PROCEEDINGS BEFORE THE JUSTICES 



59 



not become urgent until a later period/ It is evident 

 from the entries on the Pipe Rolls as to justices' wages 

 that the maximum of forty days was fairly usual, 

 although not inevitable.'' A glance at the chronology 

 of the dates of the recorded sessions indicates wide 

 diversity of practice in the different counties, varying 

 from the orderliness of the Cornwall rolls, seven sessions 

 at the statutory dates, of ten days each, to the irregu- 

 larity, for example, of the Derby roll, where the justices 

 sat for one or two days in six different months, with no 

 reference to the prescribed dates. The utter chaos for 

 Hereford and Rutland, where the sequence of the years 

 and of the days of the week is hopelessly confused .^ 

 seems to indicate a poor job on the part of the clerk, 

 but the general impression conveyed by the eighteen 

 rolls in distinction from the Pipe Roll entries, is that 

 the maximum of forty days was rather rare, and that 

 the " discretion " of the justices as to choice of dates was 

 freely exercised. 



With no statutory provisions as to the place for the 

 holding of sessions, the practice varies from county 

 to county ; in some instances the justices sit always at 

 the chief town," or at two or three important towns i^ 

 sometimes they move with regularity from place to 

 place ;^ in two cases, various sets of deputies hold in- 



^The statute of the 36th year seems to be due to complaints in parlia- 

 ment of the irregularity in the holding of sessions; /^oL Pari., ii, 

 271b; cf. also idid., 319b. The petitions continue during the next 

 reign, but three days four times a year are finally decided as sufficient. 

 See p. 48, note i. Lambard complains that in his time the sessions 

 of the. peace often did not last over three hours altogether: F.irfniarcha, 

 570. 



'^Cf. p. 45, and pt. I, ch. iii, s. 2, A. 



*App., 165-166; i86-i8g; 202-203. *App., 145-149. 



^App., 165-166. ''App., 159-160; 204-210. 



