Punished; and the
aldermen, or a majority of them, have a negative in whatever is
propounded in the Common Council.
2. The Court of Hustings is esteemed the most ancient tribunal in
the City, and was established for the preservation of the laws,
franchises, and customs of it. It is held at Guildhall before the
Lord Mayor and Sheriffs, and in civil causes the Recorder sits as
judge. Here deeds are enrolled, recoveries passed, writs of right,
waste, partition, dower, and replevins determined.
3. The Lord Mayor's Court, a court of record, held in the chamber
of Guildhall every Tuesday, where the Recorder also sits as judge,
and the Lord Mayor and Aldermen may sit with him if they see fit.
Actions of debt, trespass, arising within the City and liberties, of
any value, may be tried in this court, and an action may be removed
hither from the Sheriff's Court before the jury is sworn.
The juries for trying causes in this and the Sheriff's Courts, are
returned by the several wards at their wardmote inquests at
Christmas, when each ward appoints the persons to serve on juries
for every month in the year ensuing.
This court is also a court of equity, and gives relief where
judgment is obtained in the Sheriff's Court for more than the just
debt.
4. The Sheriff's Courts are also courts of record, where may be
tried actions of debt, trespass, covenant, &c. They are held on
Wednesdays and Fridays for actions entered in Wood Street Compter,
and every Thursday and Saturday for actions entered in the Poultry
Compter. Here the testimony of an absent witness in writing is
allowed to be good evidence.
5. The Chamberlain's Court or office is held at the chamber in
Guildhall. He receives and pays the City cash and orphans' money,
and keeps the securities taken by the Court of Aldermen for the
same, and annually accounts to the auditors appointed for that
purpose. He attends every morning at Guildhall, to enroll or turn
over apprentices, or to make them free; and hears and determines
differences between masters and their apprentices.
6. The Court of City Orphans is held by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen
as often as occasion requires; the Common Sergeant being entrusted
by them to take all inventories and accounts of freeman's estates,
and the youngest attorney in the Mayor's Court is clerk of the
orphans, and appointed to take security for their portions; for when
any freeman dies, leaving children under the age of twenty-one
years, the clerks of the respective parishes give in their names to
the common crier, who thereupon summons the widow or executor to
appear before the Court of Aldermen, to bring in an inventory, and
give security for the testator's estate, for which they commonly
allow two months' time, and in case of non-appearance, or refusal of
security, the Lord Mayor may commit the executor to Newgate.
7. The Court of Conscience was established for recovering small
debts under forty shillings at an easy expense, the creditor's oath
of the debt being sufficient without further testimony to ascertain
the debt. This court sits at the hustings in Guildhall every
Wednesday and Saturday, where the Common Council of each ward are
judges in their turns. They proceed first by summons, which costs
but sixpence, and if the defendant appears there is no further
charge; the debt is ordered to be paid at such times and in such
proportion as the court in their consciences think the debtor able
to discharge it; but if the defendant neglect to appear, or obey the
order of the court, an attachment or execution follows with as much
expedition and as small an expense as can be supposed. All persons
within the freedom of the City, whether freemen or not, may
prosecute and be prosecuted in this court, and freemen may be
summoned who live out of the liberty.
8. The courts of wardmote are held by the aldermen of each ward,
for choosing ward-officers, and settling the affairs of the ward,
the Lord Mayor annually issuing his precept to the aldermen to hold
his wardmote on St. Thomas's Day for the election of common
councilmen and other officers; they also present such offences and
nuisances at certain times to the Lord Mayor and common councilmen
as require redress.
9. Small offences are punished by the justices in or out of
sessions, by whom the offender is sentenced to be whipped,
imprisoned, or kept to hard labour; but for the trial of capital
offences, a commission of Oyer and Terminer and jail delivery issues
eight times every year, i.e., before and after every term, directed
to the Lord Mayor, Recorder, some of the twelve judges, and others
whom the Crown is pleased to assign. These commissioners sit at
Justice Hall in the Old Bailey, and bills of indictment having been
found by the grand juries of London or Middlesex, containing the
prisoner's accusation, a petty jury, consisting of twelve
substantial citizens is empanelled for the trial of each of them;
for, as to the grand jury, they only consider whether there is such
a probability of the prisoner's guilt as to put him upon making his
defence, and this is determined by a majority of the grand jury:
but the petty jury, who pass upon the prisoner's life and death,
must all agree in their verdict, or he cannot be convicted. But
though the petty jury judge of the fact, i.e., what the crime is, or
whether it was committed by the prisoner or not, the commissioners
or judges declare what are the punishments appropriated to the
several species of crimes, and pronounce judgment accordingly on the
offender. In high treason they sentence the criminal to be drawn
upon a hurdle to the place of execution, there to be hanged and
quartered.
