He is also enjoined by the same act at every Quarter Sessions of the Peace, to deliver or cause to be delivered to the court a certificate signed by himself, containing a declaration how far the rules laid down for the government of his prison have been complied with, and pointing out any and every deviation therefrom which may have taken place, on pain of forfeiting 101. (f) He is likewise required, one week before the Michaelmas Session in every year, to make up a return of the state of his prison in the year then ending, in the form contained in the schedule annexed to that act marked (B), and to deliver or cause the same to be delivered to the clerk of the peace or his deputy, for the use of the justices assembled at such Quarter Session. (g) Nor do his duties, in respect of the sessions, cease with them; for he is further required, on the second day after their termination, to transmit by the post to one of his Majesty's principal secretaries of state a calendar, containing the names, the crimes, and the sentences of every prisoner tried at such session; under penalty of 201. if he shall neglect or refuse to transmit such calendar, or shall wilfully transmit a calendar containing any false or imperfect statement. (h) The salaries and allowances of the keepers and other officers in the gaols are all within the control of the justices of sessions; who may also, when a keeper shall be superannuated, grant him such annuity as they may think proportioned to his merits and length of service. (i) § 7. OF CONSTABLES. duties. THE CONSTABLES, as well of the hundreds, as of Chief Conparishes, are bound to attend the Quarter Sessions. (j) stables, their The constables of hundreds, or chief constables, must appear to make return of the warrants directed to them previous to the sessions, to receive the instructions of the justices, and to report the state of the King's peace within the direction. Such, at least, are the general duties assigned to them by the nature, and from the original foundation, of their office. Besides these, however, many this holden at (ƒ) 4 Geo. 4. c. 64. s. 21. The certificate may be thus headed :- of according to the statute in such case made (g) 4 Geo. 4. c. 64. s. 22. (i) Id. s. 26. the Certificate (h) 4 Geo. 4. c. 64. s. 20. (j) Dalt. 185. Petty Constables. High Consta and sworn at sessions. others have, from time to time, been imposed upon them by statute, of an amount too considerable to be distinctly enumerated, to any profitable purpose here; as many of them, although more or less connected with their attendance upon the sessions, are to be executed out of them. The Petty Constables are called over, and fined by the court if they do not answer. Their duties, relative to their parishes are, in a great degree, similar to those of the Chiefs respecting the hundreds, with some additional ones; such as reporting the state of their respective parish stocks, giving evidence respecting the execution of warrants wherewith they may have been charged, and all other matters pertaining to their office, both as conservators of the peace, and as ministers of the justices. The Chief Constables are directed by statute, at the General, or Quarter, Sessions, if thereto required, to account for the general county rate by them received, on pain of being committed to gaol, until they shall account; and to pay over the money in their hands according to the order of the said court, on the like pain. And all the accounts and vouchers shall, after having been passed at the said sessions, be deposited with the clerk of the peace, to be kept among the records, and inspected by any justice without fee. (k) High, or chief Constables, are always chosen at some bles appointed session, either special, general, or quarterly, in order that an officer, in whom all the acting magistrates of the county, or division, have so great an interest, he being their immediate servant and auxiliary in the preservation of the peace, and the link between them and all the petty constables throughout their jurisdiction, may have, if they think fit, a voice in his nomination to the office. They are always sworn also into the office, either at some such session, or by warrant from the same. (7) Petty Consta &c. there. Petty Constables, too, though sometimes appointed in bles appointed courts-leet, according to ancient practice, and occasionally sworn into office either by the lord of such court, or by justices out of session, are now generally nominated by their respective parishes in vestry, and sworn into office by the justices at the Quarter Session, which is, on every account, the better and more regular mode. (m) It has also been decided, that the justices in session are the (k) 12 Geo. 2. c. 29. s. 8; 55 Geo. 3. c. 51. s. 12. (1) Dalt. c. 28. (m) Hawk. b. 2. c. 10. s. 37. proper judges when it is right to appoint Constables for places that have not had any before. (n) justices to swear So necessary a part of the general system, for the pre- Mandamus will servation of the peace, are Constables, that the Court of lie to compel King's Bench will grant a mandamus to compel the jus- Constables. tices to swear such as have been duly appointed; (0) and if, on the other hand, a Constable duly chosen refuse to take upon himself the office and be sworn, he may be indicted at the sessions (or assizes), and, if convicted, shall be fined. Constables. High Constables are required to take the oaths of alle- Oaths to be giance, supremacy, and abjuration, as others who qualify taken by High for offices; (p) but they are not required to receive the sacrament, or to subscribe the declaration against transubstantiation; and petty Constables are exempt from both By Petty Conspecies of test; but must take an oath of office, which has stables. varied at different periods. That anciently in use has been preserved by Dalton; but it has become obsolete; and as, while it enumerates some branches of a Constable's duty, it omits still more, it seems better to swear the Constables to the due execution of their office, in the following form, which is now commonly adopted. or You shall well and truly serve our Sovereign Lord the King, in the office of Constable for the hundred of (or township of parish of —), in the county of, according to the best of your skill and knowledge, for the year ensuing, or till another be appointed in your place. So help you God. In particular instances, the quarterly sessions have Fees of Constacognizance of the fees of Constables for the execution of bles submitted to the justices in certain parts of their duty. Special Constables are entitled sessions. to a reasonable remuneration for their services in executing warrants in cases of FELONY, to be allowed by In felonies. two justices, subject to the confirmation of the justices at the next Quarter Session, whose order on the treasurer of the county for payment is necessary. And by a similar mode of proceeding, high Constables are to be remunerated for extraordinary exertions in cases of TUMULT, RIOT, or FELONY. (9) business. Also in the execution of PAROCHIAL BUSINESS, Consta- In parochial bles, and all persons acting in the capacity of Constables, having delivered their accounts to the overseers of the poor of their respective parishes, are placed ultimately (n) 1 Keb. 554. (0) Hawk. b. 2. c. 10. s. 47. under the control of the justices in session, respecting the liquidation of such accounts, where any dispute or difference of opinion arises upon them. And the justices so assembled have moreover a power of laying down any rules and regulations prospectively, respecting such allowances to Constables generally for such occasions, subject to the approbation of the judge of assize. (r) As the office of Constable is not a judicial, but a ministerial office, a party appointed may execute the duties by deputy. (s) And even a High Constable may depute any competent person to do a particular ministerial act, by parol, and without causing him to be sworn, as to billet soldiers. (t) In this case, the superior will be answerable for the deputy; but where a deputy is appointed to do the entire duties of the office, as is often the case in the instance of petty Constables, the deputy must be accepted and sworn, and from that time is himself the Constable. By such acceptance and swearing of the deputy, the principal is discharged from all responsibility; and cannot be required to serve on the default or absconding of his substitute. (u) The Court of Quarter Sessions may remove all Constables on proper cause; and a High Constable ought not to be removed except in General Session, or at all events in Special Session regularly convened, at which all the magistrates of the division may vote. (v) But it seems that the sheriff or steward of a leet, and also justices out of session having power to appoint petty Constables, may lawfully, for good cause, displace such as they have themselves appointed. (w) If a Constable continue more than a year in his office, he has a right to receive his discharge from the sessions; (x) and, if they refuse, the Court of King's Bench will compel them to discharge him by mandamus. (y) It was formerly the practice for high and petty Constables to make presentments of various matters at the sessions; but that course of proceeding is abolished by a recent statute. (x) (r) 18 Geo. 3. c. 19. The King v. Clarke, 1 T. R. 252. (w) Hawk. B. 2. e. 10. s. 38. (x) 13 and 14 Car. 2. c. 12. s. 15. (y) Hawk. B. 2. c. 10. s. 47. (z) 7 and 8 Geo. 4. c. 38. §8. OF JURORS. The rules respecting the qualifications of Jurors, and the mode of summoning them, have recently undergone an entire revision, and the law concerning them is now comprised in a recent statute. (a) and petty Juries. By this statute it is enacted, that every man, except as Parties liable to thereinafter excepted, between the ages of twenty-one to serve at sesyears and sixty years, residing in any county in Eng- sions on grand land, who shall have in his own name, or in trust for him, within the same county, 107. by the year above reprises, in lands or tenements, whether of freehold, copyhold, or customary tenure, or of ancient demesne, or in rents issuing out of any such lands or tenements, or in such lands, tenements, and rents taken together, in fee simple, fee tail, or for the life of himself or some other person; or who shall have, within the same county, 201. by the year above reprises, in lands or tenements held by lease or leases for the absolute term of 21 years, or some longer term, or for any term of years determinable on any life or lives; or who, being a householder, shall be rated or assessed to the poor rate, or to the inhabited house duty in the county of Middlesex on a value of not less than 301, or in any other county on a value of not less than 201.; or who shall occupy a house containing not less than fifteen windows, shall be qualified and shall be liable to serve on grand juries, in Courts of Session of the Peace, and on Petty Juries for the trial of all issues joined in such Courts of Sessions of the Peace, and liable in the county, riding, or division in which every man so qualified respectively shall reside (b). Juries. From this liability the following parties are especially Parties exempted exempted, and are to be omitted in the lists prepared from serving on under authority of the statute:-peers, judges of the King's Court of Record at Westminster, and of the courts of great session in Wales; clergymen in holy orders; priests of the Roman Catholic faith who have duly taken and subscribed the oaths and declarations required by law; 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 but 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; serjeants and (a) 6 Geo. 4. c. 50. (b) 6 Geo. 4. c. 50. s. 1. |