THE LAW RELATIVE TO Commitments & Convictions BY JUSTICES OF THE PEACE; WITH Forms. TO WHICH ARE ADDED LORD LANSDOWNE'S ACTS. BY JOHN FREDERICK ARCHBOLD, ESQ. LONDON: W. BENNING, LAW BOOKSELLER & PUBLISHER, PREFACE. IT is, perhaps, to be regretted that some work on the subjects of Commitments and Convictions, has not before been published;-some work which would have simplified the law upon those subjects, and have rendered the duties of Justices of the Peace, with respect to them, somewhat less complicated and difficult than they are at present. Mr. Paley's work on Convictions, although I believe ably written, was too elaborate for this purpose,—more suited for the lawyer than for the magistrate; and it is now rendered nearly useless by the statute 3 Geo. 4, c. 23, which has given a general form of conviction, applicable to all cases, where a particular form is not given by the statute creating the offence. Mr. Boscawen's work upon the same subject, is wholly useless. And as to Burn's Justice, and other works of that description, however valuable they may be in some respects, yet the forms in them cannot safely be depended upon. In the mere formal parts of a conviction, indeed, the difficulties formerly experienced by magistrates, have been |