for which our law has but a single doom, to wit, death. In general, the law does but fix some maximum punishment, the judge can give less, and the prerogative of mercy is but very seldom used to mitigate the sentence that he passes. The subject of appeal in criminal cases has lately been before parliament, and changes are to be expected, but we must here take leave of the English citizen on the confines of "The Penal System."

THE END.

Now Publishing, in Crown 8vo., Price 3s. 6d. each.

The

English Citizen:

A SERIES OF SHORT BOOKS ON

HIS RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES.

EDITED BY HENRY CRAIK, M.A. (Oxon.), LL.D. (GLASGOW).

THIS series is intended to meet the demand for accessible information on the ordinary conditions and the current terms of our political life. The affairs of business, contact with other men, the reading of newspapers, the hearing of political speeches, may give a partial acquaintance with such matters, or at least stimulate curiosity as to special points. But such partial acquaintance with the most important facts of life is not satisfactory, although it is all that the majority of men find within their reach.

The series will deal with the details of the machinery whereby our Constitution works and the broad lines upon which it has been constructed. The volumes in it will treat of the course of legislation; of the agencies by which civil and criminal justice are administered, whether imperial or local; of the relations between the greater system of the imperial Government and the subdivision by which local self-government is preserved alongside of it; of the electoral body, and its functions and constitution and development; of the great scheme of national income and its disbursement; of State interference with the citizen in his training, in his labour, in his trafficking, and in his home ; and of the dealings of the State with that part of property which is, perforce, political-the land; of the relation between State and Church which bulks so largely in our history, and is entwined so closely with our present organisation; and lastly, of those relations of the State that are other than domestic.

The books are not intended to interpret disputed points in Acts of Parliament, nor to refer in detail to clauses or sections of those Acts; but to select and sum up the salient features of any branch of legislation, so as to place the ordinary citizen in possession of the main points of the law.