Kings Peace and English Peace-Magistracy. 55 



five centuries the two courts have existed side by side ; but 

 the greater part of the power and prestige of the elder has 

 accrued to the younger body. It is not a case of direct con- 

 tinuity ; but of transference of functions, of the encroach- 

 ment of one organism upon the sphere of another.^ From 

 this point of view, then — the historic relation of the two 

 rival authorities — our discussion will be developed. 



I. — In the first place, the remnant of criminal jurisdiction 

 still belonging to the county court in the middle of the four- 

 teenth century was transferred to the quarter sessions. In- 

 deed, the latter also acquired the right to hear and determine 

 the graver offences — placita coronce — of wdiich the county 

 court in common with other local bodies had been deprived 

 by magna charta.'-^ By their commission jurisdiction in all 

 the more heinous crimes and felonies, except treason, was 

 conferred upon the justices ; and the early records show that 

 it was freely exercised. In the age of Elizabeth, especially, 

 capital offences were tried indifferently either at the assizes 

 or before the quarter sessions. Great numbers were sent to 

 the scaffold by the peace magistrates.^ Later it was custom- 



1 Even as late as the 1 7th century, we find writers regretting the decay of the 

 shiremoot, and pleading for its restoration. See, for example, the little treatise 

 printed in London during the Protectorate, 1657, entitled Curia Comitatus 

 Rediviva, or the Pratique Part of the County Court Revived, by W. Greenwood. 

 The work contains a full discussion of the officers, jurisdiction, and procedure of 

 the court, with citations from the early statutes. 



- Similarly the functions of the sheriff's tourn and the ancient hundred moot 

 were inherited by the petty sessions. See the preceding section. 



^ Proof from the court records of Devon has been collected by Mr. Hamilton : 

 " At the Lent Assizes of 1 598 there were 1 34 prisoners, of whom 1 7 were dis- 

 missed with the fatal s. p., it being apparently too much trouble to write sus. per. 

 coll.; 20 were flogged; I was liberated by special pardon, and 15 by general par- 

 don; 11 claimed 'benefit of clergy,' and were consequently branded and set free, 

 ' legunt, urunttir, et deliberantur.'' At the Epiphany Sessions preceding there 

 were 65 prisoners, of whom 18 were hanged. At Easter there were 41 prisoners, 

 and 12 of them were executed. At midsummer there were 35 prisoners, and 8 

 hanged. At the Autumn Assizes there were 87 in the calendar, and 18 hanged. 

 At the October Sessions there were 25, of whom only one was hanged. Alto- 

 gether there were 74 persons sentenced to be hanged in one county in a single 

 year, and of these more than one-half were condemned at Quarter Sessions. As 



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