document, required by this act to be posted up at some public place, for the information of all parties interested, he shall, upon conviction before any justice of the peace, or any other person acting in that capacity, and having jurisdiction in the locality, be liable to a fine of £5.-§ 88.

Fines and forfeitures imposed by this act (not otherwise provided for) may be levied and collected by distress, and sale of the offender's goods and chattels under the authority of any warrant of distress for that purpose to be issued by the justice or other person before whom the conviction shall be; and in default of distress, such offender may be committed to the common gaol of the county for any period not exceeding one month. § 89.

ASSESSORS.

By the general Municipal Act, 12 Vic., c. 81, § 28, the municipality for each township shall so soon as conveniently may be after their own election or appointment, nominate and appoint three assessors for the township, and one collector, who shall hold office from thence until the third Monday in January of the year next after their appointment, and until the appointment of successors.

§78. Town councils of incorporated towns shall appoint three assessors, and one collector for each ward.

By 13 & 14 V., c. 67, § 14, notwithstanding said act, 12 V., c. 81, the number of assessors or collectors for any city, town, village or township, shall be one or more, in the discretion of the municipality or council thereof; and such municipality or council may, in their discretion, appoint the same assessor or collector to act in and for any number of wards, or for the whole city or town. The general Assessment Act, 16 V., c. 182, also contains a similar provision as to the number of assessors; and also prescribes the duties to be performed by them under that act. - See "Assessments."

ASSIZES.

* By the 7th W. IV., c. 1, § 8, it is enacted, that it shall be lawful for the Governor, &c., to issue yearly in the vacation between Easter and Trinity terms, also in the vacations between Michaelmas and Hilary terms, such commissions of assize and nisi prius, into the several districts, as may be necessary for the purpose of trying all issues joined in the said court (Queen's Bench), in any suit or action which, according to the practice of the court, ought to be tried in such districts respectively. And that in like manner commissions of oyer and terminer and general gaol delivery, shall be issued into the several districts of the province twice in the year, within the periods aforesaid: provided always, that it shall be in the power of the Governor, &c., to issue special commissions for the trial of offenders upon extraordinary occasions.

S. 9. And that whenever, from the illness of the judge, or from unavoidable detention at the last assize town, or from other casualty, it may happen that the judge appointed shall not arrive in time, or shall not be able to open such court on the day appointed, it shall be lawful for the sheriff of the district, or in his absence, his deputy, after the hour of eight o'clock in the afternoon of such day to adjourn by proclamation the courts so appointed to be opened on that day, to an hour on the following day to be by him named, and so from day to day until until the judge shall arrive to open such courts, or until he shall receive other direction from such judge.

The 12 V., c. 63, § 21, directs the issuing of commissions into the County of York three times a year; and the 14 & 15 V., c. 15, fixes the periods for holding such courts in said county to be on the first Thursday in January, the first Monday in May, and the second Monday in October, annually. The 14 & 15 V., c. 118, § 1, enacts, that deputy clerks of the crown, in counties, shall be ex officio clerks of assize.

The 18 V., c. 92, § 43, enacts that it shall not be necessary in future to issue commissions of assize, but that such courts shall be held at such times as the judges of the superior courts of common law (Queen's Bench and Common Pleas), shall appoint subsequent to the several terms after which they are now directed by law to be holden; except where such courts are or shall be held at any stated time under any statute; and the judges of the several superior courts shall and may preside over the conrts of assize, and nisi prius, oyer and terminor, and general gaol delivery in the same manner, &c., without the issuing of any commissions, as they have been accustomed to under commission.

Provision for issuing special commissions. Ib.

§ 44. Provides that it shall he the duty of the Secretary of this Province yearly, on or before the first day of the second term next after which the courts of assize are directed to be holden, to transmit to the said superior courts of law, a list of associate justices, and at the same time transmit to the sheriffs a similar list, and to notify such associate justices of their appointment, and such associate justices shall have and exercise all the powers, &c., now used and exercised by any justices associated under any such commissions as in the next preceding section mentioned.

§ 45. Provides, that any person being one of her Majesty's counsel, learned in the law, may be an associate justice of any such court for the despatch of business (civil or criminal), and may act as judge in the absence of any judge of such superior courts.

ATTAINDER.

An attainder is the stain or corruption of the blood of a criminal capitally condemned, and is the immediate and inseparable consequence, by the common law, of pronouncing sentence of death against him, he being then called attaint attinctus-that is, stained or blackened. -4 Bl. Com.

A person attainted is no longer of any credit or reputation; he cannot be a witness in any court, neither is he capable of performing the functions of another man; for, by a sort of anticipation of his punishment, he is already dead in law.3 Inst. 213; 4 Bl. Com. 380. Indeed, it was formerly holden, that any one might as lawfully kill a person attainted of treason or felony, as a wolf or other wild beast; though now, a malicious killing of any such person, there is no doubt, would be murder. -1 Haw. c. 28, § 8; Ibid. c. 31, § 15.

The attainder commences upon the judgment of death, or judgment of outlawry on a capital crime. -4 Bl. Com. 380. But attainder does not follow until after judgment. Ibid. The immediate consequences of attainder were the forfeiture of all the real and personal estates of the party attainted, and the corruption of his blood both upwards and downwards; so that an attainted person could neither inherit lands from his ancestors, nor retain those he was already in possession of, nor transmit them by descent to any heir.

By an attainder for high treason, a man forfeits to the Queen all his lands, &c.-26 H. VIII., c. 13; H. VIII., с. 20; and see 4 Bl. Com.

This forfeiture relates back to the time of the treason committed, so as to avoid all intermediate acts. A wife's dower is expressly forfeited by 5 & 6 Edw. VI.

By 7 Ann, c. 21, it was enacted, that after the death of the then pretender, no attainder for high treason should extend to the disinheriting of any heir, nor to the prejudice of any person other than the traitor himself; by which, says Blackstone, the law of forfeitures for high treason would by this time have been at an end, had not a subsequent statute (17 Geo. II., c. 39), intervened to give them a longer duration. By this statute, the operation of the statute of Ann was still further suspended, till the death of the sons of the pretender.-4 Bl. Com. 384.

In a certain kind of treason, however, namely, that relating to the coin, it is provided by the 5 Eliz. c. 11, and 18 Eliz. c. 1, that it shall work no forfeiture of lands, save only for the life of the offender, and that it should not deprive the wife of her dower. - See 8 & 9 W. III., c. 26, and 15 & 16 Geo. II., c. 28.

In petit treason and felony, the offender forfeits to the Queen all his chattel interests absolutely, and the profits of all estates of freehold during life; and after his death, all his lands and tenements in fee simple, (but not those in tail) for the space of a year and a day. -2 Inst. 37; 4 Bl. 385. The forfeiture relates back to the time of the offence committed, so as to avoid all intermediate acts. -4 Bl. Com. 385; Haw., c. 49, § 17.

Lands are only forfeited upon attainder, but goods and chattels upon conviction. The forfeiture of goods has no relation backwards; those only which a man has at the time of his conviction are actually forfeited. Therefore, a traitor or felon may, bonâ fide, sell any of his chattels, real or persodal, for the sustenance of himself and family, previous to conviction: but not if they be collusively, and not bonâ fide, parted with, and the object of the transfer be merely to defraud the crown. -13 Eliz., c. 5; 3 Inst. 232; 2 Haw., c. 49, § 34; 4 Bl. Com. 388.

By *3 Wm. IV., c. 5, entitled "An Act to take away Corruption of Blood in certain cases," it is enacted, that no attainder for felony, after the passing of this act, except in case of high treason, or of abetting, procuring, or counselling the same, shall extend to disinheriting of any heir, nor to the prejudice of the right or title of any person other than the offender, during his or her life only; and it shall be lawful for any person to whom the right in any lands or tenements, after the death of such offender, would have appertained if no such attainder had been, to enter into the same.

By the statute 4 & 5 V., c. 24, § 17, no plea setting forth any attainder shall be pleaded in bar of any indictment, unless the attainder be for the same offence as that charged in the indictment.

§ 21. Where any offender convicted of felony not punishable with death, shall endure the punishment adjudged • for the same, the punishment so endured shall have the like effects and consequences as a pardon under the great seal, as to the felony whereof the offender was so convicted; but shall not mitigate any punishment on a subsequent conviction for any other felony.

AUCTIONEER.

By 16 V., c. 184, (repealing former acts). § 3. The municipal council of any township, incorporated village, or town, or city in Upper Canada, is authorised to make by-laws (inter alia,) for regulating and governing auctioneers and other persons selling or putting up to sale goods, wares, merchandise or effects, by public auction or outcry, to the highest or best bidder within such municipality, and for requiring any such person to take out a license from such municipality officer as shall be designated in such by-law before it shall be lawful for him to act as an auctioneer, or to sell or put up to sale, as aforesaid, any goods, wares, and merchandise or effects within such municipality, and for fixing the sum which shall be payable for such license, and the time during which it shall be in force, for making such further provisions as may be deemed necessary for giving full effect to such by-law, and for imposing penalties for the contravention thereof.

AUTREFOIS ACQUIT.

The plea of autrefois acquit, is a plea by a criminal that he was heretofore quitted of the same treason or felony; and is grounded upon an universal maxim of the common law of England, that no man shall be brought into jeopardy of his life twice for the same offence. -2 Inst. 213; 4 Co. 40; 2 Haw., c. 35, § 1.

The whole of the record of acquittal must be set forth in the plea, in order that the court may see whether the prisoner was legitimo modo acquietatus.-R.v. Wildey, 1 M. & S. 183.

The plea must plainly show that the party was lawfully acquitted by verdict; for if no bill was preferred against the prisoner, or even no true bill found by the grand jury, so that at the end of the sessions he is quit by proclamation and discharged, he may still be afterwards indicted; for this amounts to no acquittal. -2 Hale, 246.

But if an erroneous judgment be reversed by writ of error, the party may, in that case, be indicted de novo. -2 Hale, 247. And if the party be acquitted from any insufficiency in the indictment, such an acquittal is in general not pleadable upon a second indictment, because the prisoner's life, in this instance, was never placed in jeopardy, and therefore the reason for the plea entirely fails. - Hale, 248; 4 Co. 44, 45;. 1 Star. 302; Rex v. Reading, 2 Leach, 593, per Buller, J. But then the insufficiency of the indictment should appear in the record of the judgment of acquittal. -2 Hale, 385. When the defendant has been tried by a foreign tribunal of