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bail. This was stated to be ten guineas for a capital felony, and five for a minor offence. During the Irish administration of Lord Wellesley a considerable number of magistrates were dismissed in consequence of misconduct, and several discharged as insolvents. That there were many just and conscientious men in the commission of the peace before that purification, we do not deny,—but it is equally certain that the malpractices of others produced an universal impression upon the people, that justice was administered rather as a matter of favour than of right. These evils have been in a great measure repaired by better appointments and the institution of petty sessions. Magistrates now generally discharge their official duties at a public court, instead of, as upon former occasions, at their private residences; and parties are regularly heard at fixed times and places, and confronted with their adversaries. It usually happened, during the old system, that when a person was brought before a justice of the peace upon a charge of assault, he lodged a cross-examination against the complainant, and both were frequently tried at the same time at the sessions, the defendant and plaintiff alternately taking their places in the dock; and the difficulties which arose from the most contradictory swearing were usually got rid of by indictments being found against both parties. Further improvements have been since, from time to time, adopted, by extending the number of districts wherein petty sessions are held, by directing a registry to be kept of the proceedings, by requiring all informations to be transmitted to the clerk of the crown or clerk of the peace, and by placing restraints on the official acts of single justices.

The court of quarter-sessions, which Lord Coke eulogized as “a form of subordinate government for the tranquillity and “ safety of the realm, as no part of the Christian world hath “ the like, if the same be duly executed,” partook also of the evil influence which for a long period rendered many of the best institutions valueless in Ireland. This was one of the ancient jurisdictions of England, established in Ireland by Poyning's Law for the preservation of the public peace, and quiet government of the people.

It was not to be expected that country gentlemen in the which we allude,-men of little or no property or station, and sometimes of very indifferent character. They were in the habit of taking fees, independent of those that were legal, upon all business which came before them. Major-General Richard Bourke declared, before the Committee of the House of Commons on the State of Ireland in 1825, in answer to the question if such a system prevailed amongst the lower description of magistrates, that it was a very general; not only were “ fees taken upon all the business which this class of magi“strates transacted, but presents were received of various “ kinds, and labour was required from persons whom they

patronized.” This labour he described to consist of "digging

potatoes, cutting turf, bringing home hay, and things of “ that sort*.” These magistrates, be it remem , possessed a criminal and ministerial, and also a judicial jurisdiction. The former related to the imprisonment of parties for the purposes of trial, or holding them to bail, and the latter to the decision of tithe and other cases, and the infliction of pecuniary penalties on offenders, which they were enabled to impose under certain statutes. It was not uncommon for persons to be committed to jail upon charges of felony, to abide their trial at the ensuing assizes, and, after an imprisonment of several months, to be discharged in consequence of there being no prosecution, or as the charge against them was found to amount only to a light misdemeanour. In judicial proceedings it was a frequent occurrence for parties to travel a considerable distance with their witnesses, in obedience to the summons of magistrates, and to find on their arrival that the hearing was adjourned; and as these summonses, on which a fee was paid, were left blank with the clerk, and issued in all directions, it often happened that when parties appeared, the magistrates discovered that they had no jurisdiction in the case. It was given in evidence before the Select Committee of the House of Lords on the State of Ireland in 1825, that a criminal information had been, a short time before that period, filed in the Court of King's Bench, against the provost of a corporate town in Ireland, who had a regular scale of charges for admitting offenders to

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bail. This was stated to be ten guineas for a capital felony, and five for a minor offence. During the Irish administration of Lord Wellesley a considerable number of magistrates were dismissed in consequence of misconduct, and several discharged as insolvents. That there were many just and conscientious men in the commission of the peace before that purification, we do not deny,—but it is equally certain that the malpractices of others produced an universal impression upon the people, that justice was administered rather as a matter of favour than of right. These evils have been in a great measure repaired by better appointments and the institution of petty sessions. Magistrates now generally discharge their official duties at a public court, instead of, as upon former occasions, at their private residences; and parties are regularly heard at fixed times and places, and confronted with their adversaries. It usually happened, during the old system, that when a person was brought before a justice of the peace upon a charge of assault, he lodged a cross-examination against the complainant, and both were frequently tried at the same time at the sessions, the defendant and plaintiff alternately taking their places in the dock; and the difficulties which arose from the most contradictory swearing were usually got rid of by indictments being found against both parties. Further improvements have been since, from time to time, adopted, by extending the number of districts wherein petty sessions are held, by directing a registry to be kept of the proceedings, by requiring all informations to be transmitted to the clerk of the crown or clerk of the peace, and by placing restraints on the official acts of single justices.

The court of quarter-sessions, which Lord Coke eulogized as “ a form of subordinate government for the tranquillity and

safety of the realm, as no part of the Christian world hath “ the like, if the same be duly executed,” partook also of the evil influence which for a long period rendered many of the best institutions valueless in Ireland. This was one of the ancient jurisdictions of England, established in Ireland by Poyning's Law for the preservation of the public peace, and quiet government of the people.

It was not to be expected that country gentlemen in the knowledge of technical principles and forms to enable them to hear and determine the various cases which came before them at the sessions, without professional aid; and accordingly, by the 27th of Geo. III., a barrister of six years' standing was appointed to act as a constant assistant to the justices constituting the court. This Act also contained the important provisions for enabling the Lord-Lieutenant, with the advice of the Privy Council, to divide the different counties into districts, where general sessions of the peace were directed to be held eight times in the year at the least, and to establish a constabulary force. After the appointment of assistant barristers to these courts, a new and concomitant jurisdiction was assigned to them, to be exercised by them exclusively, “ for the recovery of small debts in a summary way.” This had been originally exercised by the judges of assize in their several circuits ; but as property and population increased, suits by civil bill, which these proceedings were called, increased to so great a degree that they constituted at length the chief part of the business of the judge presiding in the civil court. For this and other reasons the establishment of a new court for their trial became indispensable. The first step for bringing the process of civil bill into operation in the Assistant Barristers' Court is by the service of a summons, a copy of which was required to be left with each defendant, stating shortly the cause of action, the amount of claim, and time and place of appearance. Any person was competent to serve this process, and it was usually confided to hired process-servers, upon whose affidavit of due service a decree was generally obtained. These were men of the worst description, and services were sworn to in many cases which were never made, and decrees obtained where no debt whatever existed. The instances were frequent of people in comfortable circumstances being reduced to beggary by this iniquitous practice. It led to the most frightful conflicts in the execution of decrees, which the peasantry declared to be legal robberies,—and the resistance they considered in such cases justifiable against the mal-administration of the law, unfortunately extended to the law itself.

The sheriffs generally had but one panel for grand and petit jurors at the quarter-sessions, who were often persons of a low

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private influence prevailed with regard to the finding or ignoring of bills. The people were therefore constantly in the habit of making interest, as it was called, when they were before these courts. Major Bourke, from whose evidence we have already quoted, and who was a magistrate for the county and city of Limerick, declared on the occasion to which we have before alluded, that he believed the general opinion on this subject to have been well founded. He says,

“ I recollect to have heard a gentleman say that he was applied to (as gentlemen sometimes are in Ireland) by a person who was put upon trial at the Quarter Sessions begging to have a letter of recommendation to the Assistant Barrister ; this the gentleman refused, saying the most he could do was to give him a letter to an officer of the Court, requesting him to take care that the bearer might have every facility afforded him in making his defence; the man returned within a day or two, with a letter from the officer of the Court, saying that he had settled the man's business; that he had spoken to the Grand Jury, and that they had thrown out the Bill*.”

There is no part of the ancient English statute-law more worthy of admiration than that which was devised to secure to suitors a fair and impartial jury. Similar provisions were, from time to time, adopted by the Irish Legislature; but they were for the most part temporary in their duration; the most useful of them were suffered to expiret; and it was left to the sub-sheriffs to place whomsoever they thought fit on juries of every description, and to exclude qualified persons at their pleasure. The Commissioners of Courts of Justice in Ireland, reported in 1826, that

“The Sub-sheriff, according to the present practice, forms a grand panel at his own discretion; and when the Court of law grants an order for a special jury, and he is served with a rule to return the grand panel, he returns that which he has so formed, and which may be framed upon an improper principle, and not consist, as it ought, of the most respectable portion of the qualified freeholders of the countyf.”

It is a remarkable fact, that there was only one statute, at that period, existing, which provided for the formation of the grand panel, and this provision was never acted onş.

It will doubtless appear surprising to the English reader, that the boasted privilege of an impartial jury, which has been secured in this country by the most strict regulations, should,

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* Third Report from Select Committee of House of Commons on State of Ireland in 1825, p. 328.