Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (1st ed, 1768, vol III).djvu/48

36 to certify the fame and abridge the plaintiff of his full cofts, was alfo meant to prevent vexation by litigious plaintiffs ; who, for purpofes of mere opprefiion, might be inclinable to inftitute fuits in the fuperior courts for injuries of a trifling value. The county court may alfo hold plea of many real actions, and of all perfonal actions to any amount, by virtue of a fpecial writ called a juf- ticics ; which is a writ empowering the IherifF for the fake of dif- patch to do the fame juftice in his county court, as might other- wife be had at Weftminfter c. The freeholders of the county are the real judges in this court, and the fheriff is the ministerial officer. The great conflux of freeholders, which are fuppofed always to attend at the county court, (which Spelman czilsjbrufft plebeiae jiijlitiae et tbeatrum comitivae poteJlatis A } is the reafon why all acts of parliament at the end of every feffion were wont to be there publifhed by the fheriff; why all outlawries of abfconding offenders are there proclaimed, and why all popular elections which the freeholders are to make, as formerly of fheriffs and confervators of the peace, and ftill of coroners, verderors, and knights of the fhire, muft ever be made in plena comitatu, or, in full county court. By the ftatute 2 Edw. VI. c. 25. no county court (hall be adjourned longer than for one month, confifting of twenty eight days. And this was alfo the antient ufage, as appears from the laws of king Edward the elder : " praepofitus " (that is, the fheriff) ad quart am drdter feptimanam frequentem " populi condonem celebrato ; cuique jus die it o ; litefque Jingulas di- " rimito." In thofe times the county court was a court of great dignity and fplendor, the bifhop and the ealdorman (or earl) with the principal men of the fhire fitting therein to adminifter juf- tice both in lay and ecciefiaftical caufes . But it's dignity was much impaired, when the bifhop was prohibited and the earl neglected to attend it. And, in modern times, as proceedings are removeable from hence into the king's fuperior courts, by writ of pone or recordare, in the ame manner as from

c Finch. 318. F. N. B. 152. d ''Glo. v. comitatus.'' e c. 11. f ''LL. Eadgari.'' c. 5. g F.N.B. 70. Finch. 445. Rh