The constitutions and laws of most of the States of the union provide that no person shall be tried for a felony unless he shall first have been indicted for his offence by a grand jury. The defendant may have been caught in the very act, have freely acknowledged his guilt to the officer who arrested him, have admitted it before the magistrate, and have signed a full and complete confession of his crime in every detail, yet he cannot be placed on trial or his plea of guilty received until a body of twenty-three intelligent, but exceedingly busy, gentlemen, sitting together in a secluded chamber, have solemnly deliberated upon the case. If they agree with the prisoner in his contention that he is guilty they thereupon file a diffuse and perplexing document to that effect, which they have not read, and probably would not understand if they had. The proceeding has cost the county some additional expense and the defendant a day or two longer in jail, and he has............