Opinion of the Court.

of a justice of the peace, whether rendered upon a verdict or not, and either party may have a trial by a common law jury in the appellate court; and the trial by jury in that court is, and the trial before a justice of the peace is not, a trial by jury within the meaning of the Seventh Amendment to the Constitution.

The only question remaining to be considered is of the constitutionality of the provisions of the act of 1895, by which the civil jurisdiction of justices of the peace is extended to three hundred dollars, and either party, on appealing from the judgment of the justice of the peace to the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, is required to enter into an undertaking to pay and satisfy whatever judgment may be rendered in that court.

For half a century and more, as has been seen, after the adoption of the earliest constitutions of the several States, their courts uniformly maintained the constitutionality of statutes more than doubling the pecuniary limit of the civil jurisdiction of justices of the peace as it stood before the adoption of constitutions declaring that trial by jury should be preserved inviolate, although those statutes made no provision for a trial by jury, except upon appeal from the judgment of the justice of the peace, and upon giving bond with surety to pay the judgment of the appellate court. And such appears to have been understood to be the law of Maryland and of the District of Columbia before and at the time of the passage of the act of Congress of 1823.

Legislation increasing the civil jurisdiction of justices of the peace to two or three hundred dollars, and requiring each appellant from the judgment of a justice of the peace to a court of record, in which a trial by jury may be had for the first time, to give security for the payment of the judgment of the court appealed to, has not generally been considered as unreasonably obstructing the right of trial by jury, as is shown by the numerous statutes cited in the margin,1

1ARKANSAS. Digest 1894, §§ 4317, 4431, 4432.

CALIFORNIA. Code of Civil Procedure 1872, §§ 114, 974, 978.

Opinion of the Court.

from which it appears that the civil jurisdiction of justices of the peace has been increased to three hundred dollars in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Kansas, Arkansas, Colorado and California; to two hundred and fifty dollars in Missouri; and to two hundred dollars in New York, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Delaware, North Carolina, Mississippi and Texas; and that the appellant is required (at least when the appeal is to operate as a supersedeas) to enter into a bond or recognizance, not only to prosecute his appeal, but to pay the judgment of the appellate court, in all those States, except Pennsylvania; and in that State any corporation, except a municipal corporation, is required to give such a bond, but other appellants are required to give bond for the payment of costs only. And we have not been referred to a single decision in any of those States that holds such a statute to be unconstitutional in any respect.

The legislature, in distributing the judicial power between courts of record, on the one hand, and justices of the peace or other subordinate magistrates, on the other, with a view to prevent unnecessary delay and unreasonable expense, must have a considerable discretion, whenever in its opinion, be

COLORADO. Rev. Stat. 1867, c. 50, §§ 1, 38,39; Gen. Laws 1877, §§ 1482, 1519, 1520; Gen. Stat. 1883, §§ 1924, 1979, 1980.

DELAWARE. Rev. Stat. 1893, c. 99, §§ 1, 25.

ILLINOIS. Rev. Stat. 1874, c. 79, §§ 13, 62; Starr & Curtis's Stat. 1896, c. 79, §§ 16, 115.

188.

INDIANA. Rev. Stat. 1881, §§ 1433, 1500.

KANSAS. Gen. Stat. 1868, c. 81, §§ 2, 121; Gen. Stat. 1897, c. 103, §§ 20,

MICHIGAN. Rev. Stat. 1872, §§ 5249, 5433; Howell's Stat. 1882, §§ 6814,

7000.

MISSISSIPPI. Code 1892, §§ 2394, 82.

MISSOURI. Rev. Stat. 1889, §§ 6122, 6328.

NEW YORK.

§ 56; tit. 4, § 53.

Stat. 1861, c. 158; Rev. Stat. 1875, (6th ed.) pt. 3, tit. 2,

NORTH CAROLINA. Code 1883, §§ 834, 884.

OHIO. Rev. Stat. 1880, §§ 585, 6584.

PENNSYLVANIA. Stat. July 7, 1879, c. 211; Purdon's Digest, 1885, (11th ed.) Justice of the Peace, §§ 35, 99, 100.

TEXAS. Rev. Stat. 1879, §§ 1539, 1639; Rev. Stat. 1895, §§ 1568, 1670. WISCONSIN. Rev. Stat. 1878, §§ 3572, 3756; Stat. 1898, §§ 3572, 3760.

Opinion of the Court.

cause of general increase in litigation, or other change of circumstances, the interest and convenience of the public require it, to enlarge within reasonable bounds the pecuniary amounts of the classes of claims entrusted in the first instance to the decision of justices of the peace, provided always the right of trial by jury is not taken away in any case in which it is secured by the Constitution.

Having regard to the principles and to the precedents applicable to this subject, we should not be warranted in declaring that the act of Congress of 1895 so unreasonably obstructs the right of trial by jury, that it must for this reason be held to be unconstitutional and void.

X. Upon the whole matter, our conclusion is, that Congress, in the exercise of its general and exclusive power of legislation over the District of Columbia, may provide for the trial of civil causes of moderate amount by a justice of the peace, or, in his presence, by a jury of twelve, or of any less number, allowing to either party, where the value in controversy exceeds twenty dollars, the right to appeal from the judgment of the justice of the peace to a court of record, and to have a trial by jury in that court; that Congress, in every case where the value in controversy exceeds five dollars, has authorized either party to appeal from the judgment of the justice of the peace, although entered upon the verdict of a jury, to the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, and to have a trial by jury in that court; that the trial by a jury of twelve, as permitted by Congress to be had before a justice of the peace, is not, and the trial by jury in the appellate court is, a trial by jury, within the meaning of the common law, and of the Seventh Amendment to the Constitution; that therefore the trial of facts by a jury before the justice of the peace does not prevent those facts from being reëxamined by a jury in the appellate court; that the right of trial by jury in the appellate court is not unduly obstructed by the provisions enlarging the civil jurisdiction of justices of the peace to three hundred dollars, and requiring every appellant to give security to pay and satisfy the judgment of the appellate court; that the legislation of Congress upon the subject is in all respects consistent

Counsel for Parties.

with the Constitution of the United States; and that upon these grounds (which are substantially those taken by Chief Justice Alvey below) the judgment of the Court of Appeals, quashing the writ of certiorari to the justice of the peace, must be affirmed.

The effect of so affirming that judgment will be to leave the claim of Hof against the Capital Traction Company open to be tried by a jury before the justice of the peace, and, after his judgment upon their verdict, to be taken by appeal to the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, and to be there tried by jury on the demand of either party.

Judgment affirmed.

MR. JUSTICE BREWER concurred in the judgment of affirmance, but dissented from so much of the opinion as upheld the validity of the provision of the act of Congress requiring every appellant from the judgment of a justice of the peace to give bond with surety for the payment of the judgment of the appellate court.

MR. JUSTICE BROWN did not sit in this case, or take any part in its decision.

In No. 114, METROPOLITAN RAILWAY COMPANY v. CHURCH, and No. 195, BRIGHTWOOD RAILWAY COMPANY v. O'NEAL, argued at the same time, the judgments of the Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia, quashing writs of certiorari to set aside proceedings of a justice of the peace under similar circumstances, are likewise

Affirmed.

Mr. D. W. Baker for Metropolitan Railway Co. Mr. Nathaniel Wilson was on his brief..

Mr. Ernest L. Schmidt for Church.

Mr. Henry P. Blair and Mr. Corcoran Thom, for Brightwood Railway Co., submitted on their brief.

Mr. Raymond A. Heiskell and Mr. M. J. Colbert for O'Neal.

Opinion of the Court.

KIRBY v. UNITED STATES.

ERROR TO THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE DISTRICT OF SOUTH DAKOTA.

No. 164. Argued January 20, 1899. Decided April 11, 1899.

On the trial of a person charged with feloniously receiving and having in his possession with intent to convert them to his own use, postage stamps which had been feloniously stolen, taken and carried away from a post office by three persons named, although the person so receiving them well knew that the same had been so feloniously taken, stolen and carried away, the judgment convicting the said three persons of stealing the said stamps was received in evidence against the accused, under the provision in the act of March 3, 1875, c. 144, § 2, that such judgment "shall be conclusive evidence against said receiver, that the property of the United States therein described has been embezzled, stolen or purloined." The accused having been convicted, and the case brought here by writ of error, Held, That that provision of the statute violates the clause of the Constitution of the United States, declaring that in all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall be confronted with the witnesses against him; and that the judgment must be reversed.

The contention by the defendant that the indictment is defective in that it does not allege ownership by the United States of the stolen articles of property at the time that they were alleged to have been feloniously received by him, is without merit.

The objection that the indictment does not show from whom the accused received the stamps, nor state that the name of such person was unknown to the grand jurors, is not well taken.

THE case is stated in the opinion of the court.

Mr. A. G. Safford for plaintiff in error.

and Mr. Joseph Kirby were on his brief.

Mr. C. O. Bailey

Mr. Assistant Attorney General Boyd for defendants in

error.

MR. JUSTICE HARLAN delivered the opinion of the court.

The plaintiff in error Kirby was indicted in the District Court of the United States for the Southern Division of the District of South Dakota under the act of Congress of March 3,