instruments that pass the great seal, except patents for inventions and other patents and charters which are passed in the Patent Office. He also administers the oaths of office to the lord chancellor, the judges, the serjeants-at-law, and all other law officers, and records the same in the books of his office. For these several duties he receives a salary of 1000l. a year, under 7 & 8 Vict. c. 77. (Parl. Report, No. 455, of Session 1844.)

The office of the Clerk of the Crown is commonly called the Crown Office; but there is also an office in the Court of Queen's Bench called the Crown side of the Court, of which there is a master and other officers.

CLERK OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. The chief officer of that House is appointed by the crown for life, by letters patent. Upon entering office he is sworn before the lord chancellor "to make true entries, remembrances, and journals of the things done and passed in the House of Commons; in which duties he is aided by the clerk-assistant and second clerk-assistant. These three officers are more commonly known as "clerks at the table." The chief clerk signs all orders of the House, endorses the bills, and reads whatever is required to be read in the proceedings of the House. He is also responsible for the execution of all the official business of the House, which is under his superintendence. In the patent he is styled "Under Clerk of the Parliaments to attend upon the Commons;" whence it is inferred that on the separation of the two Houses, the underclerk of the Parliaments went with the Commons, leaving the clerk of the Parliaments in the Upper House. His salary is 3500l. a year, that of the clerk-assistant 2500l., and that of the second clerk-assistant 1000l.; but under act 4 & 5 Will. IV. c. 70, the salaries of the two first offices will be reduced to 2000l. and 1500l. respectively, on the first vacancy. (Hatsell's Precedents, vol. ii. p. 251; May's Proceedings and Usage of Parliament, p. 157 and Index.)

CLERK OF THE MARKET. [WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.]

CLERK OF THE PARISH. [PARISH CLERK.]

CLERK OF THE PARLIAMENTS is the chief ministerial officer of the House of Lords. His duties (which are executed by the clerk-assistant and additional clerk-assistant) are to take minutes of all the proceedings, orders, and judgments of the House; to sign all orders, to endorse bills, to swear witnesses at the bar, to wait upon the queen when she comes to give the royal assent to bills, and to take her command upon them; and to signify the royal assent in all cases, whether given by the queen in person or by commission. He is also sent occasionally with a master in chancery as a messenger from the Lords to the Commons in the absence of another master. Besides these and other special duties, he is charged with the general superintendence of the official establishment of the House of Lords. He is paid out of the Lords' Fee Fund, of which no account is ever given. It is understood that on the death of Sir G. Rose (aged 73) the office will not be filled up. (May's Proceedings and Usage of Parlia ment.)

CLERK OF THE PEACE is an officer attached to every county or division of a county, city, borough, or other place in which quarter-sessions are held; being the ministerial officer of the court of quarter-sessions. He is appointed by the Custos Rotulorum of the county, and holds his appointment so long as he shall well demean himself. In case of misbehaviour the justices in sessions, on receiving a complaint in writing, may suspend or discharge him, after an examination and proof thereof openly in the sessions; in which case the Custos Rotulorum is required to appoint another person residing within the county or division. In case of his refusal or neglect to make this appointment, before the next general quarter-sessions, the justices in sessions may appoint a clerk of the peace. (1 Will. III. c. 21, § 6.) The Custos Rotulorum may not sell the office or take any bond or assurance to receive any reward, directly or indirectly, for the appointment, on pain of both himself and the Clerk of the Peace being disabled from holding their respective offices, and forfeiting double the value of the consi

(Id. § 8.) To give effect to this provision, before the Clerk of the Peace enters upon the execution of his duties he takes an oath that he has not paid anything for his nomination.

The Clerk of the Peace may execute the duties of his office either personally, or by a sufficient deputy approved by the Custos Rotulorum. He or his deputy must be constantly in attendance upon the court of quarter-sessions. He gives notice of its being holden or adjourned; issues its various processes; records its proceedings; and performs all the ministerial acts required to give effect to its decisions. During the sitting of the court, he reads all acts directed to be read in sessions; calls the jurors, and parties under recognizance; presents the bills to the grand jury and receives them again; arraigns prisoners, administers oaths, and receives and records verdicts. Whenever prosecutors decline any other professional assistance, he is required to draw bills of indictment, for which, in cases of felony, he can charge 28. only, but in cases of misdemeanor he may charge any reasonable amount for his service.

In addition to these general duties he has other special duties imposed upon him by different statutes, in regard to the summoning of juries, the appointment of sheriffs and under-sheriffs, the enrolment of rules of savings' banks and friendly societies, the custody of documents required to be deposited with him under standing orders of the Houses of Parliament, and other matters.

By act 22 Geo. II. c. 46, § 14, he is restrained, as being an officer of the Court, from acting as a solicitor, attorney or agent, or suing out any process, at any general or quarter sessions, to be held in the county, &c. in which he shall execute his office.

The Clerk of the Peace is paid by fees. Those chargeable upon prisoners acquitted were abolished by the 55 Geo. III. c. 50, for which he is indemnified by the county. By the 57 Geo. III. c. 91, the justices of the peace for the county are authorised to settle a table of fees, to be approved by the Judges of Assize, which

Peace, under a penalty of 5l. If he take more than is authorised by such table of fees, he will also be liable to be proceeded against at common law for extortion, and to be removed from his office by the court of quarter-sessions. The sessions cannot, however, compel the payment of these fees by summary process, nor detain the parties until they be paid, but the Clerk of the Peace is left to his remedy by action. A bill, however, is now before parliament, by which Clerks of the Peace are in future to be remunerated by salaries, payable out of the fees collected. (Dickinson's Quarter-Sessions; Burn's Justice of the Peace)

CLERKS IN ORDINARY OF THE PRIVY COUNCIL. [PRIVY COUNCIL.]

CLERKS AND SERVANTS. [SERVANTS.]

CLIENT (Cliens), supposed by some writers to be derived from the verb clueo; but the derivation is somewhat doubtful. From the origin of ancient Rome, there appears to have existed the relation of patronage (patronatus) and clientship (clientela). Romulus, the founder of Rome, was, according to tradition, the founder of this system; but it was probably an old Italian institution and existed before the foundation of the city. The cliens may perhaps be compared with the vassal of the middle ages. Being a man generally without possessions of his own, the client in such case received from some patrician a part of his domains as a precarious and revocable possession. The client was under the protection of the patrician of whom he held his lands, who in respect of such a relation was named patron (patronus), i. e. father of the family, as matrona was the mother, "in relation to their children and domestics, and to their dependents, their clients." (Niebuhr.) It was formerly the opinion that every plebeian was also a client to some patrician; but Niebuhr, in speaking with reference to the proposition that "the patrons and clients made up the whole Roman people," affirms that the proposition is only true "if applied to the period before the commonalty (plebs) was formed, when all the Romans were

coals shipped coastwise from ports of Great Britain to other ports of Great Britain and to Ireland amounted, in the year 1843, to 7,447,084 tons; and the quantity exported to the British colonies and to foreign countries in the same year was 1,866,211 tons; making an aggregate of 9,313,295 tons of coals sea-borne from the maritime districts. The market of London alone required a supply of 2,663,204 tons, for the conveyance of which 9593 ships (which make repeated Voyages) were employed. The great towns of Lancashire, of the three Ridings of Yorkshire, of Nottinghamshire, Derby shire, Leicestershire, Warwickshire, and Staffordshire, are supplied by canals or by land-carriage from collieries in the respective counties here enumerated. In 1816 it was ascertained that the quantity of coals then sent by inland navigation and by land-carriage to different parts of the kingdom was 10,808,046 tons; and the quantity must now be very much greater, not only from the increase of population, but the growth of manufactures. The quantity used in the immediate neighbourhood of the collieries is also very great. The town of Sheffield, for example, alone requires for manufacturing and domestic purposes more thau half a million of tons annually drawn from collieries on the spot; and it has been estimated that the iron-works of Great Britain, most of which are situated in spots where coal is found, require every year, for smelting the ore and converting the raw material into bars, plates, &c., nearly seven million of tons. There is good reason for believing that the annual consumption of coals within the United Kingdom is not far short of 35,000,000

tons.

In 1841 the number of persons in Great Britain employed in coal-mines was 118,233. In Durham there were more persons employed under ground in coalmines than in cultivating the surface. On the 10th of August, 1842, an act was passed "to prohibit the employment of women and girls in mines and collieries, to regulate the employment of boys, and to make other provisions relating to persons working therein." No boys can be employed under ground in any colliery who are under the age of ten. This in

terference of the legislature was founded on an extensive inquiry by the Children's Employment Commission, which prepared three Reports that were presented parliament in 1842.

It was long considered politic to check the exportation of coals to other countries, both through fear of exhausting the mines, and because it was imagined that our superiority as manufacturers might be endangered. A heavy export duty was accordingly levied, amounting to 17s. the chaldron, Newcastle measure, or 6s. 5d. per ton upon large, and 48. 6d. the chaldron, or is. 8d. per ton, upon small coals. In 1831 these duties were modified to 38. 4d. per ton upon large, and 28. per ton upon small coals; and in 1835 they were repealed, with the exception of an ad valorem duty of 10s. per cent.; but if exported in foreign ships not entitled to the privileges conferred by treaties of reciprocity, the duty was 4s. per ton, whether the coal was exported to foreign countries or to British possessions. In 1842 Sir R. Peel altered the duties to 28. per ton on all large coal exported to foreign countries, and 1s. per ton on small coals and culm; but if exported in foreign ships not entitled to the privileges conferred by treaties of reciprocity, the duty was 4s. per ton on large coal, and the same on small coals, culm, and cinders. In the session of 1845 Sir R. Peel, in bringing forward the budget, announced his intention of abandoning the coal-duty; and on the 12th of March it was abolished. This duty had the effect of checking the foreign coal-trade, which had been rapidly increasing for several years, and had, in fact, trebled in amount since 1835. The duty was comparatively insignificant as a source of revenue; it led to greater activity in foreign mines, and reduced the profits of the shipper of English coal, who had to meet foreign competitors.

A considerable revenue was for many years raised from all coal carried coastwise by sea from one part of the kingdom to another. When first imposed, in the reign of William III., this tax was 58. per chaldron, but was raised during the war of the French revolution to 9s. 4d., at which rate it was continued until 1824;