Kings Peace and EnglisJi P eace-Magistracy . 59 



even try questions of settlement, affiliation, and title.^ But, 

 with these exceptions and aside from their general adminis- 

 trative functions, presently to be mentioned, they have always 

 been essentially criminal tribunals. On the other hand, the 

 civil jurisdiction of the ancient shiremoot was partially re- 

 vived in the so-called "county courts" of 1846. But in this 

 instance also the connection between the old institution and 

 the new is not organic. The new courts, says Brodrick, " are 

 really nothing more than branches of the imperial judicature, 

 since they are directed to be held in circuits which have no 

 relation to county boundaries, and before judges who are 

 neither paid out of the local funds, nor required to have any 

 qualification of county residence. They form, therefore, no 

 part of county government, which in this respect, as well as 

 in others, is far less complete and self-contained than it was 

 in Saxon times." ^ 



The quarter sessions may also hear appeals from the orders 

 and decisions of the single justice and the petty or special 

 sessions. But this authority is wholly the creation of statute. 

 Previous to the Restoration appeal from a justices' court, 

 of whatever grade, lay only to the king's bench or the com- 

 mon pleas, and, in some instances, to chancery or the privy 

 council.^ 



2. — But the quarter sessions inherited more than the 

 mere judicial powers of the scirgemot. They gained also its 

 majesty and local sovereignty. The officers of county and 

 hundred who once obeyed the commands of the popular 

 council became the servants and ministers of the royal nomi- 

 nees. The sheriff, the high constables, and the manorial 

 bailiffs were required to attend them, to serve their processes 



1 Hamilton, Quarter Sessions, 30. ^ Brodrick, Local Govt, in Eng., 16. 



3 Gneist, II, 388 ff. " Das Appellationsrecht versteht sich daher nicht von 

 selbst, tritt vielmehr nur ein, wo die einzelen Gesetze aitsdriicklich einen appeal 

 an die Quartalsitzung geben; wahrend umgekehrt das Abberufungsrecht der 

 Reichsgerichte durch Certiorari sich von selbst versteht, wo es nicht ausdriicklich 

 durch Statut weggenommen ist. Das Recht zu appelliren wird auch nicht durch 

 analoge Ausdehnung (equitable construction) erweitert, sondern streng auf die 

 im Gesetz speziell erwahnten Falle beschrankt " : lb., II, 389. 



