a justice of the peace, have been elected by the tenants and inhabitants as their head officers.  They do not appear, from the charters, to have formed part of the corporation in these capacities, but were merely empowered to act as justices of the peace; and thus, in strictness, they, and the clerk of the peace, coroner, bailiff, two constables, and nine petty constables, are not corporate officers, but officers of the lord of the manor or liberty.  The charter of Edward IV. confirmed the prescriptive right to hold a court of ancient demesne for the liberty, every three weeks, and granted to the tenants and inhabitants that they should not be bound to answer before any justices, judges, or commissioners, in any other court, in actions connected with the lands and tenements held of the manor.  From 30 to 40 actions had been annually brought in this court at the time of the municipal inquiry.  The charter appointed a court of pie-poudre, and a court of quarter sessions; but the former fell into disuse many years ago.  The court leet of the manor is held yearly, on Whit Tuesday, and petty sessions once a fortnight, at the Court House, in Romford.   The expenses of the courts, gaol, &c., are defrayed by a liberty rate, in the nature of a county rate, levied twice a year, and averaging about £550 per annum, or 3½d. per pound, on the assessed rental.  The municipal commissioner, Henry Roscoe, Esq., after finishing his inquiry, in 1833, considered that no useful end was served by the municipal constitution of this liberty, while there appeared to be an impropriety in a private individual (the lord of the manor,) having the power of creating justices of the peace;--none of the three magistrates being appointed by the Crown.   David Mackintosh, Esq., is lord of the manorial liberty; but a great part of the soil belongs to various freeholders, as noticed in the succeeding account of the three parishes.  On the death of Edward the Confessor, this liberty became the royal possession of his successor, Harold, from whom it passed to the Conqueror; and it was afterwards granted out in numerous parcels to various freeholders.  THE MAGISTRATES OF THE LIBERTY are--Thos. Mashiter, Esq., high steward; Edw. Ind., Esq., deputy steward; and Octavius Mashiter, Esq.  Two of the (T. & O. M.) are also county magistrates.  Alfred Ward, Esq., is clerk of the peace; W. H. Clifton, Esq., coroner and clerk to the magistrates; Mr. Edw. Willis, chief constable; and Mr. Samuel Southey, bailiff and gaoler.