tent of civil obedience, has taken away from modern Judges the plea of ignorance; and their entire deliverance from the control of the Crown has in a very great degree leffened the allurements of temptation.

CHAP.

CHAP. X.

ON THE DUTIES OF JUSTICES OF THE PEACE AND MUNICIPAL MAGISTRATES.

FROM the confideration of the duties of Judges of the Supreme Courts of Law, we naturally proceed to enquire into the moral obligations incumbent on those subordinate Magiftrates, who, as the various ramifications. branching off from the great arteries convey the blood to cherish and invigorate every portion of the human frame, diftribute the falutary streams of justice through every part of the body politic.

Of these Magiftrates, Juftices of the Peace Occupy the most eminent station. Their functions therefore will properly be confidered in the first place.

I. The points on which a person who proposes to act as a Juftice is primarily bound to

VOL. I.

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examine himself, are, his motives for undertaking the office, and his competency to dif charge its dutics. If his purpofe originates from a defire to promote the good of the community, and particularly of his own neighbourhood, by a vigorous, impartial, and temperate adminiftration of the laws; by refcuing, if the danger exifts, a trust so important from falling into improper hands; and by preventing the many evils and inconveniences which would arife from a large tract of country being deftitute of the prefence of an upright and active Magiftrate; and if with thefe laudable intentions he unites fuch a fhare of legal information, and fuch a degree of steadiness and felf-command, as will enable him in practice to carry them into effect, let him without doubt or fcruple perfevere. But let him totally abandon his defign, or fufpend the execution of it until he has reformed his heart and difpofitions, if he difcovers that he is impelled by finifter views of intereft and emolument, by a wish to obtain power for the purposes of oppreffion, or by a folicitude for perfonal preeminence and political weight in the circle of his connections; or if he is confcious that

he

he is deficient in the requifite knowledge, and has not both the induftry to acquire it with fufficient promptitude, and, when acquired, the patience to apply it with fufficient deliberation.

The qualifications indifpenfably neceffary to a Justice of the Peace in the actual dif charge of the duties of his office, are calm attention and unwearied diligence in investigating the cafes brought before him, and perfect integrity in deciding them. Let him be affiduous in examining and fifting the witneffes on both fides of the queftion, and beware of affigning too great or too little weight to their teftimony on grounds inconfiderately adopted; or through private regard or diflike towards the perfons by whom it is delivered, or the culprit whom it affects. Let not the character of the latter be allowed to determine a charge, which ought to be determined by the evidence adduced. The general bad character of an individual is a valid reafon for apprehending him for examination, on flighter prefumptions than would have been sufficient in the case of a man of good repute, because E e 2

it

it is in itself a very fufpicious circumftance; and perhaps for punishing him, when fairly convicted, with fomewhat more than common severity, in cafes where the Magistrate is empowered to vary the degree of chastisement as he shall think expedient. But it is by no means a valid reafon, not even if he is known to have committed in former inftances the very crime of which he is now accufed, for convicting him on weaker proofs than would have been deemed fatisfactory had his integrity been unfullied. The two points which the Magiftrate is to investigate are these Whether the witnesses speak truth; and whether what they allege legally substantiates the charge. Now with respect to the former point, the witneffes feem particularly liable in the cafe in queftion to deviate from the accuracy of real fact; unintentionally, from seeing every thing through the medium of prejudice on account of the culprit's character; or intentionally, if they are maliciously difpofed towards him, from an expectation that whatever they affirm against such a man will readily be credited. As to the latter point, the Magistrate is bound by the statutes