Way to enter into a Paper Book to be kept for that purpose first the Name of the Complainant and of the Party against whom the Complaint is brought and then the Complaint in as few words as is possible and then read them to the Complainant that if any Mistake hath been made in the Names or thing it may be rectified and then recite all this again in the Preface of the Warrant for I am utterly against all General Precepts except it be in some few Cases which seldom happen it being unreasonable to call a man to Answer to the knows not what when if the Case had been Expressed perhaps he could have produced Witnesses to have cleared his innocence and so have prevented further Charge and Trouble and Mr. Lambard gives another good reason for it viz. Because the King's Writs do always express the Cause of Complaint When the Warrant is once granted it is not fit to hold any further Discourse with the Complainant or afterwards till both Parties appear face to face to prevent Prejudice and Prepossession yet you shall have many such Complainants that will endeavour to get a Promise from the Justice of Peace beforehand that he will Determine the Case for their Advantage which is directly contrary to all Justice and Honesty Others are as earnest to have the Warrant retornable before the Justice that granted it and no others which should never be easily granted first because it includes in it a Tacit reproach of the rest as not Men of Ability or Honesty Secondly Because it defeats the intention of the Law which hath made them numerous that every man might have an impartial and and indifferent Judge and yet if there be good reason for it it may be done But then the Justice hath bound himself to be as kind to the other Party as he can possibly be because he hath deprived him of the favour he might have found from another Justice of the Peace When the Defendant appears read the Complaint to him and ask him what he saith to it and if he confess it then there will need no Proof if he deny it endeavour to find out the Truth as far as is possible without Oaths to avoid Perjury by cross Examining of all Parties and if the Truth can so be found out the pains is well spent but if it cannot Oaths must be given When the Matter of Fact is once stated then have recourse to the Statutes or Books as the Case requires and read them to the Parties that the Law may pass the Sentence for this instructs and satisfies all Parties and shews that you have done them no wrong and it is of great use too to the Justice of Peace and makes the Statutes and Books very familiar to him and gives him a good Assurance that he hath not done amiss Then Enter in the same Book the Appearance of the Parties the Evidence given and the Determination thereupon made as short as is possible and dismiss them Some may imagine that this Keeping of a Book is very troublesome but if they would try it they would find the contrary when the Art of making short Entries is once learned and yet if it were the Use would out-weigh the Labour For First It inables a Man to answer for his Actions many years after which were impossible without it Secondly It prevents forgetting his Business before it be ended which many do for want of it who bind Over men to the Sessions and forget the Business before they come and then can give no reason for it Thirdly It inables a Man sometimes to discover his own Errors by an after-reflexion on his own Actions and the Reasons of them Fourthly He may at any time shew what Sentence was pass'd in any Case by which I have seen new Quarrels that were arising prevented And if just upon a Sessions they be all read over he shall have a Prospect of all he hath done that Quarter which will be of great use I know many of these things are not of absolute Necessity but upon Trial I perswade my self they will appear so useful that no man will repent the Experiment especially no new Beginner who is concern'd to be more careful because he is more subject to Mistake The Statutes are so numerous and withal so variously Penned that it will be impossible to remember them exactly and so it will be necessary to Consult them frequently upon all Occasions and in order to the speedy finding them the Table I mentioned in the last Section will be of great use and the Justice who takes these Methods will find the Benefit of them so great in a small time that he will never leave them but the other and shorter ways are so uncertain and subject to Error that no man can avoid committing fatal Mistakes who follows them In this Part of our Business Two things are to be avoided Unnecessary Delays and Precipitated Hast There is very little difference betwixt denying and delaying Justice only the latter is less injurious for then the Party may go to another Justice or desist without much Expence of time which is of great value to Poor Men whereas the making them dance Attendance from time to time to no purpose may do them more Wrong than that of which the complain And an Over-hasty Determination of a thing before it be well understood is no less injurious and therefore carefully to be avoided I will Conclude this Section with a few Excellent Rules of the Lord Bacon's 1. Seek to make thy course Regular that Men may know beforehand what to Expect but be not Positive and Peremptory 2. Express thy self well when thou goest from thy Rule 3. Imbrace and invite Helps and Advices touching the Execution of thy Place and do not drive away such as bring thee Information as Medlers but accept of them in good part 4. Give easie access 2. Keep times appointed 3. Go through with that which is in hand 4. And interlace not Business but of Necessity I will only add this that what I have Written in this Section is intended only for the private Hearing in the Hall and no where else in the main and that it is offered to Consideration and not prescribed as of Necessity SECTION IX AS the Justice of Peace enters his Office with the taking Three several Oaths Of Oaths which are included in the Dedimus Potestatem viz. The Oath of Supremacy and of Allegiance and that belonging to his Office So he hath very frequent Occasions to Administer Oaths to others in the Execution of it and therefore it befits him to study well the Nature and Obligation of an Oath that he may Preserve himself and others as much as in him lyes from the Sin of Perjury It might therefore not seem impertinent to Discourse something of both of them in this place but that more Learned men than I have prevented me in it and it is impossible for Me to say any thing
Idleness and Luxury The Other is That the Old English Industry is almost totally Extinguished and they that Live in the Country will not take that pains their Ancestors did either for themselves or their Country It is not at all likely that these two inconveniences will meet a Suddain or Certain Cure and therefore it were to be wished that men of Smaller Estates and greater Industry might be encouraged by some Honest and Convenient Privileges and Advantages to bear this burthen for the good of their Country without too much dammage to their own Families 2. After the Advantage of Wealth I place that of Reputation because as the World goes it will not be easily had without the Other And in this Case it is of great Use to the Justice of Peace and to the Government if he have a good Esteem amongst his Neighbours at his first setting out and he ought to be always Careful of it in all his Proceedings afterwards part of this may descend upon a man and part may be gained by himself with Gods blessing As the common People of England have always Lived under a Monarchy so they have been governed under their Prince by a Potent Nobility and a Flourishing Gentry and will certainly Envy and Repine at men of no descent when they come to be set over them but then if they be men of good Estates and Great Civility and Vertue this will soon wear off provided it be not kept up by the more Antient Gentry which seldom happens if they be not Slighted to prefer these New men But that infamy which springs from ill Actions is hardly ever to be worn out because every man that suffers tho never so justly by such a person will be sure to revive the memory of it so that it shall never be forgotten Besides men harden themselves against all Correction and look not so much upon their own deserts as the faults of their Governours and Consequently become worse for their Chastisement till at Last their Anger turn to Malice and that too is Advanced very frequently to a Contempt of the Supream Governour and ends in Tumults and Rebellion Anarchy and Confusion But let a man's Esteem be what it will when he sets out he must be as careful to preserve it by his Virtue to which Candor and Sincerity Temperance and Chastity and all those other Moral Qualifications which make a good man are of absolute Necessity and that not onely in relation to himself but to those he is to govern For he is sure none of his Vices shall be conceal'd all men will be prying into his most secret Retirements and will be as Curious to enform themselves of the smallest of his faults as they are negligent of the greatest they are guilty of themselves And this is not all they will from thence derive arguments to perswade themselves they may with impunity and safety transcribe the Copy and imitate those Vices they see in their Superiors and take it very ill if they find themselves at any time mistaken and if the truth might be spoken without offence I should ascribe much of the deluge of Impiety Debauchery Intemperance and other Disorders of Our Times to this as to its proper cause For how can a Justice of Peace send a man to the Stocks for Drunkenness when he is hardly well recovered of his last Debauch or punish a man for Prophane Swearing with forty Oaths in his mouth I could easily run this thro all the rest if it were fit to do it This too renders our Gentry Contemptible for the inferior people will ever Envy the splendor of their Wealth if they do not seem to deserve it by their Prudence and Virtue And this too weakens our Government by abating that Honour which is absolutely necessary for its preservation and gives too often the hearts and affections of men to those that have no right to them and who imploy that Advantage to the ruine of those that have In short if we are not resolved to ruine our Selves and our Families for ever and to become the most miserable and infamous of all men we must forthwith retrive the Antient English Bravery and win the hearts of the People by Justice Chastity Temperance Courage and Loyalty to a due Esteem of us And to this let us add a solid and conspicuous Piety which may shine forth in our Lives and Conversations with that Luster that none may be able to doubt or dispute the truth of it and this and nothing else will entail that Glory our Ancestors left us upon our Posterity and preserve the Monarchy that gave it to us from a Second ruine they that honour God shall be honoured and they that dishonour him shall be lightly regarded But however let all that are set up for Magistrates as Lights upon a hill be sure to set a good Example and if not for the sake of Virtue yet out of pure fear of Infamy avoid all those Vices which render them and their Offices Contemptible 3. It is not only fit the Justice of the Peace should be a man of a Competent Estate and a Good Reputation but of Learning and a Good Education too By Learning I do not understand the Utmost degree of it nor all those Parts neither that may be of great use to men of other Imployments but such a degree of Learning as may fit a Man for Civil Conversation and the dispatch of business and especially such Knowledg in the Laws and Customs of England as may preserve him from great and frequent Mistakes The Age we live in is full of Learning and the great Plenty of Books that come every day into the World have fallen so thick in all places that they have not escaped the Soft Hands of Ladies nor the Hard fists of Mechanicks and Trades-men and every man affects to seem well read in Books tho he hath not had the happiness to converse much with men and therefore if a Justice of Peace be not indifferently well qualified in this Point he will sometimes discover it and that will if it have no worse effect betray him to the Contempt of those who ought to honour and respect him for his Place But if he be ignorant of the Laws and Customs of England in that vast variety of business that belongs to him he will never be able to go thro with it but with great fear or hazard of Mistaking And being as subject to the force of the Laws as other men he will sometime or other meet with those who will revenge his Mistakes with worse then bad language and seek a reparation out of his Estate for the Errors of his Office No man is born a Scholar and therefore what ever Learning a Man hath must spring from Education and together with it for the most part Civility and good Behaviour is or ought to be delivered which takes off that Natural Roughness and Asperity which makes men unfitting to converse with others much
and negligence I can never admire enough the Learning of Mr. William Lambard how nice and curious he is in his inquiries into the Origine of those Powers that are given to the Justice of the Peace and the reasons of them his Brevity and the Perspicuity of his Style which makes him very useful tho there have been great Additions of late made to that Office by new Statutes The diligence of Mr. Dalton is not less to be valued nor the Exact Method in which he hath digested so great a variety of things which are again made more valuable by the Additions made in the Late Impressions How Curious and Subtle is Sir Edward Cook in his readings upon the great Charter and other Statutes which are of great use to a Justice of Peace because they will give him hints and general Rules for the interpreting and understanding those Statutes he took no notice of and those too that have been made since his death What a Vast Variety of Reading and Learning hath he shewn in the Pleas of the Crown and yet he hath so couched and contracted it that the Volume is but small tho the worth is in estimable The Exactness of Mr. Poulton in his Book De pace Regis Regni is much to be admired where beginning at the root of all publick disorders the corrupt unquiet hearts of men he shews how they proceed from one degree to another till Menaces and Threatnings grow up at last into Rebellions and Treasons all along proving what he saith by Quotations of the best Law-Books The Conciseness of the Lord Hales in his Pleas of the Crown Sir Mat. Hales is not less to be admired then his Integrity and Prudence in so contracting them And Mr. Chamberlain's Complete Justice and Mr. Keebles Assistance c. want nothing but an industrious and grateful Age to make both the Books and Authors more highly valued and indeed they cannot be too much esteemed And as for the Statutes Mr. Keeble hath done the Nation a mighty piece of Service in his Exact Re-printing of them in an excellent Table of his own but there is in my poor judgment one thing still wanting and that is an Index or Table of the Statutes under those Heads or Titles which the Justices of the Peace have occasion to use them by which are different from the Lawyers common places so that there should be another Table on purpose for the Justices of the Peace which might be drawn in a Sheet of Paper the only Person that attempted this to my knowledg is one Mr. Wa. Young in a small piece stiled a Vade Mecum Printed at London in 1660. In the beginning of which is a Table containing about five Leaves which is of vast use for the speedy finding of any Statute that a Justice of Peace hath occasion to use but yet it is imperfect not only as to the New but Ancient Statutes There is another thing which I have wished for and that is an exact Collection of all those Cases which immediately concern the Justice of Peace in which their power or wayes of Proceedings are called in question out of the Year-Books and Reports recited in the same order of time as they are there at length without any abbreviations and only translating into English such as are in French which would be of great use Now if a man should attempt to read all these Books which I have mentioned which relate to the Office of the Justice of Peace the Statutes expected which are only to be consulted upon occasion it were no very grievous Task and yet he might learn his Duty thence without any other or very little help from Books But in the mean time it were to be wished that some men could be perswaded to read but one of the short ones first and then one of the larger pieces I mean Dalton or Keebles Assistance and then the short piece again to fix things in their Memory and if I were worthy to advise them it should be Mr. Chamberlain's for I take that to be the very best that ever was written As reading begins knowledg Observation and Practice so Observation and Practice fixes it he that reads without reflecting upon it at the time and noting diligently what may be useful to him afterwards loseth both his Labour and his time many men complain of a bad Memory when the fault is their own they read carelesly and take no pains to imprint any thing upon their Minds either then or afterwards and then it were a wonder if they should remember what they never considered nor understood but read on and on and think upon something else Others pretend they would read more if they had a good Memory this is a pretence only for Lasiness laying their own fault upon God and Nature for Memory is a Natural Faculty common to men with many other Creatures but on the other side if they would read more and note as they go they would certainly retain a part of it tho perhaps not so much as others do But then there is a third sort of men who pretend to have ill Memories who in truth never read at all these belye their Natural Faculties 't is true they remember little or nothing how should they the Memory is but like a Store-house in which if nothing is laid up nothing shall ever be found if what is good for nothing such as is laid in will come out and not be in the least amended there Observation doth something but Practice is the great sixer of Notions in the minds of men he that his a Natural Fool will yet by often going away learn it at last how much more men of Competent Natural Parts and such only are fit to Govern others and the truth is they that have the strongest Memories will yet in time lose their Notices of Things if they do not excite them by Meditations and Practice and that sort of knowledg I am speaking of which is not Natural but Artificial Reason and depends not for the most part upon the innate Principles but upon positive Institutions and agreed Methods is most easily lost so that I have ever observed the most industrious men are the most skillful and many men who read little but have been very much employed in business have by that learned more then others have done by Books only tho they had better parts so that a Man shall rarely find a Man excellently Versed in any Practical Knowledg that hath not fixed it as well by exercise of it as by Observation and Reading Observation and Practice fixes Conversation but it is Conversation and Discourse with Knowing and Experienced Men that extends Knowledg much reading dulls a Man but discourse at once revives what a man knows and encreaseth it by the Addition of anothers Observations too and dispells that Melancholy which attends retirement and solitude It confirms a man more in his Opinion when he finds another man
Means to prevent it Memory is a Natural Faculty of Great Use in all Humane Transactions but Especially in Government and that in the Lowest degrees of it For it is the duty of a Magistrate to Execute Laws not to make them and he is to have an Eye to the matter of Fact at the same time too now he that hath such a defect in that Faculty that he can neither remember the Law which is to Direct him nor the matter of Fact to which it is to be applied is certainly very unfit to be a judge and so in Proportion in all the intermediate degrees of it The Office of a Justice of the Peace is very diffused and comprehends in it a vast Number and Variety of things and it will consequently require a good Memory to tell presently whether any particular case be within his Jurisdiction or No. Mr. Lambard complained in his time and that is near a hundred years ago that there were Stacks of Statutes imposed upon them to take care of and the Number is now perhaps double to what it was then So that in this respect also it is Necessary that he who Undertakes this Office should be a Man of a good strong Memory If any man doubts the truth of this he will find upon trial that no humane Memory how great soever it be can perfectly comprehend all the particulars Exactly and that it will be Necessary to have frequent recourse to the Books Especially in Statute Cases without which many and great Errors must of Necessity be committed so that the Prudence of a Magistrate doth consist in a great degree in not Trusting too much to his Memory But then that shews a Necessity of having that useful Faculty to a good degree SECTION III. THere are three other Accidental qualifications which are of great use and would be considered A Competent Estate a good Reputation and a tolerable good Education and Learning The Justice of the Peace enters upon an imployment that will occasion him much loss of Time some Expence and many Enemies and after all will afford him little or nothing towards the bearing these inconveniences but a little unprofitable Honour attended with much envy and had therefore need before-hand be provided of a competent Estate at least to support him in that imployment or else he will suddainly repent what he indiscreetly undertook and it may be intail the Mischief upon his Family who will remember his honour with small complacency when they reflect upon his debts occasioned by it Nor will he and his Family be the only Sufferers the Country will and must bear a part in it too Men of small Estates are very often of Mean spirits and dare not do their Duties where they Expect opposition and have great and rich men to deal with and so betray Justice not for want of Skill or Honesty but of Courage to undertake and go thro with it Besides their Poverty will Expose them to great Temptations of Bribery and tho the profit that can come by it is very inconsiderable yet the mischief that will attend it is not so for the perverting Justice in the smallest instance is a great Dishonour and Damage to a Country and the meaner the cause the greater the infamy the Meaner the People are that are injured the greater the Clamour But of all men those that are much indebted are the least fit for that both the Creditor and his Friends must too often be gratified by the wretched man at the Expence of his Oath his Integrity his Honour and his Justice and all occasions must be sought for this too that the World may see how great a power the Rich Clown hath upon his Worship For these causes there was an Act of Parliament made some Ages since which is as followeth WHereas by Statutes made in the time of the Kings noble Progenitors it was Ordained That in every County of England Justices should be assigned of the most Worthy of the same Counties to keep the Peace and to do other things as in the same Statutes fully is Contained Which Statutes notwithstanding now of late in many Counties of England the greatest Number have beén Deputed and Assigned which before this were not wont to be whereof some be of small that is ill Behaviour by whom the People will not be governed nor ruled and some for their Necessity do great Extortion and Oppression upon the People whereof great inconveniences be likely to rise daily if the King thereof do not provide remedy The King willing against such inconveniences to provide remedy hath Ordained and Established by Authority aforesaid That no Justice of Peace within the Realm of England in any County shall be assigned or deputed if he have not Lands or Tenements to the Value of 20 l. by the year and if any be Ordained hereafter c. which have not Lands or Tenements to the Value aforesaid that he thereof shall give Knowledg to the Chancellor of England for the time being which shall put another sufficient in his place and if he give not the same knowledg as before within a Moneth after that he have notice of such Commission or if he sit or make any Warrant or Precept by force of such Commission he shall incur the penalty of 20 l. and nevertheless be put out of the Commission as before c. But this Act Extends not to Corporations and also Provided That if there be not sufficient persons having Lands and Tenements to the Value aforesaid Learned in the Law and of Good Governance within any such County That the Lord Chancellor of England for the time being shall have power to put other discreét Persons Learned in the Law in such Commissions tho they have not Lands or Tenements to the value aforesaid by his discretion The 18 H. 6. cap. 11. I have transcribed this Statute almost at large because it makes so lively a description of the inconveniences and takes so exact a care to prevent them and it is to be observed That xx l. by the Year at the making of this Statute was a Knights fee and that they would trust to Nothing but an Apparent Visible Estate for it must be in Lands or Tenements and yet was there not then the Hundredth part of that business committed to Justices then there is now and their Expences that were consequently much less and tho in case of Necessity some Lawyers of a less Estate were Admitted yet this was out of pure Necessity in those ignorant Times and then they were to be men of Good Governance that is of a Good Reputation for their Lives and Integrity and such men in those time might by their Professions be able to spend with men of good Estates But two inconveniences have arisen in our Times that were not in being then The first is That Men of great Estate do too commonly leave the Country and spend their times and Estates in London and other great Cities in perfect