232	part V. The Judiciary
indictment (formal written accusation). Indictable crimes are tried
with a jury at Quarter Sessions or Assizes or at the Central Criminal
Court. Quarter Sessions has criminal jurisdiction over indictable
offences committed within the county or borough, but certain
offences are excluded, i.e. treason, murder, offences, other than
burglary, which can be punished with life imprisonment and certain
other offences which are of considerable gravity or likely to involve
difficult questions of law, e.g. bigamy. Conversely, as has been seen,
some of the less serious indictable crimes may be tried summarily.1
Quarter Sessions may transmit to Assizes any case which it considers
• should more properly be tried at Assizes owing to the gravity of the
charge or the difficulty of the point of law involved.) AjCounty
'Quarter Sessions may apply to the Lord Chancellor for the appoint-
ment of a chairman and deputy-chairman with legal qualifications
(a barrister or solicitor often years' standing), to whom a salary may
be paid. Quarter Sessions presided over by a chairman or deputy-
chairman so appointed, or one who has held judicial office as defined
in the Administration of Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act,
1938, may try certain crimes which must normally be tried at
Assizes. Nearly all Courts of County Quarter Sessions have taken
advantage of these provisions to acquire extended jurisdiction. The
Quarter Sessions of those boroughs which have their own Courts of
Quarter Sessions are presided over by a Recorder, a practising bar-
rister, as sole judge.2 The Recorder is appointed by the Crown and
is paid out of borough funds a salary prescribed by the Crown. He
sits with a jury./
Assizes.	Criminal cases committed to Assizes are tried by petty juries
before judges of the Queen's Bench Division travelling the seven
circuits into Which England and Wales are divided. T&ese Courts
of Assize are branches of the High Court of Justice. The Judges
trying; criminal cases on circuit derive their authority from com-
missions of oyer and termmer and general gaol delivery^ The former
gives powSTcTtry all prisoners againsf wtom an indictment may be
preferred; the latter gives power to try all prisoners in gaol or who
have been released on bail. These commissions are sometimes issued
to Queen's Counsel and other Special Commissioners who are not
judges of the High Court. Assizes are normally held three times a
year in each county and in a few large towns which have their own
Assizes. In Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool the Assizes are held
four times a year. At the Winter and Summer Assizes civil business
is taken as well as criminal, but except in a few large towns the
Autumn Assize is confined to criminal business. Judges taking civil
business at Assizes derive their authority from commissions of
assize and havet he unlimited jurisdiction of the High Court, but
4 P. 230, ante. .	* P. 271, post.