, by remitting that punishment which
the prosecution was calculated to inflict.

All these pleas may be answered by the crown in two ways--issue may be
joined on the facts they respectively set forth; or they may be
demurred to; by which step, the facts, alleged in the plea, are denied
to constitute a good and valid defence in law. In _felony_, if any of
these pleas are, either in fact or in law, determined against the
prisoner, he cannot be convicted or concluded by the adverse judgment;
and for this reason. Formerly all felonies were punishable with death,
and, in the words of Mr Justice Blackstone, "the law allows many pleas
by which a prisoner may escape death; but only one plea in consequence
whereof it can be inflicted, viz., the general issue, after an
impartial examination and decision of the facts, by the unanimous
verdict of a jury." The prisoner, therefore, although few felonies
remain still capital, is nevertheless still allowed to plead over as
before. In misdemeanours, however, which are never capital, and in
which, therefore, no such principle could ever have applied, the
judgment on these pleas appears to follow the analogy of a civil
action. Thus, if, upon issue joined, a plea of abatement be found
against the accused, the judgment, on that indictment, is final;
though a second indictment may be preferred against him; but if, upon
demurrer, the question of law is held to be against him, the judgment
is, that he do answer the indictment. If a plea in bar, either on
issue joined, or on demurrer, be determined against the defendant, the
judgment is in such case final, and he stands convicted of the
misdemeanour.

The general issue, or the plea of "not guilty," is the last and most
usual of those answers to the indictment which we have enumerated, the
others being all of extremely rare occurrence in the modern practice
of the criminal law. By this plea, the accused puts himself upon his
county, which county the jury are. The sheriff of the county must then
return a panel of jurors. In England the jurors are taken from the
"jurors' book" of the current year. It must be observed, that a new
jurors' book comes into operation on the first of January in each
year, having previously been copied from the lists of those liable to
serve on juries, made out in the first instance, between the months of
July and October, both inclusive, by the churchwardens and overseers
of each parish, then reviewed and confirmed by