TO THE HONORABLE

SIR ALFRED STEPHEN, KNT.,

CHIEF JUSTICE OF NEW SOUTH WALES,

&c., &c., &c.,

This Treatise,

ON THE

PRACTICE OF THE MAGISTERIAL COURTS,

IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LOCAL STATUTE

FOR ADOPTING AND APPLYING, IN THIS COLONY,

SIR JOHN JERVIS'S ACTS

FOR FACILITATING THE PERFORMANCE OF THE IMPORTANT DUTIES

OF JUSTICES OF THE PEACE OUT OF SESSIONS,

IS, WITH HIS HONOR'S KIND PERMISSION,

MOST RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED,

BY HIS HONOR'S OBEDIENT,

HUMBLE SERVANT,

GEO. R. NICHOLS.

PREFACE.

Sir John Jervis's Acts for facilitating the performance of the duties, both Ministerial and Judicial, of Justices of the Peace out of Sessions, have, by an Act of the Legislative Council of New South Wales, been recently adopted in and for this Colony; and the great extent to which summary jurisdiction is carried by these important Statutes, renders it necessary for all persons (more especially those directly concerned in the administration of Justice in our Police Offices and Courts of Petty Sessions,) to have a ready and compendious guide in those formal proceedings, by the intervention of which the useful powers and authorities of Justices of the Peace are administered, and their responsibilities limited and defined.

This necessity has suggested to the Compiler the design of the following little work; and, in a chronological and convenient form, he has arranged these enactments, which not only comprehend, within a small compass, the rules of practice as regulating the proceedings of Justices, but supply a most comprehensive body of Forms applicable to all the ordinary

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occasions to which process is necessary, placed and arranged in a manner to be instantly and conveniently available.

Notes have been added referring to Cases which have arisen since their passing in 1848; and references to each Act are united in one undivided and entire Index, wherein, to each reference, is annexed the number 1, 2, or 3, according as the matter referred to is to be found in any one of the Statutes so numbered.

On the opening of the Supreme Criminal Court of New South Wales, on the 5th of December ultimo, the Chief Justice, Sir Alfred Stephen, drew attention to the fact of these Acts having been lately adopted by the local Legislature; and His Honor in so doing addressed himself as follows :—

"His Honor said, that within the last few days an Act of "Council had come into operation, which was of more importance, as affecting the administration of justice, than "any other Statute passed by the Colonial Legislature. His "object, he said, in mentioning this Act, and in alluding briefly to a few of its leading features, was to direct to it "the attention of the public, and particularly of Magistrates, "to whom a knowledge of its provisions was absolutely ne(6 cessary. This Act, the 14th Victoria, No. 43, had been passed on the 2nd of October last, and had come into opera"tion on Monday last. By the Act itself, and by three "British Statutes which were adopted by and embodied in "it, the duties of a Justice of the Peace, both in and out of "sessions, were clearly defined; and while the Magistrates were protected from all vexatious actions, there were means provided by which all those who were affected by magiste"rial proceedings could protect themselves against error or "injustice, by resorting to a most simple and inexpensive proceeding of a summary nature, by which the intervention "of the Supreme Court would be obviated. The second "clause of the Act of Council directed, that as soon as pos"sible after the termination of every case, the depositions "shall be transmitted by the committing Magistrate to the