Detailed Table of Contents
Chapters and Sections
Front Matter
List of Tables and Figures - ix
Foreword - xiii
Acknowledgments - xv
Abbreviations - xvii
Introduction - 3
Chapter 1: English Justice in a Foreign Land - 15
English Law, French Law
English Law Transformed
The Justices as Legislators
The Justices and Their Courts
Legislative Stasis
Continued Centralization
Rural Decentralization
The Professionalization of the Urban Magistracy
Chapter 2: Making Justices - 53
Composing the Commissions of the Peace
The Selection Process
Choosing "Fit and Respectable Characters"
Formal Criteria
Respectability
Loyalty
Competence
Why Become a Justice?
Chapter 3: The Character of the Magistracy - 95
Magisterial Activity
Thumbnail Sketches of Active Justices
Relative Activity
Geographical Distribution
The Ethnic Face of the Magistracy
Magisterial Prominence
Magisterial Knowledge
Manuals and Laws
Clerks, Law Officers, and Colleagues
Magisterial Competence
Chapter 4: The Police before the Police - 136
Bailiffs and Militia Officers, 1764–87
Reforming the Police in the 1780s
Urban Policing from 1787: Constables and Substitutes
Urban Police Reform in the late 1810s
High Constables and Police Constables from the 1820s
The Watch
Rural Policing from the Late 1780s
Chapter 5: The Relevance of Criminal Justice - 184
Seeking Out the Justices
Town Justice, Country Justice
Canadiens and British Criminal Justice
The Reasons for Justice
Avoiding Criminal Justice
Chapter 6: Experiencing the Everyday Course of Justice - 227
Pre-trial Proceedings
Prosecutorial Initiative and Discretion
Coming to Trial
Professional Assistance
The Language of the Law
The Outcome of Complaints
Punishment and Costs
Appeals and Pardons
Chapter 7: Criminal Justice and Social Power - 272
Instrumentalizing Criminal Justice
Vengeance and Cupidity
Protection and Power
Negotiation and Reparation
The Structural Biases of Justice
Class
Gender
Race
Chapter 8: Criminal Justice and State Power - 310
The Majesty of Justice
The Architecture of the Law
Symbols and Rituals of Authority
The Bureaucratic Power of Ancien-Régime Justice
The Growth of Public Prosecution
The Rise of Summary Justice
The Enforcement of Judicial Orders
Resisting the State
Notes - 365
Bibliography - 427
Illustration Credits - 455
Index - 457
Tables and Figures
Tables
- 2.1: Justices in selected general commissions, 1764-1837
- 2.2: Proportion and number of francophone justices in selected general commissions, 1764-1837
- 2.3: Political orientation of justices in the district of Montreal, 1764-1833
- 3.1: Active and qualified justices in the district of Montreal, 1764-1836
- 3.2: Occupations of active justices in the district of Montreal, 1764-1836
- 4.1: Professions of Montreal constables, 1787-1820
- 4.2: Professions of Quebec City constables, 1798-1822
- 5.1: Defendants complained of annually before the criminal justice system
- 5.2: Defendants per population, 1710s-1830s
- 5.3: Time between incident and complaint, Montreal Quarter Sessions complaints, 1780-1835
- 5.4: Francophones among urban and rural plaintiffs, Montreal Quarter Sessions and summary complaints, 1780-1835
- 5.5: Ethnicity of parties in Montreal Quarter Sessions complaints, 1780-1835
- 6.1: Results of Montreal Quarter Sessions cases, 1764-1835
- 6.2: Select punishments imposed in Montreal Quarter Sessions
- 7.1: Pair-wise comparison of class of parties in Montreal Quarter Sessions complaints, 1780-1835
- 7.2: Plaintiffs’ capacity to sign in Montreal Quarter Sessions cases, 1780-1835
- 7.3: Marital status of female plaintiffs in Montreal Quarter Sessions complaints, 1780-1835
- 7.4: Gender and the course of complaints, Montreal Quarter Sessions, 1780-1830
Figures
- 1.1: Thomas McCord, one of Montreal’s first chairmen of the Quarter Sessions, 1810-24 (1816)
- 1.2: Jean-Thomas Taschereau, Quebec City’s fourth chairman of the Quarter Sessions, 1821-7 (c. 1815)
- 3.1: Daniel Robertson (c. 1804-8)
- 3.2: Jean-Marie Mondelet (c. 1807)
- 3.3: Samuel Gale (1850s)
- 3.4, 3.5: Michel-Eustache-Gaspard-Alain Chartier de Lotbinière (1763 and 1809)
- 3.6: Proportion of justices’ work by most active justices in the district of Montreal
- 3.7: Places in the district of Montreal with active justices
- 3.8: Francophones among appointed and active justices in the district of Montreal, 1765-1836
- 3.9: Francophone justices hearing complaints in the district of Montreal, 1785-1835
- 3.10: Francophone justices committing to the Montreal gaol, 1810-37
- 3.11: Francophone justices on the Montreal Quarter Sessions bench, 1764-1837
- 3.12: Francophone justices committing to the Quebec gaol, 1813-37
- 5.1: Montreal Quarter Sessions cases and complaints, 1765-1837
- 5.2: Complaints in the records of the Quebec clerk of the peace, 1802-36
- 5.3: Proportion of urban parties, district of Montreal
- 5.4: Proportion of urban parties, district of Quebec
- 5.5: Francophones before the justices, district of Montreal, 1765-1835
- 5.6: Francophones before the justices, district of Quebec, 1805-35
- 5.7: Ethnicity of plaintiffs in violence cases, 1805-35
- 5.8: Offences in the Montreal King’s Bench, 1767-1835
- 5.9: Offences, Montreal Quarter Sessions complaints, 1765-1835
- 5.10: Offences, Montreal Weekly Sessions, 1779-1835
- 5.11: Offences, Quebec Quarter Sessions complaints, 1805-35
- 5.12: Offences, Quebec Weekly Sessions, 1805-36
- 5.13: Offences, all complaints
- 6.1: Common pre-trial routes of criminal complaints
- 7.1: Occupations of parties, district of Montreal, 1785-1835
- 7.2: Occupations of parties, Quebec Quarter Sessions complaints, 1805-35
- 7.3: Women before the justices, 1765-1835
- 7.4: Women as defendants in the criminal justice system, 1712-1835
- 7.5: Offences for which women came before the justices in the district of Montreal, 1780-1835
- 8.1: Richard Short, ‘A View of the Inside of the Jesuits Church’ (c. 1759)
- 8.2: Richard Short, ‘A View of the Jesuits College and Church’ (c. 1759)
- 8.3: Montreal courthouse, 1801-44 (c. 1839)
- 8.4: Montreal gaol, 1811-36 (c. 1839)