49. These courts may also send an indictment, found therein and remaining undetermined, for an offence not punishable with death, to the next court of oyer and terminer of the same county, to be determined according to law; but that court, if in its opinion the same is not proper to be tried therein, may remit it back to the court by which it was sent, which must proceed thereon, as if it had remained there.

Taken from 2 R. S., 3d ed. 275, sec. 7.

§ 50. When an indictment is found at a court of oyer and terminer or of sessions, in a county embracing any of the cities in which a city court is established, for an offence not punishable with death, committed in that city, the court in which it was found may send it to the next city court in which it is triable; which must proceed to try and determine the indictment, as if it had been found therein.

Same as the powers conferred, and duties imposed upon the mayors' and recorders' courts, by the statutes referred to in the note to sec. 46, p. 29, 30.

§51. These courts must be held, for the exercise of their criminal jurisdiction, by the following judges:

1. The city courts of the cities of Albany, Buffalo, Hudson, Oswego, Troy and Utica, by the recorders of those cities,

2. The city court of the city of Brooklyn, by the city judge of that city,

Together with two of the aldermen of the city, des.

ignated as the common council may, by ordinance, prescribe.

This section is substantially the same as the corresponding sections in the statutes referred to in the note to section 46, p. 30.

§ 52. If the judge authorised to hold or preside at a city court for the exercise of its criminal jurisdiction, be disqualified from holding the court, as provided in the code of civil procedure, he must, upon the request of either party, file with the county clerk a certificate, stating the fact constituting the disqualification, and directing that the action or proceeding be transferred to the court of oyer and terminer of the county; and it must be transferred accordingly. If he refuse to do so, the supreme court, at a special term in the district, or a judge thereof, may, upon motion, after due notice, order the transfer to be made.

The provision requiring the transfer of the action in respect to which the disqualification exists, is the same in principle as sections 31 and 32 of the amended judiciary act, Laws of 1847, p. 643, 644, in respect to county and surrogates' courts. The power, however, is given to the supreme court to make the transfer, when the judge who is disqualified refuses to do so. This is necessary, in order to carry the rule creating the disqualification into complete effect.

§ 53. The times and places of holding the city courts are continued as at present prescribed, until the thirtyfirst day of December, 1850, inclusive, and no longer.

§54. After that time, a term of each of these courts, for the trial of issues and for the hearing and determin

ation of all matters appertaining to its criminal jurisdiction, must be held, at such times and places in their respective cities as the common council thereof may by ordinance prescribe, and must be continued as long as the public interests require. The court is always open for the transaction of any other business.

TITLE VI.

OF THE POLICE COURTS.

SECTION 55. Courts of special sessions abolished, and police courts substituted. 56,57. Their jurisdiction.

58. When, and by whom held, in the city and county of New-York. 59. In the other counties.

The police courts are substituted in place of the present courts of special sessions, with the jurisdiction formerly possessed by those courts. The name of "police courts" is given to them, by reason of the fact already referred to, that the contra-distinction between courts of general and special sessions, as known before the constitution, is removed by the designation of the former in that instrument as courts of sessions." The term " police courts" also conveys more clearly the character of their jurisdiction. The organization of these courts remains unchanged, from that now belonging to the courts of special sessions, except in the city of New-York. In that city, they have heretofore been held on every Tuesday and Friday throughout the year, by the recorder and two aldermen. From the great accumulation of crime, especially of the smaller crimes, in that city, the prisons have become over-crowded, and the business of the court of general sessions has been greatly impeded by the vast number of cases to be disposed of by the special sessions. The latter court being required to be held during the term of the general sessions, as well as in vacation, it not unfrequently happens, that the business of the general sessions is interrupted during a great portion of the day, by the necessity imposed upon the same officers, in their character of a court of special ses-. sions, to dispose of petty offences, solely cognizable in that court. To obviate the inconvenience of this interruption, a degree of haste is required, which is incompatible with a [CRIM. CODE.]

3

becoming administration of justice, even in the case of the lowest crime or the most abject criminal.

For the purpose of removing these evils-of confining the judges of the courts of sessions to their more appropriate duties of enabling a more thorough investigation of the lower class of crimes-and of relieving the prisons from the great and unnecessary accumulation of prisoners-the Commissioners propose, that in the city of New-York, police courts be held at the several police offices, on Tuesday and Friday, of each week, by two of the police justices of that city, and by no other officer. (Sec. 58.) There will thus be held, three police courts on each of those days, at which the class of cases referred to can be conveniently as well as carefully disposed of.

§ 55. The courts of special sessions now existing, or which may be organized in pursuance of any statutory provision now in force, are abolished; and courts to be known as the police courts, as organized by this code, are substituted in their stead.

§ 56. The police courts have jurisdiction in the cases prescribed in the next section, of the following public offences committed in their respective counties:

1. Petit larceny, not charged as a second offence :

2. Assault and battery, not charged to have been committed riotously, or upon a public officer in the execution of his duties:

3. Poisoning, killing, maiming, wounding or cruelly beating an animal:

4. Racing animals, within one mile of the place where a court is held:

5. Committing a wilful trespass, or severing any produce or article from the freehold, not amounting to grand larceny:

6. Selling poisonous substances, not labelled as re

quired by statute:

7. Maliciously removing, altering, defacing or cutting down monuments or marked trees:

8. Maliciously breaking, destroying or removing mile-stones, mile-boards or guide-boards, or altering an inscription thereon.

The same in substance, as 2 R. S., 3d ed. 798, 799, sec. 1. § 57. The jurisdiction conferred upon the police courts, by the last section, can, however, be exercised only in the following cases:

1. When the party charged, upon his being brought before a magistrate, requests to be tried by a police court: or,

2. When, not having made such request, and after having been required by the magistrate to give bail for his appearance at the next court of sessions in the county, he omits to do so for twenty-four hours.

Taken substantially from 2 R. S., 3d ed. 799, sec. 2, 3.

§ 58. In the city and county of New-York, these courts must be held at each of the police offices now o hereafter designated by the common council, on Tues day and Friday of each week, by two of the police justices of that city, and by no other officer.

§ 59. In the other counties, the police court must be held by the magistrate issuing the warrant of arrest, or before whom the defendant is brought to answer the charge.

Substantially the same as 2 R. S., 3d ed. 801, sec. 23.