sion, or remainder expectant upon such lease as in the acts mentioned, with reserved rents of the clear yearly value of 3001. per annum (u). Also, to prevent improper practices, it is provided by 5 Geo. II. c. 18, s. 2, that no proctor, while he shall continue in practice as such, shall be capable of being a justice of the peace for any county; and by 6 & 7 Vict. c. 73, s. 33, a similar disqualification attaches to practising attornies and solicitors (x).

[As the office of these justices is conferred by the crown, so it subsists only during the crown's pleasure, and is determinable, 1. By the demise of the crown; that is, in six months after (y). But if the same justice is put in commission by the successor, he shall not be obliged to sue out a new dedimus, or to swear to his qualification afresh (z); nor, by reason of any new commission, to take the oaths more than once in the same reign (a). 2. By express writ under the great seal (b), discharging any particular person from being any longer justice. 3. By superseding the commission by writ of supersedeas, which suspends the power of all the justices, but does not totally destroy it, seeing it may be revived again by another writ, called a procedendo. 4. By a new commission, which virtually, though silently, discharges all the former justices that are not included therein; for two commissions cannot subsist at once. 5. By accession to the office of sheriff,] which disqualifies during the

(u) As to what is a sufficient qualification within the statute, vide Pack v. Tarpley, 9 A. & E. 468; Woodward v. Watts, 2 Ell. & Bl. 452. Official acts done by a justice not properly qualified, are not therefore void, though he acts at his own peril. (Margate Pier Company v. Hannam, 3 B. & Ald. 266.) By 11 & 12 Vict. c. 42, s. 31, the chief magistrate at Bow-street may be a justice for Berks without the qualification. And by 19 & 20 Vict. c. 2, . there is a similar provision as to the assistant commissioners of police of

the metropolis in their capacity of justices of the peace for Middlesex, &c.

(x) There was a similar enactment as to attornies and solicitors (now repealed by this act) in 5 Geo. 2, c. 18. In the 6 & 7 Vict. c. 73, the prohibition is subject to exception in the case of a city or town, being a county of itself.

(y) 1 Ann. c. 18.
(z) 1 Geo. 3, c. 13.
(a) 7 Geo. 3, c. 9.
(b) Lamb. 68.

[year of shrievalty (c). [Formerly it was thought that if a man was named in any commission of the peace, and had afterwards a new dignity conferred upon him, this determined his office, he no longer answering the description of the commission: but now it is provided (d), that, notwithstanding a new title of dignity, the justice on whom it is conferred shall still continue a justice.

The power, office, and duty of a justice of the peace depend on his commission, and on the several statutes which have created objects of his jurisdiction. His commission, first, empowers him singly to conserve the peace, and thereby gives him all the power of the antient conservators at the common law, in suppressing riots and affrays, in taking securities for the peace, and in apprehending and committing felons and other inferior criminals (e). It also empowers any two or more to hear and determine all felonies and other offences, which is the ground of their criminal jurisdiction at quarter sessions (ƒ),] of which more will be said hereafter when we have occasion to treat of crimes and the manner of prosecution (g). Besides the jurisdiction which the justices of each county at large exercise, in these and other matters, at the quarter sessions, authority is moreover given by various statutes to the justices acting for the several divisions (h), into which counties are for that

(c) 1 Mar. st. 2, c. 8. (d) 1 Edw. 6, c. 7.

(e) Their duties as to apprehending felons and other criminals, are now mainly regulated by 11 & 12 Vict. c. 42, and 11 & 12 Vict. c. 43.

(f) The offences to which the jurisdiction of county justices at quarter sessions extends, are now defined by 5 & 6 Vict. c. 38 (see also 14 & 15 Vict. c. 55, s. 13). For further particulars relating to the court of quarter sessions, vide post, bk. vi. c. XIV. As to the court of quarter sessions for boroughs, vide post, bk. IV. pt. 111. Chapter on the Laws

relating to Corporations; bk. vi. c.

XIV.

(g) Vide post, bk. vi. c. XIV.

(h) As to county divisions, see 9 Geo. 4, c. 43; 10 Geo. 4, c. 46; 6 & 7 Will. 4, c. 12. In the Report of the Commissioners on County Rate, 16th June, 1836, (Appendix, part ii. p. 2,) will be found a detailed statement, showing all the divisions for which magistrates act throughout England and Wales, and the places for holding petty sessions, with other particulars, as returned by the magistrates to the Commissioners for Inquiry into County Rate.

purpose distributed, to transact different descriptions of business, (such as licensing alehouses or appointing overseers of the poor or surveyors of highways,) at special sessions (i); and two justices, or in some cases even a single magistrate, are also frequently empowered by statute to try in a summary way, and without jury, such offences as in the statute particularized (k),—the meeting of two or more justices for which purpose, (as for some others also,) is denominated a petty session (l). [In these and other ways the legislature has from time to time heaped upon the justices such an infinite variety of business,] that the country [is greatly obliged to any worthy magistrate that, without any sinister views of his own, will engage in this troublesome service (m). And therefore, if a wellmeaning justice makes any undesigned slip in his practice, great lenity and indulgence are shown to him in the courts of law] and there are statutory provisions made to protect him in the upright discharge of his office (n); which, among other privileges, prohibit such justice from being sued for any oversights without notice one calendar month beforehand (0), or after the expiration of six months (p)

(i) As to the manner of serving notices for holding special sessions, see 7 & 8 Vict. c. 33, s. 7.

(k) See particularly 7 & 8 Geo. 4, c. 29, s. 65; 7 & 8 Geo. 4, c. 30, s. 29; 7 & 8 Geo. 4, c. 31, s. 8; 9 Geo. 4, c. 31, s. 33; and 13 & 14 Vict. c. 37; 18 & 19 Vict. c. 126; 19 & 20 Vict. c. 118. Also as to the mode of proceeding generally on summary convictions, 11 & 12 Vict. c. 43; 20 & 21 Vict. c. 43; et post, bk. IV. c. xv.

(1) As to holding petty sessions in boroughs, and providing places for holding the same in counties and boroughs, see 12 & 13 Vict. c. 18. As to a petty sessional division, see same act, and 8 & 9 Vict. c. 10, s. 10; 18 & 19 Vict. c. 126; 19 & 20 Vict. c. 118.

(n) The principal statute now in force is 11 & 12 Vict. c. 44. See also on this subject Leary v. Patrick, 15 Q. B. 266; Taylor v. Nesfield, 3 Ell. & Bl. 724.

(0) 11 & 12 Vict. c. 44, s. 9; see Prickett v. Gratrex, 15 L. J. Q. B. 226.

(p) Ibid. s. 8. Actions against metropolitan police magistrates must be brought within three months, 2 & 3 Vict. c. 71, s. 53; Hazeldine v. Grove,

from the commission of the injury; and exempt him from all liability where the matter was one lying within his jurisdiction, and where it cannot be proved that he proceeded maliciously and without reasonable and probable cause (q). But, subject to these legislative protections, a justice of the peace is liable to an action by the party injured, for illegal acts done by colour of his office (r). He is also liable to be prosecuted criminally, by indictment or information, if guilty of any corrupt or malicious abuse in the exercise of his judicial discretion; but, when he acts fairly and bona fide, leave will not be granted to file an information against him on account of a mere error in his proceedings (s).

[It is impossible, upon our present plan, to enter minutely into the particulars of the accumulated authority committed to the charge of these magistrates. It will be sufficient, therefore, to refer to such subsequent parts of these Commentaries as will, in their turns, comprise almost every object of their jurisdiction; and in the meantime recommend to the reader the examination of the later editions of Dr. Burn's Justice of the Peace (t), where he will find everything relative to this subject, both in antient and modern practice, collected with great care and accurary.]

IV. The officers of whom we have hitherto spoken, though all conservators of the peace, are engaged only in the higher departments of that general duty; but we are now to examine the law relating to those inferior officers called Constables (u), to whom the service of maintaining the peace, and bringing to justice those by whom it is infringed, is more immediately committed.

3 Q. B. 997; Barnett v. Cox, 9 Q. B. 617.

(q) 11 & 12 Vict. c. 44, s. 1. (r) Fernley v. Worthington, 1 Man. & Gr. 491; Cave v. Mountain, ibid. 257.

(s) 2 Burr. 1162; R. v. Borron, 3 Barn. & Ald. 432.

(t) Blackstone also recommends (vol. i. p. 354) the more antient treatise of Lambard's Eirenarcha, which he cites as his chief authority on the subject of justices of the peace.

(u) See Hawk. P. C. book ii. c. 10; Burn, by D'Oyly & Williams, in tit. Constable.

[The word constable is frequently said to be derived from the Saxon koning-rτafel, and to signify the support of the king; but as we borrowed the name as well as the office of constable from the French, it seems more satisfactory to deduce it, with Sir Henry Spelman and Dr. Cowel, from that language: wherein it is plainly derived from the Latin comes stabuli, an officer well known in the empire: so called because, like the great constable of France, as well as the lord high constable of England, he was to regulate all matters of chivalry, tilts, tournaments, and feats of arms, which were performed on horseback (r). This great office of lord high constable hath been disused in England, except only upon great and solemn occasions, such as the king's coronation and the like, ever since the attainder of Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, under King Henry the eighth; as in France it was suppressed about a century after, by an edict of Louis the thirteenth (y);] but the constables of whom we now speak are supposed to have originally emanated from this high and important office (z).

These constables [are of two sorts, high constables (a) and petty constables. The former, who were first ordained by the Statute of Winchester, 13 Edw. I. st. 2, c. 6(b), are appointed at the courts leet of the franchise or hundred over which they preside; or, in default of that,] then by the justices at their special sessions, as directed by

(a) We may form a judgment of the power of the lord high constable, and the condition of the people of this country in the fifteenth century, from the following clauses in a commission in the seventh year of Edward the fourth, to Richard Earl Rivers: "Plenam potestatem et auctoritatem damus et committimus ad cognoscendum et procedendum in omnibus et singulis causis et negotiis de et super crimine læsæ majestatis seu ipsius occasione, caterisque causis quibuscunque, VOL. II.

summarie et de plano, sine strepitu et figura judicii, sola facti veritate inspecta."-Rym. Fœd. tom. xi. p. 582. Et vide Reeves's Hist. Eng. Law, vol. iii. p. 194; Hallam, Mid. Ages, vol. iii. p. 223, 7th edit.

(y) Phillip's Life of Pole, ii. 111. (2) Lambard, of Constables, 5. (a) These officers are also called by Lord Coke (4 Inst. 267), chief constables, but that term is now differently applied. Vide post, p. 663. (b) Ibid. 276.

UU