The fixed annual salary of the recorder is 15001. The Common Council have added 1000/. annually to the salary of the present recorder, and to that of his im mediate two predecessors. Besides this, the recorder has fees on all cases and briefs which come to him from the corpo ration. He is also allowed to continue his private practice.
The recorder is elected by the court of aldermen, most commonly at a special court held for the purpose. Any alder man may put any freeman of the city in nomination as a candidate for the office, I but an actual contest seldom takes place. The recorder elect is admitted and sworn in before the court of aldermen. The appointment is during good behaviour. The recorder has always been a serjeant at-law or a barrister.
The recorder of London deriving his authority from charters, and not being appointed by commission (exoept tem porarily as included with other judges in the commission of over and terminer, at the Old Bailey), he is not, like the judges of the superior courts, liable to dismissal by the crown upon an address by both Houses of Parliament. But all recorders may be semoved for incapacity or misconduct by a proceeding at common law.
Deputy recorders have in some in stances, but not very lately, been ap pointed by the court of aldermen on the nomination of the recorder. (Report on Municipal Corporations.) In cities and boroughs within the Mu nicipal Corporations Act, the recorder (who must be a barrister of not less than five years' standing) is a judge appointed under the sign manual by the crown du ring good behaviour : he has criminal and civil jurisdiction within the city or borough, with precedence next to the mayor.
Criminal jurisdiction is given to re corders by the Municipal Corporations Act, explained by subsequent statute. The 105th section of that Act provides that the recorder shall hold once in every quarter of a year, or at such other and more frequent times as he shall in his discretion think fit, or as the crown shall think fit to direct, a court of quarter-ses sion of the peace, at which the recorder shall sit as the sole judge, and such court shall be a court of record, and shall have cognizance of all crimes, offences, and matters whatever cognizable by any court of quarter•session of the peace for coun ties in England, provided nevertheless that no recorder shall have power to make or levy any rate in the nature of a county rate, or to grant licence to keep an ale house or victualling-house, to sell excise able liquors, or to exercise any of the powers by that Act specially vested in the town-council.
The jurisdiction of the county sessions extends, under 34 Edw. III. c. 1, to the trying and determining of all felonies and misdemeanors. The commission un der which county justices are appointed, however, directs that if any case of diffi culty arise, they shall not proceed to judg ment but in the presence of one of the justices of the courts of King's Bench or Common Pleas, or of one of the justice of assize ; and courts of quarter-session in counties have latterly treated every case in which judgment of death would be pronounced upon conviction, as a case of difficulty, and have left such cases to be tried at the assizes ; and though no such direction is contained in the grant of the office of recorder or in the Munici pal Corporations Act, it has been the invariable practice of recorders appointed under the Act to refrain from the exercise of jurisdiction in such cases.
The civil jurisdiction given to re corders by 5 & 6 Wm. IV. c. 76, §. 118, is to try actions of assumpsit, covenant, or debt, whether by speciality or by simple contract, and all actions of tres pass or trover for taking goods or chat tels, provided the sum or damages sought to be recovered do not exceed 20/., and all actions of ejectment between landlord and tenant wherein the annual rent of the premises does not exceed 204 and upon which no fine has been re served, with an exception of actions in which title to land, or to any tithe, toll, market, fair, or other franchise is in question in courts, which before the pass ing of the Act had not authority to try actions in which such titles were in ques tion. This enactment does not take away the more extended civil jurisdic tion which previously existed in particu lar cities and boroughs by prescription or by charter.
The practice, or mode of proceeding, and also the course of pleading, in courts of civil jurisdiction in cities and boroughs, are governed by rules made by the re corder and allowed by three judges of the superior courts.