David Josiah Brewer

“ For acts purely clerical and ministerial, such as administering oaths, taking acknowledgments, taking and certifying depositions to file, or furnishing a copy of the same, specific fees are provided, and for issuing writs or warrants or other services he has the same compensation as is allowed to clerks for like services. For acts not merely clerical, but which are performed by the commissioner in his judicial capacity, his fees are regulated on a basis of per diem compensation.' These services were clearly not of a clerical, but of a judicial, nature. ”

“ The inquiry is never limited to the fact or the character of services, but always extends to the statutory suthority for compensation. The latter being wanting, no recovery can be had. Now, the clause in question-and this is the only clause that can be relied on-provides a per diem compensation 'for hearing and deciding on criminal charges.' A criminal charge, strictly speaking exists only when a formal written complaint has been made against the accused, and a prosecution initiated. ”

“ In the eyes of the law, a person is charged with crime only when he is called upon in a legal proceeding to answer to such a charge. Mre investigation by prosecuting officers, or even the inquiry and consideration by examining magistrates of the propriety of initiating a prosecution, do not, of themselves, create a criminal charge. ”