CONSTABLE

A high officer in the monarchical establishments of the middle ages. (Lat comes stabuli, count of the stable.) In France, the first dignitary under the crown, commander-in-chief and supreme military judge. In that country the office was abolished in 1627, as conferring powers too dangerous in the hands of a subject. In England the last permanent lord high constable was Edward Stafford, Duke of Bucking ham, whose office was forfeited to the crown by his attainder in 1522; since which time it has-only been occasionally conferred on particular emergencies. The title is supposed to have originated in the Lower Empire. (Ducange, Glo .). Constable. A constable is an officer particularly charged with the preservation of the peace, either within the hundred, where he is called high constable, or within the parish or tything, where he is called petty constable, and where he has generally superseded the tything-man. The duties of the high constable respecting the preservation of the peace are now merely nominal: but he is still of use to represent 276 [s. 290]