QUARTER-SESSIONS, in Eugland, is a court or meeting of justices of the peace, who assemble every quarter of the year, for judicial as well as miscellaneous business. The meetings are fixed by statute to be held iu the first full week after Dec. 28, Mar. 31, June 24, and Oct. 11, respectively; often otherwise called the Epiphany, Easter, Trinity,. and Michaelmas sessions. The chief officer of the court of quarter-sessions is the custos rotulorum, so called because he is intrusted with the custody of the records and rolls. He is always one of the justices of the peace of the county or riding, nominated by the crown, and appointed by the commission. His deputy is the clerk of the peace, who acts also as clerk to the court of quarter-sessions. The jurisdiction of the court of quar ter-sessions is confined to criminal business, and is very important. It includes all trim-• inal offenses whatever, except the highest classes; thus, it has no jurisdiction to try for treason, murder, or capital felony, or blasphemy, perjury, forgery, arson, bigamy,. abduction of women girls. concealment of birth, offenses against the queen's title or the bankrupt laws, bribery, blasphemous, seditious, or defamatory libels, unlawful com binations or conspiracies, stealing or destroying wills or records. Besides its jurisdiction in criminal offenses, there are numerous miscellaneous matters of which the court has cognizance, including appeals from petty sessions, and from justices in special sessions, on a great variety of subjects as to convictions of vagrants, stopping up highways, removal of paupers, etc. The justices who do the work of quarter-sessions are all unpaid, and thus save the country much expense. They generally choose a chairman of their own body to preside regularly at these courts, which office is considered a great. honor, and is generally given to an able practical man, well versed in business.
This plan, however, of unpaid judges has been found inexpedient in boroughs and large towns, where the justices of the peace being appointed chiefly from successful tradesmen, are not possessed of the necessary education to secure the efficient perform ance of like duties. There is therefore appointed for every borough in England m recorder, who is a barrister, appointed by the home secretary, and is paid by salary out of the borough fund- -a salary, however, very trifling in amount. His duty is confined to trying prisoners and other judicial business, and he is in fact, in his own person, the court of quarter-sessions for boroughs. There is also an exception to unpaid judges of quarter sessions in the county of 3fiddlesex, where a barrister is appointed to act in the trial of prisoners, and called the assistant judge, being the official chairman of the Mid dlesex sessions. The routine of business at quarter-sessions consists of the trial of. offenders, the trial of appeals, and the hearing of motions upon different subjects. Sometimes a second court sits, consisting of some of the justices appointed by the whole court, whenever the business is unusually heavy. In Scotland there is also a court of quarter-sessions of the peace, held four times a year at the county town—viz., on the first Tuesdays in May, August, and March, and the last Tuesday in October. At these courts, the justices have power to review the sentences of special and petty sessions. But these courts are of a trifling description compared to the courts of the same name in England. In Scotland, the judicial business which in England devolves on courts of quarter-sessions, is chiefly disposed of by the sheriff of the county.