JUS 
exceeding 51., nor less than 40s., unless 
some reasonable cause of absence be prov- 
ed, by oath or affidavit, to the satisfaction 
of the judge. If any juror shall take of 
either party to give his verdict, he shall, 
on conviction, by bill or plaint, before the 
court where the verdict shall pass, forfeit 
ten times as much as he has taken ; half to 
the King, and half to him who shall sue. 
A man who shall assault or threaten a juror 
for giving a verdict against him, is highly 
punishable by fine and imprisonment ; and 
if he strike him in the court, in the presence 
of the judge of assize, he shall lose his hand 
and his goods, and the profits of his lands 
during life, and suffer perpetual imprison- 
ment. 
JURY mast, whatever is set up in room 
of a mast tliat has been lost in a storm or 
in an engagement, and to which a lesser 
yard, ropes, and sails are fixed. 
JUSSIiEA, in botany, so named from 
Antoine de Jussieu, a genus of the De- 
candria Monogynia class and order. Natu- 
ral order of Calycanthemas. Onagrae, Jus- 
sieu. Essential character: calyx four or 
five-parted, superior ; petals four or five j 
capsules four or five celled, oblong, gaping 
at the corners ; seeds numerous, minute. 
There are eleven species. These are mostly 
herbaceous plants, natives of North and 
South America, also of the East and West 
Indies. 
JUSTICE signifies he who is deputed by 
the King to do right by way of judgment. 
Justices m eyre, in ancient times, were 
sent with commission into several counties 
to hear such causes especially as were 
termed pleas of the crown. And this was 
done for the ease of the people, who must 
otherwise have been hurried to the King’s 
Bench, if the case were too high for the 
county court: they differed from the justices 
of oyer and terminer, because they were 
sent upon one or for special causes and to 
one place ; whereas the justices in eyre were 
sent through the province and counties of 
the land, with more indefinite and general 
commissions. 
Justices of gaol delivery, such as are 
sent with commission to hear and deter- 
mine all causes appertaining to such as for 
any offence are cast into the gaol. 
Justices of nisi prius, are the same w'ith 
justices of assize, for it is a common ad- 
journment of a cause, to put it off to such a 
day, nisi prius justidarii venerint ad eas 
partes ad capiendas assisas; and upon this 
clause of adjournment, they are called jus- 
JUS 
tices of nisi prius, as well as justices of 
assize, by reason of the writ or action they 
have to deal in. 
Justices of oyer and terminer. As the jus- 
tices of assize and nisi prius are appointed 
to try civil cases, so are tiie justices of oyer 
and terminer, and gaol delivery, to try in- 
dictments for all crimes all over the king- 
dom, at w'hat are generally denominated 
the circuits or assizes; and the towns where 
they come to execute their commission are 
called the assize towns, and are generally 
the county towns. 
Justices of the peace, are persons ap- 
pointed by the King’s commission, to at- 
tend to the peace of the county where they 
dwell. They were called guardians of the 
peace till the thirty-sixth year of Edw. III. 
c. 12, where they are called justices. A 
justice of the peace must, before he acts, 
take the oath of office, which is usually 
done before some persons in the county, 
by virtue of a dedimus protestatem out of 
chancery. Sheiiffs, coroners, attorneys, 
and proctors, may notact as justices of the 
peace. 
The power, office, and duty of this ma- 
gistrate extends to an almost infinite num- 
ber of instances, specified in some hundreds 
of acts of parliament, and every year accu- 
mulating. The commission of the peace 
does not determine by the demise of the 
King, nor until six months after, unless 
sooner determined by the successor: but 
before his demise, the King may determine 
it, or may put out any particular person, 
which is most commonly done by a new 
commission, leaving out such person’s name. 
Justices of the peace can only be ap- 
pointed by the King’s special commission, 
and such commission must be in his name • 
but it is not requisite that there shoidd be 
a special suit or application to, or warrant 
from the King for the granting it, which is 
only requisite for such as are of a particular 
nature, as constituting the mayor of such a 
town and his successors perpetual justices of 
the peace within their liberties, &c. which 
commissions are neither revocable by the 
King, nor determinable by his demise, as 
the common commission of the peace is, 
which is made of course by the Lord Chan- 
cellor according to his discretion. 
The form of the commission of the peace, 
as it is at this day, was, according to 
Hawkins, settled by the judges about 
23 Elizabeth. 
Justices of the peace have no power to 
hear and determine felonies, unless theyare 
C 2 
