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powers, when forges, kilns, or other fires or lights, are so used in places near the sea that they are liable to be mistaken for sea-lights. When the owner of such a work, in receiving notice, does not take steps for preventing the light being visible at sea, he becomes liable to a penalty of £10, recoverable, at the instance of the commissioners, by summary proceedings before one justice. If the proprietor do not make an alteration within seven days after the conviction, it may be made by direction of the commissioners. Penalties are recoverable by distress and sale, and the sums recovered go to the poor of the parish.

SECT. 5.-Inland Navigation.

The greater portion of the inland navigation systems are regulated by local statutes. For the purpose of allowing free competition with railways and other methods of conveyance, an act was passed in 1845, for enabling the proprietors or managers of canals and other inland systems of navigation to be themselves the carriers of goods on their own lines, serving the public at uniform and regular charges, and subject to the rules of responsibility applicable to other public carriers.3

The local acts under which canal and other navigation companies have been created, having generally established a uniform rate of charges per ton or per mile, it was deemed expedient that powers should be given by statute to the bodies having the management of these lines of navigation, whether joint stock companies or managers, to vary their charges as expediency required. There is a provision that the rate shall always be a fixed one in its relation to persons, i. e. that for the same amount of service or accommodation the charge shall always be the same whoever may take advantage of it. Where there is a company of shareholders, the change requires the sanction of a majority of two-thirds, according to the established method of counting and voting, at a meeting called for the purpose. To be legally adopted by a body of commissioners or trustees, the change requires the sanction of a majority, at a special meeting. In all cases certain notices must be given before the change commences.6 Conterminous proprietors and owners of lines of navigation are not to be deprived of any privilege they may have under

16 & 7 Wm. IV. c. 79, § 61.- Ibid.-3 8 & 9 Vict. c. 42.- Ibid. c. 28. — Ibid. § 2.—6 Ibid. § 3.

special statute by such an alteration, and where several lines of navigation are connected, so that the charges on one have reference to those on another, there must be the consent of the managers of all parts of the line, on adopting a change.1

18 & 9 Vict. c. 28, § 4.

PART VIII.

PUBLIC POLICE.

CHAPTER I.

CONSTABLES AND OTHER OFFICERS OF THE Law.

EACH Court of justice has its officers for putting its orders in execution. Messengers-at-arms appointed by the lord lyon execute the summonses and letters of diligence of the superior courts. The proceedings of the sheriff courts are enforced by sheriffs' officers. These several officials can only perform the instructions contained in their warrants; but there are others termed Constables, or police-officers, who are authorized to use certain discretionary powers for the purpose of preserving the peace of the community.

Constables are the officers of the justices of the peace in counties, and of the magistrates in burghs. The justices are directed to appoint them at their quarter sessions, two at least for every parish, with a sufficient number for those burghs which have no municipal police. The magistrates of burghs are directed to elect a new set every six months,there are penalties attached to the refusal of the office, these rules having been made at a time when it was unpopular.1 The above regulations are now of little practical importance, as it is found more convenient to employ permanent and professional persons, whose powers and duties are in towns regulated by the respective police acts, or by the general police act. (See next chapter.) By the Rural Police Act, already mentioned in reference to local taxation,* counties may be assessed for the support of a local constabulary force.2

11661, c. 38. E. i. 4, 16. Hutch. J. P. i. 304.-* Part V. Chap. VIII. Sect. 1.-22 & 3 Vict. c. 65.

Public Works.-Constables are often attached to public works, in virtue of the local acts by which they are regulated. By a late act, the sheriff may appoint constables to act on railways and other public works in the course of construction, and within one mile beyond their limits, on the application of the company carrying on the work, or of any two justices acting in the district. The sheriff fixes the amount of their remuneration, payable by the conductors of the work.1

The duties of constables are twofold; they apprehend criminals on warrants, and keep the peace on their own responsibility, the former duty belongs to another branch of the subject, the latter only will be here considered.

*

A constable who witnesses the perpetration of a breach of the peace, or has immediate information of it from an eyewitness, may seize the delinquent, and is entitled to the assistance of the bystanders.2 If the person escape to his own house, it would appear that the constable is not entitled to break open the doors of the house, if refused admittance; but he may keep watch in the neighbourhood, and apprehend the delinquent when he leaves it.3 A constable is entitled to break into a house in order to put a stop to any tumult or disorder, and he may apprehend a person using violent threats which tend to immediate mischief.5

4

A constable ought to arrest persons causing danger by discharging firearms in public places, furiously driving carts or oxen in crowded streets, &c.6 In the case of a mob or riot, he should repair to the spot with his baton, and endeavour to keep the peace by seizing and dispersing the rioters.7 It is a constable's duty to apprehend all lunatics wandering about unprotected, and to bring them before the sheriff to be disposed of. Constables are entitled to apprehend all vagabonds, impostors, and sturdy beggars, viz. gipsies, jugglers, thimble-riggers, and other vagrant gamblers, fortune-tellers, persons who circulate spurious tales of distress, &.9 They may apprehend pedlars who do not show their licenses, and these may be detained by ordinary individuals, until notice is given to a constable. The constable refusing to act on such notice forfeits £10.20 By several statutes, of which the substance will be found in this volume, and by many local police and other acts, peculiar

18&9 Vict. c. 3.-* See below, Part IX. - Tait's Powers and Duties of a Constable, 19.-3 Ibid. H. C. ii. 76. Hutch. J. P. i. 305.- Ibid.— 5 Tait's Powers, &c., 19.6 Ibid. 24.-7 Ibid. 25.-8 Ibid. 24. 4 & 5 Vict. c. 60, § 3. - Tait's Powers, 21.-10 55 Geo. III. c. 71, §§ 13, 14.

statutory powers are given to constables for the apprehension of transgressors.

66

By two late statutes, the out-pensioners of Chelsea hospital and the marine out-pensioners of Greenwich hospital may be enrolled as a local force for the preservation of the peace," and they may be considered as in some respects supplying the place of an armed police.1

CHAPTER II.

THE GENERAL BURGH POLICE ACT, 3 & 4 WILLIAM IV. c. 46. SECT. 1.-The Preliminary Meeting.

In any royal burgh, burgh of regality, or burgh of barony, a meeting of the ten-pound householders to consider whether any of the provisions of the act shall be adopted must be called by the acting chief magistrate, if a requisition be presented to him by ten-pound householders to the numberof seven or more, where the population does not exceed three thousand, or of twenty-one or more, where it does exceed three thousand (§§ 1, 3). On receiving the application, the magistrate has to appoint lists of the population to be provided within fourteen days, and within the same time to obtain from the assessors of the house-tax, or from other quarters if expedient, a list of the ten-pound householders, distinguishing the amount at which each is assessed (§§ 4, 63). Disputes about this list are settled by the sheriff (§ 5).

The meeting must be held at a period beyond twenty-one and within thirty days from the date of the requisition. Notice must be affixed to the doors of the town-house and parish churches fourteen days before it is held, and the meeting must be intimated by the drummer or other public crier twice a-week for two weeks, or be proclaimed at the market place, and advertised in a newspaper published in or circulated in the burgh, three days before it is held (§ 8). The persons entitled to vote at the meeting, and at all others under the act, are the occupants of premises within the burgh "of the value of not less than ten pounds; " and

16 & 7 Vict. c. 95. 9 & 10 Vict. c. 9.-* The act does not say of the yearly value of not less than ten pounds.

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