Magistracy

“ The high court of appeal shall be composed as follows:--All the officers of state shall meet on the last day but one of the year in some temple, and choose for a judge the best man out of every magistracy: and those who are elected, after they have undergone a scrutiny, shall be judges of appeal. ”

“ The fundamental conception of Roman magistracy is tenure of the imperium, the sovereignty which resides with the Roman people, but is by it conferred either upon a single ruler for life, as in the later monarchy, or upon a college of magistrates for a fixed term, as in the Republican period. ”

“ And looking back quite honestly at the work done by justices at quarter and petty sessions, I think the outcry that arises over individual instances of mistake, though good as a tonic for the bench, is not a fair thing if it is the only comment that fellow citizens have to offer to the wide amount of useful and honourable work that is done by the lay magistracy. ”

“ In the approaching constitutional convention, the question of an elective judiciary will be fairly at issue, and it is one duty that we owe to ourselves to re-organize the magistracy, that its ancient character for integrity and truth may be revived and perpetuated. ”

“ They believe magistracy to be an ordinance of God, and that he that rules well deserves to be valued and esteemed; and further, they are a people that love good order and good government among themselves. ”

“ But that the magistrate, as a magistrate, is neither proper judge in these cases, nor yet that the capacity so to be is requisite in him as a magistrate, our adversaries cannot deny; or else they must say, That all the heathen magistrates were either no lawful magistrates, as wanting something essential to magistracy, and this were contrary to the express doctrine of the apostle, Rom. xiii. or else (which is more absurd) that those heathen magistrates were proper judges in matters of conscience among Christians. ”

“ Two magistrates had just been elected according to form, out of four, and my father was talking of it, according to the measure of his lights and his talents.
"The pity is," said he, "that these city magistrates are gentlemen of the long robe, and not cooks, and that they hold their magistracy from the king, and not from the tradesmen, notably not from the corporation of Parisian cooks of which I am the banner-bearer. ”

“ To execute laws is a royal office; to execute orders is not to be a king. However, a political executive magistracy, though merely such, is a great trust. ”

“ And as for their comparison of the magistrate's office to other common and ordinary places and relations among men, the parallel will not hold, no not for illustration, far less for a proof of their doctrine. Nor is there any comparison, unless they can prove, that God in his word has as plainly and positively required men to be so and so qualified, before it is lawful for them to enter into, or for others to put them in such places and relations, as he has done, with regard to magistracy. ”

“ So in the commonwealth, magistrates are called heirs of restraint, to put men to shame, Judges xviii. 7, because they are to restrain disorders, shame evil-doers: higher powers, to teach others subjection to them, Rom. xiii. 1. "An ordinance of man or human creation," 1 Pet. ii. 13: because, though magistracy in general be an ordinance of God, yet this or that special kind of magistracy, whether monarchical, aristocratical, &c., is of man. Thus in the Church: the Church is called Christ's body, Ephes. ”

“ That from him they had their commission; his ministers they were. The powers that be are ordained by him and for him: " You judge not for man, but for the Lord; your business is to glorify him, and serve the interests of his kingdom among men." (2.) That his eye was upon them: "He is with you in the judgment, to take notice what you do and call you to an account if you do amiss." (3.) That he is the great example of justice to all magistrates: There is no iniquity with him, no bribery, nor respect of persons. Magistrates are called gods, and therefore must endeavour to resemble him. ”

“ But in civil cases the magistrate, though controlling the trial and deciding matters of law, was quite distinct from the judge or body of judges who decided the question of fact; and the quaestiones perpetuae, which reduced the magistrate in criminal cases to a mere president of the court, gave him a position inferior to that of the praetor, who tried civil cases, only in so far as the praetor controlled the trial in some degree by his formula, under which the judges decided the question of fact. ”

“ Without inquiring into the accuracy of a statement made by the gentleman respecting the courts of England, in which, I apprehend, he will find himself deceived, let me ask what would be the effects of the old system here? Cast an eye over the extent of our country, and a moment's consideration will show that the First Magistrate, in selecting a character for the bench, must seek less the learning of a judge than the agility of a post-boy. Can it be possible that men advanced in years, (for such alone can have the maturity of judgment fitting for the office;) ”

“ The higher judges in a district have the power of revising those decisions which are not absolutely summary of the judges of the classes below them in the same district; i.e. the sessions judge can revise the decisions of a first-class magistrate, and the High Court those of a sessions judge (§ 435) . Inferior tribunals can also refer questions of law to the High Court (§§ 432, 433) ; and where a sentence of death is passed, or a sessions judge differs from the jury (§ 307) , the matter must be referred to the High Court. ”

“ By the Supreme Court of Judicature Act 1877, a “ puisne judge ” is defined as a judge of the High Court other than the lord chancellor, the lord chief justice of England, the master of the rolls, the lord chief justice of the common pleas, and the lord chief baron, and their successors respectively. ”

“ The judge was a young man, seemingly of great intellectual reserve, possessing a steel gray eye that shot its glances through the subject as if it were but marking a point through which his judgment of a man would enter. There were courage, self poise, wisdom, integrity apparent in the man who had arrived to administer the law. For the first time this judicial officer saw before him an indistinguishable mass of the freedmen of the south. ”

“ Magistrate.—You are, and what a malicious, obstinate sort! You would like to have a school in the town, to become a choirmaster, and lead a choir—that indeed—to have a goodly amount of earnings and profits, several cords of wood and gifts—that indeed and besides a huge stole thrown in with it—that indeed!
Zajíček (Sheepishly) .—Lord, O Lord!
Magistrate.—But to help the nobility, to tell where the girl is, that you refuse!
Zajíček.—Your Honor, most kind officer, have mercy—
Magistrate.—Have you any mercy! You ought to have mercy on your Dornička. ”

“ A judge, who when banished in loathing from the old world, brought his dread court to the new, and treads the civilization, the Christianity and the progress of the nineteenth century beneath his heel in this fair land. A judge who daily calls upon us by his acts, cited in the public press, to rise and hurl him from his bench, and declare ourselves at last on a level with the enlightened nations of the earth. ”

“ Truly, Master Judge, he is a man much spoken of; marry, every man's cries are against him, and especially we; and therefore I think we have brought our Lawyer to touch him with as much law as will fetch his lands and my cow with a pestilence.
Thras. Sir, I am the other plaintiff, and this is my counsellor: I beseech your honour be favourable to me in equity. ”

“ To the judge—the magistrate of every order—the members of the legislature—to all, indeed, who are concerned in making or in administering the laws, it is almost equally necessary for the proper discharge of their important duties. ”

“ Ancient judicial theory and practice comprehended not merely trials before a regular tribunal, in which the merits of a case were duly ascertained by the joint efforts of judge, counsel, and assize, but also an alternative method of arriving at the same result—namely, a solemn appeal to the bar of Almighty God. ”

“ The Judiciary and Local Government.—The organs of judicial administration comprise courts of first instance, courts of appeal, and a supreme tribunal sitting at the capital. Judges are appointed for life, but may be removed from office in accordance with procedure to be established by law. The employment of the jury is optional with the parties in civil cases but obligatory in all criminal cases of serious import. ”

“ The judge, like the juryman, is supposed to bring with him to the consideration of the question which he has to try common sense, a general knowledge of human nature and the ways of the world, and also knowledge of things that “everybody is supposed to know.” Of such matters judicial notice is said to be taken. But the range of general knowledge is indefinite, and the range of judicial notice has, for reasons of convenience, been fixed or extended, both by rulings of the judges and by numerous enactments of the legislature. ”

“ Those issuing from the Supreme Court shall bear teste of the Chief Justice of the United States, or, when that office is vacant, of the associate justice next in precedence, and those issuing from a district court shall bear teste of the judge, or, when that office is vacant, of the clerk thereof.' We do not essay a definition of the word 'process' in every context. ”

“ In a general sense a magistrate is a public civil officer, possessing such power legislative, executive, or judicial-as the government appointing him may ordain. In a narrow sense, a magistrate is regarded perhaps, commonly regarded-as an inferior judicial officer, such as a justice of the peace. ”

“ As many names of virtues as there are among us, so many magistrates there are among them. There is a magistrate who is named Magnanimity, another Fortitude, a third Chastity, a fourth Liberality, a fifth Criminal and Civil Justice, a sixth Comfort, a seventh Truth, an eighth Kindness, a tenth Gratitude, an eleventh Cheerfulness, a twelfth Exercise, a thirteenth Sobriety, etc. They are elected to duties of that kind, each one to that duty for excellence in which he is known from boyhood to be most suitable. ”

“ Thus, while no man can be compelled to work with instruments he dislikes, no subordinate is at the mercy of personal caprice or antipathy.
Promotion, judicial and administrative, ends below the highest point. The judges of the Supreme Court are named by the Sovereign—with the advice of a Council, including the Regents, the judges of that Court, and the heads of the Philosophic and Educational Institutes—from among the advocates and students of law, or from among the ablest administrators who seem to possess judicial faculties. ”

“ The relations between Judge and Counsel in a properly constituted Court, should be those of mutual reliance and esteem. There should neither be arrogance on the one hand, nor subservience on the other. ”

“ In January 1869 he became a vice-chancellor of the court of chancery and a knight, and in 1870 a lord justice of appeal and a privy councillor. He was a most eminent judge, exceptionally learned, shrewd and strong, and gifted with a great power of terse and clear enunciation of principles. ”

“ The judge, with his legal robes and his formidable-looking wig, sitting grave and stern on his seat of eminence; the eager faces of the barristers; the watchful eyes of the solicitors; the important look on the faces of the twelve jurymen who sat huddled in a kind of square box; the anxious face of the man who stood in the witness-box giving evidence; all appealed to the young fellow's imagination, and caused his pulses to throb violently. ”

“ Justiciarius meant simply “judge,” and was originally applied, as Stubbs points out (Const. Hist. i. 389, note) , to any officer of the king’s court, to the chief justice, or in a very general way to all and sundry who possessed courts of their own or were qualified to act as judices in the shire-courts, even the style capitalis justiciarius being used of judges of the royal court other than the chief. ”

“ Hard words or hanging if your judge be Page.
Though the name was originally left blank in the last line, Page, according to Sir John Hawkins, sent his clerk to complain of the insult. Whereupon Pope ‘told the young man that the blank might be supplied by many monosyllables other than the judge's name. “But, sir,” said the clerk, “the judge. says that no other word will make sense of the passage.” “So then, it seems,” said Pope, “your master is not only a judge, but a poet: as that is the case, the odds are against me. ”

“ From the earliest times the judges of the king’s courts have been a small and compact body of legal experts. They have worked together in harmony, imposing their own views of law and justice upon the whole realm, and establishing thereby a single homogeneous system of common law. ”

“ The law judge shall preside, and shall determine and decide all technical questions of law. A majority vote of the bench shall determine all questions of fact. The jury system may be introduced or dispensed with in any particular case in the discretion of the court.
"Sec. VI. The judges of the provisional court shall be clothed with the powers vested in the judges of the circuit or district courts of the United States. ”

“ The more illuminated the Magistrate's conscience and judgment is, as to natural justice and right, by the knowledge of God and communications of Light from Christ, the better qualified he is to execute his office. ”

“ No judges upon earth ever had such various and important duties to perform, as the justices of the Supreme Court. In England, whence we have derived our laws, they have distinct courts of equity, courts of common law, courts of admiralty, and courts in which the civil law is administered. ”