she was to sail to-morrow. There could not be a greater proof of the huge size and admirable arrangements of Brother Jonathan's Pet. Any one going back by the next boat?' Yes; about 300 or so, who, appearing out of inconceivable nooks, descended the ship's side, and crowded the river-boat on every square foot which two other feet could take possession of. In five minutes we had dropped astern, and saw the great hull of the Adriatic gradually lessening to that slender shape into which she dwindles at a very slight distance. As she lay with her stars and stripes streaming against the still clear sky, and the red winter sunset throwing its glow upon her great motionless paddle-wheels, we heartily wished her good-speed. Ay, even though our own Persia lay, a short space off, pluming her feathers for the flight, for she was to sail two days after, and as we repeated: 'Wouldn't her captain clap on steam, and run her, literally, to within an inch of her life, rather than be beaten by the Yankee!' Happy, harmless rivalry! As we watched the two steamers lying so peacefully alongside, with the fair evening light upon them both-the sun going down towards the other continent as grandly as he had risen with us this morning, making no step-bairns' between east and west-one could not help trusting that the Governor of all the kingdoms of the earth would keep both the good ships safe, and that fast-sailing might be the only rivalry, the only war between ourselves and Brother Jonathan. INDICTMENTS. our own land by act of parliament in the reign of Henry III., but retained in other countries until a much later date; and in many continental churches there yet remain representations of persons undergoing the ordeal-votive offerings made by those who were fortunate enough to escape uninjured. A very fine instance occurs in the cathedral church of Abbeville, where a lady of high rank, dressed in rich attire, is seen plunging her arm in a caldron of boiling water, and a multitude of beholders with most expressive countenances are standing around, awaiting the result. Then there was the corsned, or morsel of execration -a piece of unleavened bread, or of cheese made of ewe's milk in the month of May, and weighing about an ounce-which after being consecrated by a prayer pronounced over it, that the Almighty would cause the eater to undergo pain and convulsions, if guilty, but impart to him health and nourishment, if innocent, was taken by the suspected person, together with the holy sacrament. Everybody knows the story of Godwin, Earl of Kent, attempting to exculpate himself from the death of the king's brother, and how the corsned stuck in his throat and killed him. The corsned has, ages ago, been abandoned by us, but it yet lingers in various forms in certain uncivilised parts of the world, and is there resorted to as a favourite way of settling dark and intricate accusations. The most amusing relic of it is in Monomotapa, in South Africa, where the accuser chews the bark of a tree remarkable for its emetic properties, and spits it out into certain water, which the accused is obliged to drink. If the water is rejected, he is condemned; while if it remains on his stomach, he is absolved, unless the accuser will drink some of the same water, and if it produces no effect on him either, neither the guilt nor the innocence of the accused is determined. cium crucis. Each party, or his champion, stretched out his arms before a crucifix, and the one soonest wearied, dropped his arms and lost the day. This method of Another amusing method of trial, common throughOUR forefathers had a good many methods of ascertain-out Christian countries in early times, was called judiing the guilt or innocence of an accused person, all of them considered equally infallible. The most ancient, probably, was the trial by ordeal, distinguished by the appellation of judicium Dei, and divided into two kinds-trial was principally confined to disputes about prothe fire ordeal for persons of high rank, and the water ordeal for those of lesser estate. Both these might be, and often were performed by deputy, the accused himself answering for the success of the trial, and there still lingers in our common speech the expression of 'going through fire and water' to serve a friend; and friendship, as well as a large reward, was in former times not unfrequently sufficient to stimulate one person to undertake this supposed purgation for another. The ordeal by fire consisted either in holding unhurt for some minutes a piece of red-hot iron of one, two, or three pounds' weight, or else by walking barefoot and blindfold over nine red-hot ploughshares, laid across the path at varying distances. Queen Emma, the mother of the Confessor, underwent, it is said, this trial at the west end of Winchester Cathedral, when an accusation was preferred against her of improper familiarity with Alwyn, bishop of that city; and this story, although received with some discredit, was strongly confirmed some fifty years back by the discovery, far below the surface, of a large quantity of half-decayed, and very ancient, ploughshares. As of the fire, so of the water ordeal, there were two kinds-one being effected by plunging the bared arm to the elbow in boiling water, and escaping uninjured; the other in being thrown into a pond or river, when, if the unfortunate sank, he was adjudged innocent, while if he floated without any apparent effort to retain himself on the surface of the water, he was considered guilty; the idea being, that having, by his persevering denial of his guilt, renounced the benefits of his baptism, the element of water would not receive him. The practice of trial by ordeal was put an end to in perty, and the most celebrated instance of its being resorted to occurred in France during the reign of Pepin, when the Archbishop of Paris and the Abbot of St Denis disputing about the patronage of a monastery, the king ordered that their respective champions should resort to this method of deciding the question. Both appeared in the chapel attached to the monastery, and held out for an almost incredible time; the spectators, we are told, betting as to their respective abilities. The bishop's champion first gave in, and the Archbishop of Paris consequently gained the day. Besides these three modes of trial, there was the wager of battle,' in which the suspected party threw down his glove, and declared he would defend the same with his body, and where the prosecutor took up the gauntlet, and announced his determination of doing battle, body for body. This last mode of appealing to Heaven to assert the truth or falsehood of a charge, although long fallen into disuse, did not cease to be supported by the authority of the law till so late as 1819. From these fallacious, and often no doubt fraudulent proceedings, our ancestors gradually turned to the most perfect, and, so far as the liberty of the subject is concerned, to the most important mode of trial ever invented-the trial by the country'-or in ordinary language, the 'trial by jury.' The excellence of this mode of trial consists, as its name imports, in the fact that by it a man is tried by his peers or fellows. The sovereign, upon complaint of an injured party, lays before the head men of a county-assembled together under the name of the grand jury, and solemnly sworn not to act unjustly to any person out of 'hatred or malice, or through fear, favour, affection, gain, reward, or the hope or promise thereof '-an accusation drawn out upon parchment, of some particular person, charging him with a crime. When the grand jury have carefully considered the evidence to be brought forward in support of such accusation, they either say—or, in legal phraseology, 'present that such accusation is true, or else that they are ignorant whether it be true or false; the latter being in effect a dismissal by them of the charge. This preliminary inquiry, however carped at at the present day, is without doubt one of the most important measures relating to the liberty of the subject. From their high and independent position, the members of the grand jury are unlikely to be influenced in their doings by any party-feeling; by law, they can in no case be called upon to account for any of their proceedings; and by their oath, and the practice pursued in relation to those proceedings, all their deliberations are kept profoundly secret. We imagine that no better plan could possibly be devised of placing a barrier between the power of the crown and a defenceless subject, and we hope that the day is yet very distant when this ancient institution will be abolished. The written accusation to which we have alluded, when laid before the grand jury, is called a 'bill;' when presented by them, it is termed an 'indictment.' We have elsewhere alluded to the manner in which a prisoner is put upon his trial on such indictment, and how the petty jury take the matter in hand, and ultimately declare upon his innocence or guilt; and therefore, in the present article, we propose to deal only with a few matters relating to these written accusations themselves. One of the most universal maxims of the criminal law, and perhaps one of the most important, is that learnedly expressed by Lord Coke in the fourth book of his Reports: Nemo debet bis puniri pro uno delicto,' well known to everybody in this country in its English dress of 'No one can be punished twice for the same offence.' As the mere trial of a person for a presumed crime is, if not a direct punishment, at all events a vexation, this maxim has very long ago been extended in its terms, and now pretty universally runs: Nemo debet bis vexare pro uno delicto'-'No one may be twice vexed (or tried) for the same cause.' Our forefathers, in order to convey to alleged culprits the full benefits suggested by these old maxims, established the practice to which we have just alluded, of drawing out in exact and formal language the specific charge alleged against the accused person, and of binding themselves to prove upon the trial that exact charge, and that only-tacitly agreeing, that if they failed in establishing the perpetration of the offence in the very manner as stated in the indictment, the prisoner should be entitled to his acquittal. By this proceeding, two great advantages were opened to an accused person: the one, that he could not have a vague indefinite charge brought against him at the time of his trial, to be shifted and altered as the evidence itself varied; the other, that he knew beforehand what was to be alleged against him, and therefore had better opportunity of preparing himself with an answer-two advantages which, if we consider the summary and often unfair manner in which legal inquiries were in former times conducted, were of no small importance. But though, as we before said, our ancestors were anxious to allege a specific charge against an offender, their idea of a specific charge was somewhat peculiar. We in modern times, for instance, consider that to accuse a man of committing a murder of a particular person on a certain day, is pretty specific; but in times bygone, such a charge would have been considered very general in its character. The year of the sovereign's reign, the weapon of offence, with its value, the position of the wound, with its length and depth, the various places to which the sufferer removed before he died, and a multitude of other minute circumstances, had all to be set forth, and the most trifling error in any one of them would have proved fatal to the instrument. But in addition to this, for some reason altogether undiscoverable to us at the present day, the indictment was universally drawn out in abbreviated Latin, a misspelling in which, however unimportant in other respects, was deemed sufficient to destroy the instrument. It was indeed a rule with lawyers of that day, that no word which could be expressed in Latin should in an indictment be written in English; and we continually find such documents being set aside for breaches of this regulation. In one case, the term witchcraft' rendered the instrument void, 'incantatio' being deemed the correct word; and in another, 'de la Fabre' was declared inadmissible in any other garb than a Latin one. So with misspelling: a man was indicted in Elizabeth's reign for murder; some unfortunate clerk spelt the word 'destructionem' 'destrictionem,' and the error being discovered, the prisoner was immediately acquitted. More recently, 'deodecim' occurring for 'duodecem,' invalidated the instrument; and 'præsentant' for 'præsentatum' had a similar effect. The great danger which was thus continually encountered, on the one hand, of placing in indictments English words which might be expressed by Latin ones; and on the other, of introducing Latin words not of sufficiently general acceptation to be used in an instrument, the meaning of which was to be patent to every one, led to the custom of using an Anglicè where any doubtful Latin word occurred. Thus, in one old indictment, we read of a man stealing certain ollas ærarias—Anglicè, 'brass pots.' The frequent acquittals which took place, owing to this severe way of construing indictments, soon led to a serious outcry on the part of the profession, and of the public generally, and so early as 1650, we find even the great Sir Matthew, who was in no way favourable to changes in the law, solemnly declaring his opinion on the subject in the following terms: 'In favour of life, great strictness has at all times been required in point of indictments, and the truth is that it has grown to be a blemish and inconvenience in the law and the administration thereof that more offenders escape by the over-easy ear given to exceptions in indictments than by their own innocence.' After such an expostulation as this from so high a quarter, it appears remarkable that nearly one hundred years should be suffered to elapse before the legislature took any decided step to simplify and amend these proceedings. Day by day, indictments were quashed by wholesale-the non-crossing of a t, or non-dotting of an i, was almost sufficient, under the stringent practice of olden times, to avoid the instrument. So great certainty, as it was called, was required, that calling an 'accessory' a 'confederate' was fatal; and particular words of art were considered so essential in certain crimes, that without them the indictment was useless. Thus, if a man was accused of treason, it must be alleged that he committed that offence 'treasonably and against his allegiance,' and any alteration, however small, in this form made the indictment void. So in murder, the accused must feloniously, wilfully, and of his malice aforethought, kill and murder;' in stealing, he must be stated to have feloniously taken and carried away.' In murder, the depth of the wound must be set forth, that it might appear to the court to be sufficient to cause death; though,' says an old writer, if it be stated to have gone through the body, a statement of the depth is immaterial, for it will then |