Kings Peace and English Peace-Magistracy. 35 



men and two others out of each of the three nearest friih- 

 borhs, are to purge their association of compHcity in the 

 flight of the criminal, or to make good the mischief he has 

 done. The association of ten is called also the tithing, and 

 the capital pledge, the /zV///;/^-man." 1 Subsequently this 

 system was kept in order by the local courts through what 

 was called the "view of frankpledge," for which purpose the 

 capital pledge and others of the tithing appeared as repre- 

 sentatives of the township.^ 



After the Norman Conquest, in the ages preceding the 

 advent of special commissions, the machinery for maintaining 

 the peace was certainly formidable in appearance.^ The 

 sheriff, as chief peace officer of the shire, had gained increased 

 authority. On simple request, " without any writ sent unto 

 him," he might " command a man to find sureties of the 

 peace by recognisance." * The duties of constables of town- 

 ships and hundreds were defined, though the offices were not 

 created, by the writ enforcing the Assize of Arms, 1252, and 

 the Statute of Winchester, 1285.^ And after Richard I, 

 1 194, the coroner became a potent aid to the sheriff.^ 



In addition to these agencies, many of the great officers of 

 state were at "common law" regarded as ex officio conserva- 



1 Stubbs, Const. Hist., I, 87-8. 



- For the best statement of the historical connection between the view of 

 frankpledge and the presentments of the leet jury, see Mr. Maitland's Introduc- 

 tion to the Select Pleas in Manorial and other Seignorial Courts : Selden Society, 

 II, xxvii-xxxviii; and for several examples of presentments by the capital pledge 

 (tithingman) and his tithing, see lb., II, 161-75. Cf. Home, Mirroir des Jus- 

 tices, 109-I14; Powell, A Treatise of the Antiquity, etc., of the Ancient Courts of 

 Leet, 45 ff. 



3 See particularly the classification of peace officers in Lambard, Eirenarcha, 

 II-19. (Zi.V.&&\fs,, Hist, of Eng. Law,\\\,'ZO\-2; Stephen, Hist, of the C^'im. 

 ZrtTf/, I, 1 84 ff. ; Blackstone, Commentaries, I, 350; Burn, Justice of the Peace, 

 421; Dalton, Country Justice, 1-2. Wright, The Office of Magistrate, I. 



* Lambard, Eirenarcha, 13. 



5 For the text of these statutes, see Stubbs, Select Charters, 370 ff., 469 ff. 

 The Statute of Winchester is printed in Statutes at Large, I, 230-6. Cf. Stephen, 

 Hist, of Crim. Laiv, I, 188. 



8 Gneist, II, 41; Adams, Norman Constables, g; Stephen, Z^z'^/. of the Crim. 

 Law, I, 217. 



269 



