Kings Peace and English P cacc-Magistracy . 6i 



tory — a singular instance of taxation for local purposes, not 

 by elected representatives of the community concerned, but 

 by the appointed agents of the crown. 



The sessions were also entrusted with the administration 

 of the county property ; ^ and they authorized the construc- 

 tion and repair of shire halls and other public buildings. By 

 them likewise county bridges were built ; and they acquired 

 at length the principal jurisdiction over highways.^ Until 

 recently the control of county prisons was vested in them, 

 and they may still appoint visiting committees to report 

 abuses.^ They shared in the administration of the license 

 system;'^ had jurisdiction over weights and measures, and 

 might divide the shire into sessional, polling, highway, and 

 even coroners' districts.^ They also gained control of a 

 considerable local patronage. Thus they might nominate 

 inspectors of weights and measures, visitors of factories, in- 

 spectors of yarn,^ and inspectors of slaughter houses. By 

 them in like manner were appointed the chief constable, and 

 sometimes the clerk of the peace.'' Moreover, the justices 

 are themselves ex officio members of the board of guardians, 

 the sanitary boards, and of various other local bodies.^ 



Besides all these powers and many more, it is particularly 

 interesting to observe that the quarter sessions became, in a 



^ The actual management, however, was devolved by the justices upon the 

 clerk of the peace: Gneist, II, 377. 



2 The gradual transference to the sessions of this function of the ancient parish 

 — an important part of the Saxon trinoda neccssitas — is traced by Brodrick, 

 Local Government in England, 20-21 ; see also Gneist, II, 387-8, 781-S16; 

 Maitland, Justice and Police, 87. But in some instances, the parish still retains 

 its original highway jurisdiction : Phillips, Local Taxation in England and 

 Wales, 476. 



^ Maitland, Justice and Police, 87-S; Gneist, II, 396-407. 



* The various statutes are enumerated by Gneist, II, 3S2-4. 



^ Gneist, II, 379, 381; Maitland, Justice and Police, 87. 



^ By 42 Geo. Ill, c. 73, and 17 Geo. Ill, c. 11. Both acts — relating to the 

 inspectors of yarn and factories — are probably obsolete : Gneist, II, 379. 



' When the custos fails to appoint. 



^ Acland, Cotinty Boards, 95; Phillips, Local Taxation in England and 

 Wales, 47S. 



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