CONSTABLE. 1. High constables, p. 308. How chosen and sworn, p. 311. Their duties, &c., p. 317. Their fees and expenses, how paid, p. 318. 3. Constables in boroughs, p. 320. 4. County and district constables, p. 323. 1. High constables. High or chief constables are appointed for hundreds; petty constables for the parishes, vills, and tithings within the hundred. High constables were formerly chosen by the justices at sessions; and there sworn into office. Dalt. c. 28. But now, by stat. 7 & 8 Vict. c. 33, s. 8, "where high constables have heretofore been usually appointed at courts of quarter sessions, the high constables of such places shall hereafter be appointed by such justices as may be present at the special sessions of their division, held for purpose of hearing appeals against the rates of the several parishes in such division, or at any adjournment thereof; but if the hundred or other like division of the county, for which any high constable is to be appointed, be not included within the limits of any one division of the county for which such special sessions are held, then the justices of the peace for the county, assembled at general or quarter sessions, or any adjournment thereof, may from time to time determine the division of the special sessions at which such constable is to be appointed, and shall cause notice of such determination to be sent by post or otherwise to the high constable for the time being of such hundred or other like division; and every high constable, whether appointed at a special sessions or at an adjourment thereof, or at a court leet, or any other special court, shall, if present at the time of his being appointed, then and there take his oath for the due execution of his office, and if otherwise, he shall forthwith, on the receipt of his appointment, go before the next or some other justice of the peace for the county in which he resides, and then and there take his said oath of office, and he shall not, in virtue of his said office of high constable, be required to take any other oath than the said oath for the execution of his office." Formerly the duties of the high constable were the same, within his hundred, as those of the petty constable within his vill; he had also to superintend the petty constables, and see that they did their duties. Several duties have since been imposed upon high constables by statute, particularly in executing the precepts of justices, &c., which are noticed under their proper heads throughout this work; and these latter have in fact superseded the duty originally assigned to the high constable in common with the petty constables, although he still has the superintendence of the latter, and may present any offence or breach of duty by them to the sessions. By stat. 7 & 8 Vict. c. 33, s. 7, reciting that it is expedient to relieve high constables from the duty of serving notices of the holding of special sessions on the justices of the peace of the division of special sessions personally,-it is enacted that "in all cases in which special sessions are required to be holden for any division of any county or place, if notice of the intended holding of such special sessions be signed by any one justice of the peace usually acting within such division, and if a copy of such notice be sent by post a reasonable time before the day on which such sessions are to be holden, addressed to each justice of the peace resident and usually acting within such division at his residence in such division, such notice shall be deemed to have been duly given to or served on each such justice of the peace." High constables, employed in collecting and levying countyrates, must give security, if required to do so by the justices; otherwise the justices may order the overseer of the poor within the hundred to pay their quota of the rate to the treasurer of the county. 55 G. 3, c. 51, s. 19. They shall also account for the monies received by them for county-rates, to the sessions, and their accounts and vouchers, after being examined and passed, shall be deposited with the clerk of the peace. Id. s. 12; 12 G. 2, c. 29, s. 8. For extraordinary expenses incurred by them in the execution of their duty, in cases of tumult, riot, or felony, two justices may order them an allowance; which order shall be submitted to the justices at the next sessions, who may allow or disallow the same. 41 G. 3, c. 78, s. 2. 2. Petty Constables. Who may be. Who, qualified.] Every able-bodied man resident within a parish, between the ages of twenty-five years and fifty-five years, rated to the relief of the poor, or to the county-rate, on any tenements of the net yearly value of four pounds or upwards, except such persons as shall be exempt or disqualified as hereinafter mentioned, shall be qualified and liable to serve as constable of that parish. 5 & 6 Vict. c. 109, s. 5. Exemptions.] All peers; all members returned to serve in the Commons House of Parliament;-all judges of Her Majesty's courts of record at Westminster ;-all justices of the peace; all deputy lieutenants ;—all clergymen in holy orders;-all priests of the Roman Catholic faith, who shall have duly taken and subscribed the oaths and declarations required by law;-all persons who shall teach or preach in any congregation of Protestant Dissenters, whose place of meeting is duly registered, and who shall follow no secular occupation except that of a schoolmaster, producing a certificate of some justice of the peace of their having taken the oaths and subscribed the declaration required by law;-all schoolmasters;-all serjeants and barristers-at-law actually practising;-all members of the society of doctors of law and advocates of the civil law actually practising;-all attornies, solicitors, and proctors duly admitted in any court of law or equity, or of ecclesiastical or admiralty jurisdiction, in which attornies, solicitors, and proctors have usually been admitted, actually practising, and having duly taken out their annual certificates ;-all conveyancers and special pleaders below the bar;-all officers of any such courts, actually exercising the duties of their respective offices;-all coroners, gaolers, and keepers of houses of correction ;-all members and licentiates of the Royal College of Physicians in London, actually practising;-all surgeons, being members of one of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons in London, Edinburgh, or Dublin, and actually practising;-all apothecaries, having obtained a certificate to practise as an apothecary from the master, wardens, and society of apothecaries of the city of London, and actually practising;—all officers in Her Majesty's navy or army on full-pay;-all persons enrolled and serving in any corps of yeomanry under officers having commissions from Her Majesty, or lieutenants of counties, or others specially authorized by Her Majesty for that purpose;-all pilots licensed by the Trinity House of Deptford Strond, Kingston-upon Hull, or Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and all masters of vessels in the buoy and light service employed by either of those corporations;and all pilots licensed by the lord warden of the Cinque Ports, or under any Act of parliament or charter for the regulation of pilots in any other port;-all the household servants of Her Majesty ;-all officers of customs and excise;-all sheriffs and sheriffs' officers;-all high constables;-the clerks of all boards of guardians of the poor, established under the Act for the amendment and better administration of the laws relating to the poor in England and Wales;-the masters of all union workhouses;-all county or district constables;-all parish clerks; all registrars and superintendent registrars of births, deaths and marriages;-all churchwardens, overseers, and relieving officers :-shall be freed and exempt from serving the office of constable under this Act. Id. s. 6. Who, disqualified.] All licensed victuallers, and persons licensed to deal in any exciseable liquors or to sell beer by retail, all gamekeepers, and all persons who have been attainted of any treason or felony, or convicted of any infamous crime, shall be disqualified from serving the office of constable under this Act. Id. s. 7. How Chosen and Sworn into Office. Formerly, constables were usually appointed at the court leet, or in default thereof, by justices of the peace; sometimes otherwise, by statute or custom. But now, it is provided by stat. 5 & 6 Vict. c. 109, s. 21, that after the passing of this Act, no petty constable, headborough, borsholder, tithingman, or peace officer of the like description under any name of office, shall be appointed for any parish, township, or vill within the limits of this Act, except for the performance of duties unconnected with the preservation of the peace or with the execution of this Act, at any court-leet or torn, or otherwise than under the provisions of this Act, or under the provisions of stat. 2 & 3 Vict. c. 93, (post, p. 328), or of some Act passed for the amendment thereof. But nothing herein contained shall be taken to prevent the appointment of special constables, or to apply to the city of London or the metropolitan police district, or to any borough which is within the provisions of stat. 5 & 6 W. 4, c. 76, or of any charter granted in pursuance of that Act, or of any Act made for the amendment thereof, or to any parish, town, or place in which rates are or shall be levied for the payment of constables, under the provisions of stat. 3 & 4 W. 4, c. 90, making provision for the lighting and watching of parishes in England and Wales, or of any local Act specially applying to such parish, town, or place; and that nothing herein-before contained shall be taken to apply to the county palatine of Chester. Id. s. 21. And where a parish is partly within and partly without such exempted place, only those residing within the exempted part of the parish shall be exempt from serving as constables under the above Act. 7 & 8 Vict. c. 52, s. 4. As to the mode of appointing them, under this Act, see post, p 314. Special sessions.] On some day after the twenty-fourth day of March and before the ninth day of April in each year, the justices of the peace of every county in England, [and of every liberty in England having a separate commission of the peace, and not being an incorporated borough, 7 & 8 Vict. c. 52, s. 1,] shall hold a petty session of the peace in their several divisions, for the appointment of parochial constables, of which session due notice shall be given to every justice usually acting in that division. 5 & 6 Vict. c. 109. Precepts to overseers.] The justices shall, within the first seven days of February in each year, issue a precept, under the hands of any two of them, to the overseers of each parish within the division, requiring them to make out and return, before the twenty-fourth day of March in each year, a list in writing of a competent number of men within their respective parishes, qualified and liable to serve as constables, and also to perform all other requisitions in the said precepts contained; and with the said precept shall be given notice to the said overseers of the time and place where such special session of the peace as aforesaid will be holden. Id. s. 2. Union of parishes for the purpose.] It shall be lawful for the justices at a special petty session of the peace to be holden for that purpose, at any convenient time before the issuing of such precept as aforesaid (of which last-mentioned session due notice shall be given to every justice usually acting within the division), to make an order for uniting any parish or parishes, whenever they shall think it expedient, to any parish adjoining thereto, or for the annexing of any extra-parochial places to any parish adjoining thereto for the purposes of this Act; and a copy of such order shall be served on the overseers of every parish so united, and also on the overseers of such adjoining parish and every such extra-parochial place so annexed, with the precept herein-before mentioned; and every such parish or extra-parochial place so united to any adjoining parish shall thenceforward be deemed, for all the purposes of this Act, to be a part of such adjoining parish: and the inhabitants thereof shall be entitled to attend and vote at any meeting in vestry for the purposes of this Act of the inhabitants of the parish to which such parish is united, as fully as if they were inhabitants of the parish where such meeting is holden. Id. s. 4. Lists and returns.] The overseers of every parish, upon the receipt of such precept, shall summon a meeting of the inhabitants in vestry, to be holden within fourteen days after the receipt of the said precept; and the vestry, at such meeting, |