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bread, Licensed Hawkers, Factory regulations, Public Works, the rules as to Shipping and the employment of mariners, &c. The statutes of every session of parliament make considerable additions to the functions of justices of peace, and their powers in the matters above enumerated, as well as in others where special statutory authority is conferred on them, will have to be considered in the following pages. By virtue of the commission, no case can be tried without the presence of two justices; but by the special provisions, one justice is often made competent. The justices judge in cases of aliment to natural children, and in disputes between master and servant.1 civil matters, justices have jurisdiction to the extent of £5, exclusive of expenses,2 provided the decision do not involve a question of heritable right, or as to the validity of a will or contract of marriage, or any gambling debt, or the price of spirituous liquors. The exercise of their functions in the small debt courts belongs properly to the department of private rights.* Justices have no power as judges in litigated cases beyond their counties; but they exercise ministerial duties, such as taking affidavits of the truth of certain statements.

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There can be no other general rule for the conduct of justices of the peace, than that they are bound to observe to the letter the statutes under which they act, and that whatever discretion they must sometimes find it necessary to adopt in interpreting the enacting terms in the body of a statute, when there are schedules, containing forms of conviction or other styles, the very words dictated by the legislature must be employed, because the form of a schedule is adopted with the intention of superseding all discretion as to the method of procedure. However useful law-books and other commentaries may be to the justice of peace, in leading him either to the knowledge of the existence of an act, or to its right interpretation, they should not supersede the act itself, which ought to be in his hands on the occasion of every commitment or conviction founded on statute. It is of essential importance to know, though it is sometimes not easy to discover, how far statutes have been altered and amended by others; and this is one of the points, on which digests of the law, if executed with proper skill and industry, are mainly serviceable to justices of the peace. If a statute set forth alternative circumstances under which a conviction may take place, the record must state which of them has taken place-so where it was enacted that they might convict on their own view, or on

1 Tait's J. P. 271.-2 6 Geo. IV. c. 48, § 2.-3 Ibid. § 25.-* See the Law of Private Rights, &c. Part XIV. Chap. IV.

confession, or on proof on oath, an objection that the conviction did not bear that it rested on any one of these grounds, was sustained.1 It would at any time render a conviction, whether proceeding on statutory or ordinary law, questionable, that it does not state the ground on which it has proceeded. Action had been raised before certain justices for a statutory penalty. On the appointed day the case was not called, and there was no adjournment pronounced. It was taken up on a subsequent day, and a penalty was imposed, which not being satisfied by a poinding, imprisonment followed. The Court of Justiciary granted suspension and liberation, on the ground that the justices had given decree and granted their warrants when there was in reality no prosecution before them. It was found, however, that unless malice could be averred, the irregularities were no sufficient foundation for an action of damages.2.

In proceedings under an act, which authorized a summary 'conviction, it was found to be no objection to a conviction that the evidence was taken down in writing. In the same case, where two were made a quorum by the act, it was found not to invalidate the decision, that besides two who were present during the whole proceedings, other justices concurred in the judgment, which was unanimous.3

Affidavits.—An affidavit, properly speaking, is the oath of any person cognizant of certain matters, to the truth of which he speaks, uttered before a magistrate, by whom it is certified as having been so. In the cases where an oath is required, quakers or separatists may make a solemn declaration. The instances, however, in which oaths are required or permitted, are now limited in number. By the custom-house acts, declarations are in general substituted for them. In 1835 an act was passed, authorizing the Lords of the Treasury to substitute declarations for oaths in transactions connected with the different departments of the revenue and public offices. By the same act, justices are prohibited from administering oaths "touching any matter or thing whereof such justice or other person hath not jurisdiction or cognizance by some statute in force at the time being;" but the provision does not extend to "any oath, affidavit, or solemn affirmation before any justice, in any matter or thing touching the preservation of the peace, or the prosecution, trial, or punishment of offences, or touching any proceedings be

M'Donald v. Gray, 15th June 1844.- Malonie v. Walker, 21st January 1841.3 Somerville v. Hemmans, 25th June 1844 -4 5 & 6 Wm. IV. c. 62, § 2.

fore either of the houses of parliament, or any committee thereof respectively, nor to any oath, affidavit, or affirmation which may be required by the laws of any foreign country, to give validity to instruments in writing, designed to be used in such foreign countries respectively." The statute

is declared not to extend to judicial ratifications by married women, of deeds executed by them.2 A form of declaration is substituted, and the taking such declaration falsely renders the offender liable to fine and imprisonment.3

In reference to affidavits, it may be mentioned that by statute the Lord Chancellor is authorized to appoint masters extraordinary in Chancery, to take in Scotland those affidavits to be used in England, which, according to the practice of that part of the empire, require to be taken before a master in Chancery.*

SECT. 3.-Courts.

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Quarter Sessions.-The principal court of the Justices of Peace is, "the General Quarter Sessions," which consist of meetings of the justices of the whole county, appointed to be held on the first Tuesdays of March, May, and August, and the last Tuesday of October, with power of adjournment.5 Two justices form a quorum. The Quarter Sessions can meet only at the head burgh of the shire,7 though they may adjourn to another place. "The adjourned meetings are commonly called General Sessions. Sometimes they are for a special piece of business, in which case they are generally termed Special Sessions." ."8 The Quarter Sessions have some ministerial duties specially assigned to them. They act as a court of appeal from the decisions of justices in Petty Sessions."

Petty Sessions.-The Petty Sessions are the occasional meetings of two or more justices, before whom the majority of ordinary cases are tried.10 Counties are generally divided into districts, for each of which sessions are held; the decisions of which are valid over the whole county. By the small debt act, the justices at Quarter Sessions may make and alter divisions of districts, and appoint times and places of meeting for Petty Sessions, acting under the statute.12 If there be but one justice present at such a session, he may call the roll of causes, pronounce decrees in absence, and receive returns of the execution of citations.13

5 & 6 Wm. IV. c. 62, §§ 13, 15.-2 6 & 7 Wm. IV. c. 43.—3 5 & 6 Wm. IV. c. 62, §§ 18, 20.4 6 & 7 Vict. c. 82.-5 1661, c. 38, Hutch. J. P. i. 76.-6 Commission.-7 Hutch. J. P. i. 77.-8 Tait's J. P. 469.9 Ibid.—10 Ibid.—11 Ibid. 109.—12 6 Geo. IV. c. 48, § 21.-13 Ibid. § 16.

Prosecutors, Clerks, &c.-In the ordinary case of an offence, the party injured and the procurator-fiscal only can prosecute; but it is specially enacted in many of the statutes for the preservation of the peace, that any informant may prosecute. The procurator-fiscal, or public prosecutor, is appointed by the justices, generally from among the agents practising before them. The clerk of the peace is chosen by the Secretary of State, and generally for life.2 Besides preparing the rolls, writing out warrants and decrees, &c., he has other ministerial duties peculiarly assigned to him. Each district has generally a depute-clerk and procuratorfiscal, who are appointed by their respective superiors.3

1 Ninth Report of Commissioners on Courts of Law in Scotland, 1821, p. 18.-2 Ibid. p. 17.- Tait's J. P. 109.

PART II.

THE MEMBERS OF THE LEGISLATURE.

CHAPTER I.

ELECTION OF REPRESENTATIVE PEERS.

THE peers of Scotland, by the Treaty of Union, elect sixteen of their number to be their representatives in the House of Lords. These sixteen peers enjoy all the privileges of the peers of England, and are entitled to sit on the trial of peers.2 The other peers of Scotland have all the privileges of members of the House of Peers, except the legislative and judicial powers.3

At the summoning of a new parliament, a proclamation is issued, calling on the peers to meet at Edinburgh or elsewhere, to choose their representatives, which must be published at the market-cross of Edinburgh, and at all the county towns of Scotland, five and twenty days before the meeting for election. English peers possessed of Scottish titles at the time of the Union, or who have since succeeded to them, and peers of Scotland who have obtained British peerages, have votes, but no other peers created since the Union, though their titles should be nominally Scottish, can vote.5 No peer can vote or be elected who is not of the age of 21.6 Each protestant peer must subscribe the oath of supremacy in 6th Anne, c. 23, that of allegiance in 1st Geo. I., c. 13, and that of abjuration, in 6th Geo. III. c. 53.7 Roman Catholic peers have to subscribe the oath appointed by the Catholics' Emancipation act.8

Articles of Union, art. 22.-2 Ibid. art. 23.-3 Ibid.-4 6 Anne, c. 23, §§ 1, 2.-5 Wight on Elections, 113. Connell on Elections, 11. Robertson's Proceedings relating to the Peerage, 414.- Wight, 117.-76 Anne, c. 23, § 3. 1 Geo. I. stat. 2, c. 13, § 3. 6 Geo. III. c. 53, § 1. 2 & 3 Wm. IV. c. 63.- 10 Geo. IV. c. 7, §§ 2, 5.

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