in old English law-books, is defined to be an assembly of knights, and other substantial men, together with a justice, in a certain place, and at a certain time: but the word, in its present acceptation, implies a court, place, or time, when and where the writs and process, whether civil or criminal, are decided by judge and jury.

All the counties of England are divided into six circuits; and two judges are assigned by the king's commission, who hold their assizes twice a-year in every county (except London and Middlesex, where courts of nisi prius are helden in and after every term, before the chief or other judge of the several superior courts; and except the four northern counties, where the assizes are taken only once a-year) to try by a jury of the respective counties the truth of such matters of fact as are then under dispute in the courts of Westminster-hall. These judges of assize came into use in the room of the ancient justices in eyre, justiciarii in itinere; who were regularly established, if not first appointed, by the parliament of Northampton, A.D. 1176, 22 Hen. II. with a delegated power from the king's great court or aula regia, being looked upon as members thereof; and they afterwards made their circuit round the kingdom once in seven years for the purpose of trying causes. They were afterwards directed by magna charta, c. 12, to be sent into every county once a-year to take or try certain actions then called recognitions or assizes; the most difficult of which they are directed to adjourn into the court of common pleas to be there determined. The itinerant justices were sometimes mere justices of assize, or of dower, or of gaol-delivery, and the like; and they had sometimes a more general commission, to determine all manner of causes, justiciarii ad omnia placita: but the present justices of assize and nisi prius are more immediately derived from the statute Welfm. 2. 13 Edw. I. c. 30, explained by several other acts, particularly the statute 14 Edw. III. c. 16, and must be two of the king's justices of the one bench or the other, or the chief baron of the exchequer, or the king's sergeants sworn. They usually make their circuits in the respective vacations after Hilary and Trinity terms; assizes being allowed to be taken in the holy time of Lent by consent of the bishops at the king's request, as expressed in statute Welfm. 1. 3 Edw. I. c. 51. And it was also usual, during the times of Popery, for the prelates to grant annual licences to the justices of assize to administer oaths in holy times; for oaths being of a sacred nature, the logic of those deluded ages concluded that they must be of ecclesiastical cognizance. The prudent jealousy of our ancestors ordained that no man of law should be judge of assize in his own country: and a similar prohibition is found in the civil law, which has carried this principle so far, that it is equivalent to the crime of sacrilege, for a man to be governor of the province in which he was born, or has any civil connection.

The judges upon their circuits now sit by virtue of five several authorities. 1. The commission of the peace, in every county of the circuits; and all justices of the peace of the county are bound to be present at the assizes; and sheriffs are also to give their attendance on the judges, or they shall be fined. 2. A commission of eyre and terminer, directed to them and many other gentlemen of the county, by which they are empowered to try treasons, felonies, &c. and this is the largest commission they have. 3. A commission of general gaol-delivery, directed to the judges and the clerk of assize associate, which gives them power to try every prisoner in the gaol committed for any offence whatsoever, but none but prisoners in the gaol; so that one way or other they rid the gaol of all the prisoners in it. 4. A commission of assize, directed to the judges and clerk of assize, to take assizes; that is, to take the verdict of a peculiar species of jury called an assize, and summoned for the trial of landed disputes. The other authority is, 5. That of nisi prius, which is a consequence of the commission of assize, being annexed to the office of those justices by the statute of Welfm. 2. 13 Edw. I. c. 30. And it empowers them to try all questions of fact issuing out of the courts of Westminster, that are then ripe for trial by jury. The original of the name is this: all causes commenced in the courts of Westminster-hall are by the course of the courts appointed to be there tried, on a day fixed in some Easter or Michaelmas term, by a jury returned from the county wherein the cause of action arises; but with this proviso, nisi prius justiciarii ad assizes capiendas venirent; unless before the day prefixed the judges of assize come into the county in question. This they are sure to do in the vacations preceding each Easter and Michaelmas term, and there dispose of the cause; which saves much expense and trouble, both to the parties, the jury, and the witnesses.

The word assise (from the French assis, seated, settled, or established, and formed of the Latin verb assidus, I sit by) is used in several different senses. It is sometimes taken for the fittings of a court; sometimes for its regulations or ordinances, especially those that fix the standard of weights and measures; and sometimes it signifies a jury, either because juries consisted of a fixed determinate number, or because they continued sitting till they pronounced their verdict. In Scots law, an assise or jury consists of fifteen sworn men (juratores), picked out by the court from a greater number, not exceeding 45, who have been summoned for that purpose by the sheriff, and given in list to the defender, at serving him with a copy of his libel.