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1805.

The 13th &

44th Geo.

ing Scot

into any other place out of his jurisdiction, any justice within that jurisdiction, to which such person should have gone or escaped might indorse the warrant, apprehend the person and send him back to the same or some other justice within the jurisdiction, from which he should have escaped or gone, in order that he might be there dealt with according to law. In the next year the Legislature found it necessary to amend that act, for the following reasons, as the statute mentions, because an offender might be out of the jurisdiction, under which he had offended, before any warrant had issued, and then he could not be said to have gone or escaped out of that jurisdiction, after such warrant granted. The act, therefore enlarged the powers of the justices by these words enabling the justice of the place, where such person should escape, go into, reside or be, to indorse the warrant, and transmit the person to the county, where he had offended; and with due consideration to the freedom of the subject, it made provision for bailing the person so arrested in the place where taken, if the offence charged were bailable by law. Thus simply stood the law as between county and county in England. These acts of Geo. II. further required, that the warrant of the first justice should be authenticated upon oath, before it could be indorsed by the second."

Then followed the 13th of Geo. III, which was 11. respect- nearly a similar regulation between England and Scotland: the Legislature having thought fit to make a law with respect to criminals escaping

Jand.

from England to Scotland and vice versa; and of 1805. that act the 44th of Geo. III. is nearly a transcript. The preamble to the third section of that statute sets forth the reasons and grounds of its enactment. "Whereas it may frequently happen, that felons "and other malefactors in that part of the "united kingdom called Ireland may make "their escape into that part of the united kingdom called Great Britain, as also that felons

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and other malefactors in that part of the "united kingdom called Great Britain may "make their escape into that part of the united "kindom called Ireland, whereby their offences "often remain unpunished, there being no suffi"cient provision by the laws now in force in "Great Britain and Ireland respectively, for ar

prehending such offenders and transmitting "them into that part of the United Kingdom, in "which their offences were committed: for reme

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dy whereof," the Legislature enacted, that if any person, against whom a warrant should be issued in Ireland for any crime or offence against the laws of Ireland should escape, go into, reside or be in any place in England or Scotland, it should be lawful for any Justice of the Peace for the place, whither or where such person should escape, go into, reside or be, to endorse his name on such warrant; which endorsement should be a sufficient authority to the person bringing it to execute the same, by apprehending the person, against whom it was granted, and to convey him by the most direct way into Ireland, and

YOL. II.

1805 before a justice living near the place, where he should land, who should proceed with regard to him, as if he had been legally apprehended in such county of Ireland. The 4th section made the like provisions for escapes from England or Scotland into Ireland. The statute directed the expences of such removals to be paid to the person defraying the same by the treasurer of the county, in which the crime had been committed. It gave power to take bail in the place, where the person should be apprehended, as between county and county, but not as between Great Britain and Ireland. The reason is obvious: the acts of Geo. II, which introduced the regulation between county and county, went to affect all persons, not only guilty of capital crimes, but of misdemeanours and other bailable offences. Whereas the 13th of his present Majesty, which extended the regulation from England to Scotland, where different laws and separate legal jurisdictions existed, confined it properly to capital offenders, whom it very significantly denominated felons and other malefactors. In such form passed silently through Parliament that notorious act: and being wholy unnoticed by the press, which was at the devotion of Government, it sheathed from the keenest eye of scrutiny its edge, point and venom, till its intended victim was prepared for the torture. However theoretically doubtful, whether the atrocious severity of this insidious act were designed to overpower the censor of the Irish Government,

it is historically true, that its destructive powers were quickly and exclusively brought to bear upon the learned Judge.

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1805.

بنت

Construc

III.

Scarcely will posterity believe, that an act so Strange salutary in its intent, so obvious in its spirit, so tion of the simple in its wording, should have been tortured 44th of Geo. into an engine of such inconsistency, oppression and injustice. No sooner was it known, that it was the wish of Government that J. Johnson should be tried in England for the libel, which he had been found guilty of publishing in Westminister, on the 5th of November 1803, than all the advocates for the prosecution and those, who moved under ministerial influence, broadly and unblushingly gave the following construction to the act. That it extended not only to capital crimes, but to every subordinate offence, compriz ing under the word malefactor every evildoer indefinitely that the removal of an offender from one jurisdiction into another was not necessary to bring him within the statute, either before or after the warrant granted that the act affected persons committing constructive offences within jurisdictions, in which they never were, as much as if they had there committed the offence, and thence

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precluded Ped into another jurisdiction: that it

precluded the person charged from bail in all bailable cases, in defiance of the habeas corpus act: that it specially applied to cases of libel against persons entrusted with the powers of Government and the offices of state: that to procure an indorse

1805.

Proceedings against J. Johnson

ment, it was not necessary to swear to the original warrant that to bring a person under the operation of the act, it was not requisite, that the offence should have been committed since the day of its operation, (1, August 1804,) but that it operated retrospectively and indefinitely upon all offences committed at any period however remote before the existence of the statute: that the person transmitted under the act to take his trial before a foreign tribunal had no compulsory means of bringing over witnesses in his defence: and that for one single offence he might be thrice tried and thrice punished..

No sooner had the Grand Jury of Middlesex found the bill against Mr. J. Johnston, than upon the certificate of the Clerk of the Cro

Office

Lord Ellenborough issued his warrant to Mr. Williams his tipstaff, to take the body of Mr. J. Johnston, and bring him before a Magistrate in England, for the purpose of giving bail to appear and take his trial at Westminster. The warrant was indorsed by Mr. Ball a Justice of the Peace for the County of Dublin, and Mr. J. Johnson was arrested in his own house at Milltown. On that evening a writ of habeas corpus was sued out returnable immediately before the Lord Chief Justice, who ordered the parties to attend him at his house in Dublin, and the return to be made the next day at noon. The Chief Justice was attended on the occasion by seven Judges, and the matter was argued for several hours; the result

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