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breach of peace and misbehaviour; the words of their commission are conceived thus, Quorum, such and such, unum vel duos, etc. esse volumus; and without some one or more of the quorum, no sessions can be holden; and for the avoiding of a superfluous number of such justices, (for through the ambition of many it Justices of is counted a credit to be burthened with that pointed by authority,) the statute of 38 H. VIII. hath keeper. expressly prohibited that there shall be but eight justices of the peace in every county. These justices hold their sessions quarterly.

peace ap

the lord

In every shire where the commission of the peace is established, there is a clerk of the peace for the entering and ingrossing of all proceedings before the said justices. And this officer is appointed by the custos rotulorum.

The office of sheriff's.

Every shire hath a sheriff, which word, being of the Saxon English, is as much as to say shire-reeve, or minister of the county: his function or office is twofold, namely,

1. Ministerial.

2. Judicial.

1. He is the minister and executioner of all the process and precepts of the courts of law, and therefore ought to make return and certificate.

2. The sheriff hath authority to hold two several courts of distinct natures: 1. The turn, because he keepeth his turn and circuit about the shire, and holdeth the same court in several places, wherein he doth inquire of all offences perpetrated against the common law, and not forbidden by any statute or act

of parliament; and the jurisdiction of this court is derived from justice distributive, and is for criminal offences, and held twice every year.

2. The County Court, wherein he doth determine all petty and small causes civil under the value of forty shillings, arising from the said county; and therefore it is called the county court.

The jurisdiction of this court is derived from justice commutative, and is held every month. The office of the sheriff is annual, and in the king's gift, whereof he is to have a patent.

The office of escheator.

Every shire hath an officer called an escheator, which is an office to attend the king's revenue and to seize into his majesty's hands all lands escheated, and goods or lands forfeited, and therefore is called escheator; and he is to inquire by good inquest of the death of the king's tenant, and to whom the lands are descended, and to seize their bodies and lands for ward if they be within age, and is accountable for the same: he is named by the lord treasurer of England.

The office of coroner.

Two other officers there are in every county called coroners; and by their office they are to enquire by good inquest in what manner, and by whom every person dying of a violent death came so to their death; and to enter the same of record; which is matter criminal, and a plea of the crown: and therefore they are called coroners, or crowners, as one hath written, because their inquiry ought to be in corona populi.

These officers are chosen by the freeholders of the

shire, by virtue of a writ out of the chancery de coronatore eligendo: and of them I need not to write more, because these officers are in use elsewhere.

General observations touching constables, gaolers, and bailiffs.

Forasmuch as every shire is divided into hundreds, there are also by the statute of 34 H. VIII. cap. 26. ordered and appointed, that two sufficient gentlemen or yeomen shall be appointed constables of every hundred.

Also there is in every shire a gaol or prison appointed for the restraint of liberty of such persons as for their offences are thereunto committed, until they shall be delivered by course of law.

In every hundred of every shire the sheriff thereof shall nominate sufficient persons to be bailiffs of that hundred, and under-ministers of the sheriffs: and they are to attend upon the justices in every of their courts and sessions.

NOTE.

Vol. xiv. pages 188 and 251. The origin of the bad grammar in Reg. 19, which I only observed while correcting the press, is to be found in the ninth line of p. 301 of that volume, where we have iisdem modis quibus, &c.

INDEX

TO THE

LITERARY AND PROFESSIONAL WORKS.

Note. The parts of the Index printed in Italic refer to the Editors' Prefaces and Notes.

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imprisoned for a short time, xi.
330.

firm to Henry VII. against the

Cornish rebels, xi. 266.
Abingdon, Abbot of, sent as commis-
sioner by Henry VII. to Charles
VIII. xi. 110.

Abjuration and Exile, offences of,
xv. 333, 334.

Academia nova modum prorsùs ex-
cessit, xiii. 47.
Accessories, xiv. 220, 222, 237, 245.
Achaians compared by Titus Quin-
tius to a tortoise, xiii. 238.
Achelous, his fight with Hercules,
interpretation of the fable, xiii.
136-138.

interpretatio fabulæ, xiii. 35, 36.
Act of God, xiv. 215.
Acteon, or curiosity, the fable inter-
preted, xiii. 108, 109.
interpretatio fabulæ, xiii. 10, 11.
Action in oratory, saying of Demos-
thenes respecting, xii. 116.
Actium, battle of, xii. 186.
Actus inceptus, cujus perfectio pendet
ex voluntate partium, revo-
cari potest, xiv. 256, 257.
si autem ex voluntate tertiæ
personæ, vel ex contingenti,

A.

Actus inceptus. - continued.
revocari non potest, xiv. 257,
258.

Aculeate words, xii. 272.
Administration, letters of, xiv. 429,

432.

Adrian the Emperor, his envy of
poets and artists, xii. 105.
Adrian VI., Pope, xi. 140.
Adrian de Castello, the Pope's am-
bassador to Scotland, xi. 139.
honoured and employed by
Henry VII. ib.

Adrian's case, xv. 213.
Adultery, man taken in, saying of one
of the Romans respecting, xiii. 372.
Advancement of Fortune, xi. 22.
Advancement of Learning, the, a key
to the opening the Instauration,
xiii. 186, 187.
Adversity, essay on, xii. 93.

the blessing of the New Testa-
ment, ib.

its virtue fortitude, ib.
best discovers virtue, ib.
Advertisement touching an Holy
War, xiii. 191-218.
Advocates, behaviour of Judges tow-
ards, xii. 267, 371.
Advowson, xiv. 229, 235, 236.

in gross, xiv. 190.
Egyptian, on the recent origin of
Greece, xiii. 375. — See Egypt.
Eneas Sylvius, of the donation of
Constantine the Great to Sylvester,
xiii. 372.

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