tourns or law days before mentioned, they nor any of them shall have power or authority to attach, arrest or put in prison, or to levy any fines or amerciaments of any person or persons so indicted or presented, by reason or colour of any such indictment or presentment taken or to be taken before them or any of them, nor to make or take of any such person or persons so indicted or presented, any fine or ransom, but that the said sheriffs and their under sheriffs, clerks or bailiffs, and their ministers, shall bring, present and deliver all such indictments and presentments taken before them or any of them, in their tourns or law days aforesaid, to the justices of peace, at their next sessions of the peace that shall be holden in the county or counties where such indictments or presentments shall be taken before the said justices of such county or counties for the time being: And if any of the said sheriffs, under sheriffs, clerks, bailiffs and their ministers, do not bring, deliver and present all such indictments or presentments so taken before them and every of them in their tourns or law days, as before is recited, at such sessions of the peace, before the said justices of peace, that then all such sheriffs, under sheriffs, clerks, bailiffs and their ministers, and every of them that so shall fail in bringing, delivering and presenting of such indictments or presentments, shall forfeit to the king forty pounds at every time that they or any of them doth the contrary: And that the said justices of peace shall have power and authority to award process upon all such indictments and presentments, as the law doth require, and in like form as if the said indictments and presentments were taken before the said justices of peace in the said county or counties, and also to arraign and deliver all such person or persons so indicted and presented before the said sheriffs, under sheriffs, their clerks, bailiffs and their ministers, or any of them in their tourns or law days: And all such persons or person which be indicted or presented of trespass, shall make such a fine as shall seem lawful by their discretions: And the estreats of the said fines and amerciaments shall be enrolled, and by indenture be delivered to the said sheriffs, under sheriffs, their clerks, bailiffs or ministers, or some of them, to the use and profit of him that was sheriff in the said counties or county, at the time of such indictments or presentments taken. And if any of the said sheriffs, their under sheriffs, clerks, bailiffs or ministers, do arrest, attach or put in prison, or cause any fine or ransom to be taken, or levy any amerciament of any person or persons so indicted or presented, by reason or colour of any such indictment or presentment taken before them at their tourns or law days above rehearsed, before that they have process from the said justices of peace, or estreats delivered out of the said indictments or presentments so brought, delivered and presented to them, that then the sheriffs which so do, shall forfeit an hundred pounds, the one half thereof to be employed to the expences of the king's house, and the other half to the party or parties which be or is indamaged, and he or they shall have therefore an action of debt at the common law, and like process as in an action of debt at the common law. And that the defendant or defendants in such suits or actions of debt, shall not be essoined, nor wage their law; and if he or they, or any of them against whom this action shall be taken, do offer or cast

any protection or other impediment, in retardation of the said suits or actions, that shall not be allowed unto him."

Sect. 2. "Provided always, that this present ordinance do not extend, nor in any wise be prejudicial to the sheriffs of the city of London now being, or which at any time hereafter shall be, concerning any indictments or presentments to be taken within the said city of London."

Sect. 3. "Provided also that this act extend not nor be prejudicial to any person or persons which hath grants of any fines or amerciaments by any letters patents of our said sovereign lord the king, or of any of his progenitors or predecessors, bearing date before the 10th day of December next after the beginning of this parliament; and that this act and ordinance do not extend, nor be prejudicial to any person or persons having any liberties or franchises by any of the said letters patents, or in any other manner by prescription: And that this ordinance be in his force, and begin to take effect at the fortieth day next after the 6th day of May next after the beginning of this present parliament, upon the which sixth day the said parliament was dissolved."

13 & 14 CAR. II. c. 12.

"An act for the better relief of the poor of this kingdom.”

Sect. 15. "And whereas the laws and statutes for the apprehending of rogues and vagabonds have not been duly executed, sometimes for want of officers, by reason lords of manors do not keep court leets every year for the makiny of them: be it therefore enacted by the authority aforesaid, that in case any constable, headborough or tithingman shall die or go out of the parish, any two justices of the peace may make and swear a new constable, headborough or tithingman, until the said lord shall hold a court, or until next quarter sessions, who shall approve of the said officers so made and sworn as aforesaid, or appoint others as they shall think fit; and if any officer shall continue above a year in his or their office, that then in such case the justices of peace in their quarter sessions may discharge such officers, and may put another fit person in his or their place until the lord of the said manor shall hold a court as aforesaid."

11 GEO. I. c. 4.

"An act for preventing the inconveniences arising for want of elections of mayors or other chief magistrates of boroughs or corporations, &c. Sect. 3. "And whereas in certain boroughs and towns corporate within that part of Great Britain called England, Wales and Berwick upon Tweed, the mayor, bailiff or bailiffs, or other chief officer or officers, is or are to be nominated, elected or sworn at a court leet or view of frank-pledge, or some other court, and by reason of the contrivance or default of the lord or his steward, or such other officer by or before whom such court ought to be held, in not holding the same, or by some accident, it hath happened and may hereafter happen, that no due nomination, election or swearing of

such mayor, bailiff or bailiffs, or other chief officer or officers, hath been or shall be had or made: be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that in every such case it shall and may be lawful to and for his majesty's Court of King's Bench, upon motion to be made in the said court, to award a writ of mandamus, requiring the lord or his steward or other officer, by or before whom such court ought to be held, to hold or cause to be holden such court leet or other court, and to do every other act necessary to be done by him in order to such nomination, election or swearing, at such day and time as shall be for that purpose judged proper by the said Court of King's Bench, and shall be appointed in such writ, or to signify to the said court good cause to the contrary, and thereupon to cause such proceedings to be had and made, as in other cases of writs of mandamus granted by the said court, for holding of any court; and of the day and time appointed in and by any such writ of mandamus for holding such court, public notice in writing shall, by such person as the said Court of King's Bench shall appoint, be affixed in the market place, or some other public place within such borough or town corporate, by the space of six days before the day so appointed: and where a nomination of persons in order to the election of any such mayor, bailiff or bailiffs, or other chief officer or officers, is to be made at such court leet or other court, in every such case, after such nomination made, all and every other act and acts necessary to be done in order to such election, shall be had, made and done at such assembly, and in such manner and form as the same ought to have been had, made and done, in case such election had been made upon the day next after the expiration of the time prescribed for such election by the charter or usage of such borough or corporation, according to the directions hereinbefore mentioned."

Sect. 4. "And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that the mayor, bailiff or bailiffs, or other chief officer or officers, who shall be elected pursuant to the directions of this act, shall take the oath or oaths by law required at the time of his admission into such office, before such officer as shall preside at such election, in pursuance of this act, who is hereby authorized and required to administer such oath or oaths; and shall have the same privileges, precedence, powers and authorities in all respects, as any mayor, bailiff or bailiffs, or other chief officer or officers of the same city, borough or corporation, elected on the days or times fixed by charter or usage for that purpose, ought to have or enjoy.”

Sect. 5. Provided always, that no such election, nor any act done in order thereunto, shall be valid, unless as great a number of persons, having right to be present at and vote therein, shall be present at the assembly holden for such purpose, and concur therein, as would respectively have been necessary to be present, and concur in such election or act, in case the same had been made or done upon the day or within the time appointed for that purpose by the charter or usage of such city, borough or corporation, saving only, that the presence of the mayor, bailiff or bailiffs, or other chief officer or officers who ought to preside, shall not be necessary."

1192 APPENDIX TO THE TREATISE ON COURTS BARON AND COURTS LEET.

5 & 6 VICT. c. 109.

"An act for the appointment and payment of parish constables." Sect. 21. "And be it enacted, that after the passing of this act, no petty constable, headborough, borsholder, tithingman or peace officer of the like description, under any name of office, shall be appointed for any parish, township or vill within the limits of this act, except for the performance of duties unconnected with the preservation of the peace or with the execution of this act, at any court leet or tourn or otherwise than under the provisions of this act, or under the provisions of the said act of the third year of the reign of her present majesty (a), or of some act passed for the amendment thereof; but nothing herein contained shall be taken to prevent the appointment of special constables, or to apply to the city of London or the metropolitan police district, or to any borough which is within the provisions of an act passed in the sixth year of the reign of his late majesty, intituled An Act to provide for the Regulation of Municipal Corporations in England and Wales,' or of any charter granted in pursuance of that act, or of any act made for the amendment thereof, or to any parish, town or place in which rates are or shall be levied for the payment of constables, under the provisions of an act passed in the fourth year of the reign of his late majesty, making provision for the lighting and watching of parishes in England and Wales, or of any local act specially applying to such parish, town or place, and that nothing herein before contained shall be taken to apply to the county palatine of Chester."

(a) Viz. “An Act for the Establishment of County and District Constables by the Authority of Justices of the Peace;" and

see 3 & 4 Vict. c. 88, "to amend the same."

END OF APPENDIX TO THE TREATISE ON COURTS BARON AND

COURTS LEET.

INDEX.