Persons summoned on grand or petty juries ought to be males between 21 and 60 years of age, who are possessed of IOL a year in lands or rents' or 20/. a year in leaseholds for an unexpired term or terms of 21 years or more, or who are householders, rated to the poor on a value of not less than 20/. (in Middlesex 30/.), or who occupy houses containing not less than 15 windows, and who are not peers, judges of the superior courts, clergymen, Roman Catholic priests, dissenting ministers following no secular employment but that of schoolmaster, serjeants nr barristers-at.law, doctors or advocates of civil law actually practising, officers of courts actually exercising the duties of their respective offices, coroners, jailers or keepers of houses of correction, members or licentiates of the College of Physicians actually practising, members of the Royal' Colleges of Surgeons in London, Edinburgh, or Dublin, and actually practising, certificated apothecaries actually practising, officers in the army or navy In full pay, pilots licensed by the Trinity House, masters of vessels in the Buoy and Light service, pilots licensed by the lord warden of the Cinque Ports or under any act of parliament or charter, household servants of the crown, officers of the customs or excise, sheriffs' officers, high constables or parish clerks.
The justices in sessions have criminal jurisdiction, to be exercised partly according to the rules of common law and partly in a course prescribed by different acts of parliament ; they have also jurisdiction in certain civil matters crested by different statutes ; they have an administrative power In certain county matters; and they have power to fine and imprison for contempt.
I. The criminal jurisdiction of justices in sessions, according to the course of common law, enabled them to try felonies and those misde meanors which are not directed by any statute to be tried in a sum mary way. It has been said that they had no jurisdiction in cases of perjury and forgery ; but this opinion seems to have arisen from the circumstance that at common law these crimes were only misdemeanors, and the authority of the justices extended only to such misdemeanors as were specially mentioned in their commission, or which came within the description of trespasses; and though most species of forgery have since been made felony, the opinion that courts of quarter-sessions bad no jurisdiction in cases of forgery was commonly entertained.
The jurisdiction given by the commission of the peace, in respect of felonies, is expressed in very general terms, and In former times numerous executions for felony took place at the quarter-sessions. The practice during the present and the greater part of the last century was, however, not to try at the sessions persona with capital crimes, but to leave them for trial by the judges at the assizes. All
questions of this description are, however, set at rest; for the criminal jurisdiction of justices in general and quarter-sessions is now defined by the 5 & 6 Viet. c. 3S, which enacts "that after the passing of this Act neither the justices of the peace acting in and for any county, riding, division, or liberty, nor the recorder of any borough, shall at any session of the peace nor the adjournment thereof try any person or per sons for any treason, murder, or capital felony, or for any felony which, when committed by a person not previously convicted of felony, is punishable by transportatiim beyond the seas for life," or for any of the offences mentioned under the 13 heads contained in the first section of the Act. The second section provides that any judge of the supreme courts at Westminster, acting under a commission of Oyer and terminer and jail delivery for any county, may issue a writ or writs of certiorari or other process directed to the justices of the peace acting in and for such county, &c., or to the recorder of any court within the same county, commanding the said justices and recorder severally to certify and return into such court of oyes and terminer, &c., all indict ments and presentments found or taken by such justices or recorder of offences which, after the passing of this Act, they will not have juris diction to try, and the several recognizances, examinations, and depositions relative to such indictments and presentments ; and, if necessary, by writ or writs of Habeas Corpus, may cause any person in the custody of any jail or prison, charged with any such offence, to be removed into the custody of the common jail of the county, that such offences may be tried under the said commission.
Previous to the year 1336 it was in the discretion of the magistrate before whom the depositions were taken, whether he would allow them to be inspected; even the party accused had no right to demand a copy of the depositions, though in cases of treason or felony he was entitled to demand a list containing the names of the witnesses for the prose cution. But now au persons held to bail or committed to prison for any offence, may at any time after the completion of the examinations, and before the first day of the sessions (or assizes), require and have, from the person who has the custody thereof, copies of the exami nations of the depositions on which they were hold to bail or committed to prison, on payment of a reasouable.sum for the same, not exceeding three-halfpence for each folio of ninety words. (See 11 & 12 Viet. c. -12, s 27, substituted for the previous provisions of the 6 & 7 Wm. IV.