CONSERVATORS OF THE PEACE

Officers authorized to preserve and maintain the public peace. In England, these officers were locally elected by the people until the reign of Edward III. when their appointment was vested in the king. Their duties were to prevent and arrest for breaches of the peace, but they had no power to arraign and try the offender until about 1300. when this authority was given to them by act of parliament, and “then they acquired the more honorable appellation of justices of the peace.” 1 Bl. Comm. 351. Even after this time, however, many public officers were styled “conservators of the peace,” not as a distinct office but by virtue of the duties and authorities pertaining to their offices. In this sense the term may include the king himself, the lord chancellor, justices of the king’s bench, master of the rolls, coroners, sheriffs, constables, etc. 1 Bl. Comm. 350. See Smith v. Abbott. 17 N. J. Law, 358. The tenn is still in use in Texas, where the constitution provides that county judges shall be conservators of the peace. Const. Tex. art. 4,