The justice of peace, his calling and qualifications by Edmund Bohun, Esq.

SECTION VII.

THe next thing requisite in a Justice of Peace, is a competent knowledg of our Laws and Customes, for by these he is to warrant his Proceedings, and if in this part of my Discourse, I happen to commit any Error, I desire before-hand to bespeak the Readers Pardon, for I ne∣ver had the happiness and honour to be a Member of any of the Honourable Inns of Court.

My Reader then need not fear I will set him upon the Purchase, or reading of all the Body of our Laws, for tho it might be useful to a Justice of the Peace, yet it is not of absolute necessity.

It is said of one of our States-men, that his Learning was not great but useful, and he did not know much, but he practised what he knew diligently, and this is an Excel∣lent Character of a Justice of the Peace. Much knowledg may puff a man up with a high Conceit of himself, but when all is done, Honesty and Industry are the Qualities that best befit a Magistrate.

The knowledg may be attained in a small time, if a man will make it his busi∣ness, and there is three effectual means for it.

• 1. Reading.
• 2. Observation and Practice.
• 3. Conversation and Discourse with Knowing and Experienced Men.

Natural Sagacity, and Reason may teach a Man many things, but it is an ill thing to trust to it in point of Government; the Commission of the Peace directs us to pro∣ceed, Prout secundùm legem & Consuetudi∣nem Regni Nostri Angliae, aut formam Or∣dinationum vel Statuorum Praedictorum, fieri consuevit aut debuit, that is, as ought, and hath been used to be done, ac∣cording

to the Laws and Customes of Eng∣land, or the Form of the Ordinances, and Statutes aforesaid, and these are not to be known without some Study, and Reading, so that he that hath an Aversion for Books, will never make a knowing Justice of the Peace, tho he may stand as a Cypher to make the number greater.

Nor will he Act with any certainty or security to himself, his business being to ap∣ply the Laws, and not to make new ones, and at one time, or other he will meet with them, who will make him sensible of his ig∣norance to his Cost, if he commit any great Error, and without doubt he will be Guil∣ty of many.

It is a shame for an English Gentleman to be ignorant of our Laws, tho he live never so privately, they are the best part of our Inheritance, the effects of our An∣cestors Prudence, the Charters of our Free∣doms, not from Subjection, but Misery and Slavery under it; they are at the same times the Monuments of the Favours of our Princes, and strong Obligations to love, and serve them, and as occasion re∣quire to spend our Bloods, and Estates in their Service; for our Kings have not treat∣ed us like Vassals, or Slaves, but like their Children, laid no grievous Burthens on us, but such reasonable, and just Commands

as we either chose by our Representatives in Parliament, or ought to have chosen for our own goods.

But certainly they do ill deserve this happiness, who will take no pains to un∣derstand it, when they might so easily do it, being freed by their Estates from a ne∣cessity of Bodily Labour, and furnished with Money to buy Books, and leisure to read them, which is too usually spent in Luxury with greater Expence, and some∣times with the Ruines of their Lives, and Fortunes; besides, for want of it they are the more subject to be wheadled into ill Practices against the State, and exposed to the Craft, and Rapacity of Lawyers, who teach them the value of this know∣ledg, by the price they pay for it.

But then Justices of the Peace are not only obliged, as they are English-men and Gentlemen to this Study, but as they have promised upon Oath to be Executors of the Laws, and it betrayes a great stu∣pidity of Mind, or Irreligion, to swear to do equal right to the Poor and to the Rich, after their Cunning, Wit and Pow∣er, and after the Laws and Customes of the Realm, and Statutes thereof made, as the Form of the Oath is, and then never concern themselves to know what those Laws and Customes are, and to mind the

Statutes of England, no more then they do the Edicts of France.

And that which renders the thing the more inexcusable, is the great pains and care many Learned Men have taken, to make Collections of those things, that are most necessary for the Justice of the Peace, so that no man can want a Tutor, if he have but a Will to learn, and they are written too with that Variety of Me∣thod, that they will fit any mans humour, who is not given up to sloath and negli∣gence.

I can never admire enough the Learn∣ing of Mr. William Lambard, how nice and curious he is in his inquiries into the Origine of those Powers, that are given to the Justice of the Peace, and the reasons of them, his Brevity, and the Perspicuity of his Style, which makes him very use∣ful, tho there have been great Additions of late, made to that Office by new Sta∣tutes.

The diligence of Mr. Dalton is not less to be valued, nor the Exact Method in which he hath digested so great a varie∣ty of things, which are again made more valuable by the Additions made in the Late Impressions.

How Curious and Subtle is Sir Edward Cook, in his readings upon the great Char∣ter

and other Statutes, which are of great use to a Justice of Peace, because they will give him hints, and general Rules for the interpreting, and understanding those Statutes he took no notice of, and those too that have been made since his death.

What a Vast Variety of Reading and Learning hath he shewn in the Pleas of the Crown; and yet he hath so couched and contracted it, that the Volume is but small tho the worth is in estimable.

The Exactness of Mr. Poulton in his Book De pace Regis & Regni, is much to be admired, where beginning at the root of all publick disorders, the corrupt un∣quiet hearts of men, he shews how they proceed from one degree to another, till Menaces, and Threatnings grow up at last into Rebellions, and Treasons, all along proving what he saith by Quotations of the best Law-Books.

The Conciseness of the Lord Hales in his Pleas of the Crown,* 1.1 is not less to be ad∣mired, then his Integrity and Prudence, in so contracting them.

And Mr. Chamberlain's Complete Ju∣stice, and Mr. Keebles Assistance, &c. want nothing but an industrious, and grate∣ful Age, to make both the Books, and Au∣thors more highly valued, and indeed they cannot be too much esteemed.

And as for the Statutes, Mr. Keeble hath done the Nation a mighty piece of Service, in his Exact Re-printing of them, in an excellent Table of his own, but there is in my poor judgment one thing still wanting, and that is an Index, or Ta∣ble of the Statutes under those Heads or Titles, which the Justices of the Peace have occasion to use them by; which are different from the Lawyers common places, so that there should be another Table on purpose for the Justices of the Peace, which might be drawn in a Sheet of Paper: the only Person that attempted this to my knowledg, is one Mr. Wa. Young in a small piece stiled a Vade Mecum, Printed at Lon∣don in 1660. In the beginning of which is a Table containing about five Leaves, which is of vast use for the speedy finding of any Statute that a Justice of Peace hath occasion to use, but yet it is imperfect not only as to the New, but Ancient Sta∣tutes.

There is another thing, which I have wished for, and that is an exact Collection of all those Cases, which immediately concern the Justice of Peace, in which their power, or wayes of Proceedings are called in question, out of the Year-Books and Reports, recited in the same order of time as they are there, at length, without

any abbreviations, and only translating in∣to English such as are in French, which would be of great use.

Now if a man should attempt to read all these Books which I have mentioned, which relate to the Office of the Justice of Peace (the Statutes expected, which are only to be consulted upon occasion) it were no very grievous Task, and yet he might learn his Duty thence, without any other or very little help from Books.

But in the mean time it were to be wished, that some men could be perswa∣ded to read but one of the short ones first, and then one of the larger pieces, I mean Dalton or Keebles Assistance, and then the short piece again to fix things in their Me∣mory, and if I were worthy to advise them, it should be Mr. Chamberlain's, for I take that to be the very best that ever was written.

As reading begins knowledg,* 1.2 so Obser∣vation and Practice fixes it, he that reads without reflecting upon it at the time, and noting diligently what may be useful to him afterwards, loseth both his Labour and his time, many men complain of a bad Memory, when the fault is their own, they read carelesly, and take no pains to imprint any thing upon their Minds, ei∣ther

then or afterwards, and then it were a wonder if they should remember what they never considered, nor understood, but read on and on and think upon something else.

Others pretend they would read more if they had a good Memory, this is a pre∣tence only for Lasiness, laying their own fault upon God and Nature, for Memory is a Natural Faculty common to men with many other Creatures; but on the other side if they would read more, and note as they go they would certainly retain a part of it, tho perhaps not so much as others do. But then there is a third sort of men who pretend to have ill Memories, who in truth never read at all, these belye their Natural Faculties, 'tis true they remember little or nothing, how should they? the Memory is but like a Store-house, in which if nothing is laid up, nothing shall ever be found, if what is good for nothing, such as is laid in will come out, and not be in the least amended there.

Observation doth something, but Pra∣ctice is the great sixer of Notions in the minds of men, he that his a Natural Fool, will yet by often going away learn it at last, how much more men of Competent Natural Parts, and such only are fit to Go∣vern others? and the truth is, they that

have the strongest Memories will yet in time lose their Notices of Things, if they do not excite them by Meditations, and Practice, and that sort of knowledg I am speaking of, which is not Natural, but Ar∣tificial Reason, and depends not for the most part upon the innate Principles, but upon positive Institutions, and agreed Me∣thods, is most easily lost, so that I have e∣ver observed the most industrious men are the most skillful, and many men who read little, but have been very much employed in business, have by that learned more then others have done by Books, only tho they had better parts, so that a Man shall rarely find a Man excellently Versed in any Pra∣ctical Knowledg, that hath not fixed it, as well by exercise of it, as by Observati∣on and Reading.

Observation and Practice fixes,* 1.3 but it is Conversation and Discourse with Know∣ing and Experienced Men that extends Knowledg, much reading dulls a Man, but discourse at once revives what a man knows, and encreaseth it by the Addition of anothers Observations too, and dispells that Melancholy which attends retirement and solitude: It confirms a man more in his Opinion, when he finds another man of the same mind, and rectifies his mi∣stakes,

before they become dangerous to him, or to others.

But then it must be with Knowing Men, for no man can communicate to ano∣ther that which he hath not, he may mis∣lead him, or confirm him in Error, and so make his mistake more fatal; but other good he can expect little from him, except it be the diversion of his Chat.

When the Person with whom we con∣verse, hath not only a Speculative, but a Practical Knowledge too of any thing; if he appear honest and disinterested, we may rely the better on his Judgment, and the little Stories, which he will be able to tell of things well, or ill done, will strange∣ly dwell upon the memory, and fix things, and at the same time rectifie the Judg∣ment too. It was well said by the Lord Bacon, Set before thee the best Examples, for imitation is a Globe of Precepts; and for that end were Histories written, that one Generation might learn from another, and take Example what to follow, and what to avoid; and Discourse is of the same Nature, thô not so perfect.

I may then justly detest their ill nature and folly, who when they meet with Men of Knowledge and Experience, and willing to Communicate both to them, envy and traduce them, and when they have no∣thing

else to say, think to make them Odious, by saying, They love to talk, and are conceited of their own Knowledge or Abilities, and are Proud men; why, if all this were true, it is better to be Proud of Something, than of Nothing, and yet the last happens oftenest; solid Knowledge will make a man humble, when there is nothing so conceited as Ignorance: and a communicative Man is better company, than a close churlish Nature, who values himself upon the Ignorance of others, which shall never be rectified by him. And it is usual for these men too, to learn from them, whom they thus traduce.

Secondly, I may justly reprehend them who spend all their time in tittle tattle, about their Currs, and their Kites, their Debaucheries, and Recreations, or, which is worse, in defaming their Neighbours; but if any useful Discourse is begun, that may tend to the Publick Good, or to make them wiser, or better, are ill at ease, till it be ended, turn sick, and are ready to sur∣render their over-charged Stomachs.

'Tis true, the Age in which we live, is learned; but if this humour prevail a little more, the next will not only be debauched, but barbarous, and ignorant.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Sir Mat. Hales.
• * 1.2

  Observation and Pra∣ctice.
• * 1.3

  Conversa∣tion.