46 George E. Howard, 



names included in the commission, though they may never 

 exercise the functions of the position. For before a person 

 nominated in the commission can be an "active" justice he 

 must receive from chancery the writ of deditmis potcstatem, 

 and take the jDrescribed oaths.^ His prestige as a magis- 

 trate is a traditional distinction of the country gentlemen ; 

 and it is in this capacity that the landed aristocracy have 

 always rendered an important service in the community.^ 



{b). — TJie Single Justice. 



The office of justice of the peace is peculiarly an English 

 institution,^ and it has been developed in a thoroughly 

 English way. From generation to generation its powers 

 expanded ; little by little it absorbed the functions of older 

 organisms ; statute after statute heaped new duties upon it, 

 until it became the most important element of local govern- 



^ Gneist, II, 181; Blackstone, Commentaries, 1,352; 'Ld^.TX^zxA, Eirenarcha, 

 52. In 1856, out of some 18,000 justices in Great Britain, only 8000 were active. 



The oath of office, the oath of allegiance and supremacy, and the oath as 

 to property qualifications, are given in Gneist, II, 182-3; Burn, Justice of the 

 Peace, 484. 



The oath of office prescribed by 13 Rich. II, c. 7, is still retained. This oath, 

 says Lambard, Eirenarcha, 54, " I haue seene expressed in these six Verses 

 following : ^ 3-,^^ gq^^i, ^^^^ ^^ ^-^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^ 



as wit and Law extends: 



2 Giue none aduise in any cause, 



that you before depends : , 



3 Your Sessions hold, as Statutes bid: 



the forfeits that befall, 



4 See entred well, and then estreat 



them to the Chequer all: 



5 Receiue no fee, but that is giuen 



by King, good vse, or right: 



6 Ne send Precept to party selfe, 



but to indifferent wight." 



2 On the importance of the office to the landed gentry, see Brodrick, Local 

 Government in England, 19 f. Cf. Gneist, II, 186; and Freeman, The House 

 of Lords a7id the County Councils : Fort. Rev., May, 1888, p. 601. 



^ " It is such a form of subordinate government for the tranquillity and quiet 

 of the realm, as no part of the Christian world hath the like, if the same be duly 

 exercised " : Coke, Fourth Lnstitnte, p. 1 70, cited by Maitland, Justice and 

 Police, 93. 



280 



