bias and influence whatever. It ought not only to be pure, but to be far removed from all fufpicion. It ought to hold out no prospects of advantage to Magiftrates, nor to those who ftand in a near relation to Magiftrates. Hence appears the propriety with which Magiftrates themselves are prohibited to act as Solicitors or as Counsel in carrying on profecutions. And hence also appears the blame due to the Magiftrate who recommends his own clerk to be employed in carrying them on, even though the recommendation fhould not be urged, as it fometimes has been urged, in a manner scarcely to be resisted (g).

It remains to illuftrate and exemplify some of the preceding general obfervations, by making a few remarks on the leading branches of business which fall within the jurisdiction of a Juftice of the Peace.

One of the most important and laborious functions of the Magiftrate is the administra

(g) A merited and public cenfure has lately (1797) been paffed on practices of this nature by the highest authority in the Court of King's Bench.

tion of the laws respecting the poor. To him it belongs to decide all queftions concerning the parochial relief to be affigned to those who are unable to maintain themselves and their families. He will have learnt from experience, on the one hand, that parish-officers are very apt to be penurious and hard-hearted; and on the other, that the poor are sometimes guilty of infolent rudenefs and impofition, and unwilling to exert themselves for their fubfiftence to the utmost of their ability. The avarice and cruelty of the former, and the impertinence, idleness, and extravagance of the latter, he will steadily reprefs. His folicitude however will not be confined to the discovery of the proper quantum of relief: he will be equally anxious to afcertain the best and kindeft mode of imparting it; and will study to fecure the observance of that mode by pofi tive injunctions, when he is authorised to give them; when not, by his earnest recommendation. In cafes in which the law entrusts him with discretionary power, he will not on flight grounds oblige a poor man to relinquish his cottage, with all his little domeftic property and comforts, and take up his abode in a Ff3 work

work-house; much less to be transported to the work-house of fome diftant place, which farms the poor of twenty villages, there to pine among ftrangers. On the conduct of work-houses in general, thofe receptacles of the old and the infirm, of widows and orphans; which, though capable under proper management of anfwering many excellent ends, too often become scenes of mifery to the aged, and nurseries of vice to the young; he will exercise a falutary control; and will vifit as often as may be expedient such as are near to him. And while he enforces the wife and frequently neglected laws which enact that all perfons in the house, who are able to labour, fhall be furnished with tools and implements, and be conftantly employed; he will exhort, and if it be neceffary he will conftrain, the master to treat all under his care with humanity, and to furnish all with a fufficient quantity of clothing, bedding, and wholesome food. In the appointment of parochial officers, in the adjudication of cafes (b) of fettlement,

and

(b) Many unneceffary hardships have heretofore been brought upon industrious labourers and artifans refi

dent

and in all fimilar tranfactions in which his popularity, his property, or his convenience may be directly or indirealy interested, let him beware of being partial and selfish. In placing out parish apprentices, let him not, through fear of giving offence to the principal inhabitants by refufing to ratify their bargain, confign the friendlefs child to an unfeeling

dent at a distance from their own places of fettlement, by the parifh-officers compelling them to remove thither, sometimes from a private grudge, at other times from an unreasonable or groundless dread of their afterwards becoming chargeable. These evils, which the Magistrate was fcarcely perhaps able to prevent, as the law appeared to deny him, in the cafes of which we fpeak, that discretion with which in moft others of a fimilar nature he was invested, were remedied by a recent Act of Parliament with respect to all perfons who are regular men bers of friendly societies; and by a subsequent A& have been remedied with refpect to poor perfons in general, who are not actually chargeable, and conform to certain prescribed regulations. If there fhould chance to be any individual precluded by unforeseen circumftances from availing himself of the benefit of the Act, it is the duty of the Magiftrate, instead of indifcriminately acting on the application of the officer in a minifterial capacity, to examine into the probability of the man's becoming chargeable to the parish where he refides; and to refufe to authorise the removal in thofe inftances wherein he deems it unneceffary and vexatious, unless clearly obliged by the law.

and profligate mafter; nor doom him to a trade which will manifeftly be ruinous to his health (i).

Among the contefts which will be brought before him inftances of difputes between mafters and their apprentices or fervants will not unfrequently occur. In determining them, let him administer impartial justice; and in imitation of that Judge to whom he is responsible, be "no respecter of perfons." Let him not favour the fubftantial tradefman against the indigent youth placed under his control; nor hesitate to rescue the latter from his thraldom, if his master treats him with unmerited rigour, withholds from him the requifite inftruction,

'. (i) In the case of some particular trades and manufactures, which under common management prove injurious to the health and morals of the perfons employed in them, Juftices of the Peace may fometimes do great fervice to the community by strongly recommending the adoption of proper rules and precautions, even when the law does not give them the power of enforcing it. The Ma giftrates for the county of Lancaster affembled at the Michaelmas Seffions, 1784, fet a very laudable example of this kind of exertion refpecting cetton-mills. See a pamphlet entitled "Thoughts on the Means of preserving the Health of the Poor," by the Rev. Sir William Clerke, Bart. London, 1790.

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