CORRIGENDA. Page 386-Add a reference to the 39 & 40 Vict. c. 77, which prohibits painful experiments on animals. Page 526, Note 247, Computation of Time.]-Strike out this part of the note, and insert "whenever any expression of time occurs in any act of parliament, deed, or other instrument, the time referred to shall, unless it is otherwise specifically stated, be held in the case of Great Britain to be Greenwich meantime." Page 546, Note 262.-Expunge the second portion of the paragraph, and read instead, "section 29 of the 41 & 42 Vict. c. 77, p. 1237." Page 725-As to the penalty for Offence 35: This penalty is, by the 16th section, payable to "her Majesty." The Magisterial Synopsis. INTRODUCTION. BEFORE describing the various duties of Justices of the Peace out of Quarter Sessions, it will be necessary to preface the work with some general observations, which we propose to give under the following heads: I. JUSTICES OF THE PEACE, AND HOW APPOINTED. II. THE NATURE OF THE DUTIES OF JUSTICES. III. JURISDICTION OF JUSTICES AS TO LOCALITY, Interest, &c. IV. ACTIONS AND OTHER PROCEEDINGS AGAINST JUSTICES. JUSTICES. VI. EVIDENCE BEFORE JUSTICES. VII. THE OFFICE OF CLERK TO JUSTICES, AND HIS REMUNE RATION. I. JUSTICES OF THE PEACE, AND HOW APPOINTED. Whatever may have been the period of its original institu- First statution, the first statutory provision to be found relating to the tory provision relating to office of a justice of the peace was made in the first year of justices. the reign of Edward the Third, when it was ordained that justices of the peace should be assigned by the king's commission; and their powers, which were at first very limited, were gradually extended in succeeding reigns, as the necessities of the times and the great utility of the office prompted. Justices of the peace are defined by Dalton, "to be judges of record, "appointed by the king to be justices within certain limits "for the conservation of the peace; and for the execution of "divers things comprehended within their commission, and O.S. VOL. I. B Description of justices. Who may be justices. County justices. "within divers statutes committed to their charge." More than a century has elapsed since this learned writer commenced his work on the duties of a justice of the peace, by noticing the universality of the complaint, that even so early as the reign of Henry the Seventh those duties had become extremely onerous, on account of the numerous statute laws which justices had been charged to carry into effect. And we find Sir William Blackstone, in his celebrated Commentaries (vol. i. p. 354), lamenting, that in consequence of the infinite variety of business heaped upon justices of the peace few cared to undertake, and fewer to understand, the duties of the office. And he very properly added, that they were of such vast importance to the public as to make the country greatly obliged to any worthy magistrate who, without sinister views of his own, would engage in the troublesome service. At the present day, however, the powers and duties of this honourable office, particularly with regard to the county magistrates, have been most extensively and are yearly enlarged. And as they have become more arduous and responsible, and require greater talent and more matured habits of business for their proper and efficient discharge, high-minded and well-informed country gentlemen have not been found wanting to perform them; and, at the same time, to sustain the dignity of their station, and command respect for the laws, by their honest and impartial adminis tration. The several descriptions of justices of the peace in England are those for counties, ridings or divisions, borough and city magistrates, and stipendiary magistrates, besides the police magistrates of the metropolis and the Lord Mayor, Recorder and Aldermen of the city of London. There is no general or special disqualification as regards the status in society of a person to be appointed a justice of the peace for a county or borough. The mayor and exmayor of a borough, chosen by the borough council, would be, of course, justices. beyond the control of the Lord Chan cellor. Justices for counties, ridings or divisions are appointed by the crown through the Lord Chancellor, and usually upon the recommendation of the lord lieutenant or other influential parties. Residence in the county is immaterial (except in the case of a residential qualification hereinafter mentioned), though it is same in the county within which such city or town or any "part thereof is situate." The qualification for a justice of the peace for a county is Qualification for a county either by the possession of a certain amount of property, or justice. by occupancy of a dwelling-house of a certain annual value. If the qualification is of the former kind, it is regulated by the 18 Geo. 2, c. 20, s. 1, which requires that the person appointed should have in law or equity to and for his own use and benefit in possession a freehold, copyhold or customary estate for life, or for some greater estate, or an estate for some long term of years determinable upon one or more life or lives, or for a certain term originally created for twenty-one years or more in lands, tenements or hereditaments, lying or being in that part of Great Britain called. England, or the principality of Wales, of the clear yearly value of one hundred pounds over and above what will satisfy and discharge all incumbrances that affect the same, or who shall be seised of or entitled unto, in law or equity, and for his own use and benefit, the immediate reversion or remainder of and in lands, tenements and hereditaments, lying or being as aforesaid, which are leased for one, two or three lives, or for any term of years determinable upon the death of one, two or three lives upon reserved rents, and which are of the clear yearly value of three hundred pounds. If the qualification is derived from the occupation of a dwelling-house, then it is provided for by the 38 & 39 Vict. c. 54, which enacts, that "Every person of full age, and who has during the two years immediately preceding his appointment been the occupier |