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9
woolstaple, by which merchants were led to settle down,
and were required by the statute which protected their
commerce, to bear, at the same time, their share of duty in
the local government. Two of their number were to be
returned to a Court, consisting of a Mayor of the Staple
and other Members, who were entrusted to choose two
constables, apparently for the special service of the Staple
and for the performance of duties independently of the
Petty or Parish Constable, who had been "constituted"
since 1252, or a hundred years prior to their brethren of
the Staple. These parish constables* succeeded the old
"tything-men" and were chosen by the court-leets, to
whom they were responsible until commissions of the peace
were organised in 1327 by Edward III. Much of the
adminstrative power which had previously become vested
in the county courts, the hundred courts, the court-leets,
and even the "town-moots," gradually became transferred
to the justices. Judicial functions were soon entrusted to
this new authority, who also became invested with arbitrary
powers for the prevention and suppression of crime and for
the punishment of minor offences. The levying of a direct
tax on the inhabitants of the county for the repair of
bridges and for the building of gaols was also among the
earliest duties committed to them.
Meanwhile the more important parishes and townships
foreshadowed as it were Sir Erskine May's recent description
of "bearing the image and reflection of the State, with their
miniature aristocracy of the Church and the land, and their
miniature democracy of ratepayers assembled as parochial
commonalties." Necessity for consulting local sentiment
was acknowledged, and government through local agency
made itself felt in all the branches of civil administration.
The justices of the peace were, in certain of their powers,
subject to the verdicts of juries; and local "inquests" or
*The "deputy constable" was an officer not recognised until a comparatively
recent period.