QUAERENS NON INVENIT PLEGIUM, practice. The plaintiff has not found pledge. The return made by the sheriff to a writ¹ directed to him with this clause, namely, si A facerit B securum de clamore suo prosequando, when the plaintiff has neglected to find sufficient security. F. N. B. 38.

QUAESTIO, Rom. civ. law. A sort of commission (ad quaerendum) to inquire into some criminal matter given to a magistrate² or citizen, who was called quaesitor or quaestor who made report thereon to the senate or the people, as the one or the other appointed him. In progress, he was empowered (with the assistance of a counsel) to adjudge the case; and the tribunal thus constituted, was called quaestio. This special tribunal continued in use until the end of the Roman republic, although it was resorted to during the last times of the republic, only in extraordinary cases.

2. The manner in which such commissions were constituted was this: If the matter to be inquired of was within the jurisdiction³ of the comitia, the senate on the demand of the consul⁴ or of a tribune or of one of its members, declared by a decree that there was cause to prosecute⁵ a citizen. Then the consul ex auctoritate senatus asked the people in comitia, (rogabat rogatio) to enact⁶ this decree into a law. The comitia adopted it either simply, or with amendment⁷, or they rejected it.

3. The increase of population and of crimes rendered this method, which was tardy⁸ at best, onerous⁹ and even impracticable. In the year A. U. C. 604 or 149 B. C., under the consulship¹¹ of Censorinus and Manilius, the tribune Calpurnius Piso, procured¹² the passage of a law establishing a questio perpetua, to take cognizance of the crime of extortion, committed by Roman magistrates¹³ against strangers de pecuniis repetundis. Cic. Brut. 27. De Off.. II., 21; In Verr. IV. 25.

4. Many such tribunals were afterwards established, such as Quaestiones de majestate, de ambitu, de peculatu, de vi,de sodalitiis, &c. Each was composed of a certain number of judges taken from the senators, and presided over by a preator, although he might delegate his authority to a public officer, who was called judex quaestionis. These tribunals continued a year only; for the meaning of the word perpetuus is (non interruptus,) not interrupted during the term of its appointed duration.

5. The establishment of these quaestiones, deprived the comitia of their criminal jurisdiction, except the crime of treason - they were in fact the depositories of the judicial¹⁴ power during the sixth and seventh centuries of the Roman republic, the last of which was remarkable¹⁵ for civil dissentions, and replete¹⁶ with great public, transactions. Without some knowledge of the constitution of the Quaestio perpetua, it is impossible to understand the forensic¹⁷ speeches of Cicero, or even the political history of that age. But when Julius Caesar, as dictator, sat for the trial of Ligarius, the ancient constitution of the republic was in fact destroyed, and the criminal tribunals, which had existed in more or less vigor¹⁸ and purity until then, existed no longer but in name. Under Augustus, the concentration of the triple power of the consuls¹⁰, pro-consuls and tribunes, in his person transferred to him as of course, all judicial powers and authorities.

QUAESTOR. The name of a magistrate of ancient Rome.

QUAKERS. A sect¹⁹ of Christians²⁰.

2. Formerly²¹ they were much persecuted²² on account of their peaceable principles which forbade them to bear arms, and they were denied many rights because they refused to make corporal oath. They are relieved in a great degree from the consequent penalties for refusing to bear arms; and their affirmations are everywhere in the United States, as is believed, taken instead of their oaths.