“ In the case of courts of common law,-and we are not here concerned with the special grounds upon which courts of equity afford relief,-the court at a subsequent term has power to correct inaccuracies in mere matters of form, or clerical errors, and, in civil cases, to rectify such mistakes of fact as were reviewable on writs of error coram nobis, or coram vobis, for which the proceeding by motion is the modern substitute. ”

“ In a Federal court of competent jurisdiction, final judgment of conviction had been entered and sentence had been imposed. The judgment was subject to review in the appellate court, but, so far as the trial court was concerned, it was a finality; the subsequent proceeding was, in effect, a new proceeding, which, by reason of its character, invoked an authority not possessed. In these circumstances it would seem to be clear that the consent of the prosecuting officer could not alter the case; he was not a dispensing power to give or withhold jurisdiction. ”

“ Basing the argument upon the proposition that the government had no right of review in the circuit court of appeals in a criminal case, it is urged that the government cannot be regarded as deprived of any relief which it is entitled to seek from that court, and hence that it cannot be said that the issue of the writ was necessary for the exercise of its jurisdiction. Judicial Code, § 262. But the case was actually pending in the circuit court of appeals on the defendant's writ of error, and the goverment had all the rights of a litigant in that court seeking to maintain a judgment assailed. ”