a quorum. But, in practice, the commiffioners act at their meetings as if they were not confined to any quorum 2. THE proceedings of the commiffioners are fubject to the review of the court of feffion, as the fupreme civil court of the nation. It seems fufficient to ftate this much here in general. The particular detail will be more properly deferred to those chapters which explain their duty, whether acting ly themselves or along with juftices of peace. a Wight, p. 194. $7. QUORUM. HAVING $1. GENERAL tory, powers, and procedure, of the feveral offices, VIZW. we shall now, with more advantage, proceed to the other, and more extenfive, branch, namely, the objects of their jurifdiction, under the general heads already mentioned; of the public peace, the police, improvement of the country, & The fubdivifions will bring under our particular confideration the powers and duties of the respective magi Arates. II. PEACE, extenfively taken, includes every duty. It $20 means, what Cicero, after Ariftotle ", calls obtemperatio PEACE, § 2. PEACE, fcriptis legibus et inftitutis populorum; or, as it may be well WHAT IT IS rendered, "walking in all the commandments and ordi"nances of the law blameless a;" which Juftinian ́reduced to these three precepts, that we should live honeftly, should hurt no body, and should render to every one his due. The firft includes those claffes of duties, the neglect of which giving public fcandal, and setting an evil example, thus indirectly proves injurious to others. Thefe are enforced by the laws for checking impiety, irreligion, &c. The fecond prohi bits our injuring another in his perfon or character d. The third has in view the protection of property, against all manner of injustice, that we should not touch what does not belong to us, and that we should pay the debts which are due by us. In short, every action that in any of those points of view is the object of criminal juftice, may thus be confidered as a breach of the peace, which, in this extenfive a Luke, c. i, v. 6. b Inft. lib. i, tit. 1. § 3. Juris pracepta funt hæc bonefte visere, alterum non ladere, fuum cuique tribuere. tt Both Harris, in his tranflation of the Institutes, and judge Blackstone, render bonefte vivere « to live bones "L" Profeffor Chriftian thinks it fhould be rather rendered "to live "bonourably, or with decorum and bien"feance." It is certainly true, as the learned profeffor remarks, that this precept was intended to comprife "that class of duties of which the "violations are ruinous to fociety, "not by immediate, but remote, "confequences; as drunkennefs, de"bauchery, profaneness,extravagance, " gaming." But as the Latin word bonefle un. questionably has this fignification, fo there seems to be no reason to doubt that those two learned authors meant the fame thing by the term bonefly : which, as well as the substantive benefty, and the adjective boneft, is used in the fame extenfive fenfe by the acknowledged standards of pure Englifh; for example, by the tranflators of the Bible. See 1 Timothy, e. ii, v.2; Romans, c. xii, 13 and 1 Peter, c.ii, v. 12. © Et primo quidem, quo vita bonefies præcipitur, intelligi oportet vetari fačia omnia, qua lædunt pietatem, verecundiam, exiftimationem noftram et generaliter qua pugnant cum legibus, bonis maribus et publica honeftate. (Vinnius Com. ad loc.) d Ne alicujus vitam, aut incolumitatem, libertatem, exiftimationem lædames aut violemus. Vin. Ibid. e Tertium ad refexternas : ut ab alieno manus abftineamus boc eft, res alterius non attrectemus, aut minuamus ; ut patiamur unumquemque rebus suis uti,ut reddamus quod alienum apud nos eft. Ibid. any inter § 2. PEACE, fenfe, is defined by the English lawyers to be " "ruption of the confidence, quiet, and amity, that is be- WHAT IT IS tween men "." THIS extenfive definition of peace naturally arofe from the political truth, that the magiftrate, having no cure of fouls, cannot lawfully punish any action, unless so far as it is injurious, or gives difquiet and disturbance to others. Human laws cannot enforce those duties which men, as moral or religious agents, owe to the Deity, or to themselves, or which affect certain rights of others, thence called imperfect; fuch as the right of the benefactor to gratitude; of the unhappy to compassion; of the needy to relief. The avenging fword b can no more be unfheathed by the magiftrate after, than by the injured individual before, the inftitution of government, if the action be finful or immoral only; it muft, moreover, be injurious to the perfect rights of other men. BUT peace, in common language, is used in a more limited fignification; and has been defined to be " any injurious "force, or violence, moved against the perfon of another, "his goods, lands, or other poffeffions, whether it be by "threatening words, furious gefture, or by force of body, or by any other force used in terrorem c.” OUR attention, then, must first be directed to violations of the peace, in this narrower sense; which class of offences chiefly occafioned the institution of justices of peace; gave that magiftracy its name, and ftill form its wideft, moft peculiar, difficult, and important province. BREACHES of the peace, though (even in this reftricted Division of a Fitzgerbert's Justice of peace, 7.131. Dalton, c. iii. b Gladius ultor. Codex, lib. 9. breaches of the peace. |