As the office of these justices is conferred by the king, so it subsists only during his pleasure; and is determinable, 1. By the demise of the crown; that is, in six months after: but if the same justice is put in commission by the successor, he shall not be obliged to sue out a new dedimus, or to swear to his qualification afresh; nor, by reason of any new commission, to take the oaths more than once in the same reign. 2. By express writ under the great seal, discharging any particular person from being any longer justice. 3. By superseding the commission by writ of supersedeas, which suspends the power of all the justices, but does not totally destroy it; seeing it may be revived again by another writ, called a procedendo. 4. By a new commission, which virtually, though silently, discharges all the former justices that are not included therein; for two commissions cannot subsist at once. 5. By accession to the office of she riff or coroner. The power, office, and duty of a justice of the peace depend on his commission, and on the several statutes which have created objects of his jurisdiction. His commission, first, empowers him singly to conserve the peace; and thereby gives him all the power of the ancient conservators at the common law, in suppressing riots and affrays, in taking securities for the peace, and in apprehending and committing felons and other inferior criminals. It also empowers any two or more to hear and determine all felonies and other offences; which is the ground of their jurisdiction at sessions. It is impossible, upon our present plan, to enter minutely into the particulars of the accumulated authority, thus committed to the charge of these magistrates. I must therefore refer myself at present to such subsequent part of the commentaries, as will in their turns comprise almost every object of the justices' jurisdiction. I shall next consider some officers of lower rank than those which have gone before, and of more confined jurisdiction; but still such as are universally in use through every part of the kingdom. IV. Fourthly, then, of the constable. Constables are of two sorts, high constables, and petty constables. The former were first ordained by the statute of Winchester; are appointed at the court leets of the franchise or hundred over which they preside, or, in default of that, by the justices at their quarter sessions; and are removable by the same authority that appoints them. The petty constables are inferior officers in every town and parish, subordinate to the high constable of the hundred, first instituted about the reign of Edw. III. They are all chosen by the jury at the court leet; or if no court leet be held, are appointed by two justices of the peace. The general duty of all constables, both high and petty, is to keep the king's peace in their several districts; and to that purpose they are armed with very large powers, of arresting, and imprisoning, of breaking open houses, and the like. One of their principal duties, arising from the statute of Winchester which appoints them, is to keep watch and ward in their respective jurisdictions. Ward, guard, or custodia, is chiefly applied to the day-time, in order to apprehend rioters, and robbers on the highways; the hundred being however answerable for all robberies committed therein, by day-light, for having kept negligent guard. Watch is properly applicable to the night only, and it begins at the time when ward ends, and ends when that begins for, by the statute of Winchester, in walled towns the gates shall be closed from sunsetting to sunrising, and watch shall be kept in every borough and town, especially in the summer season, to apprehend all rogues, vagabonds, nightwalkers, and make them give an account of themselves. V. We are next to consider the surveyors of the highways. Every parish is bound of common right to keep the high roads, that go through it, in good and sufficient repair; unless by reason of the tenure of lands, or otherwise, this care is consigned to some particular private person. Their office and duty consist in putting in execution a variety of laws for the repairs of the public highways; that is, of ways leading from one town to another: all which are now reduced into one act by statute 13 Geo. III. c. 78. which enacts, 1. That they may remove all annoyances in the highways, or give notice to the owner to remove them; who is liable to penalties on non-compliance. 2. They are to call together all the inhabitants and occupiers of lands, tenements, and hereditaments within the parish, six days in every year, to labour in fetching materials, or repairing the highways; all persons keeping draughts (of three horses, &c.) or occupying lands, being obliged to send a team for every draught, and for every L.50. a year, which they keep or occupy; persons keeping less than a draught, or occupying less than L. 50. a year, to contribute in a less proportion; and all other persons chargeable, between the ages of eighteen and sixty-five, to work or find a labourer : but they may compound with the surveyors, at certain easy rates established by the act. And every cartway leading to any market-town must be made twenty feet wide at the least, if the fences will permit; and may be increased by the authority of two justices, at the expense of the parish, to the breadth of thirty feet. 3. The surveyors may lay out their own money in purchasing materials for repairs, in erecting guide-posts, and making drains, and shall be reimbursed by a rate, to be allowed at a special sessions. 4. In case the personal labour of the parish be not sufficient, the surveyors, with the consent of the quarter sessions, may levy a rate on the parish, in aid of the personal duty, not exceeding, in any one year, together with the other highway rates, the sum of 9d. in the pound; for the due application of which they are to account upon oath. As for turnpikes, which are now pretty generally introduced in aid of such rates, and the law relating to them, these depend principally on the particular powers granted in the several road acts, and upon some general provisions, which are extended to all turnpike roads in the kingdom by statute 13 Geo. III. c. 84. amended by many subsequent acts. VI. I proceed, therefore, lastly, to consider the overseers of the poor; their origin, appointment, and duty. The poor of England, till the time of Henry VIII. subsisted entirely upon private benevolence, and the charity of well-disposed christians. By statute 43 Eliz. c. 2. overseers of the poor were appointed to every parish. By virtue of the statute last mentioned, these overseers are to be nominated yearly in Easterweek, or within one month after, (though a subsequent nomination will be valid) by two justices dwelling near the parish. They must be substantial householders, and so expressed to be in the appointment of the justices. : Their office and duty, according to the same statute, are principally these: first, to raise competent sums for the necessary relief of the poor, impotent, old, blind, and such other, being poor, as are not able to work and secondly, to provide for such as are able, and cannot otherwise get employment. However, for these joint purposes, overseers are impowered to make and levy rates upon the several inhabitants of the parish, by the same act of parliament, and enforced by subsequent statutes. By the statute 13 & 14 Car. II. c. 12. a legal settlement was declared to be gained by birth; or by inhabitancy, apprenticeship, or service, for forty days; within which period all intruders were made |