court shall be held in London, or the suburbs thereof, at least twelve times in every year; that indictments found at the sessions of the peace may be removed there by certiorari; that the justices of quarter-sessions within the district allotted to the court shall not try the higher species of felonies and misdemeanours therein specified; and, as we have already seen, that the court shall have power to try offences committed on the high seas. In this court the queen's judges administer criminal justice at the beginning of every month of the year, in London,-a provision highly important and beneficial to the large and dense population inhabiting the district over which its jurisdiction extends.'

IX. The court of general quarter-sessions of the peace,"

1 The marginal notes to the chief clauses of the stat. 4 and 5 Wm. IV. c. xxxvi. not noticed here, are as follows:-Sect. 3. New district to be considered as one county, and venue to be "central criminal court." 4. Power to summon juries from London, or from the counties, or from both indiscriminately, to try all offences cognisable by the act. 5. The crown, by order in council, to appoint the places of confinement for prisoners. 6. Penitentiary at Milbank to be one of the prisons under the act. 7. Persons sentenced to imprisonment beyond the limits of the act may be removed to the Penitentiary at Milbank. 8. Regulations in all Milbank Penitentiary acts shall apply to prisoners confined there by authority of the act. 9. Persons convicted may be imprisoned either in the county-gaol or at Newgate, and sheriffs of London may execute judgments. 10. Justices and coroners in Essex and Kent to commit offenders to Newgate, and justices and coroners in Surrey to commit offenders to Horsemonger-lane, and certify examinations to the court. 11. Justices and coroners to specify that persons are committed under the act, and take examinations as required under 7 Geo. IV. c. lxiv. Power to remove prisoners from county-gaol of Surrey to Newgate. 12. Power to order payment of expenses to prosecutors and witnesses. 19. Justices of the peace may deliver over indictments found at sessions to the justices of oyer and terminer.

2 4 Inst. 170. 2 Hale, P. C. 42. 2 Hawk. P. C. c. viii.

which must be held in every county once in every quarter of the year, and which, by statute 1 Wm. IV. c. lxx. § 35, is appointed to be in the first week after the 11th of October, the 28th of December, the 21st of March, and the 24th of June, in every year.l "It is held before two or more justices of the peace, one of whom must be of the quorum. The jurisdiction of this court, by statute 34 Ed. III. c. i., extends to the trying and determining all felonies and trespasses whatsoever, though they seldom, if ever, try any offence above lesser felonies; their commission providing, that if any case of difficulty arises, they shall not proceed to judgment but in the presence of one of the justices of the court of queen's bench or common pleas, or one of the judges of assize; and therefore murders, and other capital felonies, are remitted for a more solemn trial to the assizes. They cannot, also, try any new-created offence, without express power given them by the statute that creates it.2 But there are many offences and particular matters, which by particular statutes belong properly to this jurisdiction, and ought to be prosecuted in this court: as the smaller misdemeanours against the public or commonwealth not amounting to felony, and especially offences relating to game, highways, alehouses, bastard children, the settlement and provision for the poor, vagrants, servants' wages, and apprentices.3 Some of these are proceeded upon by indictment, and others in a summary way by motion and order thereupon; which order may for the most part, unless guarded

And see stat. 4 and 5 Wm. IV. c. xlvii. for provisions to prevent the April quarter-sessions interfering with the spring assizes.

24 Inst. 170. 2 Hale, P. C. 42. 2 Hawk. P. C. 32. By stat. 3 and 4 Wm. IV. c. xxxvi. § 17, the courts of quarter-sessions within the jurisdiction of the central criminal court are restrained from trying a great number of offences therein specified.

3 See Lambard, Irenarchia, and Burn's Justice.

against by particular statutes, be removed into the court of queen's bench by a writ of certiorari facias, and be there either quashed or confirmed. The records or rolls of the sessions are committed to the custody of a special officer, denominated the custos rotulorum, who is always a justice of the quorum; and among them of the quorum,' saith Lambard,' a man for the most part especially picked out, either for wisdom, countenance, or credit.' The nomination of the custos rotulorum (who is the principal civil officer in the county, as the lord lieutenant is the chief in military command) is by the royal sign-manual; and to him the nomination of the clerk of the peace belongs, which office he is expressly forbidden to sell for money."2

In most corporation-towns there are quarter-sessions kept within their respective limits, which have exactly the same authority as the general quarter-sessions of the county, except in a very few instances; one of the most considerable of which is the matter of appeals from orders of removal of the poor, which, though they be from the orders of corporation justices, must be to the sessions of the county by st t. 8 and 9 Wm. III. c. xxx. The courts of quarter-sessions in corporation-towns were formerly held before justices of their own, variously appointed by virtue of their several charters; but by the statute for amending the municipal corporations of England, 5 and 6 Wm. IV. c. lxxvi., important alterations have been made in this branch of the administration of justice.

By that statute (which, however, does not include London) the ancient criminal jurisdiction vested in the corporations of the different cities and towns in England

1 Lambard, Iren. lib. iv. c. iii.

2 Blackst. Com. b. iv. c. xix. p. 270-272. Stat. 37 Hen. VIII. c. i. 1 W. & M. st. 1. c. xxi.

the

by their charters is abolished. The crown is, however, empowered to issue a commission of the peace to any number of persons, who need possess no qualification by property, within certain cities and towns named in the act, or within certain others upon a petition from the town-council; and all mayors are constituted justices of peace within the boundaries of their municipal authority, during their year of office and the subsequent year. But these magistrates have no power to act as justices of the peace at any court of gaol-delivery or general quartersessions by virtue of their commissions; and the administration of justice within the more considerable places is provided for by a clause empowering the crown to grant a court of quarter-sessions to any city or town, or to any two towns conjointly, upon petition from the council, setting forth the grounds of the application, the state of their gaol, and the salary which they are willing to pay to the recorder. That magistrate, who is appointed by the crown, and must be a barrister of not less than five years' standing, is constituted by the act a justice of the peace within the place for which he is appointed, and sole judge of the quarter-sessions there, with the same criminal jurisdiction that belongs to those courts in counties; but he has no power to levy a rate. The judicial impartiality of the recorder is guarded by a provision precluding him from representing in parliament, or holding any municipal office within, the place in which he is appointed to administer justice. His salary, which must not be below the sum stated in the petition of the council, is secured to him by the royal authority; and his sickness or unavoidable absence are provided for by empowering him to appoint under his hand and seal, with the consent of the 1 Stat. 5 and 6 Wm. IV. c. lxxvi. § 107. 2 Ibid. § 98, 101.

municipal council, a barrister of five years' standing to act in his stead, with the title of deputy recorder, at the quarter-sessions of the peace then next ensuing. The mayor, in the absence of the recorder and deputy recorder, may, however, open and adjourn the court.2 As for those towns which do not enjoy the privilege of a separate court of quarter-sessions, the justices of the county wherein they are situated have jurisdiction over them.3 The crown is empowered (by sect. 41) to grant charters of incorporation, and to extend the provisions of the act, to any town in England and Wales.

In both corporations and counties at large there is sometimes assembled a special, and now almost universally a petty session, kept by a few justices,4 for despatching smaller business in the neighbourhood, between the times of the general sessions: as, for licensing ale-houses, passing the accounts of the parish-officers, and the like. A petty sessions is an ordinary meeting of justices within a division of a county, held at stated periods; and it must be held for a known or recognised division, or at least established by the consent of the whole body of magistrates at an already recognised petty sessions.5 But special sessions are meetings held by the justices of a division for some especial purpose, by a notice specifying the time,

1 Sect. 103, 105. Sect. 103 also settles the precedence of the recorder to be next after the mayor. By sect. 104 the recorder is required to take the oath provided for justices of the peace (except as to qualification by estate), and also to make a declaration, therein stated, before the mayor, or two aldermen or councillors, that he will faithfully and impartially execute his office.

2 Sect. 106.

ridge.

3 Sect. 111.

Blackst. Com. b. iv. c. xix. p. 272, note by Mr. Justice Cole

5 King v. Justices of Devon, per lord Ellenborough and Bayley, J. 1 Barn. & Ald. 588.