alue of five shillings, out of any house, shop, warehouse,
coach-house or stable, or shall assist, hire or command any person to
commit such offence; then such person so taking as aforesaid, shall have
a certificate gratis from the Judge or Justices, expressing the parish
or place where such felony was committed; which certificate shall be
capable of being once assigned over, and shall exempt its proprietor or
assignee from all parish and ward offices, in the parish or ward wherein
the felony was committed._

_By an Act made in the fifth year of the late Queen, persons
apprehending one guilty of burglary, or of feloniously breaking into a
house in the day-time, and prosecuting to conviction, shall receive over
and above the certificate before mentioned, the sum of forty pounds, as
in the case of apprehending an Highwayman._

_By an Act passed in the sixth year of the late King, whoever shall
discover, apprehend, or prosecute to conviction without benefit of
clergy, any person for taking money or other reward, directly or
indirectly, to help persons to their stolen goods (such persons not
having apprehended the felon who stole the same, and brought him to
trial, and given evidence against him) shall be entitled to a reward of
forty pounds for every offender so convicted, and shall have the like
certificate, and like payment without fee, as persons may be entitled to
for apprehending highwaymen._

_The next point after offenders are once apprehended, is to carry them
before a proper magistrate, viz., a Justice of the Peace, and this leads
us to say something of the nature and authority of that office. My Lord
Chancellor, or Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, the Lord High Steward of
England, the Lord Marshal, and the Lord High Constable, each of the
Justices of the King's Bench, and as some say, the Lord High Treasurer
of England, have, as incidental to their offices, a general authority to
keep the peace throughout the realm, and to award process for their
surety thereof, and to take recognizances for it. The Master of the
Rolls has also a like power, either incident to his office, or at least
by prescription. As to the ordinary constructors or Justices of the
Peace, they are constituted by the King's Commission, which is at
present granted on the same form as was settled by the Judges in the
33rd Year of Queen Elizabeth, by which they are appointed and assigned
every one of then jointly and separately to keep the King's p