s. 3. Book I. the peace in England or Wales, during such time as they shall continue in practice. And by s. 3. any person who shall not be qualified according to this act, and shall take upon himself to act as a justice of the peace, shall for feit £100 for every such offence, one moiety to the king, and the other to such as shall sue for the same, by 2 Geo. 1. c. 11. action of debt, &c. at Westminster. The 2 Geo. I. s. 12. Ir. Commissions not determined by 7 & 8 W. 3. c. 11. s. 12. Ir. prohibits attornies from practising in any causes for the recovery of small debts in a summary way, (i.e. by civil bill) in any county where they shall be justices of peace: but no Irish statute contains any such general provision as that of the 5 Geo. 2. above mentioned. the By virtue of the 7 & 8 W. 3. c. 27. s. 21. Eng. as ex, death of king. plained by the 1 Ann, st. 1. c. 8. Eng. commissions of peace continue in force until 6 months after the demise of the king: the latter of these statutes having enacted, (s. 2.) that no patent or grant of any office or employment, civil or military, shall cease or be void, by reason of the death or demise of the king, but that every such patent, &c. shall be in force for 6 months after such demise, unless in the mean time superseded, determined, or made void by the next successor. This act was by s. 6. declared to extend to Ireland; and 21 & 22Geo. 3. has been recognized by the 21 & 22 Geo. 3. c. 48. Ir. c. 48. s. 3.1. The 1 Geo. 3. c. 13.s. 1. Eng, as explained by the 7 Geo. 3. 1 Geo. 3. c. 13. s. 1. Eng. 7 Geo. 3. c. 9. Eng. 1 Gen. 3. c. 13. $. 2. Eng. c. 9. Eng. enacts, that all persons who have been or shall be appointed justices of the peace, by any commission granted by his present majesty, or any of his successors, and who shall take the oath of office of a justice, for any county, &c. before the clerk of the peace of such county, &c. or his deputy, and who shall have taken and subscribed at some general or quarter sessions of the peace, the oath prescribed by the 18 Geo. 2. (ante page 242) shall not be obliged, during the reign in which such oath shall have been so taken, to take and subscribe again said oath, by reason of such person being again appointed a justice by any commission during such reign, and shall not incur any penalty or forfeiture for the not taking or subscribing the said oath. And by the 1 Geo. 3. c. 13, s. 2. no person who hath hath taken or shall take the usual oaths under a writ or commission of dedimus potestatem, shall be obliged to sue out any other dedimus, to authorize any person therein named to administer again to any such justice, on any new commission of the peace being issued, the oaths usually annexed to such dedimus; but the clerk of the peace or his deputy of every county, &c. for which any such justice hath acted and qualified, or before the issuing of any such new commission of the peace shall act and qualify, shall, on every such new commission of the peace being issued, prepare a parchment roll with the paths, annexed to and usually taken under said writ or commission, ingrossed in such roll, and shall administer, without fee, the said oaths to every such justice, and such justice shall subscribe his name on said parchment roll, and the said roll shall be kept by the respective clerks of the peace amongst the records of the sessions. By the 7 Geo. 3. c. 16, s. 4. & 6. Ir. no justice of peace who shall 7 Geo. 3. c. 16. have taken the oaths, &c. shall be obliged to qualify again on any subsequent commission during the same reign, unless left out of some renewed commission, and afterwards inserted in one for the same place. s. 4. & 6. Ir. 1 Edw. 6. c. 7. 10 Car. 1. st. 20 14. Ir. The clause of the 1 Edw. 6. c. 7. s. 4. Eng. which Commission not was expressly adopted or followed by the 10 Car. 1. st. 2. being created superseded by c. 14. Ir. enacts, that albeit any person being (justice of duke, &e. assize or gaol delivery or) justice of peace within any of s. 4. Eng. the king's dominions, or being in any other of the king's c. commissions, shall be made or created duke, archbishop, marquis, earl, viscount, baron, bishop, knight, justice of the one bench or the other, serjeant at law, (or sheriff) yet he shall remain justice and commissioner, and have full power to execute the same: but this clause, so far as it extended to authorize sheriffs to act as justices, was altered by the 1 Mar. st, 2. c. 8. Eng. and 7 W. 3. c. 13. Ir. which respectively prohibit sheriffs from exercising the office of justices in the counties of which they shall be sheriffs, as already stated ante-page 216. As in most corporation towns, there are quarter sessions kept before justices of their own, within their respective limits, the 2. & 3. Ph. & M. c. 18. Eng. may 2&3 Ph.&M be c. 18. Eng. *Blackstone's Comment. vol. 4. p. 279. Commission of be here stated, which provides, that any commission of the peace for a county not a su- the peace and of gaol delivery granted to any city or persedeas to one for a town curtown corporate not being a county in itself, shall stand porate. good and effectual in law, notwithstanding the granting of any like commission for the conservation of the peace, or delivery of the prisoners in the gaol of any shire, bearing date after the said other commission. Fees of justices. E. & I.. Eng. Fees of the The fees of justices of the peace in England are ascertained in many cases by several statutes imposing par12 Ric. 2. c. 10. ticular duties upon them. And by the 12 Ric. 2. c. 10. E.& I. they were allowed 4s. the day for the time of their session, and their clerks 2s. out of the fines and amerciaments of the same sessions, by the hands of the sheriffs. The 26 Geo. 2. c.14. 26 Geo. 2. c. 14. Eng. required the justices of the peace throughout England, at their respective general quarter sessions to be held next after the 24th June, 1753, to clerks of justices make and settle a table of fees to be taken by their clerks, which was to be laid before the judges at the next assizes or great sessions for the respective counties, to be ratified by them with such alterations as should appear just and reasonable. And this statute enacts that it shall be lawful for the justices of peace at their respective quarter sessions, from time to time to make any other table of fees, instead of that then required to have been made, and after the same shall be approved of at the next general quarter sessions, to lay such new table before the judges at the next assizes or great sessions, who are hereby authorized to ratify the same in such manner as they shall think fit; and no table of fees shall be valid until ratified by the said judges. And by s. 2. & 4. if any clerk shall after 3 calendar months from the time that such table of fees shall be so ratified, demand or take other or greater fee, he shall forfeit £20. to any perany son who shall sue within 3 months by action of debt, &c. at Westminster. And by s. 3. the said table of fees shall be deposited with the clerk of the peace, who shall cause true copies thereof to be kept constantly in a conspicuous part t of the room where the sessions are held, on pain of forfeiting £10. to be recovered as aforesaid. And by the 27 Gro.c.26. 27 Geo. 2. c. 16. s. 4. Eng. a like table of fees for Middlesex shall be confirmed by the two lord chief justices, s. 2. & 4. s. 3. S. 4. Eu and s. 1. Ir. and the lord chief baron or any two of them. And in Ireland the 3 Geo. 2. c. 16. Ir. regulates the fees of jus- 3 Geo. 2. c. 16. tices of the peace, and prohibits their clerks from taking such upon any pretence. This statute enacts that no Fees of justices regulated. justice of the peace of any county, &c. (other than the justices of the court of K. B.) shall for or in the execution of his office demand or receive any other fees than 6d. for each warrant, and 1s. for every recognizance; and no fee or reward shall be taken by any justice of the peace for any warrant, recognizance, mittimus, discharge, or other act to be done in the execution of his office; nor (by s. 2.) shall any fee be taken in any case of felony or treason. And by s. 3. if any person shall take any fee or reward on account of his trouble or in respect of his acting as clerk under any justice of the peace, he shall forfeit 40s. to the party who shall first give information in writing of any such offence, before any justice of peace, or chief magistrate of any city, &c. to be recovered within a month by civil bill. This act is by s. 5. required to be read in open court at every general Easter quarter Act proclaimed sessions by the clerk of the peace or his deputy, on pain of forfeiting 40s. to him who shall first sue by civil bill, at the next assizes for such county. The statutes which respect the office, duty and power of justices of peace, as well as those which have been passed for their relief against vexatious actions, and for their ease in pleading, will be found in the subsequent parts of this Digest. 6. 2. s. 3. Clerks of justices not to take fees. s. 5. IV. With respect to constables, it was ordained by $4. the statute of Winchester, 13 Edw. 1. st. 2. c. 6. ConstablesE. &. I. that in every hundred and franchise 2 constables their ancient duty. should be chosen to make the view of armour; and who 13 Edw. 1.st. 2. c. 6. E. & L. should present before the justices assigned, such defaults as they should see in the country about armour prescribed (by this chapter of the act) for the different classes of men in the community, according to their age and quality of estate; and in respect of making fresh suit and following hue and cry from town to town (as directed by chapter 1. of this statute): and in respect to highways (the breadth of which was regulated by chapter 5) and they Ir. they were thereby also directed to present all such as should lodge strangers in uplandish towns, for whom they would not answer; and by chapter 4 of this statute, watch and ward were directed to be kept, in all cities, boroughs, and towns, and inquiry made by the bailiffs of towns as to any strangers or suspicious persons lodged or received in the suburbs or remote extremities of great towns. And in Ireland, in addition to the provisions of the statute of Winchester which were in force in this 5 Edw. 4. c. 5. kingdom, the 5 Edw. 4. c. 5. Ir. enacted that in every English town of this land, that passed three houses Ancient duty of holden by tenants where no other president was, there should be chosen by his neighbours, or by the lord of such town, one constable to be president and governor of said town in all things pertaining to the common rule thereof, as in the ordinance of night watch from Michaelmas to Easter yearly; and it was by this statute the special duty of such constable, to have every man of such town, between the age of 60 and 16, mustered before him or his deputy, at such time as he or his deputy should appoint, and to exercise them in shooting 3 times every feast day between the 1st day of March and last day of July at butts to be provided by such towns for that pur10 Hen. 7. c.9. pose. The 10 Hen. 7. c. 9. s. 3. Ir. also enacted that constables in Ire land. s. 3. Ir. Mode of apprinting consta tion of their of fice. c.12. s.15.Eng. there should be in every parish, constables of able persons inhabitants within said parishes, who should call before them on every holyday the parishioners having bows and arrows, to shoot two or three games at the butts, in order that they should sooner attain the practice and experience of archers. As to the mode of appointing constables, the 13 & 14 bles-and dura- Car. 2. c. 12. s. 15. Eng. recites that the laws and statutes for the apprehending of rogues and vagabonds have not been 13 & 14 Car. 2. duly executed, sometimes for want of officers by reason lords of manors do not keep court leets every year for the making of them; and therefore enacts, that in case any constable, headborough, or tithingman shall die, or go out of the parish, any 2 justices of the peace may make and swear a new constable, &c. until the said lord shall hold a court, or until the next quarter sessions, who shall |
