dictment or information for any felony or misdemeanor committed on or with respect to any house, building, gate, machine, lamp, board, stone, post, fence, or other thing, erected or provided in pursuance of any Act of Parliament for making any turnpike road, or any of the conveniences or appurtenances thereunto respectively belonging, or any materials, tools, or implements provided for making, altering, or repairing any such road, it shall be suffi cient to state any such property to belong to the trustees or commissioners of such road, and it shall not be necessary to specify the names of any such trustees or commissioners.

XVIII. And, with respect to property under In indictments for of commissioners of sewers, be it enacted, That fences committed on in any indictment or information for sewers, the property feany may be laid in the lony or misdemeanor committed on or with commissioners. respect to any sewer or other matter within or under the view, cognizance, or management of any commissioners of sewers, it shall be sufficient to state any such property to belong to the commissioners of sewers within or under whose view, cognizance, or management any such things shall be, and it shall not be necessary to specify the names of any of such commissioners.

XIX. And for preventing abuses from dila- Indictment not to tory pleas, be it enacted, That no indictment abate by dilatory plea of misnomer, or of or information shall be abated by reason of want of addition, &c. any dilatory plea of misnomer or of want of addition, or of wrong addition of the party offering such plea, if the court shall be satis fied by affidavit or otherwise of the truth of such plea; but in such case the court shall forthwith cause the indictment or information to be amended according to the truth, and

C

What defects shall not

vitiate an indictment

wise.

shall call upon such party to plead thereto, and shall proceed as if no such dilatory plea had been pleaded,

66

XX. And that the punishment of offenders after verdict or other- may be less frequently intercepted in conser quence of technical niceties, be it enacted, That no judgment, upon any indictment or information for any felony or misdemeanor, whether after verdict or outlawry, or by con fession, default, or otherwise, shall be stayed or reversed for want of the averment of any matter unnecessary to be proved, nor for the omission of the words "as appears by the record," or of the words with force and. arms," or of the words " against the peace," nor for the insertion of the words "against the form of the statute," instead of the words "against the form of the statutes," or vice versá, nor for that any person or persons mentioned in the indictment or information is or are designated by a name of office or other descriptive appellation instead of his, her, or their proper name or names, nor for omitting to state the time at which the offence was committed, in any case where time is not of the essence of the offence, nor for stating the time imperfectly, nor for stating the offence to have been committed on a day subsequent to the finding of the indictment or exhibiting the information, or on an impossible day, or on a day that never happened, nor for want of a proper or perfect venue, where the court shall appear by the indictment or information to have had jurisdiction over the offence.

What shall not be sufficient to stay or reverse judgment after the verdict.

XXI. And be it further enacted, That no judgment after verdict upon any indictment or information for any felony or misdemeanor

shall be stayed or reversed for want of a similiter, nor by reason that the jury process has been awarded to a wrong officer upon an insufficient suggestion, nor for any misnomer or misdescription of the officer returning such process, or of any of the jurors, nor because any person has served upon the jury who has not been returned as a juror by the sheriff or other officer; and that where the offence charged has been created by any statute, or subjected to a greater degree of punishment, or excluded from the benefit of clergy by any statute, the indictment or information shall after verdict be held sufficient to warrant the punishment prescribed by the statute if it de scribe the offence in the words of the statute.] -- XXII. And, with regard to the payment of Courts may order paythe expences of prosecutions for felony, be it of prosecutions in all ment of the expences enacted, That the court before which any per cases of felony. son shall be prosecuted or tried for any felony (58 G. 3. c. 70. s. 4.) is hereby authorized and empowered, at the request of the prosecutor or of any other per son, who shall appear on recognizance or subpoena to prosecute or give evidence against any person accused of any felony, to order payment unto the prosecutor of the costs and expenees which such prosecutor shall incur in preferring the indictment, and also payment to the prosecutor and witnesses for the prosecution, of such sums of money as to the court shall seem reasonable and sufficient to reimburse such prosecutor and witnesses for the expences they shall have severally incurred in attending before the examining magistrate or magistrates and the grand jury, and in otherwise carrying on such prosecution, and also to compensate them for their

preferred.

(18 G. 3. c. 19. s. 8.)

Allowance to persons trouble and loss of time therein; and, alattending on recognizance, where no bill is though no bill of indictment be preferred, it shall still be lawful for the court, where any person shall, in the opinion of the court, bond fide have attended the court in obedience to any such recognizance or subpoena, to order payment unto such person of such sum of money as to the court shall seem reasonable and sufficient to reimburse such person for the expences which he or she shall have bona fide incurred by reason of attending before the examining magistrate or magistrates, and by reason of such recognizance or subpoena, and also to compensate such person for trouble and loss of time; and the amount of the expences of attending before the examining magistrate or magistrates, and the compensation for trouble and loss of time therein, shall be ascertained by the certificate of such magistrate or magistrates, granted before the trial or attendance in court, if such magistrate or magistrates, shall think fit to grant the same; and the amount of all the other expences, and compensation, shall be ascertained by the proper officer of the court, subject nevertheless to the regulations to be established in the manner herein after mentioned.

Amount of expences of attending before magistrate, &c., to be ascertained by certifi

cate of magistrate.

Courts may order payment of the ex

in certain cases of misdemeanor.

. XXIII. And whereas for want of power in pences of prosecution the court to order payment of the expences of any prosecution for a misdemeanor, many individuals are deterred by the expence from prosecuting persons guilty of misdemeanors, who thereby escape the punishment due to their offences; for remedy thereof, be it enacted, That where any prosecutor or other person shall appear before any court on re

cognizanée or subpoena, to prosecute or give evidence against any person indicted of any assault with intent to commit felony, of any attempt to commit felony, of any riot, of any misdemeanor for receiving any stolen property knowing the same to have been stolen, of any assault upon a peace officer in the execution of his duty, or upon any person acting in aid of such officer, of any neglect or breach of duty as a peace officer, of any assault committed in pursuance: of any conspiracy to raise the rate of wages, of knowingly and designedly obtaining any property by false pretences, of wilful and indecent exposure of the person, of wilful and corrupt perjury, or of subornation of perjury, every such court is hereby authorized and empowered to order payment of the costs and expences of the prosecutor and witnesses for the prosecution, together with a compensation for their trouble and loss of time, in the same manner as courts are herein-before authorized and empowered to order the same in cases of felony; and, although no bill of indictment be Allowance to persons preferred, it shall still be lawful for the court attending on recognis where any person shall have bona fide attended is preferred. the court, in obedience to any such recogni zance, to order payment of the expences of such person, together with a compensation for his or her trouble and loss of time, in the same manner as in cases of felony; provided, that in cases of misdemeanor the power of ordering the payment of expences and compensation shall not extend to the attendance before the examining magistrate,

zances when no bill

XXIV. And be it further enacted, That Order for payment to every order for payment to any prosecutor or be made out by clerk