which the course of proceeding is much the fame as on general and ordinary commiffions. Formerly it was held, in purfuance of the statutes 8 Ric. II. c. 2. and 33 Hen. VIII. c 4. that no judge or other lawyer could act in the commiffion of oyer and terminer, or in that of jail delivery, within his own county, where he was born or inhabited; in like manner as they are prohibited from being judges of affize and determining civil caufes. But that local partiality, which the jealously of our ancestors was careful to prevent, being judged lefs likely to operate in the trial of crimes and mifdemeanors, than in matters of property and difputes between party and party, it was thought proper, by the ftatute 12 Geo. II. c. 27. to allow any man to be a juftice of oyer and terminer and general jail delivery within any county of England.

COURT OF GENERAL QUARTER SESSIONS OF THE PEACE. This court must be held in every county once in every quarter of a year; which by a statute 2 Hen. V. c. 4. is appointed to be in the first week after the Epiphany; the first week after the close of Easter; and in the week after the tranflation of St. Thomas the Martyr, or the feventh of July. It is held before two or more juftices of the peace, one of whom must be of the quorum. The jurifdiction of this court, by ftatute 34 Edw. III. c. 1. extends to the trying and determining all felonies and trefpafles whatsoever though they feldom, if ever, try any greater offence than fmall felonies within the benefit of clergy; their commiffion providing, that, if any cafe of difficulty arifes, they fhall not proceed to judgment, but in the prefence of one of the juftices of the court of king's bench or common pleas, or one of the judges of affize; and therefore murders, and other capital felonies, are ufually remitted for a more folemn trial to the affizes. They cannot alfo try any new created offence, without exprefs power given them by the ftatute which creates it. But there are many offences, and particular matters, which, by particular ftatutes, belong properly to this jurifdiction, and ought to be prosecuted in this court: as, the fmaller mifdemeanors, against the public or common wealth, not amounting to felony; and efpecially offences relating to the game, highways, ale-houses, baftard children, the fettlement and provifion for the poor, vagrants, fervants wages, apprentices, and popifh recufants. Some of thefe are proceeded upon by indictment; and others in a fummary way by motion and order thereupon; which order may, for the most part, unlefs guarded against by particular ftatutes, be removed into the court of king's bench, by writ of certiorari facias, and be there either quafhed or confirmed. The records or rolls of the feffions are committed

to the cuftody of a special officer denominated the cuftos rotue lorum. In most corporation towns there are quarter-feffions kept before juftices of their own, within their refpective limits: which have exactly the fame authority as the general quarter-feffions of the county, except in a very few inftances one of the most confiderable of which is the matter of appeals from orders of removal of the poor, which, though they be from the orders of corporation juftices, must be to the feffions of the county, by ftatute 8 and 9 Will. III. c. 30. In both corporations and counties at large, there is fometimes kept a fpecial or petty feffion, by a few juftices, for dispatching fmaller bufinefs in the neighbourhood between the times of the general feffions; as, for liceufing ale-houses, paffing the accounts of the parish officers, and the like.

THE SHERIFF'S TOURN. The fheriffs tourn or rotation, is a court of record, held twice every year within a month after Eafter and Michaelmas, before the fheriff, in different parts of the county; being indeed only the turn of the fheriffs to keep a court-leet of the county, as the county court is the court baron: for out of this, for the eafe of the fheriffs, was taken,

THE COURT-LEET, OR VIEW OF FRANKPLEDGE, which is a court of record, held once in the year, and not oftener, within a particular hundred, lordship, or manor, before the fteward of the leet: being the king's court granted by charter to the lords of thofe hundreds or manors. Its origi

nal intent was to view the frank pledges, that is, the freemen within the liberty; who, according to the inftitution of the great Alfred, were all mutually pledges for the good behaviour of each other. Befides this, the prefervation of the peace, and the chaftifement of divers minute offences against the public good, are the objects both of the court-leet and the sheriffs tourn. All freeholders within the precinct are obliged to attend them, and all perfons commorant therein; which commorancy confifts in ufually lying there: a regulation, which owes its original to the laws of Canute. But perfons under twelve and above fixty years old, peers, clergymen, women, and the king's tenants in ancient demefne, are excufed from attendance: all others being bound to appear upon the jury, if required, and make their due prefentments. It was alfo anciently the cuftom to summon all the king's fubjects, as they refpectively grew to years of difcretion and ftrength, to come to the court-leet, and there take the oath of allegiance to the king. The other general bu finefs of the leet and tourn, was to prefent by jury all crimes whatfoever that happened within their jurifdiction; and not only to prefent, but alfo to punish, all mifdemeanors, as all trivial debts

4

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were recoverable in the court-baron, and county court: justice, in these minuter matters of both kinds, being brought home to the doors of every man by our ancient conftitution. Thefe courts have, however, long been in a declining state, their businefs having for the most part devolved on the feffions.

COURT OF THE CORONERS. The court of the coroners is alfo a court of record, to inquire, when any one dies in prifon, or by a violent or fudden death, by what manner he came to his end. And this can only be done on view of the body.

COURT OF THE CLERK OF THE MARKET. The court of the clerk of the market is incident to every fair and market in the kingdom, to punih misdemeanors therein, as a court of pie boudre is to determine all difputes relating to private or civil property. The object of this jurifdiction is principally the recognizance of weights and measures, to try whether they are according to the true ftandard, or no; which standard was anciently committed to the cuftody of the bifhop, who appointed fome clerk under him to infpect abufes, and hence. this officer, though now ufually a layman, is called the clerk of the market. If they are not according to the ftandard, then, befides the punishment of the party by fine, the weights and measures themselves ought to be burnt. This is the most inferior court of criminal jurifdiction in the kingdom. COURTS OF THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD. Thefe are two local courts established by statute, and although now never heard of, yet not abolished. The first is the court of the lord fterward, treasurer, or comptroller of the king's household, which was inftituted by ftatute 3 Hen. VII. c. 14., to inquire of felony by any of the king's fworn fervants, in the cheque roll of the household, under the degree of a lord, in confederating, compaffing, confpiring, and imagining the death or deftruction of the king, or any lord or other of his majefty's privy-council, or the lord fteward, treasurer, or comptroller of the king's houfe. The inquiry, and trial thereupon, must be by a jury according to the course of the common law, confifting of twelve fad men, (that is, fober and difcreet perfons) of the king's houfehold. The other is the court of the lord teward of the king's household, or in his abfence, of the treasurer, comptroller, and steward of the Marfhalfea, which was erected by 33 Hen. VIII. c. 12., with a jurifdiction to inquire of, hear, and determine, all treafons, mifprifions of treafon, murders, manslaughters, bloodshed, and other malicious ftrikings, whereby blood is fhed in, or within the limits, (that is within two hundred feet of the gate) of any of the palaces and houfes of the king, or any other house where he abides. The proceedings are alfo by a grand and petit jury, as at common law, taken out of officers and fworn fervants of

the

the king's household. The form and folemnity of the procefs, particularly with regard to the execution of sentence by cutting off the hand, which is part of the punishment for fhedding blood in the king's court, are very minutely fet forth in the faid ftatute 33 Hen. VIII., and the several offices of the fervants of the household in and about fuch execution are defcribed, from the ferjeant of the wood-yard, who furnishes the chopping block, to the ferjeant farrier, who brings hot irons to fear the ftump.

COURT OF THE UNIVERSITIES. The chancellor's court has authority to determine all cafes of property, wherein a privileged perfon is one of the parties, except caufes of freehold; and also all criminal offences or misdemeanors under the degree of treason, felony, or mayhem. The trial of these latter offences is by a particular charter committed to the univerfity jurifdiction, the court of the lord high steward of the university. If an indictment is found in any of the king's courts against a fcholar or privileged perfon, he is to be tried before the high fteward of the univerfity, or his deputy, who is to be nominated by the chancellor of the univerfity for the time being. But when his office is called into action, he must be approved by the lord high chancellor of England; and a fpecial commiffion under the great feal is given to him, and others, to try the indictment then depending, according to the law of the land and the privileges of the univerfity; but this can only be done when the cognizance is claimed by the vice-chancellor. If the offence be inter minora crimina, or a mifdemeanor only, it is tried in the chancellor's court by the ordinary judge; but if it be for treafon, felony, or mayhem, it is then, and then only, to be determined before the lord high steward, under the king's fpecial commiffion. The procefs of the trial is this: The high fteward issues one precept to the fheriff of the county, who returns a panel of eighteen freeholders; and another precept to the bedells of the university, who return a panel of eighteen matriculated laymen, "laicos privilegio univerfitatis gaudentes:" and by a jury formed de medietate, half of freeholders, and half of matriculated perfons, is the indictment to be tried. And if it is neceffary to award execution in confequence of finding the party guilty, the fheriff of the county must execute the university procefs; to which he is annually bound by oath.

JUSTICES OF THE PEACE. In aid of thefe courts fubordinate magiftrates are appointed under the name of juftices of the peace. The common law has ever had a special care and regard for the confervation of the peace; for peace is the very end and foundation of civil fociety. And therefore, before the prefent conftitution of justices was invented, there were pecu

liar officers appointed by the common law for the maintenance of the public peace. Of those fome had, and still have, this power annexed to other offices which they hold; others had it merely by itself, and were thence named cuftodes or confervatores pacis. Thofe that were fo by virtue of office ftill continue; but the latter fort are fuperfeded by the modern justices.

The king is, by his office and dignity royal, the principal confervator of the peace within all his dominions; and may give authority to any other to fee the peace kept, and to punish fuch as break it; hence it is ufually called the king's peace. The lord chancellor or keeper, the lord treasurer, the lord high fteward of England, the lord marefchal, the lord high conftable of England, (when any fuch officers are in being) and all the juftices of the court of king's bench (by virtue of their offices), and the master of the rolls (by prefcription), are generally confervators of the peace throughout the whole kingdom, and may commit all breakers of it, or bind them in recognizances to keep it; the other judges are only fo in their own courts. The coroner is alfo a confervator of the peace within his own county; as is also the sheriff; and both of them may take a recognizance or fecurity for the peace. Conftables, tything-men, and the like, are also confervators of the peace within their own jurifdictions; and may apprehend all breakers of the peace, and commit them, till they find fureties for keeping it.

Those that were, without any office, fimply and merely confervators of the peace, either claimed that power by prefcrip tion, or were bound to exercise it by the tenure of their lands: or, laftly, were chofen by the freeholders in full county court, before the fheriff; the writ for their election directing them to be chofen from among the most honeft and powerful men in the county, for prefervation of the peace. But when Ifabel, the wife of Edward II., had contrived to depofe her husband, by a forced refignation of the crown, and had fet up his fon, Edward III. in his place, this, being a thing then without example in England, it was feared would much alarm the people; efpecially as the old king was living, though hurried about from caftle to eastle, till at last he met with an untimely death. To prevent, therefore, any rifings, or other disturbances of the peace, the new king fent writs to all the fheriffs in England, the form of which is preferved by Thomas Walfingham, giving a plausible account of the manner of his obtaining the crown; namely, that it was done with the good liking of his father himself; commanding each fheriff that the peace be kept throughout his bailiwick, on pain and peril of difinheritance, and lofs of life and limb. In a few weeks after the date of thefe writs, it was ordained in parliament, that, for the better maintaining