The king's majeſty[1] is, by his office and dignity royal, the principal conſervator of the peace within all his dominions; and may give authority to any other to ſee the peace kept, and to puniſh ſuch as break it: hence it is uſually called the king's peace. The lord chancellor or keeper, the lord treaſurer, the lord high ſteward of England, the lord mareſchal, and lord high conſtable of England (when any ſuch officers are in being) and all the juſtices of the court of king's bench (by virtue of their offices) and the maſter of the rolls (by preſcription) are general conſervators of the peace throughout the whole kingdom, and may commit all breakers of it, or bind them in recognizances to keep it[2]: the other judges are only ſo in their own courts. The coroner is alſo a conſervator of the peace within his own county[3]; as is alſo the ſheriff[4]; and both of them may take a recognizance or ſecurity for the peace. Conſtables, tythingmen, and the like, are alſo conſervators of the peace within their own juriſdictions; and may apprehend all breakers of the peace, and commit them till they find ſureties for their keeping it[5].
Those that were, without any office, ſimply and merely conſervators of the peace, either claimed that power by preſcription[6] or were bound to exerciſe it by the tenure of their lands[7]; or, laſtly, 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 potentioribus comitatus ſui in cuſtodes pacis[8]." 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
