25. Constables are officers of hundreds and townships, sworn and appointed at the leet,—who ought to possess ho nesty, knowledge, and ability, to perform the office impos ed upon them. They are empowered to preserve the peace, to keep watch and ward, and to apprehend offenders.
The king is the principal conservator of the peace, and can delegate power to any one to preserve it. The lord chancellor, lord treasurer, lord high steward, the justices of the King's Bench, and master or the rolls, are all con servators of the peace, and may commit the breaker's thereof, or bind them in recognizances to keep it.
26 Surveyors of the highways are officers appointed annually in every parish, to remove annoyances in and di rect the reparation of the public roads.
27. Overseers of the poor are substantial house-holders, appointed annually in every parish, to relieve such impo tent, old, blind, and other persons, being poor and not able to vt ork, as are settled in each parish, by birth, by parentage, by marriage, or by forty days residence, accompanied vt ith notice, or with such circumstances as are held equivalent to notice.
1. The clergy comprehends all persons in holy orders, and in ecclesiastical offices. A clergyman cannot be com pelled to serve on a jury, nor to appear at a court-leet ur view of frank pledge, which almost every other person is obliged to do : but if a layman is summoned on a jury, and before the trial takes orders, he shall, notwithstanding, ap peal' and be sworn. Neither can he be chosen to any tem poral office, as bailiff, reeve, constable, cr the like, in re gard of his own continual attendance on the sacred func tions. During his attendance on divine service, he is pri vileged from arrests in civil suits ; in cases also of felony, a clerk in orders shall have the benefit of his clergy without being branded in the hand; and may likewise have it more than once : in both which pat ticulars he is distinguished from a layman. But as they have their privileges, so also they have their disabilities, on account of their spiritual avocations. Clergymen, we have seen, are incapable of sitting in the House of Commons ; and by statute 21 Henry c. 13. they are not (in general) allowed to take any lands or tenements to farm, upon pain of 101. per month,
and total avoidance of the lease ; nor upon like pain to keep any tan-house. or brew-house ; nor shall in any manner of trade, nor sell any merchandise, under forfeiture of treble the value.
2. An archbishop or bishop is elected by the chapter of his cathedral church, by virtue of a license from the crown, which is always to be accompanied with a letter missive from the king, containing the name of the person whom he would have them elect : and if the dean and chapter de lay their election above twelve days, the nomination shall devolve to the king, who may by letters patent appoint such person as he pleases. This election or nomination, if it be of a bishop, must he signified by the king's letters patent to the archbishop of the province, if it be of an archbishop, to the other archbishops and Iwo bishops, or to four bishops ; requiring them to confirm, invest, and consecrate the person so elected ; which they ate bound to perform immediately, without any application to the see of Rome. After which, the bishop elect shall sue to the king for his temporalities, shall make oath to the king and none other. and shall take restitution of his secular possessions out of the king's hands only. And if such dean and chapter do not elect in the manner by the act appointed ; or if such archbishop or bishop do refuse to confirm, invest and con secrate such bishop elect, they shall incur all the penalties of a tr.emunire.
3. An archbishop is the chief of the clergy in a whole province ; and has the inspection of the bishops of that province, as well as of the inferior clergy, and may deprive theni on notorious cause. The archbishop has also his own diocese, %eherein he exercises episcopal jurisdiction, as in his province he exercises archiepiscopal.
4. The power and authority of a bishop, besides the ad ministration of certain holy ordinances peculiar to sa cred order, consist principally in inspecting the manners of the people and clergy, and punishing them, in order to reformation, by ecclesiastical censures. To this purpose lie has several courts under him, and may visit at pleasure e vet y part of his diocese.