This is now very far otherwise. Legal proceedings have been recently prodigiously accelerated.
[8] Note 8. Page 241.
The reason why neither a Peer nor a Member of Parliament can be bail is, that they are not liable to the ordinary process of the courts.—(Tidd's Practice, p. 247, 9th ed.) The reason why attorneys and their clerks cannot be bail, is to protect them from the importunities of their clients.
[9] Note 9. Page 245.
I. e. "Special Jury."
[10] Note 10. Page 245.
A writ of certiorari issues from the Court of Queen's Bench in criminal cases, for the purpose of removing them into it from inferior courts; and when the writ is granted, as it may be at the instance of either the prosecutor or defendant, it entirely supersedes the jurisdiction of the inferior court, and renders all subsequent proceedings in it entirely erroneous and illegal—unless the Court of Queen's Bench should think fit to remand the record to the inferior court. A prosecutor may obtain a certiorari as a matter of right; but a defendant only at the discretion of the court.
[11] Note 11. Page 275.
Forgery was a capital offence down to the year 1830. By statute 1 and 2 Will. IV. c. 66, passed on the 23d July in that year, and statute 2 and 3 Will. IV. c. 123, passed on the 16th August 1832; and particularly by statute 7 Will. IV. and 1 Vict. c. 84, passed on the 17th July 1837, the punishment of death is abolished in all cases of forgery, and transportation for life, or for years, or imprisonment, with solitary confinement and hard labor, substituted.