Method of

practice is to keep the Session alive by adjourn ment, till they have satisfied themselves.

It requires no great stretch of sagacity to discover great possible difficulties in, and some reasonable objections to, this mode of proceeding; but it has been considered as the best which has suggested itself, short of an application to the Crown, after sentence, for a Pardon.

If an offender, convicted before Justices in obtaining Session, mean to apply to the Crown for a parpardons on convictions don, either absolute or conditional, the mode at Sessions is as follows. He procures a petition to be drawn, setting forth the nature of his offence, the sentence of the Court, the circumstances he means to insist upon as his claim to mercy, and concluding with a prayer to that effect. In order to render such petition successful, the chairman of the Session, before which he was convicted, must indorse on this petition, at least his approbation of its being presented, but he is at liberty to add his recommendation to mercy, in such terms as he conceives the prisoner to merit it. The petition, thus sanctioned, must then be transmitted by the clerk of the peace, or town clerk, as the case may require, to the Secretary of State for the Home Department. Generally speaking, pardon almost immediately follows an application made under these circumstances. If the petition be

presented by negligence or mistake, without the indorsement of the chairman, or other Justices present in Session at the time of trial, it is usual to refer it back for their con sent. If such consent be witheld, it is not usual for the Secretary of State to lay the petition before his Majesty, the necessary conclusion being that the petitioner is not a proper object of mercy.

APPENDIX,

DOUBTS having been entertained by some persons, whether the form of the oath, of modern introduction, which is now commonly administered to Constables, at Quarter Sessions, be sufficient; inasmuch as by the terms of it, they are only sworn generally to perform the duties of the office, without any specification what those duties are: It has, therefore, been thought right to introduce here the form of the Constable's Oath as it was formerly used, according to Dalton, distinguishing only such parts of it as have been superseded by modern statutes, or are become obsolete.

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"You shall swear that you shall well and "truly serve our Sovereign Lord the King, in

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the office of a Constable. You shall see and "cause his Majesty's peace to be well and duly kept and preserved according to your power. You shall arrest all such persons “as in your sight and presence shall ride or 66 go armed offensively, or shall commit, or "make any riot, affray, or other breach of "his Majesty's peace. You shall do your best "endeavour (upon complaint to you made,)

"to apprehend all felons, barrators, and rio"ters, or persons riotously assembled:-And "if any such offenders shall make resistance 86 (with force) you shall levy hue and cry, and "shall pursue them until they be taken."You shall do your best endeavours that the “watch in, and about, your town be duly kept “for the apprehending of rogues, vagabonds, "night-walkers, eves droppers, and other sus "pected persons, and of such as go armed, and "the like: And that hue and cry be duly "raised and pursued, according to the statute "of Winchester, against murderers, thieves, "and other felons: And that the statutes made "for the punishment of rogues and vagabonds, "and such other idle persons, coming within

your bounds and limits, be duly put in exe"cution. You shall have a watchful eye.to "such persons as shall maintain or keep any "common house, or place where any unlaw"ful crime is used: As also to such persons "as shall frequent or use such places, or shall "use or exercise any unlawful games, there "or elsewhere, contrary to the statutes. At

your Assizes, Sessions of the Peace, or Leet, "you shall present, all and every, the offences "done contrary to the statutes made to restrain "the inordinate haunting and tippling in inns, "alehouses, and other victualling houses, and "for redressing drunkenness. You shall there