120 FEDEBAl EEPOBTEE. �the constitutîonalîty of the act by the recent decision of the supreme court of the United States in the case of the titate of Tennessee r. Davis, 100 U. S. 257. �The question which has been mainly discussed by eounsel is whether, under the facts of this case, it can be held that a criminal prosecution against the accused has been commeneed in a court of the state, within the meaning of section 643 of the Eevised Statutes of the United States. Leaving out that portion of the section which does not apply to this case it reads as foUows: "When any * * criminal prosecution is commeneed in any court of a state against any officer ap- pointed under or acting by authority of any revenue law of the United States now or hereafter enacted, or against any person acting under or by authority of any such officer, on account of any act done under color of his office or of any Buoh law, or on account of any right, title, or authority elaimed by such officer or other person under such law, * * the said prosecution may, at any time before the trial or final hearing thereof, be removed for trial into the circuit court next to be holden in the district where the same is pending, upon the petition of such defendant to such circuit court." �Upon the filing of the petition setting out the facts, and rerified and certified as required by law, "the cause shall, thereupon, be entered on the docket of the circuit court, and Bhall proceed as a cause originally commeneed in said court. �• ♦ When the suit is commeneed by capias, or by any other similar form of proceeding by which a personal arrest is ordered, the clerk shall issue a writ of habeas corpus cum causa, a duplicate of which shall be delivered to the clerk of the state court, or left at his office by the marshal of the district, • . * and thereupon it shall be the duty of the Btate court to stay ail further proceedings in the cause, and the suit or prosecution, upon the delivery of such process, * �* shall be held to be removed to the circuit court, and any further proceedings, trial, or judgment therein in the state court shall be void. " �The first question for decision under this statute is, has a criminal prosecution been commeneed against these petition* ����
