Opinion of the Court. District of Pennsylvania thus: "The rule of decision in some countries has been that, as to a vessel, no change of ownership during hostilities can be regarded in a prize court. In the United States, as in England, the strictness of this rule is not observed. But no such change of property is recognized where the disposition and control of a vessel continue in the former agent of her former hostile proprietors; more espe cially when, as in this case, he is a person whose relations of residence are hostile." The Island Belle, 13 Fed. Cases, 168. So in The Baltica, Spinks Prize Cases, 264, several vessels had been sold by a father, an enemy, to his son, a neutral, immediately before the war, and only paid for in part, the remainder to be paid out of the future earnings thereof, and the Baltica, which was one of them, was condemned on the ground of a continuance of the enemy's interest. In The Soglasie, Spinks Prize Cases, 104, Dr. Lushington held the onus probandi to be upon the claimant, and made these observations: "With regard to documents of a formal nature, though when well authenticated they are to be duly appreciated, it does not follow that they are always of the greatest weight, because we know, without attributing blame to the authorities under which they issue, they are instruments often procured with extraordinary facility. What the court especially desires is, that testimony which bears less the appearance of formality, - evidence natural to the transaction, but which often carries with it a proof of its own genuineness; the court looks for that correspondence and other evidence which naturally attends the transaction, accompanies it, or follows it, and which, when it bears upon the face of it the aspect of sincerity, will always receive its due weight." In The Ernst Merck, Spinks Prize Cases, 98, the sale was to neutrals of Mecklenburg shortly before the breaking out of war, and it was ruled that the onus of giving satisfactory proof of the sale was on the claimant, and without it the court could not restore even though it was not called on to pronounce affirmatively that the transfer was fictitious and fraudulent. In that case the vessel was condemned partly because of absence of proof of payment, Dr. Lushington saying: "We Syllabus. all know that one of the most important matters to be estab lished by a claimant is undoubted proof of payment." To the point that the burden of proof was on the claimant see also The Jenny, 5 Wall. 183; The Amiable Isabella, 6 Wheat. 1; The Lilla, 2 Cliff. 169; Story's Prize Courts, 26. We think that the requirements of the law of prize were not satisfied by the proofs in regard to this transfer, and on all the evidence are of opinion that the court below was right in the conclusion at which it arrived. Decree affirmed. MR. JUSTICE SHIRAS, MR. JUSTICE WHITE and MR. JUSTICE PEOKHAM dissented. MAXWELL v. DOW. ERROR TO THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF UTAH.' No. 884. Argued December 4, 1899. - Decided February 26, 1900. The decision in Hurtado v. California, 110 U. S. 516, that the words "due Whether a trial in criminal cases not capital shall be by a jury composed of Opinion of the Court. THE statement of the case is in the opinion of the court. Mr. J. W. N. Whitecotton for plaintiff in error. Mr. Alexander C. Bishop for defendant in error. Mr. William A. Lee was on his brief. MR. JUSTICE PECKHAM delivered the opinion of the court. On the 27th of June, 1898, an information was filed against the plaintiff in error by the prosecuting attorney of the county, in a state court of the State of Utah, charging him with the crime of robbery committed within the county in May, 1898. In September, 1898, he was tried before a jury composed of but eight jurors, and convicted and sentenced to imprisonment in the state prison for eighteen years, and since that time has been confined in prison, undergoing the sentence of the state court. In May, 1899, he applied to the Supreme Court of the State for a writ of habeas corpus, and alleged in his sworn petition that he was a natural-born citizen of the United States, and that his imprisonment was unlawful, because he was prosecuted under an information instead of by indictment by a grand jury, and was tried by a jury composed of eight instead of twelve jurors. He specially set up and claimed (1) that to prosecute him by information abridged his privileges and immunities as a citizen of the United States, under article 5 of the amendments to the Constitution of the United States, and also violated section 1 of article 14 of those amendments; (2) that a trial by jury of only eight persons abridged his privileges and immunities as a citizen of the United States, under article 6, and also violated section 1 of article 14 of such amendments; (3) that a trial by such a jury and his subsequent imprisonment by reason of the verdict of that jury deprived him of his liberty without due process of law, in violation of section 1 of article 14, which provides that no State shall deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law. Opinion of the Court. The Supreme Court of the State, after a hearing of the case, denied the petition for a writ, and remanded the prisoner to the custody of the keeper of the state prison, to undergo the remainder of his sentence, and he then sued out a writ of error and brought the case here. The questions to be determined in this court are, (1) as to the validity, with reference to the Federal Constitution, of the proceeding against the plaintiff in error on an information instead of by an indictment by a grand jury; and (2) the validity of the trial of the plaintiff in error by a jury composed of eight instead of twelve jurors. We think the various questions raised by the plaintiff in error have in substance, though not all in terms, been decided by this court in the cases to which attention will be called. The principles which have been announced in those cases clearly prove the validity of the clauses in the constitution of Utah which are herein attacked as in violation of the Constitution of the United States. It will, therefore, be necessary in this case to do but little else than call attention to the former decisions of this court, and thereby furnish a conclusive answer to the contentions of plaintiff in error. The proceeding by information and also the trial by a jury, composed of eight jurors, were both provided for by the state constitution. Section 13, article 1, of the constitution of Utah provides : "Offences heretofore required to be prosecuted by indictment shall be prosecuted by information after examination and commitment by a magistrate, unless the examination be waived by the accused with the consent of the State, or by indictment, with or without such examination and commitment. The grand jury shall consist of seven persons, five of whom must concur to find an indictment; but no grand jury shall be drawn or summoned unless in the opinion of the judge of the district public interest demands it." Section 10, article 1, of that constitution is as follows: "In capital cases the right of trial by jury shall remain inviolate. In courts of general jurisdiction, except in capital cases, a jury shall consist of eight jurors. In courts of infe Opinion of the Court. rior jurisdiction a jury shall consist of four jurors. In crimi nal cases the verdict shall be unanimous. In civil cases three fourths of the jurors may find a verdict. A jury in civil cases shall be waived unless demanded." The objection that the proceeding by information does not amount to due process of law has been heretofore overruled, and must be regarded as settled by the case of Hurtado v. California, 110 U. S. 516. The case has since been frequently approved. Hallinger v. Davis, 146 U. S. 314, 322; McNulty v. California, 149 U. S. 645; Hodgson v. Vermont, 168 U. S. 262, 272; Holden v. Hardy, 169 U. S. 366, 384; Brown v. New Jersey, 175 U. S. 172, 176; Bolln v. Nebraska, 176 U. S. 83. But the plaintiff in error contends that the Hurtado case did not decide the question whether the state law violated that clause in the Fourteenth Amendment which provides that no State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States. Although the opinion is mainly devoted to an inquiry whether the California law was a violation of the "due process clause" of the above-mentioned amendment, yet the matter in issue in the case was as to the validity of the state law, and the court held it valid. It was alleged by the counsel for the plaintiff in error, before the court which passed sentence, that the proceeding was in conflict with the Fifth and the Fourteenth Amendments, and those grounds were before this court. The Fifth Amendment was referred to in the opinion delivered in this court, and it was held not to have been violated by the state law, although that amendment provides for an indictment by a grand jury. This decision could not have been arrived at if a citizen of the United States were entitled, by virtue of that clause of the Fourteenth Amendment relating to the privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States, to claim in a state court that he could not be prosecuted for an infamous crime unless upon an indictment by a grand jury. In a Federal court no person can be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime unless by indictment by a grand jury, with the exceptions stated in the |