LAW AND THE COURTS 245

sentence., which, for four crimes—treason, murder, piracy and
arson in royal dockyards—must be a sentence of death. For
other offences, the law provides a maximum penalty but no
minimum, so that the judge has a wide discretion. He will receive,
to guide his decision, information from the police about any
previous convictions of the prisoner—information which is
rigidly excluded from the court, unless and until guilt is proved.
In civil actions before the High Court, the order of proceedings
is, in the main, similar to that just described. Points of law,
however, play a larger part; consequently proceedings may be
complicated by legal arguments between counsel and judge. In
many civil cases no jury is now required, and in some the judge
may tell the jury what verdict they are to return. Special juries,
containing people from a wealthier class than the ordinary juror,
may be empanelled at the request of either side; they are chiefly
used where the points to be decided will require extensive
business knowledge. A notable feature of civil cases is the
judgment pronounced by the judge at the end; he does not
confine himself to saying which side has won, but delivers a
statement of the general principles of law involved in the case.
It is the reports of these judgments which form an explanation
of, and addition to, the common law and the statutes. The Judge
must also determine whether each side is to pay its own costs,
or whether, as is usual, the whole cost is to Ml on the losers.

APPEALS.

A party to a civil action who is dissatisfied with the High
Court's decision, may take the case to the Court of Appeal. The
Lord Chancellor, the Lord Chief Justice, the President of the
Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division, belong to this court,
though they rarely attend. The work is done by the Master of
the Rolls and five Lord Justices of Appeal, who are either ex-
judges of the High Court, or barristers of at least fifteen years*
standing; three or more members of the court sit to hear any
appeal, and usually there are two, branches of the Court sitting