r keeping it[b].

[Footnote x: Lambard. Eirenarch. 12.]

[Footnote y: Lamb. 12.]

[Footnote z: Britton. 3.]

[Footnote a: F.N.B. 81.]

[Footnote b: Lamb. 14.]

THOSE that were, without any office, simply and merely conservators of
the peace, were chosen by the freeholders in full county court before
the sheriff; the writ for their election directing them to be chosen
"_de probioribus et melioribus in comitatu suo in custodes pacis_[c]."
But when queen Isabel, the wife of Edward II, had contrived to depose
her husband by a forced resignation of the crown, and had set up his
son Edward III in his place; this, being a thing then without example
in England, it was feared would much alarm the people; especially as
the old king was living, though hurried about from castle to castle;
till at last he met with an untimely death. To prevent therefore any
risings, or other disturbance of the peace, the new king sent writs to
all the sheriffs in England, the form of which is preserved by Thomas
Walsingham[d], giving a plausible account of the manner of his
obtaining the crown; to wit, that it was done _ipsius patris
beneplacito_: and withal commanding each sheriff that the peace be
kept throughout his bailiwick, on pain and peril of disinheritance and
loss of life and limb. And in a few weeks after the date of these
writs, it was ordained in parliament[e], that, for the better
maintaining and keeping of the peace in every county, good men and
lawful, which were no maintainers of evil, or barretors in the
country, should be _assigned_ to keep the peace. And in this manner,
and upon this occasion, was the election of the conservators of the
peace taken from the people, and given to the king[f]; this assignment
being construed to be by the king's commission[g]. But still they were
called only conservators, wardens, or keepers of the peace, till the
statute 34 Edw. III. c. 1. gave them the power of trying felonies; and
then they acquired the more honorable appellation of justices[h].

[Footnote c: Lamb. 16.]

[Footnote d: Hist. _A.D._ 1327.]

[Footnote e: Stat. 1 Edw. III. c. 16.]

[Footnote f: Lamb. 20.]

[Footnote g: Stat. 4 Edw. III. c. 2. and 18 Edw. III. st. 2. c. 2.]

[Footnote h: Lamb. 23.]

THESE justices are appointed by the king's special commission under
the great seal, the form of which was settled by all the judges,
_A.D._ 1590[i]. This appoints them all[k], jointly and severally, to
keep the peace, and a