PROCEEDINGS BEFORE THE JUSTICES 



69 



attached.' The sheriff now reports that the individuals 

 named are either taken and in his custody, or are not to 

 be found in his bailiwick. In this second case the jus- 

 tices direct the sheriff to employ the ordinary process of 

 exigend in the county court :^ if at any time before the 

 outlawry period ^ the delinquent should surrender to the 

 justices a.nd ^nem fecerit, he can obtain from them a writ 

 of supersedeas, ordering the sheriff to stop proceedings 

 against him ; "* if his outlawry has been proclaimed, he 

 can on his surrender obtain pardon only from the king.^ 

 Returning to the point in the proceedings at which 

 the indicted, either attached or taken, are ready to be ex- 

 amined by the justices, in the presence, apparently, of a 

 fairly large number of officials and jurors, it appears that 

 very often they confess their guilt and declare themselves 

 in the mercy of the king ; ^ still m.ore frequently, hov.'ever, 

 they plead not guilty and ask for a jury trial. ^ Occa- 

 sionally at this stage, further cross-examination elicits a 

 confession of guilt,^ but usually the trial takes place. 

 The justices issue to the sheriff a writ of summons for 

 this second jury, plainly to be distinguished from the 

 jury of indictment already described;' xii liberos et 

 legales homines de vis7ieto . . . et qui preditios . . . 



'153; 175- '153-154; 176. 



^ Three, four or five exactions according to the method of counting; 

 Pollock and Maitland. op. cit.. ii. 581. 



*i8c; 235-238. 



•*The Patent Rolls contain many examples of such pardons; cf. 239. 



"175. '152; 183. •-I75- 



"The Cornwall Roll affords clear instances of the distinction between 

 the two types of juries; 152-154. In one instance the trial jury failed 

 to appear, and it was shown that the bailifif of the liberty to whom the 

 writ of summons had been sent by the sheriff had failed to execute it; 

 therefore the sheriff has to use process of distraint to secure the presence 

 of the jurors; 178-179. 



