182 ENGLAND. 



relation to the highways, the poor, vagrants, treasons, felonies, riots, 

 the preservation of the game, Sec. &c. 



The civil government of cities is a kind of small independent po- 

 licy of itself ; for every city hath, by charter from the king, a juris- 

 diction within itself, to judge in matters civil and criminal. They are 

 constituted -with a mayor, aldermen, and burgesses, who, together, 

 make the corporation of the city, and hold a court of judicature, 

 where the mayor presides as judge. 



The government of incorporated, boroughs is much after the same 

 manner : in some there is a mayor, and in others two bailiffs. 



The cinque-ports are five havens, formerly esteemed most import- 

 ant ones, that lie on the east part of England towards France, as Do- 

 ver, Sandwich, Romney, Hastings, and Hythe, to which Winchelsea 

 and Rye have been since added, with similar franchises in many re- 

 spects. These cinque-ports were endowed with particular privileges 

 by our ancient kings, upon condition that they should provide a cer- 

 tain number of ships, at their own charge, to serve in the wars for 

 forty days, as often as they were wanted. 



For the better government of villages, the lords of the soil or manor 

 (who were formerly called barons) have generally a power to hold 

 courts, called courts-leet and courts-baron, where their tenants are 

 obliged to attend and receive justice. The business of courts-leet is 

 chiefly to prevent and punish nuisances : and at courts-baron the 

 conveyances and alienations of the copyhold tenants are enrolled, and 

 they are admitted to their estates on descent or purchase. 



A constable is a very ancient and respectable officer of the peace, 

 under the English constitution. Every hundred has a high-constable, 

 and every parish in that hundred a constable : and the latter are to 

 attend the high constable upon proper occasions. They are assisted 

 by another ancient officer called the tithingman, who formerly super- 

 intended the tenth part of an hundred, or ten free burghs, as they 

 were called in the time of the Saxons, each free burgh consisting of 

 ten families. 



Besides these, there are courts of conscience in many parts of Eng- 

 land, for the relief of the poor in the recovery of payment of small 

 debts not exceeding five pounds. 



The rights of individuals are so attentively guarded, that the sub- 

 ject may, without the least danger, sue his sovereign, or those who 

 act in his name, and under his authority : he may do this in open 

 court, where the king may be cast, and be obliged to pay damages to 

 his subject. The king cannot take away the liberty of the meanest 

 individual, unless he has, by some illegal act of which he is accused 

 or suspected upon oath, forfeited his right to liberty ; or except when 

 the state is in danger, and the representatives of the people think the 

 public safety makes it necessary that he should have power of con- 

 fining persons on such a suspicion of guilt ; such as the case of a 

 rebellion within the kingdom, when the legislature has sometimes 

 thought proper to pass a temporary suspension of the Habeas-Cor- 

 pus act. The king has a right to pardon ; but neither he, nor the 

 judges to whom he delegates his authority, can condemn a man as a 

 criminal, except he be first found guilty by twelve men, who must 

 be his peers or his equals. That the judges may not be influenced by 

 the king or his ministers to misrepresent the case to the jury, they 

 have their salaries for life, and not during the pleasure of their so- 

 vereign. Neither can the king take away or endanger the life of any 



