for any borough, charged with offences which the recorder thereof, after 1st May, 1836, will not have jurisdiction to try, may be lawfully removed (b) to the gaol or house of correction of the county, there to remain and take his trial at the next quarter sessions for the same, if the offence be there cognizable (c); and if not, then before the judges of oyer and terminer, and gaol delivery, at the next circuit. Parties bound by recognizances to prosecute, &c. are to appear and give evidence, &c. &c.

Powers of Justices under Local Acts within Places heretofore within Boundaries of Boroughs.]—All matters cognizable by virtue of any local act of parliament, or otherwise by any justice of peace, or by the general or quarter sessions having jurisdiction within any place, which, since the passing of the act for regulating municipal corporations, 5 & 6 W. IV. c. 76, or 6 & 7 W. IV. c. 103, has ceased, or under any future act may cease, to be within and to be part of any borough, or the liberties thereof, shall be cognizable by the general or quarter sessions of the county, riding, division, liberty, or jurisdiction within which such place is situate, in the same manner, and subject to the same provisions as the same were within the jurisdiction of the justices of the peace for that borough or place, or of the general or quarter sessions of the same (d).

Owing to the late extension of the boundaries of certain boroughs, &c. under act of parliament, county gaols, court houses, depôts for militia arms, and other public edifices and offices of counties, being included within those boundaries, became thereby subject to the jurisdiction of the sheriffs and municipal officers of those boroughs. To remedy this it is now enacted, that all county gaols, courts, depôts for arms, and all lands, buildings, easements, and appurtenances thereunto belonging, which before the passing of 6 & 7 W. IV. c. 103, for making temporary provision for the boundaries of certain boroughs, or before the authorized extension of the boundaries of any borough since that act passed, were in, of, or belonging to any county, shall be considered to be, and shall remain part and parcel of such county, and under the exclusive jurisdiction of the authorities thereof, as if 6 & 7 W. IV. c. 103, had not passed (e).

(b) As to this in counties of cities and towns, see 38 G. III. c. 52, s. 4, 5.

(c) As recorders have the same cognizance of offences as county sessions,

this seems useless in practice. See 5 & 6 W. IV. c. 76, s. 105.

(d) 7 W. IV. & 1 V. c. 78, s. 30. (e) 7 W. IV. & 1 V. c. 78, s. 41.

Jurisdiction of County Sessions in Boroughs where holding of Sessions is discontinued.]-In boroughs and places where general or quarter sessions of the peace have, under 5 & 6 W. IV. c. 76, ceased, or been discontinued to be holden, all such business which, under any general or local act, or any usage or custom, ought to be, or were usually heard, decided, or transacted at such general or quarter sessions by the justices of peace, with the assistances of any juries there assembled, shall be hereafter heard, &c. by the general or quarter sessions for counties, ridings, or divisions, liberties or jurisdictions, in which such boroughs are situate, and by the justices of peace and juries then assembled, respectively (ƒ).

The civil jurisdiction of the court of quarter sessions includes several matters in which it has original jurisdiction, and many more in which it has appellant jurisdiction, as over penal convictions, orders of justices, and various other matters; which, being given by particular statutes, cannot be here referred to any general principle, but will be hereafter discussed in their various branches.

Extent of Jurisdiction in point of Locality.]—Each commission of the peace points out over what portions of the county, or riding, division, or county, the jurisdiction of the justices named in it extends.

By the municipal corporation act (5 & 6 W. IV. c. 76, s. 111) no part of any borough, in or for which a separate court of quarter session shall be holden, shall be within the jurisdiction of the justices of any county, from which such borough before the passing of that act was exempt, any law, statute, letters patent, charter, grant, or custom to the contrary notwithstanding.

Under this clause, places and districts, which, having been originally parts of counties at large, had by charter become, or were otherwise elaimed and considered to be, subject to the magistrates of boroughs, as well as to the county justices; and which were sometimes called "liberties of boroughs " (g), are altogether withdrawn from the jurisdiction of the county justices, if two things concur; viz., if the borough justices had always had exclusive jurisdiction within the borough itself (or the ancient borough), and if separate quarter sessions had been granted to the borough (see post).

Again, the former exclusive jurisdiction of the justices of a county at large is taken away in those places and precincts, which by the

(f) 7 W. IV. & 1 V. c. 78, s. 50.

(g) See R. v. Musson, 6 B. & Cr. 74; 9 D. & R. 172.

operation of sections 7 & 8 of the municipal corporation act (5 & 6 W. IV. c. 76), have been cut off from a county at large, and included in the bounds of any borough by that act provided. Those bounds being in truth the parliamentary bounds settled by 2 & 3 W. IV. c. 64, and adopted by 5 & 6 W. IV. c. 76, s. 7.

The suburbs of ancient boroughs which, from comparative insignificance, have swelled to commercial importance, afford frequent instances of a state of things to which the above section applies. This is elucidated by a late case respecting the parish of Cliston (h) (heretofore a part of Gloucestershire for every purpose, but afterwards added to Bristol, as to the right of voting for members of parliament for that borough, heretofore county and city), by the boundary act, 2 & 3 W.IV. c. 64, sched. (O). The "metes and bounds" fixed by that act for that purpose were adopted by the municipal act for Bristol, 5 & 6 W. IV. c. 76, among the other boroughs included in its schedules; and the question was, whether, since that act, any justices of Gloucestershire had power to make an order for diverting a foot-path in Clifton, and, next, if they had, whether a mandamus would lie to the Gloucestershire quarter sessions, commanding them to enrol it in the usual way. The court of king's bench held that, as to Bristol and the other boroughs mentioned in the first section of schedules A. and B. of the last-mentioned act, every place included within the bounds of any of those boroughs, as described by the parliamentary boundary act, 2 & 3 W. IV. c. 64, was made a part of them for all purposes; and consequently, that the parish of Clifton was part of Bristol, viz. of the borough, county, and city of Bristol (inter alia, as to stopping up ways), and not of the county of Gloucester; so that the Gloucestershire justices had no jurisdiction within it (i). It seems, however, that in boroughs, not counties of themselves, whose charters contained no clause of non-intromittant, and, consequently, where the county

(h) R. v. Gloucestershire (Justices), 4 Adol. & El. 689; 6 Nev. & M. 115. (i) The argument of the successful side had been, that the borough of the city of Bristol, as ascertained by the municipal reform act, 5 & 6 W. IV. c. 76, was a county of itself; so that without inquiring what would be the case where a borough is not a county of itself, Clifton was a part of the county of Bristol," and of no other." These words of 5 & 6 W. IV. c. 76, s. 8, seem decisive on the subject of such additions to counties of cities, &c.: accordingly,

where a felony had been committed at a place called Prendergast, first added to the county and borough of Haverfordwest by the parliamentary boundary act, 2 & 3 W. IV. c. 64, sch. (O.), and declared by 5 & 6 W. IV. c. 76, s. 7, schs. (A.) and (B.) to be part of that borough, it was held properly triable at the assizes held for the county of that borough, R. v. Piller, 7 C. & P. 337, Spring assizes, 1836, per Coleridge, J.-N. B. The Clifton case, R. v. Gloucestershire Justices, was cited.

justices, previously to the 5 & 6 W. IV. c. 76, had concurrent jurisdiction with the borough justices, such concurrent jurisdiction still continues, notwithstanding the grant of a court of separate quarter sessions.

The powers of charter justices to try offenders at the quarter sessions for boroughs, were universally abolished by 5 & 6 W. IV. c. 76, s. 107; and recorders, each of whom singly constitutes a court of quarter sessions" in and for " the borough to which he is appointed, have cognizance of all crimes, offences, and matters whatsoever cognizable by any court of quarter sessions of the peace for counties in England.

In boroughs which, at the passing of that act, had recorders, or deputy recorders of five years' standing at the bar, the recorder retained his office if so qualified: and if he was not, as was the case at Shrewsbury in the person of the late Earl Powis, the deputy recorder, the late John Bather, esq., became recorder. In all other cases the present recorders were appointed by the crown under the act.

The above-mentioned sections appear to have the effect of excluding the county quarter sessions from jurisdiction within those boroughs any part of which had been previously exempt from their power, and to which a separate grant of quarter sessions has been made; but the county jurisdiction is necessarily continued in other boroughs, whether before 5 & 6 W. IV. c. 76, they had or had not concurrent jurisdiction; thus, by s. 111, the justices in and for the county in which any borough is situate, to which no grant of separate quarter sessions shall have been made, shall exercise the jurisdiction of justices of peace in and for such borough, as fully as by law they and each of them can or ought to do in and for the said county.

4 & 5 W. IV. c. 27, Commitments by Borough Justices to County Sessions.]-An act of the legislature which passed in 1834, though considerably abridged in effect by the more sweeping enactments of the municipal act which followed it in the next year, must be here mentioned. It is intituled "an act for the better administration of justice in certain boroughs and franchises," and appears intended to prevent the expense and delay of sending persons charged with felony in a borough or franchise, which had no power to hear and determine felonies (j), for trial at the assizes for the county in which such borough, &c. might be situate, and enacts (k) that the justices of the

(j) E. g. Bath.

(k) 4 & 5 W. IV. c. 27, s. 1.

peace, or any such justice acting in and for any such borough or franchise in England, not being empowered, by charter or otherwise, to determine felonies (1), shall commit every person charged with any such felony, as a court of quarter sessions may have jurisdiction to try, to be tried at the general quarter sessions of the peace for the county, riding, or division, wherein such borough or franchise shall be situate, or at any adjournment thereof, and the justices of the peace acting in and for such county, &c. are hereby empowered to try persons so committed, at such quarter sessions or any adjournment thereof.

This section seems in force (m) notwithstanding section 1 of 5 & 6 W. IV. c. 76, and in fact agrees with s. 111 of that act above cited, as well as with s. 110. But its other sections seem repealed by 5 & 6 W. IV. c. 76, s. 1, and s. 107.

SECTION II.

OF THE TIME AND FORMALITY OF OPENING THE COURT, TAKING THE OATHS OF ALLEGIANCE, &c.

Time of assembling.]-The court should assemble before twelve at noon on the day for which it is summoned, in order that persons who desire to take the oaths of supremacy, abjuration, or office, may comply in that respect with the directions of the statutes which enjoin them. The session is then usually proclaimed by a bailiff in the following terms :

Oyez, Oyez, Oyez,-The Queen's justices do strictly charge and command all manner of persons to keep silence, while the Queen's commission of the peace for this county of is openly read, upon pain of imprisonment (n).

Statutes to be read.]-Then the commission, the queen's procla mation against profaneness, &c., and the several statutes which are directed to be read at the sessions, ought in strictness to be read by the clerk of the peace, in an audible voice. These were principally

(1) E. g., Havering atte Bower, in Essex, ante, p. 1.

(m) As to trial of offences committed within cities and towns, which are counties of themselves, see post.

(n) What has been popularly called "The Mistake," occurred at the Middlesex sessions. Several offenders were tried and convicted, and their convictions held illegal, as the witnesses who

were sent before the grand jury had been sworn by an officer of the court after the session had lapsed, in consequence of its having been opened and adjourned by the crier on two successive days, without the presence of any justices. See Middlesex Special Commission case, 6 C. & P. 90; and R. v. Middlesex (Justices), in re Bowman, 5 B. & Adol. 1113; 3 Nev. & M. 110.