been merely royal ordinances, and their | arrangement and superintendence were under the direction of the clerk of the market of the king's household. But subsequently many statutes were passed regulating the assize of articles of common consumption; the earliest of these is the assize of bread and ale, "assisa panis et cervisiæ," commonly called the stat. of 51 Henry III., though its precise date is somewhat doubtful. The provisions of the act with regard to ale, which established a scale of prices varying with the price of wheat, were altered in some measure by 23 Henry VIII. c. 4, which left a discretionary power with the justices of the peace of fixing the price of ale within their jurisdiction [ALE]; but the assize of bread was imposed by this act, and enforced from time to time by orders of the privy council until the reign of Queen Anne. In cities and towns corporate the power of regulating the assize of bread and ale was frequently given by charter to the local authorities, and the interference of the clerk of the king's household was often expressly excluded. Books of assize were formerly published, under authority of the privy council, by the clerk of the market of the king's household. The stat. 8 Anne, c. 19, repealed the 51 Henry III. and imposed a new assize of bread, and made various other regulations respecting it. Several subsequent acts have been passed on the subject; but by the 55 George III. c. 99, the practice was expressly abolished in London and its neighbourhood, and in other places it has fallen into disuse. There was also an assize of wood and coal (stat. 34 & 35 Henry VIII. c. 3); and in the reign of Queen Anne, we find an act (9 Anne, c. 20) enforcing former regulations for the assize of billet (firewood). Besides these, various other articles, wine, fish, tiles, cloth, &c., have at different times been subject to assize. Indeed the legislature of this country for a long time supposed that they could and ought to fix the price of the necessaries of life. But experience has shown that to attempt to fix by law the prices of commodities, is not only useless and mischievous, but impracticable; and that when government has established a uniform

scale of weights and measures, and, so far as it can be done, a uniform measure of value, the rest may safely be left to competition, and to the mutual bargaining which takes place between the buyer and the seller.

There is an assize of bread in several parts of the Continent at the present time. In Paris, since 1825, the assize of bread has been fixed every fifteen days by an order of the police. This assize is regulated according to the prices of corn and of flour, which are published between the dates of each order. In the city of Cologne, and probably elsewhere in Prussia, the price of the loaf of black bread weighing eight (German) pounds is now (1844) fixed weekly by an order issued from the royal police-office."

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Kent, in his Commentaries on American Law,' says that "Corporation ordinances, in some of our cities, have frequently regulated the price of meats in the market;" and he states that "the regulation of prices in inns and taverns is still the practice in New Jersey and Alabama, and perhaps in other states; and the rates of charges are, or were until recently, established in New Jersey by the county courts and affixed up at inns, in like manner as the rates of toll at tollgates and bridges." (Vol. ii. p. 330, ed. 1842.)

3. The word assize also denoted the peculiar kind of jury by whom the writ of right was formerly tried, who were called the grand assize. The trial by the grand assize is said to have been devised by Chief Justice Glanville, in the reign of Henry II., and was a great improvement upon the trial by judicial combat, which it in a great degree superseded. Instead of being left to the determination by battle, which had previously been the only mode of deciding a writ of right, the alternative of a trial by the grand assize was offered to the tenant or defendant. Upon his choosing this mode of trial, a writ issued to the sheriff directing him to return four knights, by whom twelve others were to be elected, and the whole sixteen composed the jury or grand assize by whom the matter of right was tried. The act of parliament, 3 & 4 Will. IV c. 27, has now abolished this mode of trial.

[JURY.] By the law of Scotland, the jury, in criminal cases, are still technically called the assize.

4. The common use of the term assize at the present day in England is to denote the sessions of the judges of the superior courts, holden periodically in each county for the purpose of administering civil and criminal justice. These assemblies no doubt originally derived their denomination from the business which was at first exclusively imposed upon them, namely, the trial of writs of assize. According to the common law, assizes could only be taken (i. e. writs of assize could only be tried) by the judges sitting in term at Westminster, or before the justices in eyre at their septennial circuits. This course was productive of great delays to suitors, and much vexation and expense to the juries, or grand assize, who might have to travel from Cornwall or Northumberland, to appear in court at Westminster. To remedy this grievance, it was provided by Magna Charta, in 1215, that the judges should visit each county to take assizes of novel disseisin and mort d'ancestor. "Trials upon the writs of novel disseisin and of mort d'ancestor and of darreine presentment shall be taken but in their proper counties, and after this manner:-We (or if we are out of the realm) our chief justiciary shall send two justiciaries through every county four times a-year, who, with the four knights chosen out of every shire by the people, shall hold the said assizes in the county, on the day and at the place appointed. And if any matters cannot be determined on the day appointed to hold the assizes in each county, so many of the knights and freeholders as have been at the assizes aforesaid shall be appointed to decide them, as is necessary, according as there is more or less business." (Arts. 22 and 23, Magna Charta.) From this provision the name of justices of assize was derived; and by several later acts of parliament various authorities have been given to them by that denomination. By the 13 Edward I. c. 3 (commonly called the statute of Westminster 2), it was enacted, that the justices of assize for each shire should be two sworn judges, associating to them

selves one or two discreet knights of the county; and they are directed to take the assizes not more than three times in every year. By the same statute, authority is given them to determine inquisitions of trespass and other pleas pleaded in the courts of King's Bench and Common Pleas. From this important act of parliament the jurisdiction of the judges of assizes to try civil causes, other than the writs of assize above mentioned, originally arose; and as, with some modifications. it forms the basis of their civil jurisdiction at the present day, it will be useful to explain the process by which the provisions of the statute are carried into effect. Besides the general authority to determine civil issues, it was provided by the statute of Westminster 2, that no inquest in a civil action should be taken by the judges of the superior courts when sitting at Westminster, unless the writ which summoned the jury for such inquest appointed a certain day and place for hearing the parties in the county where the cause of action arose. Thus, if a suit arose in Cornwall, the writ from the superior court must direct the sheriff of that county to return a jury at Westminster for the trial of the inquest in the next term, "unless before" (nisi prius) the term, namely on a certain day specified in the writ, the justices of assize came into Cornwall. This was sure to happen under the directions of a previous clause in the statute of Westminster 2, in the course of the vacation before the ensuing term, and the jury were then summoned before the justices of assize in Cornwall, where the trial took place, and the parties avoided all the trouble and expense of conveying their witnesses and juries to London. The jurisdiction of the judges of nisi prius is therefore an addition to their office of justices of assize; and thus, from the alteration in the state of society since the above laws were made, the principal or substantial part of their jurisdiction has, by the discontinuance of writs of assize, become merely nominal, while their annexed or incidental authority has grown into an institution of great practical importance.

For several centuries, until a few years ago, the whole of England was divided

into six circuits, to each of which two judges of assize were sent twice a-year. Previously to the year 1830, the Welsh counties, and the county palatine of Chester, were independent of the superior courts at Westminster, and their peculiar judges and assizes were appointed by the crown under the provisions of several statutes. This separation of jurisdiction being found inconvenient, the statute 1 William IV. c. 70, increased the number of judges of the superior courts, and enacted, that in future assizes should be held for the trial and despatch of all matters criminal and civil within the county of Chester and the principality of Wales under commissions issued in the same manner as in the counties of England. Since the passing of this statute, therefore, the assizes throughout the whole of England and Wales (excepting London and the parts adjoining) [CIRCUITS] have been holden twice a-year in each county upon a uniform system. Previous to the establishment of the Central Criminal Court in London, a third assize for the trial of criminals was held for several years for the counties of Hertford, Essex, Kent, Sussex, and Surrey.

The judges upon the several circuits derive their civil jurisdiction ultimately from the ancient statutes of assize and nisi prius in the manner before described; but they have also a commission of assize which is issued for each circuit by the crown under the great seal. This commission pursues the authority originally given by Magna Charta and the statutes of nisi prius, and seems to have been nearly in the same form ever since the passing of those statutes. It is directed to two of the judges and several serjeants (the serjeants derive their authority to be judges of assize from the statute 14 Edward III. c. 16, which mentions "the king's serjeant sworn," under which words Coke says that any serjeant at law is intended (2 Inst. 422), and commands them "to take all the assizes, juries, and certificates, before whatever justices arraigned." Under the direct authority given by these words, the commissioners have in modern times nothing to do, the "assizes, juries, and certificates" mentioned in the commission having only a

technical reference to the writs of assize, now wholly discontinued. It is stated in most of the common text-books that the judges of assize have also a commission of nisi prius. This is, however, a mistake; no such commission is ever issued, and the only authority of the judges to try civil causes is annexed to their office of justices of assize in the manner above described.

In certain cases, the justices of assize, as such, have by a statute a criminal jurisdiction; but the most important part of their criminal authority is derived from other commissions. The first of these is a general commission of Oyer and Terminer for each circuit, which is directed to the lord chancellor, several officers of state, resident noblemen and magistrates, and the king's counsel and serjeants on their respective circuits; but the judges, king's counsel, and serjeants, are always of the quorum, so that the other commissioners cannot act without one of them. This commission gives the judges of assize express power to try treason, felony, and a great variety of offences against the law of England, committed within the several counties

composing their circuit. [OYER AND TERMINER.]

The judges of assize have also commissions of gaol delivery, which in their legal effect give them several powers which, as Justices of Oyer and Terminer only, they would not possess. They are directed to the judges, the king's counsel, and serjeants on the circuit, and the clerk of assize and associate. Every description of offence is cognizable under this commission; but the commissioners are not authorized to try any persons except such as are in actual or constructive confinement in the gaol specifically mentioned in their commission. There is a distinct commission under the great seal for the delivery of the prisoners in each particular gaol. [GAOL DELIVERY.]

The judges on their circuits have also a commission of assize. In addition to the above authorities, the judges of the superior courts on the circuits are also in the commission of the peace. The judges of the King's Bench, Common Pleas, and Exchequer, for the time being, are always

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