62 George E. Hoivard, 



certain sense, a legislative body. The former right of the 

 shiremoot to enact by-laws is represented by that of the 

 justices to issue administrative orders; such, until 1889, 

 were those for the regulation of lunatic asylums and the 

 establishment of fees of local officers.^ During the seven- 

 teenth century the original records of such orders throw 

 much light on the economic, religious, and political history 

 of that momentous age. Especially interesting are those 

 prescribing market rules,^ establishing the wages of laborers 

 and artisans,'^ fixing the price of salt,'^ and enforcing the laws 

 against recusants, non-conformists, and dissenters.^ These 

 orders reveal incidentally the fact that the justices exercised 

 an active coercive and supervisory authority over the parishes 

 and local functionaries.^ 



4. — In a fourth particular the quarter sessions acquired 

 the attributes of the shiremoot. In the reign of Edward I, 

 the latter body was still the meeting place of the local and 

 imperial jurisdictions.'' But with the rise of the peace-magis- 

 tracy the quarter sessions became the regular medium of 

 communication between the crown and the people. Thus 

 the plans of the central administration were at times carried 

 out through letters addressed to the magistrates by the privy 

 council or by the king himself. There seems to have been a 

 studied effort on the part of the Stuarts through this means 

 to strengthen the royal prerogative.*^ By the justices, for in- 

 stance, demands of purveyance were executed, and benevo- 

 lences, forced loans, and ship-money collected. Perhaps from 

 no other source can there be obtained so clear a conception 



1 Gneist, II, 379-80. Cf. 51 and 52 Vict., c. ^\, sec. 3, vi; sec. ill. 



■^ Hamilton, Quarter Sessions, 103. 



^ The records of Devon are rich in materials for economic history. See ex- 

 amples in Hamilton, Quarter Sessions, 10, 12, 91 f., 97, 100, 163, 272-3, etc. 



■* Hamilton, Quarter Sessions, 265, 272. 



^ See especially a long order passed at the Epiphany term in Devon, 1681 : 

 Hamilton, Quarter Sessions, 182-185; ^^^^ other examples in //'., 28, 138, 161, 

 182, 188, 197, 212, etc. 



^ See also other evidences: Hamilton, Quarter Sessions, 18, 102, 137, etc. 



" Stubbs, Const. Hist., II, 208-16. ^ Hamilton, Quarter Sessions, 79-80, 82. 



296 



