Secretary and Prison Commissioners; but at Quarter Sessions the justices appoint from out their number a committee bound to visit the prisons at frequent intervals, to hear complaints, and to report abuses. Another visiting committee manages the lunatic asylum, which is provided at the cost of the county. Another committee can confirm, or refuse to confirm, new licences for the sale of strong drink granted at petty sessions. These are but illustrations and examples.

II. The justice's commission comprehends the whole county; still there has been in fact a minuter localisation. Many statutes required that this or the other matter should be done out of Quarter Sessions by two justices, and a meeting of two or more justices about such business came to be called a Petty Session. Further, it was required that some duties should be performed at fixed intervals, and the meetings thus required by statute got the name Special Sessions or Special Petty Sessions. Naturally a justice looked chiefly after his own neighbourhood, and for some purposes this division of labour was recognised by law. But geography having become obscure, the justices at Quarter Sessions were in 1828 empowered to divide the county into tracts for the purposes of the special sessions. Then in 1836 there was an attempt to make the "petty sessional division" coincident with the then new 66 poor-law union." The coincidence could be but rough, since the latter often transcends, while the former cannot transcend the county boundary. In 1881 the number of these sessional divisions was 715. Practically in each division we shall find a number of resident justices who seldom, if ever, act except in that division or at Quarter Sessions, who have a court house for the division at which they meet

But

periodically, who have their own elected chairman, who, in short, constitute "the bench" of that division. this is rather a matter of "custom, courtesy, and convenience" than of law.1 For all, or at least most, judicial purposes, the shire is an undivided whole, and a case that can be heard by two justices can be heard by any two. For some administrative purposes, e.g., the granting of licenses, the division is a unit; matters connected with that district can only be done at sessions held in and for that district.

(a) That summary jurisdiction (i.e., jurisdiction exercised by a magistrate or magistrates determining fact and law without a jury), which is yearly becoming of greater importance, grew up in a curious accidental fashion. Statute after statute prescribed that this and that petty offence might be punished sometimes by one justice, sometimes by two or more, but very seldom was the slightest hint given as to how, or when, or where, the case was to be tried. Only in the present century have we begun to think of the summary jurisdiction as normal, and to regulate by general statutes the mode in which it must be exercised. The effect of modern legislation has been that no sentence save the pettiest (the maximum is a fortnight's imprisonment or a twentyshilling fine) can be inflicted, save after a trial before at least two justices sitting in some place regularly appointed for such business, a petty sessional court house.' For a tribunal thus constituted we have the new technical name 66 a Petty Sessional Court." Some sentences within the limit just mentioned can be inflicted by two justices in a place less formally devoted

66

1 Any one who wishes for a fuller and better account of these matters should read Mr. Knox Wigram's Justices' Note Book.

to judicial business (" an occasional court house "), which none the less must be open to the public, and some can be inflicted by a single justice at a petty sessional court house; in these last instances the tribunal is " a Court of Summary Jurisdiction," though not "a Petty Sessional Court." 1 The times for holding courts for the exercise of this summary jurisdiction are not fixed by law, but are arranged by the justices. For some large towns a court will be formed daily; in the open country fortnightly intervals are common.

For the more part, the justice thus done is of a penal kind, and results in the infliction of fines or imprisonment, and of this hereafter; 2 but in some cases its exercise can be accompanied by an award of amends or compensation to the person injured, and, in a few, the court has a true civil jurisdiction. It can give a civil remedy in a dispute between employer and workman, within a £10 limit; a seaman's wages if less than £50, water rates, gas rents, cab fares, can be recovered before it. Orders directing men to pay money for the support of their illegitimate children (bastardy orders) are a staple commodity of Petty Sessions. Accessible as are the County Courts, they are not accessible enough for all these purposes.

(b) Orders for cutting down a tree which overhangs a highway, for the destruction of meat unfit for food, of obscene books, of dangerous dogs, for the removal of a corpse to a mortuary, of a pauper to his place of settle

а

1 "A Court of Summary Jurisdiction" is the genus whereof " Petty Sessional Court" is the species. Both terms are quite modern. As will be noted below, a stipendiary magistrate has the power of two justices.

2 See below. p. 125.

ment, for closing a polluted source of water supply, are specimens of orders which justices (sometimes one justice) can make, and in this region we pass almost imperceptibly from judicial to administrative business. And so with

:

licensing besides the intricate system of licenses for the sale of drink, pawnbrokers, keepers of billiard rooms, storers of gunpowder and of petroleum, agricultural gang-masters, baby-farmers, require licenses.

(c) Then, in some cases, justices in Petty Sessions are, for their division, the "local authority" entrusted for certain purposes with thoroughly administrative work; gunpowder, petroleum, baby-farms, would again supply us with instances. The appointment of overseers of the poor, the allowance of poor-rates, the settling of the jury lists are business of a somewhat similar kind.

III. The preliminary inquiry in criminal cases, the discharge or commitment of the accused, form another great branch of a justice's duty which will demand attention hereafter. This has nowadays become regular judicial work, though it can be done by a single justice, and by one not sitting in open court.

IV. Closely connected with this is the issuing of warrants for the apprehension of accused persons. There are many warrants, too, for the searching of houses and the like that a justice can grant; some for the purpose of detecting serious crime, as when there is search for stolen goods or counterfeit coins, some for the detection of minor offences, offences against the Factory Acts, the keeping of a gaming house, and so forth; pawnbrokers and old-metal dealers are specially liable to visitations under a justice's warrant.

V. To keep the peace is the justice's oldest duty. It 1 See below, p. 129.

is now performed chiefly by means of orders given to police constables, but on occasion the justice is himself expected to intervene and quell disturbance, to appoint special constables, to call in military force, and the like. Whenever twelve persons are riotously assembled, the justice should resort to the place where the disturbance is, and among the rioters, or as near to them as he can safely come, read a certain proclamation bidding them disperse in the Queen's name (this is called “reading the Riot Act "), and if thereafter they continue rioting by the space of one hour, they are felons, who can be sent into penal servitude for life.1

VI. In countless other ways has the justice of the peace been made useful; for instance, in superintending the enlistment of soldiers, the billeting of troops, the impressment of carts for military service, the relief of the poor in urgent cases, the restraint of lunatics. In a word, he is the state's man of all work.

That all this multifarious business should be transacted by amateurs is of course only possible because the justices have assistants who contribute professional knowledge, and are skilled in the due routine. There is first the Clerk of the Peace for the county, dismissible only for misconduct, appointed by the Custos Rotulorum, or, should he make no appointment, then by Quarter Sessions. He has in his hands all the secretarial work of the county, and most miscellaneous work it is; indeed, he is the centre of the whole system. Then each petty sessional division has its clerk to the justices. Under modern statutes the clerks are to be paid by salaries, and the fees which used to be their reward (for even criminal business is not done without some taking of court fees)

1 The Riot Act is Stat. 1714 (1 Geo. I., stat. 2, cap. 5).