which the proceedings are commenced; in the
latter case, the law requires that the accusation should be warranted
by the oath of twelve men, before he be put to answer it--or in other
words that the grand jury must give that information to the court,
which, in the former case, is furnished by the law officer of the
crown. The cases which are prosecuted by _ex officio_ information, are
properly such enormous misdemeanours as peculiarly tend to disturb and
endanger the government or to molest or affront the sovereign in the
discharge of the functions of the royal office. The necessity for the
existence of a power of this nature in the state, is thus set forth by
that learned and illustrious judge, Sir William Blackstone. "For
offences so highly dangerous, in the punishment or prevention of which
a moment's delay would be fatal, the law has given to the crown the
power of an immediate prosecution, without waiting for any previous
application to any other tribunal: which power, thus necessary, not
only to the ease and safety, but even to the very existence of the
executive magistrate, was originally reserved in the great plan of the
English constitution, wherein provision is wisely made for the
preservation of all its parts."

The crown, therefore, in a case such as we have imagined, must first
make choice between these two modes of procedure. The leniency of
modern governments has of late usually resorted to the process by
indictment; and the crown, waiving all the privileges which appertain
to the kingly office, appears before the constituted tribunals of the
land, as the redresser of the public wrongs, invested with no powers,
and clothed with no authority beyond the simple rights possessed by
the meanest of its subjects. We shall, for this reason, take no
further notice of the _ex officio_ information; and as treasons form a
class of offences governed by laws and rules peculiar to itself, we
shall also exclude this head of crime from our consideration, and
confine ourselves solely to the ordinary criminal process by which
offenders are brought to justice.

In, general, the first step in a criminal prosecution, is to obtain a
warrant for the apprehension of the accused party. In ordinary cases,
a warrant is granted by any justice of the peace upon information, on
the oath of some credible witness, of facts from which it appears that
a crime has been committed, and that the person against whom the
warrant is sought to