18B1Z8 





which summoned the jury (or such inquest appointed a certain day 

 and place for hearing the parties in the county where the cause of 

 action arose. Thus, if a suit arose in Cornwall, the writ from the 

 uperior court most direct the sheriff of that county to return a jury 

 at Westminster for the trial of the inquest in the next term, ' itnlat 

 tffjrr ' (Hwi print) the term, namely on a certain day specified in the 

 writ, the justices of issue came into Cornwall This was rare to 

 happen under the direction* of a previous clause in the statute, in the 

 course of the vacation before the ensuing term, and the jury were then 

 ummoned before the justice* of assize in Cornwall, where the trial 

 look place, and the parties avoided all the trouble and expense of con- 

 veying their witnesses and juries to London. The juriadiction of the 

 judge* of niti priiu is therefore an annexation to then- office of justices 

 of issiiti ; and thus, from the alteration in the state of society since 

 the above laws were made, the principal or substantial part of their 

 jurisdiction has, by the abolition of writs of assize, become merely 

 nominal, while their annexed or incidental authority has grown into an 

 institution of immense practical importance. 



For several centuries, until a few year* ago, the whole of England 

 was divided into six circuits, to each of which two judges of assize 

 were sent twice a year. Previously to 1880, the Welsh counties and 

 the county palatine of Chester were independent of the superior courts 

 st Westminster, and their peculiar judges and assizes were appointed 

 by the crown under the provisions of several statutes. This separa- 

 tion of jurisdiction being found inconvenient, the statute 1 William 

 IV. c. 70 increased the number of judges of the superior courts, and 

 enacted that, in future, assizes should be held for the trial and despatch 

 of all matters criminal and civil within the county of Chester and the 

 principality of Wales under commissions issued in the same manner as 

 in the counties of England. Since the passing of this statute, there- 

 fore, the assizes throughout the whole of England and Wales (except- 

 ing London and Middlesex, where the administration of justice is 

 regulated by custom and Acts of parliament) have been holden twice a 

 year in each county upon a uniform system. In addition to these 

 ordinary assizes, a third assize for the trial of criminals has for the lost 

 ten years taken place in the more populous counties. 



The judges upon the several circuits derive their civil authority 

 ultimately from the ancient statutes of assize and nut priiu in the 

 manner before described ; but they have also a commission of assize 

 which is issued for each circuit by the crown under the great seal. 

 This commission pursues the authority originally given by Mgq* 

 Chart* and the statutes of niti print, and seems to have been nearly in 

 the same form ever since the passing of those statutes. It is directed 

 to two of the judges and to the Queen's counsel (13 & 14 Viet. c. 25), 

 and Serjeants, the latter deriving their authority to be judges of assize 

 from the statute 14 Edward III. c. 16, which mentions " the king's 

 Mrjeant sworn," under which words Lord Coke (2 Inst. 422) says that 

 any Serjeant at law is intended, and commands them " to take all the 

 *triiiTt. juries, and certificates, before whatever justices arraigned." 

 Under the direct authority given by these words, the commissioners 

 have in modern tunes nothing to do, the " assizes, juries, and certifi- 

 cates " mentioned in the commission having only a technical reference 

 to the writs of assize, now wholly discontinued. It is stated in most 

 of the common text books that the judges of assize have also a com- 

 nittion of niti prim. This is, however, a mistake, no such commission 

 being known in our law, and the only authority of the judges to try 

 civil causes being annexed to their office of justices of assize in the 

 manner above described. 



In certain cases, the justices of assize, as such, have by statute a 

 criminal jurisdiction ; but the most important part of their criminal 

 authority is derived from other commissions. The first of these is a 

 general commission of Oyer and Terminer for each circuit, which is 

 directed to the lord chancellor, several officers of state, resident noble- 

 men and magistrates, and the queen's counsel and Serjeants on their 

 respective circuits ; but the judges, queen's counsel, and Serjeants, are 

 always of the quorum, so that the other commissioners cannot act 

 without one of them. This commission gives the judges of assize 

 express power to try treason, felony, and a great variety of offences 

 against the law of England, committed within the several counties 

 composing their circuit [OYER AND TERMIXKR.] 



The judges of assize have also commissions of gaol delivery, which 

 in their legal effect give them several powers, which, as justices of 

 Oyer and Terminer only, they would not possess. They are directed 

 to the judges, the queen's counsel, and Serjeants on > the circuit, and 

 the clerk of assize and associate. Every description of offence is 

 cognizable under this commission; but the commissioners are not 

 authorised to try any persons except such as are in actual or con- 

 structive confinement in the gaol specifically mentioned in their com- 

 mission. There is a distinct commission under the great seal for the 

 delivery of the prisoner* in each particular gaol. [GAOL DELIVERY.] 



In addition to the above authorities, the judges on the circuit are 

 also fortified by the commission of the peace. The judges of the three 

 upcrior court* of common Uw, for the time being, are always inserted 

 in the commissions of the peace periodically issued for each English 

 county; and consequently they may exercise all the powers and 

 functions communicated by the commissions of the particular counties 



which compose their respective circuits. 

 The judges on circuit have 



also authority to try by a jury of the 



county to which they are sent, issues joined in the Court of Probate 

 and in the Court for Divorce and Matrimonial Causes. [I 'HOB ATE; 

 DIVORCE.] 



In practice, the judges of the courts at Westminster choose their 

 circuits by arrangement among themselves on each separate occasion. 

 They are then formally appointed by the crown under the sign manual ; 

 and the several commission* are afterwards made out in the Crown 

 Office of the Court of Chancery from a flat of the lord chancellor. 



ASSOCIATION is one of the mental phenomena. It does not rank 

 among the primary powers of the mind, like sensation, perception, and 

 judgment, because it does not form one of the separate steps of all 

 mental operations; nor do its functions consist, like those of m. ; 

 in re-embodying past impressions. It acts as an agent to all these 

 powers, though not a power itself. The office which it performs is to 

 connect and arrange rather than to originate ideas. By its influence 

 over the sensations, perception*, and judgments, it regulates the 

 succession of the thought*. When one thought is suggested by 

 another, or when a train of past images is summoned by something 

 present, whether spontaneously or by an exertion of memory, the 

 process by which this effort is made is called association. Dr. Brown 

 has designated it " the principle of suggestion :" a term which, if its 

 operations were discriminative and voluntary, would be preferable to 

 the one in present use. But suggestion implies deliberation, choice ; 

 whereas, it is the province of association to awaken perceptions, not to 

 perceive ; to link the thoughts, not to think ; to lead the memory to 

 successive images and trains of ideas, between which there is a bond of 

 connection, not always obvious, but when discovered, traceable to one 

 or other of those affinities, analogies, or contrasts by which the prin- 

 ciple of association acts. Mr. Hume was the first writer who traced 

 the influences of our associations to certain principles, which he 

 denominated " resemblance, contiguity in time or place, and cause or 

 effect." " Contrast " has since been added to these, which completes 

 the classification of those sympathies and predilections, seated in the 

 mind and acting wifli all the force and certainty of established laws. 



It is not pretended that there may not be large classes of our asso- 

 ciations not referable to any of these principles, such as the names of 

 things, the terms of art, the words by which we designate moral and 

 intellectual qualities and operations ; in short, the whole vocabulary of 

 language, in which there is little or no connection either in the way of 

 resemblance, contiguity, cause, effect, or contrast with the objects or 

 ideas represented, although none of them ever fail to summon up the 

 images of the things for which they stand. Anomalies like this, when 

 reducible to certain limits, establish rather than invalidate the laws to 

 which they fonn an exception. Even the terms of a language, when 

 once connected with their representative objects, offer one of the most 

 remarkable illustrations of simple association. In the word Jltncer, for 

 instance, there is nothing to stamp upon the mind any particular 

 image. To one who was ignorant of language it would convey no 

 idea; but let the word be explained, let it once be associated with its 

 representative genus of objects, and it instantly colls up the picture of 

 some beautiful plant in blossom whenever the name is seen or pro- 

 nounced. The distinction between association and memory is here 

 plainly visible. The knowledge of the term jtoirer is an act of memory ; 

 the knowledge of the object which it represents implies also an act of 

 memory ; but the connection between the name and the object, and 

 still more, between the name and the particular flower that blooms 

 before the mind's eye, ore the results of association. 



Mr. Hume has annexed to his enunciation of the three principles 

 above enumerated an example illustrative of each. " That these 

 principles," he observes, " serve to connect ideas will not, I believe, be 

 much doubted. A picture naturally leads our thoughts to the original 

 The mention of one apartment in a building naturally introduces an 

 inquiry or discourse concerning the others. And if we think of a 

 wound, we con scarce forbear reflecting on the pain which follows it." 

 The first of these illustrations is founded upon the law of resemblance; 

 the second, upon the law of contiguity ; the third, upon the law of 

 causation. " But," continues he, " that this enumeration is complete, 

 and that there are no other principles of association except these, may 

 be difficult to prove to the satisfaction of the reader, or even to a man's 

 own satisfaction." 



To whatever principles or laws we ascribe the association of ideas, 

 it is evident enough that there is not only a bond of connection nn 

 them, but a bond of order. The greatest irregularity and coufimiou 

 would obviously prevail in our mental operations, without some regu- 

 lating principle. That principle is association. It is to mind what 

 the law of attraction is to matter. It draws together ideas connected 

 by common affinities, and repels others that cannot coalesce. When 

 we contemplate the vast number of different impressions mode upon 

 tin- mind in the course of every day, which have to be referred to 

 again, what a confusion would be created, were there not some pro- 

 perty in the ideas by which they arrange themselves according to 

 i-i-rt iin invariable law* ami relations, designed not only to preserve 

 them, bvit to promote their restoration at a future period. This repro- 

 duction of our thought* in so perfect a manner, in the order in which 

 they are wonted, comprises one, and not the least remarkable, of the 

 pip nomi n i of association. Most of our ideas are reproduced with 

 facility, but occasionally it is with difficulty they are recovcml, owing 

 either to indistinctness in the original impression, or to an imperfection 



