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land_n act_n person_n tenement_n 2,006 5 11.2521 5 true
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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A28565 The justice of peace, his calling and qualifications by Edmund Bohun, Esq. Bohun, Edmund, 1645-1699. 1693 (1693) Wing B3458; ESTC R18572 84,020 203

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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