. In the case of Slaughterford
(1708) the accused was charged with murdering a woman whom he had
seduced; the evidence was very imperfect, and he was acquitted on
indictment. But public indignation being aroused by the atrocities
alleged to have been perpetrated, an appeal was brought, and on
conviction he was hanged, as his execution was a privilege belonging to
the prosecutor, of which the crown could not deprive him by a pardon. In
1818 an appeal was ingeniously met by an offer of battle, since if the
appellee were an able-bodied man he had the choice between combat or a
jury (see WAGER). This neutralizing of one obsolete and barbarous
process by another called the attention of the legislature to the
subject, and appeal in criminal cases, along with trial by battle, was
abolished in 1819. The history of this appeal is fully dealt with in
Pollock and Maitland, _History of English Law_, 1898.

In its usual modern sense the term appeal is applied to the proceeding
by which the decision of a court of justice is brought for review before
another tribunal of higher authority. In Roman jurisprudence it was used
in this and in other significations; it was sometimes equivalent to
prosecution, or the calling up of an accused person before a tribunal
where the accuser appealed to the protection of the magistrate against
injustice or oppression. The derivation from _appellare_ ("call")
suggests that its earliest meaning was an urgent outcry or prayer
against injustice. During the republic the magistrate was generally
supreme within his sphere, and those who felt themselves outraged by
injustice threw themselves on popular protection by _provocatio_,
instead of looking to redress from a higher official authority. Under
the empire different grades of jurisdiction were established, and the
ultimate remedy was an appeal to the emperor; thus Paul, when brought
before Festus, appealed unto Caesar. Such appeals were, however, not
heard by the emperor in person but by a supreme judge representing him.
In the _Corpus Juris_ the appeal to the emperor is called
indiscriminately _appellatio_ and _provocatio_. A considerable portion
of the 49th book of the _Pandects_ is devoted to appeals; but little of
the practical operation of the system is to be deduced from the
propositions there brought together.

During the middle ages full scope was afforded for appeals from the
lower to the higher authorities in the church. In matters
ecclesiastic