In his judicial capacity, he tried all crimes
and felonies except treason, though in practice death penalty
cases were transferred to the assize justices. The Justices of the
Peace of a hundred hold special sessions such as for appointment
of parochial officers, highway disputes, and the grant of wine,
beer, and spirit licenses. The appointment of overseers of the
poor, authorization of parish rates, and reading of the Riot Act
to mobs to disperse them, required more than one of the Justices
of the Peace of the hundred to participate. All the Justices of
the Peace of the county met four times a year at Quarter Sessions
to hear appeals from penal sentences, to determine the county rate
of tax, to appoint treasurers of the county and governors of the
county prison and house of correction, to issue regulations on
prices of provisions and on wages, to settle fees of the county
officials, to grant licenses for powder-mills and other
industries, to hear nuisance complaints such as those against
parishes for failing to keep their roads in repair, to make
regulations for the holding of markets, to hear complaints
concerning local government, and to register dissenting chapels.
In more and more matters specified by statute, the Quarter
Sessions heard appeals from the orders of the individual Justices
of the Peace instead of common law courts hearing them by writ of
certiorari.
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