The lest jury possess a legislative authority in establishing by-laws. By-laws made in a court-leet and embodied in the presentments of the jnry in respect of matters properly cognisable in the leet, are binding upon resiants, but not upon strangers. [Br-Lew.) A by-law imposing a penalty of 51. per month for taking or placing an inmate without giving security to the overseers againet.any charge upon the parish was said by Lord Hale to be usual and valid. The leet jury elect their own chief magistrates, the reeve or constable, &c., of the private leet, and, as it would seem, the high constable (sometimes called the alder man) of the hundred.
Before the Norman conquest, and probably for some time after, this court of the leet was, if not the sole, at least the ordinary tribunal for the administration of criminal justice in the kingdom. Until the reign of Henry when, with respect to certain heinous offences, the punishment of death was substituted for pecuniary compositions, no crime appears to have been punished by death except that called in the laws of that prince " Openthifte," a theft where the offender was taken with the tneinour, that is, with the thing stolen upon him. pleneteay.1 Of this crime, as requiring no trial or presentment, the leet had no cognisance. Other offences, of however serious a nature, subjected the party to a mulct, or pecuniary fine, the amount of which was in many cases determinate and fixed.
Offences to be merely inquired of in leets are arson, burglary, escape, larceny, manslaughter, murder, rape, rescue, sacrilege, and treason, and every offence which was felony at common law. These offences being presented by the leet jury as indictors, and the indict ment being certified to the justices of gaol delivery, the indictees may be arraigned ; but they cannot be arraigned upon the mere production of the court-roll containing the presentments. Formerly all offences inquirable iu leete were also punishable there by amercement ; but the power of adjudicating finally upon crimes in courts leet, whether public or private, is now limited to such minor 'offences as are still left under the old system of pecuniary compensation. No matters are eeguisable in the least melees they have arisen or have had continuance since the last preceding court.
An ansereentent is a pecuniary punishment which follows of course upon every presentment of a default or of any offence committed out of court by private persons. Amereenients are to be mitigated in open
court by affeerera (afferratorcs, from afferrare or afforare, offerer, to tax, or fit a price, hence the term afferage, used in the old French law to denote the judicial fixing of a price upon property to be sold). The affeeners by their oaths affirm the reasonableness of the sum at which they have assessed the amercement. This course is sanctioned and confirmed by Magna Marta, which directs that amereementa shall be aasemed by the peers of the offender, that is, the pares curiae, or suitors of the same court. [Jour.] The &increments, being affeered, are estreated (extracted) from the court-roll by the steward, and levied by the bailiff under a special warrant from the lord or steward for.that purpose. by distress and sale of the goods of the party, which may be taken at any place within the precinct, even in the street : or the lord may maintain an action of debt for such amercement. For a nuisance, the jury may amerce the offender, and at the ,same time order that ,he be distrained to amend it.
The stem art] of a leet is a judge of reconLand may take recognisances et the peace; and he may impose a fine for a contempt or other offence committed In court, as where a party obstructs the jury in the eiecution of their duties, or by public officers in the discharge of their duties out of court. The amount of the fine is at once fixed by the steward, and therefore, though sometimes loosely called an amerce spent, it is not to be affeered. When a suitor present in court refuses to be sworn, it is a contempt fur which a reasonable fine may be imposed ; so if the jury, or any of them, refuse to make a presentment, or depart without making it, or make it before all arc agreed. In all matters within the cognisance of a court-leet the lord or steward has the same power as the judges in the superior courts. lie has indeed no power to award imprisonment as a punish ment for offences presented in the leet, such offences being the subject uE amercement only : but he may imprison persons indicted or accused of felony before him, and persons guilty of a contempt in Luce of the court.