required by several statutes to have sufficient land within the shire to answer the King and his people. In practice he is usually a person of consideration and substance in his county. If any reasonable excuse can be alleged for declining this onerous office,-as that the individual chosen is of small fortune, an officer in the militia, abroad, or the like, -it vill be received. The stat. 1 Rich. II., c. 11, enacts, that no man who has served in the office shall be again elected within three years. A sheriff may, however, hold his office after the year, if not before lawfully discharged; and by 1 Anne, c. 8, all officers appointed by the preceding King may hold their offices for six months after the King's demise, unless sooner displaced by his successor. If a sheriff die before his office has expired, the under-sheriff executes the same in the deceased sheriff's name till a new one is sworn; and is answerable for the execution of the office as the deceased sheriff would have been. If any one, fully qualified and chosen, refuse the office of sheriff, he is liable to a criminal information. The Earl of Thanet is hereditary sheriff of Westmoreland; and the livery of London elect the sheriffs for London and Middlesex.

The duties which the sheriff has to perform are numerous: he has to act as a judge; as the keeper of the King's peace; as a ministerial officer of the superior courts of justice; and as the King's bailiff.

In a judicial capacity, or rather in a capacity partly judicial and partly ministerial, he presides at the county and hundred courts, and also upon the execution of writs of inquiry, and of writs of trial issued under 3 and 4 Will. IV., c. 42. He presides at the election of knights of the shire (subject to control by the House of Commons) and of coroners, returning such as are duly elected. The provisions for registration under the Reform Bill have reduced this duty within very narrow limits.

The sheriff, as well as the constable, coroner, and certain other officers of the King, are, by the great charters, expressly forbidden to hold any pleas of the Crown, or, in other words, to try any criminal offence upon an indictment. Neither can the sheriff, during the continuance of his office, act as an ordinary justice of the peace. He formerly held his tourn or leet regularly once or twice in the year for matters within its jurisdiction.

As keeper of the King's peace, he may apprehend and commit to prison all persons who break, or attempt to break it; and may bind any one in a recognizance to keep it: but such precautionary measures are now usually taken by the justices of the peace. He is bound, ex officio, upon proper requisition, to pursue and take all traitors, murderers, felons, and other misdoers, and to commit them to gaol for safe custody. He is also bound to defend his county against the King's eremies, should they come into it; and for this purpose, as well as for keeping the peace and pursuing felons, he may command the adult male population of his county to attend him in arms. The force so raised is called the posse comitatus, or power of the county. But it is hardly necessary to say, that the Crown no longer relies on the sheriffs for the defence of the realm, and that the posse comitatus is not organised so as to be an efficient force even in the case of internal disturbance.

In his ministerial capacity, the sheriff is bound to execute all writs and other process issuing from the King's courts of justice, and directed to him; and, if necessary, to arrest and take charge of the defendant. When a cause comes to trial, he must summon and return the jury; and when it is over, he causes the judgment of the court to be carried into execution. In criminal matters he returns the juries, attends the judges during trial, and executes by deputy or personally the sentence of the court, even though it be death. The bailiff, gaoler, and executioner, are looked upon as his officers, and, to a certain extent, he is answerable for them.

As the King's bailiff, it is his business to preserve the rights of the King within his bailiwick; for so his county is usually called in writs. Further, it is his duty to watch over the King's rights; to seize to the King's use lands devolved to the Crown by attainder or escheat; to levy fines and forfeitures; to seize and keep waifs, wrecks, estrays, and the like, unless granted to some subject; and to be accountable for these and other sources of revenue to the King's officers of the Exchequer.

The Custos Rotulorum is also a county officer of high dignity, and bears the same rank in civil affairs that the Lord-lieutenant does in military. Of late years the two offices have been usually vested in the same individual; but they are totally distinct, both in their appointments and their duties. The custos rotulorum has, as his name implies, the custody of the rolls and records of the sessions of the peace, though, in point of law, they remain in the custody of all the justices. The appointment is made by the King's commission; unless the King, or his progenitors, have, by letters patent, granted any liberty in particular districts to appoint the custos rotulorum, in which case the lord of the liberty exercises the power. The custos rotulorum, having, by virtue of his office, the custody of the rolls of session, should attend the session either personally or by his deputy, who is the clerk of the peace, and is appointed by him. The Lord-lieutenants of counties became standing officers of the Crown about the reign of Henry VIII.; they represent the Crown in the management of the militia of each county.

Clerk of the Peace. This officer, appointed as above mentioned, is responsible to the justices in session for the performance of his duties. It is his duty, by himself or his deputy (who must be approved by the custos rotulorum), to be in constant attendance on the Court of Quarter Session. He gives notice of the time of its being holden or adjourned, issues its process, records its proceedings, and executes all the ministerial acts necessary to give effect to its decisions. He receives bills of indictment from the grand jury; calls over the petty jury; arraigns prisoners; receives and records verdicts; administers oaths; and makes true entries of all proceedings. The table of fees to be taken by the clerk of the peace is settled by the justices in their Court of Quarter Session, and subsequently submitted to the justices of assize for their approval.

The Coroner (coronator, so called from having principally to do with pleas of the Crown, or those wherein the King is more immediately concerned) is a very ancient common law officer. The Lord

Chief Justice of the King's Bench is, ex officio, the principal coroner in the kingdom, and may, if he please, exercise the jurisdiction of a coroner in any part of the realm. But there are also particular coroners for every county, usually four, but sometimes six, and sometimes fewer. This officer is of equal antiquity with the sheriff, and was ordained, together with him, to keep the peace, and to inquire concerning the rights of the Crown.

The Coroner is chosen by the freeholders in the County Court, as was formerly the case with sheriffs, conservators of the peace, and other officers. A writ at common law issued to the sheriff, commands him "to cause to be chosen such a person who may best know and be able to attend to that office." The coroner is chosen for life, but may be removed either in consequence of being made sheriff, or by the King's writ de coronatore exonerando for cause therein assigned-as, that he is engaged in other business; incapacitated by years or sickness; hath not a sufficient estate in the county, or lives in an inconvenient part thereof: and by st. 25 Geo. II., c. 29, extortion, neglect, or misbehaviour, are also made causes of removal.

The office of coroner is, also, like that of sheriff, both judicial and ministerial. This is, in a great measure, ascertained by statute 4 Edward I., de officio coronatoris, and consists, first, in inquiring when any person is slain, or dies suddenly, or in prison, concerning the manner of his death, which he must do on inspection of the body; for, if the body be not found, the coroner cannot sit. He must also sit at or near the place where the death happened, and make his inquiry by a jury of at least 12 persons from the neighbouring towns. If any be found guilty by this inquest of murder or other homicide, he is to commit them to prison for further trial, and is also to inquire concerning their lands, goods, and chattels, which are forfeited; he must inquire whether any deodand has accrued to the King, or the lord of the franchise, and must certify the result of the inquisition (under his own seal and the seals of the jurors), together with the evidence thereon, to the Court of King's Bench, or to the next assizes. Another branch of his office is to inquire concerning shipwrecks, and certify whether there be wreck or not, and who is in possession of the goods. Concerning treasure-trove, he is also to inquire who were the finders, and where it is, and whether any one is suspected of having found and concealed a treasure; and, if so, to attach him, and hold him to bail upon the suspicion.

The coroner acts ministerially as the sheriff's substitute; for, when just exception can be taken to the sheriff for suspicion of partiality (as that he is interested in the suit, or of kin to either plaintiff or defendant), the process for execution of the King's writs must be awarded to the coroner instead of the sheriff.

Justices of the Peace.-The next species of subordinate magistrates are the justices of the peace, the principal of whom is the custos rotulorum, already mentioned. The Lord Chancellor or Keeper, the Lord Treasurer, the Lord High Steward of England, the Earl Marshal, the Lord High Constable of England (when any such officers are in being), and all the justices of the Court of King's Bench (by virtue of

their offices), and the Master of the Rolls (by prescription), are general conservators of the peace throughout the kingdom, and may commit all breakers of it, or bind them in recognisances to keep it; the other judges are only so in their own courts. The sheriff and coroner are conservators of the peace within their own county, and either of them may take a recognisance or security to keep it. Constables, tithing-men, and the like, are also conservators of the peace within their respective jurisdictions, and may apprehend actual breakers of the peace, and either detain them to prevent a further breach, or bring them before a justice to inquire, commit, or take bail to answer for the past offence.

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The ancient conservators of the peace were appointed in various ways, and were often chosen by the general body of freeholders of the county; but their duties were ministerial, and rather resembled those of modern constables than of justices of the peace, whose office originated in the reign of Edward III. The latter are appointed by the King's commission under the great seal, the form of which was settled by the judges in 1590. This appoints them jointly and severally to keep the peace, and any two or more of them to inquire of and determine felonies and other misdemeanors; in which number some particular justices are directed to be always included, and no business is to be done without their presence, the words of the commission (when in Latin) running thus, quorum aliquem vestrum A, B, C, D, &c., unum esse volumus," whence the persons so named are usually called justices of the quorum. Formerly it was customary to appoint only a select number to be of the quorum; but now the practice is to repeat the names of all over again in the quorum clause, excepting, perhaps, some one person for the sake of form; and no exception is now allowable for not expressing in the form of warrants, &c., that the justice who issued them is of the quorum. When any justice intends to act under this commission he sues out a writ of dedimus potestatem from the clerk of the Crown in Chancery, empowering certain persons therein named to administer the usual oaths to him, after which he is at liberty to act. The only qualification seems to be that required by statute 5 Geo. II., c. 11, which makes it necessary that every justice shall have lands to the value of 100l. per annum clear of all deductions; if he act without such qualification, he forfeits 100%.

The office of these justices is determinable-1st. By the demise of the Crown; that is, in six months after. But, if the same justice be put in commission under the new monarch, he shall not be obliged to sue out a new dedimus, or to swear to his qualification afresh; nor, by reason of any new commission, to take the oaths more than once in the same reign. 2nd. By express writ, under the great seal, discharging any particular person from being any longer justice. 3rd. By a writ of supersedeas, which suspends the power of all the justices, but does not totally destroy it, as it may be revived again by another writ, called a procedendo. 4th. By a new commission, which virtually, though silently, discharges all the former justices that are not included therein; for two commissions cannot subsist at once. And, 5th. By accession of the office of sheriff, which suspends that of justice.

The power, office, and duty of a justice of the peace depends on his commission, and on the several statutes which have given justices jurisdiction in particular matters. His commission empowers him singly to preserve the peace; and, thereby gives him all the power of the ancient conservators in suppressing riots and affrays, in taking securities for the peace, and in apprehending and committing felons and other inferior criminals to prison to take their trial. It also empowers any two or more to hear and determine all felonies and other offences, which is the ground of their jurisdiction at sessions; but this will be noticed more fully afterwards.

Constables are of two sorts, high or hundred constables, and petty constables. The former originated in the Statute of Winchester, and are appointed at the court leets of the franchise or hundred over which they preside, or, in default of that, by the justices at their quarter sessions (which is now the usual way); and are removable by the same authority that appoints them. The petty constables are inferior officers of immemorial antiquity in every township, subordinate to the high constable of the hundred. Their office is not distinguishable at this day from that of headborough, borseholder, or tithing man. They are likewise chosen by the jury at the court leet, or, if no court leet be held, appointed by two justices of the peace.

The general duty of all constables, both high and petty, is to keep the King's peace in their several districts; and for that purpose they are armed with considerable powers of arresting and imprisoning, of breaking open houses, and of maintaining the peace by forcible means. Other duties have been from time to time superadded by statute.

CHAPTER IV.-COURTS OF JUSTICE, CIVIL AND CRIMINAL, &c.

SECT. 1.-Courts of Justice.

HAVING thus briefly specified the officers employed in the administration of justice, we come next to the courts. In England, justice is always administered publicly; and a court of justice, by the common law of the land, is an open court, with no other restriction than what order, decency, and the due administration of justice, may require. No court of justice can be created but by the King's commission, and there are some, as courts of equity, which cannot now be created by the mere authority of the Crown. In the old courts, which have existed from time immemorial, this origin is presumed, though no record of it now remains, and though there may be reasonable historical evidence that it never in fact existed. The creation of a new superior court by the sole prerogative of the King would, however, be attended with considerable difficulty at the present time; but the erection of inferior courts of known jurisdiction according to the course of the common law, such as a leet or a civil court within a borough, could, it is apprehended, be even now effected without difficulty where no subsisting statute precludes it, and no public or private rights are injured. As it is by the King, as head of the executive, that courts