By the Penal Servitude Act, 1864, the shortest period of penal servitude feu an offence committed after the passing of the Act is five years, and where any previous Act had fixed a maximum of less than five years, the period of five years is to be substituted for such shorter term. The same Act gives the form of licence under which a convict may be allowed to be at large during the remaining portion of his time, subject to the condition of abstaining from crime and from association with criminal characters, &c., and of preserving and producing his licence when called upon by a magistrate or officer. By the Prevention of Crimes Act, 1871, every holder of a licence under the Penal Servitude Acts must notify his residence and any change of residence to the police (section 6). The Prevention of Crimes Act, 1871, likewise repeals the Hibitual Criminals Act of 1869, and substitutes new provisions, of which the following are the most important. Section 5 provides for the registering and photographing of criminals.[1] Section 7 specifies circum stances under which a person who has been twice convicted on indictment may, within seven years of the expiration of the last of the two sentences, subject himself to imprison ment with or without hard labour for a term not exceeding one year, e.g., if it appears to a magistrate that " there are reasonable grounds for believing that he is getting his livelihood by dishonest; means ;" or if he refuses to give his name and address when charged with an offence before the magistrates ; or if he is found in any place public or private under circumstances which satisfy the court that he was about to commit, or waiting for an opportunity to commit, an offence ; or if he is found in a dwelling-house, &c., without being able to give a satisfactory account of his presence. By section 8, " where any person is convicted on indictment of a crime, and a previous conviction of a crime is proved against him, the court having cognizance of such indictment may, in addition to any other punish ment which it may award to him, direct that he is to be sub ject to the supervision of the police for a period of seven years, or such less period as the court may direct, commencing immediately on the expiration of the sentence passed on him for the last of such crimes." Persons subject to police supervision, like convicts out on ticket-of -leave, must notify their residence to the police, and males must report themselves once a month. The Larceny Act of 1861 had made a previous conviction for felony or indictable misde meanour, or two summary convictions, matter of aggravation on a charge of simple larceny; and section 116 of that Act provides for the trial of the quesion whether there has been such a previous conviction. It is only after the prisoner has been found guilty of the subsequent offence that the question whether he has been previously convicted can be gone into, unless he offers evidence of good character in the trial for the offence, in which case the prosecutor may prove the previous conviction. This section is adopted in the Prevention of Crimes Act, 1871.
The prerogative of pardon, as exercised by the Home Secretary, occasionally has the effect of a rehearing of the case, e.g., when new evidence is discovered after the trial, or the verdict of the jury gives dissatisfaction to the public. In such cases the Home Secretary, after consultation with .the judge, or if necessary with such skilled persons as he may select, decides on his own responsibility to grant or withhold a pardon.[2] This is not perhaps the most satisfac tory way of reviewing the sentence of a criminal court.
The distinguishing feature of Scotch criminal law is the existence of a public prosecutor. At common law persons injured have the right to prosecute, but " private prosecu tion, except in the most trifling summary complaints, is now wholly unknown in practice " (Macdonald s Criminal Law of Scotland). The lord advocate and his deputies are the public prosecutors in the Supreme Court; in the inferior courts the procurator-fiscal prosecutes. The public prose cutor cannot be compelled to prosecute, nor can he be prevented from prosecuting.
(e. r.)
CRIMMITZSCHAU, or Krimhitzschau, a manufactur ing town of Saxony, in the circle of Zwickau, and seven miles N.N.W. of the town of that name, on both banks of the Pleisse, and on the Saxon Western State Railway, 760 feet above the sea. Brewing was formerly the most important industry, but woollen weaving and cotton weav ing have now taken the chief place; the manufacture of machinery has also become very considerable. Lime- burning is carried on in the neighbourhood, and the surrounding district is noted for its wheat growing. Population (1875), 17,649.
CRISPIN and CRISPINIAN, two saints whose festi val, as marked in the calendar, is on the 25th of October. According to the tradition they were brothers, born at Rome, whence they travelled in company with St Denis to Soissons, in France, towards the close of the 3d century, to propagate the Christian religion; and that they might not be chargeable to others for their maintenance, they exercised at night the trade of shoemakers, while preaching during the day. The shoes they made were sold at a low price to the poor, an angel miraculously furnishing the leather. According to another version of the story, the saints stole the leather so as to enable them to benefit the poor. When it was known that they were Christians, the governor of the town, after subjecting them to cruel tortures, ordered them to be beheaded. The date of their martyrdom is usually given as 287, though the Roman legend gives 300. They are regarded as the tutelary saints of shoemakers.
oldest cities of Greece, was situated in Phocis, at the foot of one of the spurs of Mount Parnassus. Its name occurs both in the Iliad and in the Homeric Hymns, where it is described as a powerful place, with a rich and fertile terri tory, reaching to the sea, and including within its limits the sanctuary of Pytho. As the town of Delphi grew up around the shrine, and the seaport of Cirrha arose on the Crissean Gulf, Crissa gradually lost much of its importance. By the ancients themselves the name of Cirrha was so often substituted for that of Crissa, that it soon became doubtful whether these names indicated the same city or two differ ent cities. The question was practically settled by the investigations of Ulricas, who unravelled with much care the history of the towns. From its position Cirrha com manded the approach to Delphi, and its inhabitants became obnoxious to the Greeks from the heavy tolls which they exacted from the devotees who thronged to the shrine. The Amphictyonic Council declared war against the Cirrheans in 595 B.C., and having taken the town, razed it
to the ground, and consecrated its territory to the temple
- ↑ A Register of Habitual Criminals in England and Wales for the years 1869-76 has recently been printed in the printing works of Her Majesty s prison, Brixton. " The list," says the Times of March 7, 1877, "has been framed by separating from the great mass of returns those which refer to persons who have been convicted on indictment of a crime, and thereupon have had a previous conviction proved against them. It is thus a complete register of habitual and professional criminals, and has been printed for circulation among the police and the authorities of prisons, in order to enable them to identify persons who come under their charge." The proportion of habitual criminals born in different localities gives some curious results. Thus the town of Stafford heads the list with 1 881 to every 1000, followed closely by Worcester, Taunton, and Lancaster, all of them towns with under 20,000 inhabi tants. On the other hand, London, which produces the largest number (1503), stands at the rate of only 461 to the 1000. Of the habitual criminals on the list 1082 come from Ireland, and 158 from Scotland.
- ↑ A good example will be found in the case of Sinethurst, reported at length in Stephen s View of the Criminal Law.
