Note 126 — CHAP. XV.

In criminal cases, a defective indictment is not aided by the verdict of a Jury, as defective pleadings are in civil cases. Indeed wherever life is concerned, great strictness has been at all times observed. That able and humane Judge, Sir Matthew Hale, complained above a century ago,[A] "That this strictness has grown to be a blemish and inconvenience in the law and the administration thereof; for that more offenders escape by the over-easy ear given to exceptions in indictments, than by their own innocence: and many times gross murders, burglaries, robberies, and other heinous and crying offences remain unpunished, by those unseemly niceties; to the reproach of the Law, to the shame of the Government, to the encouragement of villainy, and to the dishonour of God."[B]