Kings Peace and Efiglish Peace-Magistracy. 5 I 



"special petty session " was the name of a similar meeting of 

 the justices residing within a certain district, for a special 

 purpose, and at a time fixed by law.^ In this way for a lim- 

 ited number of objects there arose a practical subdivision of 

 the shire into legal sessional districts corresponding, for the 

 most part, to the ancient hundreds. But, with this exception, 

 magistrates were not limited as to place in the performance 

 of their duties. By the commission they have always been 

 appointed for the county at large. What may be done by 

 two magistrates may be done by any two.'-^ A suitor may 

 have his choice among all the magistrates of the shire. It 

 was natural, however, that the activity of justices out of quar- 

 ter sessions should be confined mainly to their respective 

 neighborhoods. Thus it happened, by voluntary agreement, 

 that the petty sessions for the transaction of general business, 

 were held at the same time and place and for the same divis- 

 ions as the special sessions. And since usually the same 

 persons acted in both capacities, the two bodies became prac- 

 tically identical.^ 



Such was the state of affairs when the legislation of the 

 present century began. By several acts, commencing in 

 182S, the counties have been divided into so-called "petty 

 sessional divisions," which are made to correspond, to some 

 extent, with the "poor law unions."'* The effect of this 



within every such limit certify tlie Justices of Assize at every assizes upon their 

 oaths what Justices of the Peace were absent from any such assemblies, that the 

 cause may be examined and if need be certified as aforesaid." See the entire 

 document in Hamilton's Quarter Sessions, 67-71. 



1 Gneist, II, 331 ff.; Maitland, Justice and Police, 88. 



^ Maitland, Justice and Police, 89. '^ See Gneist, II, 333-4. 



* The first was 9 George IV, c. 43, which attempted to substitute more equal 

 divisions for the hundreds, which varied greatly in size. This was followed in 

 1836 by a new act, 6 and 7 Will. IV, c. 12, which contemplated bringing the 

 petty sessional divisions into harmony, so far as practicable, with the unions. But 

 since the latter may transcend the county limits while the former may not, cor- 

 respondence in all cases is impossible : Maitland, Justice and Police, 88. Other 

 acts relating to the subject are 7 and 8 Vict., c. 61, 12 and 13 Vict., c. 18, 14 and 

 IS Vict., c. 55. 



In i860 there were 670, in iSSi, 715 sessional divisions in England and Wales : 

 Gneist, II, 337 ff., 21-22; Maitland, 88. 



285 



