OF The Duties OF A JUSTICE OF THE PEACE OUT OF SESSIONS. Summary Convictions. BY THOMAS JAMES ARNOLD, OF LINCOLN'S INN, ESQ. ONE OF THE METROPOLITAN MAGISTRATES. London: HENRY SWEET, 3, CHANCERY LANE; V. AND R. STEVENS AND G. S. NORTON, 26, BELL YARD; ΤΟ HENRY JOHN PYE, OF CLIFTON CAMPVILLE, IN THE COUNTY OF STAFFORD, ESQ., THIS WORK IS DEDICATED, AS A TESTIMONIAL OF THE REGARD AND AFFECTION OF THE COMPILER, T. J. ARNOLD. PREFACE. If it were not rather too imaginative an introduction to a law book I might perhaps lay claim to something like an hereditary right to present this little work (a) to the profession. A volume on a very similar plan and with the same title was published in 1807 by my maternal grandfather, the late Henry James Pye, Esq., who was one of the first magistrates appointed in 1792 to the Westminster Police Office in Queen Square (b), since transferred (with the more dignified title of a Police Court) to its present position in Rochester Row. Mr. Pye's book passed through several editions and may be considered as the model upon which other works of a like character have been framed. (a) This expression must be understood to refer to the size of the volume, not to the amount of toil bestowed on it. Of that no one who has not undertaken a similar task can form any adequate conception. There is extant a Latin Epigram by Joseph Scaliger, to the effect that, if a judge would sentence a criminal to a severe punishment, he should condemn him not to hard labour in the house of correction or the mines but to compile lexicons. If the learned Frenchman had known what it was to attempt to arrange and methodize the English statutes he might have promulgated a more effectual penalty. (b) Under the 32 Geo. 3, c. 53. |