to practise at the sessions; unless he be clerk of the peace, or his deputy, or under-sheriff, or his deputy, in which case, if he act as a solicitor, attorney, or agent, or at any general or quarter session of the peace of the county or place where he executes his office, he will forfeit 501. (n). The right to practise at the sessions as attorney is strictly confined to those who have been admitted and enrolled in one of the superior courts at Westminster. Thus it is enacted, that "no person shall act as a solicitor, attorney, or agent, or sue out any process at any general or quarter session of the peace, without being admitted and enrolled according to law, on pain to forfeit 50l. to him that shall sue within twelve months, with treble costs;" and if an attorney or solicitor permit any person not admitted and enrolled, to make use of his name in such session, he is liable to a like penalty (o).

To entitle a party to admission as an attorney, he must be bound, by contract in writing, to serve as a clerk for the space of five years to an attorney duly sworn and admitted (p), unless he has taken the degree of bachelor of arts or of law in the university of Oxford, Cambridge, or Dublin, within four years, in which case a binding for three years will suffice (q). During the term, the clerk must serve the whole time with his master, except that he may serve one year with his agent, or one year as pupil to a practising barrister, or certificated special pleader (r). Service for a part of the time with another attorney, even with the master's consent, will not suffice, unless in case of death, or of special circumstances under which an assignment may be sanctioned by the court in which he seeks admission (s). And he must be admitted, sworn, and enrolled, before he can act as an attorney, under a penalty of 501. and being disabled to act in future. Quakers may however be admitted on affirmation instead of oath (t).

Certificate necessary.]-Besides obtaining admission and enrolment, every attorney, to entitle himself to practise, must "annually take out a certificate from the commissioners of stamps, under a penalty of 501. and being disabled to practise" (u). Any attorney, therefore, who may have omitted to take out such certificate, has forfeited his right

(n) 22 G. II. c. 46, s. 14. The repeal of 1 H. V. c. 4, by 1 V. c. 55, does

not affect this provision.

(0) 22 G. II. c. 46, s. 14.

(p) 2 G. II. c. 23, s. 5.

(q) 1 & 2 G. IV. c. 48, s. 1.

(r) 22 G. II. c. 26; 1 & 2 G. IV. c. 48, s. 2.

(8) Ex parte Hill, 7 T. R. 456.

(t) 2 G. II. c. 23.

(u) 22 G. II. c. 46.

to act in that capacity in the court of quarter session (v), until restored by the court in which he was originally admitted; an indulgence usually granted on payment of the arrears of duty and a fine proportioned to the circumstances under which the neglect arose (w). An attorney who had been admitted before 1815, and had taken out his certificate yearly, neglected to do so for the year ending Nov. 1816, but afterwards continued to take it out regularly. He practised at the quarter sessions in 1832; and it was held that his admission and enrolment being void by 37 G. III. c. 99, s. 31, he was liable to the penalties imposed by 22 G. II. c. 64, s. 12, on persons not admitted as attornies, but practising as such at the quarter ses

sions.

Attorney struck off the Rolls not allowed to practise.]—It is almost unnecessary to observe, that any attorney who has been struck off the rolls of the courts above, as sometimes occurs, for dishonourable practices, being no longer an attorney of such superior courts, cannot be permitted to practise in the inferior ones, and, of course, is not admissible in that of the quarter session of the peace; and no person convicted of felony, or other infamous crime, will be allowed to practise (x).

Fees, &c.]-Fees, as they appertain to the present subject, are such payments as the law allows to persons who, by their offices or their callings, are in some way attendant on the court of sessions of the peace. They chiefly relate to the officers of the court, properly so called, to witnesses, and to attornies. Enough has already been said respecting this subject, as it applies to the superior constituent parts of the court of session; any consideration of the fees to constables and others, in the various preliminary steps of prosecution, anterior to the sitting of the court, is foreign to the purpose here; those which the sheriffs used to demand on the acquittal or discharge of a prisoner have long been abolished (y); those which are allowed to the clerk of the peace at the commencement of the proceedings before the court, are regulated by a statute before noticed (z); by another (a), all prison fees, except in the queen's bench, the fleet, the palace court,

(v) 37 G. III. c. 90; 39 & 40 id. c. 72; 48 id. c. 149; and 54 id. c. 44. (w) Slack v. Wilkin, 3 Tyrwhitt's R. 158; and see in re Hodgson and Ross, 3 Adol. & E. 224; 4 Nev. & Man. 763, acc.

(x) Ex parte Brownall, Cowp. 829.
(y) 14 G. III. c. 23.
(z) 57 G. III. c. 91.
(a) 55 G. III. c. 50, s. 4.

and the marshalsea prison, are entirely abolished; and the fees paid to the clerks of assize, of the court, of the peace, or their deputies, by a prisoner in felony or misdemeanour as well on their acquittal as any other discharge for want of prosecution, by proclamation, or throwing out a bill, are abolished, and the officers forbidden to receive them; and any transgressions of these regulations are declared to be misdemeanours in the parties demanding them, and punishable accordingly. To indemnify the officers, however, it is provided by the same statute that they shall be paid out of the county rate sums proportioned to the amount of the fees they have been accustomed to receive.

Respecting the demands of attornies upon their clients, it is sufficient here to observe, that they are compelled by statute (b), to deliver their bills duly signed, a month before they can commence an action for payment; and that this provision extends to charges for business done at the sessions of the peace, as well as in the superior courts (c), and such bill for such business is subject to taxation by the officers of the queen's bench in the same manner as in other cases (d).

No person who acts as attorney in the court of quarter session, without being duly qualified, can recover any compensation for his services. This disability, however, is not always sufficient to prevent persons who are unqualified and irresponsible, from obtaining practice in a court, where the attempt may be made with less peril than in one of the superior courts of Westminster, to the great injury of those who are induced to employ them, or of others against whom they may employ the law as the engine of petty oppression. The bench, therefore, will always confer benefit on the suitors by repressing such attempts; and the members of the bar only perform the duty they owe to the court in assisting to detect them.

(b) 2 G. III. c. 3.

(c) Clarke v. Donovan, 5 T. R. 694. (d) Ex parte Williams, 4 T. R. 124,

496; Sylvester v. Webster, 9 Bing. 388; 2 Moo. & Sc. 506.

CHAPTER III.

OF THE JURISDICTION AND PRELIMINARY PROCEEDINGS OF THE COURT OF QUARTER SESSIONS.

SECTIONS.

1. Of the Matters over which the Court of Quarter Sessions exercises Jurisdiction.

II.-Of the Time and Form of opening the Court, taking Oaths, &c.

III. Of calling the Grand Jury; swear-
ing and charging them, and
their Jurisdiction to inquire
of, and present Offences.

IV. Of dividing the Court of Quarter
Sessions.

SECTION I.

OF THE MATTERS OVER WHICH THE COURT OF QUARTER SESSIONS EXERCISES JURISDICTION.

THE jurisdiction of the court of quarter sessions is criminal and civil, and arises from the commission of the peace itself, as settled under 18 Ed. III. c. 2, and 34 Ed. III. c. 1; and from the express provisions of numerous statutes.

Offences over which the Sessions have Jurisdiction by the Terms of their Commission.]-By their commission (to which we have already adverted) justices in session are directed to hear and determine "all felonies, poisonings, enchantments, sorceries, arts magic, trespasses, forestallings, re-gratings, engrossings, and extortions, and all other crimes and offences of which such justices may or ought lawfully to inquire" (e).

Under the term "felonies" they have power to try all capital felonies, e. g., murder, although not specially named (f); but they have been held to have no jurisdiction over forgery (g).

(e) Page 65.

(ƒ) Hawk. B. 2, c. 8, s. 33.

(g) Id. s. 38.

Under the term " trespasses” they have authority to try all misdemeanours which either involve a breach of the peace, or have a tendency to produce it; among which latter class conspiracies have been included (h). It has indeed been held that they have no power to try perjury, when prosecuted at common law (i); though if that offence was indicted under 5 El. c. 9, which rarely happened, they had jurisdiction over it by the express words of that act. They have no jurisdiction to hear and determine treason, misprision of treason, or præmunire; though, as these offences are against the peace, any one or more justices may cause parties accused of those offences to be arrested, and may examine and commit them, and may bind over witnesses, and transmit the examinations and information to the next sessions of oyer and terminer, and gaol delivery (j).

It seems to be now clear, that where an offence is created, and declared a misdemeanour by a statute passed since the institution of the office of a justice of the peace, it may be tried by a court of quarter sessions, unless there is some special direction that it shall be heard and determined by another court (k). Thus, where a statute declared lighting fires on the coast at particular times to be " a misdemeanour," it was held indictable at quarter sessions, though the act directed that the offender should be committed to the "next court of oyer and terminer, great session, or gaol delivery;" and in case of indictment found, should forthwith plead and be tried without traverse (1).

(h) R. v. Rispal, 3 Burr. R. 1320.

(i) 2 Hawk. c. 8, s. 38; R. v. Haynes, Ry. & M. N. P. C. 298; Reg. v. Yarrington, Salk. 406; R. v. Gibbs, 1 East R. 173.

(j) See ante, 125; 84 n.; 2 Hawk. P. C. c. 8, s. 59; 1 Hale's P. C. 305, 372; 2 id. 44; Bac. Ab. tit. Justices (E). The doubt, whether they might or might not try prisoners for clipping coin under 3 H. V. c. 7, is put an end to by 2 W. IV. c. 32, s. 1, which repeals that act; and see 2 Hale's P. C. 45.

(k) See Com. Dig. tit. Justice, B. 3. (1) See R. v. Cock, 4 M. & Sel. 71, decided Easter Term, 1815, on 47 G. III. sess. 2, c. 66, s. 34. Blackstone, in 4 Com. 271, has laid it down, that they cannot try any offence newly created (by statute), without express power given them by the statute which creates it. He cites, as authorities for his position, Reg. v. Yarrington, Salk. 406, a case of forgery indicted at the quarter

sessions, Reg. v. Smith, Salk. 680; Ld. Raym. 1144, S. C., a case of usury, similarly indicted. In Rex et Reg. V. Briggs, 4 Mod. Rep. 379, it was held that, unless by express enactment, the quarter sessions have no jurisdiction to try an indictment brought on a penal statute to enforce a penalty; such of fence not being "against the peace." Holt, C. J., and the court of K. B., had decided similarly in R. et Reg. v. Alsop, 4 Mod. 51, Dolben, J., dissentiente, and afterwards in R. v. Clough and others, 5 Mod. 149. Again, in R. v. James et al. Stra. 1256, an indictment found at quarter sessions for fastening nets across a river, contrary to 2 H. VI. c. 15, was quashed, because that act gave a penalty of 100s. but no jurisdiction to the sessions; "and they cannot have it without express words in the case of a new created offence." See Com. Dig. tit. Justices of Peace, (B 1. B 3); Bac. Ab. tit. id. (B3); Haw