Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/619

 10 s. x. DEO. 26, 1908.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

513

I cannot find any authority for the state- ment that any bench of magistrates has to-day jurisdiction to inflict the capital penalty ; in fact, I think it is clear that no magisterial court possesses that jurisdiction.

As regards General and Quarter Sessions, in Blackstone's ' Commentaries,' 15th ed. (edited by Edward Christian, Chief Justice of the Island of Ely, and published in 1809), it is stated :

"The jurisdiction of these Courts by statute 34 Ed. III., c. 1, extends to the trying and determining all felonies and trespasses whatsover, though they seldom, if ever, try any greater offence than small felonies within the benefit of clergy, their commis- sion providing that if any case of difficulty arises they shall not proceed to judgment but in the

S'esence of one of the Justices of the Court of ing's Bench or Common Pleas, or one of the Judges of Assize. And therefore murders and other capital felonies are usually remitted for a more solemn trial to the Assizes."

From this it is clear that Courts of General and Quarter Sessions (composed of two or more Justices of the Peace) were impowered to inflict capital punishment, although, at the time the work I have referred to was published, the jurisdiction was rarely, if ever, exercised.

Apparently " Justices of the Peace within Liberties " also had this jurisdiction, for by 1 Geo. IV. c. 1, passed " to remedy certain inconveniences in local and exclusive juris- dictions," after reciting that trial of capital offences before Justices of the Peace within local and exclusive jurisdiction, not being counties, might be attended with inconvenience, it was enacted that such Justices acting within any town, liberty, soke, or place not being a county, but having exclusive jurisdiction for the trial of felonies and misdemeanours committed within the same, should have full power within their respective limits, at their dis- cretion, to commit persons charged with any capital offences perpetrated within such limits to the gaol of the county within which such liberty, &c., shall be situate, to be tried at the next sessions of Oyer and Terminer for the county.

The jurisdiction of the magistrates before referred to, however, was abolished by stat. 5 and 6 Viet., c. 38, which provides

" that neither justices of the peace acting in and for any county, riding, division, or liberty, nor the Recorder of any borough, shall at any session of the peace or any adjournment thereof try any person or persons for any treason, murder, or capital felony," &c.

There is no qualification in this statute giving special jurisdiction to any of the

magisterial benches mentioned by the? querist, and it appears to me clear that no- Justices of the Peace have to-day the j urisdiction referred to.

If, however, any of your readers know of authority to the contrary, I shall be glad to hear of it. R. VAUGHAN GOWEB.

Sm ABTHTJB LEABY PIGOTT (10 S. x. 426). I have not seen an autograph signature of this personage, in the absence of which I prefer the spelling which is found in the record of his admission to the Middle Temple, in his various official returns as M.P., and in the Gazette notice of his knighthood.

It is difficult to prove a negative, but I am as sceptical as MB. DABNELL DAVIS- with regard to Piggott's having been Attor- ney-General of Grenada. The names of these functionaries appeared annually in * The Court Kalendar,' and Piggott's is not among them. MB. DABNELL DAVIS himself bears the name, and is presumably the descendant, of one of them, and can doubtless speak with some authority on the point.

The only authority I know for the state- ment that Piggott was Attorney-General of Grenada is Joshua Wilson's ' Biographical Index to the House of Commons' (1808), which I should hesitate to accept as being in itself final. The writer says : "He returned to the island of Grenada, where he practised with success, and at length became Attorney-General there."

The ' D.N.B.' article on Piggott (there spelt " Pigott ") is inadequate, by reason of errors both of omission and commission. It covers little over half a page, and in that space are the following mistakes :

1. The name of his college is wrongly given, as MB. DABNELL DAVIS points out.

2. It is stated that Piggott sat for Arundel from 1807 till his death, whereas in the- Parliament of 1812 to 1818 he represented Horsham. A reference to the index alone to say nothing of the text of the Official Return (which also is quoted in the list of authorities) would have rectified this blunder.

3. He is said to have been appointed Solicitor-General to the Prince of Wales in May, 1787, whereas the date of his ap- pointment was November, 1783, when the Prince's establishment was formed, and his name will be found in the list of the Prince's officers (as Duke of Cornwall) in ' The Royal Kalendar ' for 1785, 1786, and 1787.

4. The date of birth is also apparently wrong, but the writer of the article may be