one mode is by an _ex officio_ information, the other is by
indictment. An indictment is the mode by which all treasons and
felonies must be proceeded against, and by which ordinary
misdemeanours are usually brought to punishment. An _ex officio_
information is an information at the suit of the sovereign, filed by
the Attorney-General, as by virtue of his office, without applying to
the court where filed for leave, and without giving the defendant any
opportunity of showing cause why it should not be filed. The principal
difference between this form of procedure and that by indictment,
consists in the manner in which the proceedings are commenced; in the
latter case, the law requires that the accusation should be warranted
by the oath of twelve men, before he be put to answer it--or in other
words that the grand jury must give that information to the court,
which, in the former case, is furnished by the law officer of the
crown. The cases which are prosecuted by _ex officio_ information, are
properly such enormous misdemeanours as peculiarly tend to disturb and
endanger the government or to molest or affront the sovereign in the
discharge of the functions of the royal office. The necessity for the
existence of a power of this nature in the state, is thus set forth by
that learned and illustrious judge, Sir William Blackstone. "For
offences so highly dangerous, in the punishment or prevention of which
a moment's delay would be fatal, the law has given to the crown the
power of an immediate prosecution, without waiting for any previous
application to any other tribunal: which power, thus necessary, not
only to the ease and safety, but even to the very existence of the
executive magistrate, was originally reserved in the great plan of the
English constitution, wherein provision is wisely made for the
preservation of all its parts."

The crown, therefore, in a case such as we have imagined, must first