of two justices of the peace sitting in petty sessions (t). By virtue of the County Courts Act, 1888, s. 17, continuing a like provision contained in the County Courts Act, 1846, s. 20, any judge of a county court, whose name shall be inserted in the commission for the county, may act as a justice of the peace without a property qualification.

[Touching the number and qualifications of these justices, it was ordained by the 18 Edw. III. (1344), st. 2, c. 2, that two or three of the best reputation in each county should be assigned to be keepers of the peace; but these being found rather too few for that purpose, it was provided by the 34 Edw. III. (1360), c. 1, that one lord and three or four of the most worthy men in the county, with some learned in the law, should be made justices in every county. Afterwards the number of justices, through the ambition of private persons, became so large, that it was thought necessary, by the 12 Ric. II. (1388), c. 10, and 14 Ric. II. (1390), c. 11, to restrain them, at first to six, and afterwards to eight in each county. But this rule is now disregarded, and the cause seems to be (as Lambard observed long ago) that the growing number of statute laws committed from time to time to the charge of justices of the peace has occasioned also, and very reasonably, their increase to a large number (u). As to their qualifications, the statutes just cited direct them to be of the best reputation, and most worthy men in the county; and the statute 13 Ric. II. (1390), st. 1, c. 7, ordered them to be of the most sufficient knights, esquires, and gentlemen of the law. Also by the 2 Hen. V. (1414), st. 1, c. 4, and st. 2, c. 1, they must be resident in their several counties,

stipendiaries, see Stipendiary Magistrates Act, 1869; Recorders, Magistrates, and Clerks of the Peace Act, 1888.

(t) See Metropolitan Police as to the deputies of such Courts Act, 1839, s. 9; Indictable Offences Act, 1848, s. 29; Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1848, s. 33; Stipendiary Magistrates Acts, 1858 and 1863; Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, s. 161; and

(u) Lamb. 34.

[though, by the Indictable Offences Act, 1848, s. 5, any justice of the peace for two or more adjacent counties may act in any of them, if resident in one. And because, contrary to the antient statutes above mentioned, men of small substance had crept into the commission, whose poverty made them both covetous and contemptible, it was afterwards enacted by the 18 Hen. VI. (1439), c. 11, that no justice should be put in the commission, if he had not lands to the value of 201. per annum; and, the value of money becoming subsequently greatly altered, it was provided, by the Justices Qualification Acts, 1731 and 1744, that every justice of the peace acting for a county, with certain exceptions, must have in possession, and for his own benefit, an estate, either legal or equitable, of freehold, copyhold, or customary tenure, in fee, for life, or such term of years as in the Acts specified, of the clear yearly value of 100l., or else a reversion, or remainder expectant upon such lease as therein mentioned, with reserved rents of the clear yearly value of 300l. per annum (r).] By the Justices Qualification Act, 1875, it has now been further provided, that a person who, being in full age, has for the space of two years immediately preceding his appointment been the occupier of a dwelling-house assessed to the inhabited house duty at a value of not less than 1007., and has been rated to all rates and taxes in respect of such premises, and who is otherwise eligible, shall be deemed qualified to be appointed a justice of the peace for the county, riding, or division wherein such premises are situate. And it may be here observed, that the acts of a justice not properly qualified are valid, although he acts at his own peril; but it is otherwise if he be disqualified by reason of being sheriff (c).

[As the office of these justices is conferred by the crown, so it subsists only during the crown's pleasure, and is determinable in any one or other of the following five

(c) Pack v. Tarpley (1839), 9 A. & E. 468; Woodward v. Watts (1853), 2 El. & Bl. 452.

(r) Margate Pier Company v. Hannam (1819), 3 B. & Ald. 266 ; Sheriffs Act, 1887, s. 17.

[events, namely: (1) By express writ under the Great Seal, discharging any particular person from being any longer justice (y); (2) By superseding the commission by writ of supersedeas, which suspends the power of all the justices, but does not totally destroy it, seeing it may be revived again by another writ, called a procedendo; (3) By a new commission, which virtually, though silently, discharges all the former justices that are not included therein, for two commissions cannot subsist at once; (4) By accession to the office of sheriff, which, as we have just seen, disqualifies during the year of shrievalty (2). Formerly it was thought, that if a man. was named in any commission of the peace, and had afterwards a new dignity conferred upon him, this determined his office, seeing that he no longer answered the description in the commission. But afterwards it was provided, that, notwithstanding the accession of such new title of dignity, the justice on whom it was conferred should still continue a justice (a).] (5) It is provided by the Bankruptcy Act, 1883, s. 32 (as amended by s. 9 of the Act of 1890), that a debtor adjudged bankrupt shall be disqualified from being appointed or acting as a justice of the peace, until either his adjudication is annulled, or he obtains his discharge with a certificate that his bankruptcy was caused by misfortune and not by misconduct, or otherwise till five years from such discharge.

[The power, office, and duty of a justice of the peace depend on his commission, and on the several statutes which have enlarged his jurisdiction. The commission, in the first place, empowers him to conserve the peace, and thereby gives him all the power of the antient conservators at the common law, in suppressing riots and affrays, in taking securities for the peace, and in apprehending and committing criminals (b). It also empowers any two or more of the justices named therein to hear and determine

[offences, which is the ground of their criminal jurisdiction at quarter sessions (c), of which more will be said hereafter, when we have occasion to treat of crimes and the manner of their prosecution.] Besides the jurisdiction which the justices of each county at large exercise, in these and other matters, at the quarter sessions, authority is moreover given, by various statutes, to the justices acting for the several divisions, into which counties are for that purpose distributed (d), to transact different descriptions of business, at special sessions (e). By other Acts, two justices (or in some cases even a single one) are also empowered to try in a summary way, and without jury, such offences as the respective statutes particularize (ƒ); and the meeting together of justices, for such and similar purposes, is denominated a petty sessions (g). The Local Government Act, 1888, s. 8, provides, that nothing in the Act shall transfer to the county councils thereby established any business of the quarter sessions or justices in relation to appeals by overseers or others in connection with rates; and although, by section 9 of the Act, the powers and duties of the quarter sessions and of justices out of session with

(c) Quarter Sessions Act, 1842. (d) Division of Counties Act, 1828; Petty Sessional Divisions Acts, 1836 and 1859.

(e) County Rates Act, 1844.

(ƒ) 7 & 8 Geo. 4 (1827), c. 30, s. 29; Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1848; Criminal Justice Acts, 1855 and 1856, ss. 18, 20, 22-24; Larceny Act, 1861, ss. 9, 14, 15, 17— 19, 21-25, 33-37, 65, 66, 99, 105-110, 112, 120; Malicious Damage Act, 1861, ss. 22-25, 37-39, 41, 52, 62; Coinage Offences Act, 1861, ss. 23, 26, 27, 41; Offences against the Person Act, 1861, ss. 39, 40, 42-46, 72, 76; Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1879. As to an appeal from the

determination of justices, on a point of law, decided on a summary conviction, see Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1957; Review of Justices Decisions Act, 1872; Supreme Court of Judicature (Procedure) Act, 1894, s. 2.

(g) As to providing places for holding petty sessions, see the Petty Sessions Act, 1849; Petty Sessions and Lock-up House Act, 1868; and Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1884; and as to petty sessional divisions, see the Bastardy Act, 1845, s. 10; Petty Sessions Act, 1849; Criminal Justice Acts, 1855 and 1856; and as to clerks of justices and of special and petty sessions, see Justices Clerks Act, 1877.

respect to the county police are now vested in the quarter sessions and the county councils jointly, yet the powers and duties of the justices as conservators of the peace are not thereby affected.

In view of the troublesome nature of the duties imposed upon magistrates, and the honorary character of the office, statutory provisions have been expressly made to protect a magistrate in the upright discharge of his office (h); which, among other privileges, entitle him, on being sued for any oversight, to tender amends, and exempt him in general from being sued at all after the expiration of six months from the commission of the injury (i). He is also freed from all liability where the matter was one within his jurisdiction, unless it can be proved that he proceeded maliciously and without reasonable and probable cause. Subject to these legislative protections, a justice of the peace is liable to an action by the party injured, for illegal acts done under colour of his office (k); he is also liable to be prosecuted criminally, by indictment or information, if guilty of any corrupt or malicious abuse in the exercise of his judicial discretion. On the other hand, when he acts fairly and bona fide, leave will not be granted to file an information against him, on account of a mere error in his proceedings (1).

It is impossible, on the plan of the present work, to enter minutely into the particulars of the accumulated authority from time to time committed to the charge of

(h) Justices Protection Act, 1848, Prickett v. Gratrex (1846), 8 Q. B. 1020; Leary v. Patrick (1850), 15 Q. B. 266; Taylor v. Nesfield (1854), 3 Ell. & Bl. 724; Gelen v. Hall (1857), 2 H. & N. 379; and Public Authorities Protection Act, 1893.

(i) Actions against metropolitan police magistrates must have been brought within three months (Metropolitan Police Courts Act,

1839, s. 53; Barnett v. Cox (1847), 9 Q. B. 617); but, semble, they may now be brought within six months (Public Authorities Protection Act, 1893).

(k) Fernley V. Worthington (1840), 1 Man. & Gr. 491; Cave v. Mountain, ib. 257.

(1) R. v. Palmer (1761), 2 Burr. 1162; R. v. Borron (1820), 3 B. & Ald. 432.