72 History of the English Landed Interest. 



tiou of tillage for the sake, as Dr. Chamberlaine words it, ot 

 "rendering more people strong and stout for service of their 

 country." 



Where we should most expect to find a new state of affairs 

 would be in the now almost completed transition of the land- 

 lord into the landowner. Seignorial jurisdiction had been 

 gradually and quietly exchanged for proprietary benefits ; and 

 popular rights, thus rendered obsolete, had been tranquilly 

 ceded for the sake of more tangible emoluments. The private 

 individual no longer retained a monopoly in district govern- 

 ment; and instead of the officials belonging to the manorial 

 machinery, the nominees of the State administered justice in 

 the public courts. 



The sheriffs, originall}'^ chosen as knights of the shire by 

 the suffrages of the people, but since the statute of Edward 

 II. selected by the king out of the list submitted by his Privy 

 Council, had as early as the reign of Henry VIII. ceded their 

 military powers to the lords lieutenant of the counties, though 

 they still possessed juridical as well as ministerial rights ; in the 

 first capacity periodically presiding over the Tourn and County 

 Courts, and in the second executing king's writs, impanelling 

 juries, and seeing to the trial and punishment of criminals. A 

 suspicion of the old seignorial jurisdiction lingered in the quali- 

 fications of lords lieutenant, sheriffs, and justices of the peace, 

 all of whom had to be members of the landed class. The last 

 mentioned were appointed by the king's commission to "attend 

 the peace of their county," meet every three months at the 

 shire town for Quarter Sessions, and, if summoned by the 

 sheriff, to serve on the grand jury. 



The several justices of peace had, once every three months, 

 to certify an account in writing to the high sheriff of the 

 county of their proceedings in rewarding informers and prose- 

 cutors, and in punishing offenders against the laws ; which 

 account the high sheriff, " within foureteene dayes " after its 

 delivery, had to send over to the justices of the assize for that 

 county, and the latter were to certify it in the beginning of 

 every " terme next after " to the Lords Commissioners.^ 

 ^ Orders issued by the Privy Council in 1630. 



