vessel."[Footnote: United States _v._ Griswold, 24 Federal
Reporter, 361; 30 _id_., 762.] But they appeal to sordid
motives and are liable to abuse. One who is exposed to such a
suit often gets a friend to bring it, in order to forestall
proceedings by others or by the State, and with a view to
delaying or defeating the collection of the penalty. These
considerations induced Parliament to restrict the remedy in
England as early as the reign of Henry VII, and have proved of
equal force in course of time in the United States.

Justices of the peace and local municipal courts of criminal
jurisdiction are generally given power to deal finally with a few
petty offenses, subject to a right of appeal to a court where a
jury trial can be had. As to all others, their function is, when
the warrant of arrest has been executed, to inquire whether there
is probable cause for holding the defendant to answer to the
charge which has been made against him in a higher court, and if
they find that such cause exists, to order him to give sufficient
security that he will appear before it for trial. The question
is not whether the evidence satisfies them of his guilt, but
simply whether it is sufficient, in their judgment, to make it
proper to send him where the charge can be more thoroughly
investigated by those who have the right to condemn or to acquit.
In making this inquiry, they hear both sides, if the defendant
has any testimony to offer. In most States he is now a competent
witness in his own behalf, provided he desires to testify.

He cannot be interrogated in any court or before any magistrate
without his consent. This is a weakness in the American system
of criminal procedure. Under the English system of prosecutions