96
serviceable instrument of despotism; and, on the other hand, he is not blinded by those superstitions which render legal officers unfit members of a government. The Americans have adopted the system of the English justices of the peace, but they have deprived it of that aristocratic character which is discernible in the mother-country. The Governor of Massachusetts[1] appoints a certain number of justices of the peace in every county, whose functions last seven years[2]. He further designates three individuals from amongst the whole body of justices, who form in each county what is called the Court of Sessions. The Justices take a personal share in public business; they are sometimes entrusted with administrative functions in conjunction with elected officers[3]; they sometimes constitute a tribunal, before which the magistrates summarily prosecute a refractory citizen, or the citizens inform against the abuses of the magistrate. But it is in the Court of Sessions that they exercise
- ↑ We shall hereafter learn what a Governor is: I shall content myself with remarking in this place that he represents the executive power of the whole State.
- ↑ See the Constitution of Massachusetts, Chap. II. sect 1. § 9; Chap. III. § 3.
- ↑ Thus, for example, a stranger arrives in a township from a
country where a contagious disease prevails, and he falls ill. Two
justices of the peace can, with the assent of the selectmen, order
the sheriff of the county to remove and take care of him. Act of
22nd June 1797. vol. i. p. 540.
In general the justices interfere in all the important acts of the administration, and give them a semi-judicial character.
