ly understand the charge. So
voluminous are the counts of the indictment recently found against Mr
O'Connell and others, that the reading of the charges they contained
was the work of many hours. The accused is not always compelled
immediately to answer the indictment; for if he appear in term-time to
an indictment for a misdemeanour in the Queen's Bench, it is
sufficient if he plead or demur within four days; the court has a
discretionary power to enlarge the time; but if he neither pleads nor
demurs within the time prescribed, judgment may be entered against him
as for want of a plea. It he appear to such an indictment, having been
committed or held to bail within twenty days before the assizes or
sessions at which he is called upon to answer, he has the option of
_traversing_, as it is termed, or of postponing his trial to the next
assizes or sessions. He is also always entitled, before the trial, on
payment of a trifling charge, to have copies of the examinations of
the witnesses on whose evidence he was committed or held to bail; and
at the trial he has a right to inspect the originals gratuitously. In
prosecutions for misdemeanours at the suit of the Attorney-General, a
copy of indictment must be delivered, free of expense, if demanded by
the accused. These seem to be all the privileges except that of
challenge, which we shall explain hereafter, which the accused
possesses, or to which the law gives him an absolute indefeasible
claim as a matter of right. The _practice_ of different courts may
possibly vary in some degree on points such as those which have been
recently mooted in Ireland; for instance, as to whether the names of
the witnesses should be furnished to the accused, and whether their
address and description should also be supplied. In such matters the
practice might vary, in a considerable degree, in the superior courts
of England and Ireland; and yet each course would be strictly legal,
in the respective courts in which it was adopted; for, as it was
clearly put by one of the Irish judges on a recent occasion, the
practice of the court is the law of the court, and the law of the
court is the law of the land.

When the time has arrived at which the accused must put in his answer
to the indictment, if he do not confess the charge, or stand mute of
malice, he may either plead, 1st, to the jurisdiction, which is a good
plea when the court before whom the indictment is taken has no
cognizance of the offen