The sessions cannot be held without the presence of two justices, at least ; nor can they be adjourned by one justice, though two or more may previously have been present. Every act done as an act of sessions before two justices have met, or after two have ceased to be present, is void.
The crown may grant a commission of the peace not only for an entire county, but also for a particular district within the county. In order, however, to exclude the Interference of the county justices in the particular district, it is necessary either to introduce into the com mission of the peace for the particular district a clause excluding the jurisdiction of the county magistrates, which is called a neintromittant clause, or to grant a new commission to the county magistrates excluding the particular district. If the former, which is the usual course, be taken, the county magistrates may still hold their sessions within the particular district, though they can exercise no jurisdiction in respect of matters arising within the district.
Petty and Special Seuions.—A meeting held by justices for the trans action of magisterial business arising within a particular district forming a subdivision of the county or district comprised in the commission of the peace, is called a petty session ; and if the meeting be convened for some particular or special object, as the appointment of overseers of the poor, of waywardens, of examiners of weights and measures, Az., it is called a special session. A meeting of magistrates cannot Legally act as a special session unless all the magistrates of the particular division are present, or have had reasonable notice to attend.
The statute 12 & 13 Viet. c. 18 makes further provision for the holding petty sessions in counties and boroughs, and declares that every sitting and acting of justices, or of a stipendiary magistrate for a city or borough, having a separate commission of the peace, shall be deemed a petty sessions. The fees of justices' clerks in petty sessions are moreover provided for by the 11 & 12 Viet. c. 43, and 14 & 15 Viet C. 55. [JUVENILE OFFENDERS; JUSTICES ON THE PEACE.] Borough Sessions.—The Municipal Corporation Aet (5 & 6 Wm. IV.
c. 76) directs that the recorder of any city or borough to which a sepa rate court of quarter-sessions is granted under the provisions of that Act, shall be the sole judge of such court [RECORDER], leaving the ordinary duties of magistrates out of sessions to be performed by the justices of the peace appointed by the crown for such city or borough. The recorder is required to hold a court of quarter-sessions once in every quarter of a year, or at such other and more frequent times as be may think fit, or as the crown may direct. Borough quarter-sessions
are not, however, like county quarter-sessions, appointed to be held in particular weeks. In case of sickness or unavoidable absence, the recorder is authorised, with the consent of the town council, to appoint a barrister of five years' standing to act as deputy recorder at the next session, but no longer. In the absence of the recorder and of any deputy recorder, the court may be opened and adjourned, and the recognisances respited, by the mayor ; but the mayor is not authorised to do any other judicial act. Where it appears to the recorder that the sessions are likely to last more than three days, he may appoint an " assistant-barrister " of five years' standing to hold a second court, for the trial of such felonies and misdemeanors as shall be referred to him, provided it has been certified to the recorder, by the mayor and two aldermen, that the council have resolved that such a course is expedient, and the name of the intended assistant-barrister has been approved of by a secretary of state.
Every burgess of a borough (or citizen of a city) having a court of quarter-sessions (unless exempt or disqualified otherwise than in respect of property), is liable to serve on grand and petty juries. Members of the town-council, and the justices of the peace, treasurer, and town clerk of the borough, are exempt and disqualified from serving on juries within the borough ; and they and all burgesses of boroughs having separate quarter-sessions are exempt from liability to serve on petty-juries at the county sessions.
Under the 105th section of the Municipal Corporation Act, the recorder has jurisdiction in respect of all crimes cognisable by courts of quarter-session in counties ; but be is expressly restricted from making or levying any rate In the nature of a county rate, or granting any licence to keep an inn, fic., and from exercising any of the powers vested in the town-council. Other matters required by statute to be done at quarter-sessions, and not expressly transferred to the town council, devolve upon the recorder, as the appointment of inspectors of weights and measures, &c. Persons imprisoned in a borough jail by county magistrates, under 6 & 7 Will. IV. c. 105, may be tried at the borough sessions for offences committed out of the borough.
All criminal jurisdiction which, before the passing of the Municipal Corporation Act, existed in any borough to which no court of quarter sessions has since been granted, is taken away by the 107th section of that Act.