THE JUSTICES' NOTE-BOOK. PRELIMINARY NOTES. CHAPTER I. JUSTICES-JURISDICTION-DIVISIONS-PETTY AND SPECIAL SESSIONS. Ir is amusing to read the lamentations of a century since over the intolerable and multifarious amount of business which had been heaped upon Justices of the peace. We have had to put our shoulders to the wheel since then. We have seen an increase of labour and responsibility from which our grandfathers might well have shrunk. We see it advancing still, and with no gradual or doubtful growth. Session after session takes up the tale :-Something new for the County Authority. More work for that never-entirelyoccupied couple, 'Two Justices in petty sessions.' The ordinary duties devolving under the Commission of the peace, of which we have undertaken to give some account, are partly of a judicial—partly of an administrative character, By judicial, we mean, for the present, those which concern the determination of matters of offence and complaint, or B which are incidental to proceedings between plaintiff and defendant, prosecutor and accused. Under the head of Administrative duties, we may place all those civil functions which are entrusted to a Justice by virtue of his office, and which cannot be described as judicial in the ordinary acceptation of the term. In many cases it would be difficult, no doubt, to mark the border line, but in the main it is quite clear enough. It is in the performance, as a rule, of his judicial duty, that a Justice exercises the wide authority which is known by the general name of Summary Jurisdiction. In the same category falls the judicial business at Quarter Sessions, where he takes his part, either in the decision of appeals from the Divisional Courts below, or in the trial of offenders charged with crimes of the graver or indictable class. He exercises his judicial function, although in a special and restricted form, when he commits for trial persons charged before him with offences which it is beyond his province to punish in a summary manner. Here he carries his investigation up to a certain point only; when, if judicially satisfied that the trial ought to proceed, he transmits it either to Sessions or the Assizes, as the case may be. Should he, on the other hand, be of opinion that it ought not to proceed, he discharges the accused in the exercise of a like discretion. Under the head of Administrative duties fall all those matters of civil polity which are entrusted to the hands of Justices in the interest of social order, and otherwise for the general good. The regulation of the retail traffic in strong drink-the granting of licences for various purposes-the general and authoritative superintendence exercised with respect to Highways, Lunatics, and the Poor-the attendance at Prison, and Asylum Committees, &c., may serve as instances in this direction. Of weightier character, but of the same nature, are those which he discharges as a member of his County Authority, composed of the entire body of its Justices periodically assembled. Let us now turn to the conditions under which these duties are to be exercised. We shall at present speak exclusively of those which a Justice performs in what may be considered his subordinate capacity, i.e., 'out of Quarter Sessions.' He is placed then upon the Commission of the Peace for some particular County or Borough. Inside its boundaries he is, primâ facie, capable of exercising at any place, and for every purpose, the full powers of his office. But practically, at least as regards the County Justice, his actual field of usefulness is confined within narrower limits. We must remember that while, for many purposes, one Justice may act alone, independently of any assistance from his fellows, in the great majority of cases, and as regards the discharge of business in general, the presence of a Bench composed of two or more Justices is indispensable. And for the sake, among other things, of securing this necessary cooperation, every county is parcelled out into districts known as Divisions. Each Division has its own staff of Justices, furnished usually from among those residing in the immediate neighbourhood, and its court-house or established place of meeting. In extensive Divisions, two or more places are frequently appointed for this purpose. As a general rule, all matters of an administrative description which require to be performed within a Division, are performed by the Bench of that Division, to the exclusion of external interference. Thus each Division constitutes a separate and independent Licencing District,' within the Intoxicating Liquor Acts; and the whole control of the local liquor-traffic is vested in its Justices. In fact it may be generally stated that whenever any civil matter whatever, having reference to any locality, is referred to the cognisance or control of Justices, the Justices of the Division within which such matter arises, or to which it relates, are the only proper parties to entertain it. Similarly, as regards judicial business, or matters of offence and complaint, each Bench considers itself and is considered by others, as told off in charge of that particular part of the county which is comprised in its own Division. And as a matter of custom, courtesy, and convenience, and in some instances of express enactment, its members do not concern themselves with affairs of this description which must be considered as having arisen, or as properly cognizable, within the preserve of their neighbours. It follows, from the inherent right of every county Justice to act throughout its length and breadth, that he is competent to take his seat upon the Bench of any of its Divisions. But, practically, the Justices who have attached themselves to each separate Bench confine themselves to their own Division, in which they act together as a distinct and independent body. Every meeting, at the established place of assembly, composed of two or more Justices, in the execution of their office, constitutes a Petty sessional court for the Division. And, at a petty session thus formed, all ordinary judicial business which can possibly be dealt with before a Bench of Justices may be transacted. Previously to the recent Act, there was nothing to prevent any Justice from hearing and deciding any case which he was competent to dispose of alone, either in his own dining-room or elsewhere. Neither was there anything to hinder any two or more Justices from holding and acting in petty session at any place they might select; provided of course that they kept within the four corners of the county. Certain matters were no doubt specially required by statute to be transacted at the usual place of meeting,' or at 'a place appointed for holding petty sessions'; but, except as regards these particular proceedings, they had no need to confine themselves to any special court-house. Tempora mutantur. This is our privilege no longer. The Summary Jurisdiction Act expressly provides that no CASE arising under that Act, or under any other Act whether past or future is hereafter to be heard, tried or determined by any court of summary juris diction, whether composed of one or more Justices, except when sitting in open court: a term which includes (i) a petty sessional court-house, i.e., a place at which Justices are accustomed to assemble for the purpose of holding sessions; (ii) an occasional court-house, i.e., a police-station or other place, previously appointed by the Justices to be used for occasional purposes. NO CASE arising under the new Act, or under any future Act, unless otherwise prescribed, which is triable before a court of summary jurisdiction, can be heard or adjudged by a court composed of less than two Justices. Moreover the power of Justices, when sitting otherwise than in a petty sessional court-house, is limited to the infliction of imprisonment for not exceeding fourteen days, or a fine of not over a sovereign. And a single Justice sitting alone in such petty sessional court-house (and à fortiori in an occasional courthouse) can impose no higher penalties. There were a multitude of cases, as we shall presently see, with which one Justice was as competent to deal as a full Bench. With these he may deal still, provided he do so in open court,' and subject to virtual emasculation as regards coercive power. Special sessions are meetings usually convened by previous notice, and held either as occasion may require or at fixed intervals throughout the year for various statutory purposes, which are commonly of the administrative rather than the judicial description. They are appointed, inter alia, for the transaction of Highway matters-for hearing appeals agains Poor rates for revising Jury-lists-and for licencing pur poses, both under the Intoxicating Liquor Acts, and with reference to dealers in game, gunpowder, &c Every County Division elects its own chairman, whc is usually, but by no means necessarily, the Justice of senior standing in the Commission. He is elected annually, and assumes the general conduct of the business when present. His position, however, entitles him to no |