Page images
PDF
EPUB

CHAP XI.

SUBORDINATE MAGISTRATES.

[See 1 Black. Com. ch. 9; 3 Steph. Com. Bk. IV., pt. 1. ch. 10.]

The sovereign, we have seen, is the supreme magistrate of the realm, and all others are consequently subordinate.-We proceed to treat of these latter, reserving, however, the subject of the judges of the superior courts of Westminster till we notice the courts of the realm.

Sheriffs.]-The sheriff is an officer of very great antiquity in this kingdom, and performs all the King's business in the county; the King committing custodiam comitatus to the sheriff, and him alone. Sheriffs, except where the shrievalty is of inheritance, were formerly chosen by the inhabitants of the several counties; but it has been provided by various statutes that sheriffs shall be assigned and elected by the chancellor, treasurer, president of the King's council, chief justices, chief barons, all the judges and great officers of state, on the morrow of All Souls in the Exchequer (which is now altered to the morrow of St. Martin), where they

F

propose three persons to the King, who afterwards appoints one of them to be sheriff. The appointment is notified in the London Gazette, and the clerk of the privy council makes out a warrant, which, being received by the sheriff, enables him to act upon taking the oath of office (a). The office of sheriff cannot be determined until a new sheriff be named, unless by his own death or the lapse of six months after the demise of the King, unless sooner displaced by the successor. By 1 Rich. 2, c. 11, no man that has served the office of sheriff for one year can be compelled to serve the same again within three years after. The power and duty of a sheriff are either as a judge, as a keeper of the King's peace, as a ministerial officer of the superior courts of justice, or as the King's bailiff. In his judicial capacity he is to hear and determine all causes of forty shillings value or under, in his county court, the greater part of which is now, however, taken away by the new County Courts, instituted under the 7 & 8 Vict. c. 95 (b). He also tries issues sent out of the superior courts in debts under £20 (c); also takes inquiries and inquisitions directed to him (d); he is likewise to determine the elections of knights of the shire, of coroners, and of verderers; to judge of the qualification of voters, and to return such candidates as he shall determine to be duly elected. As the keeper of the King's peace, both by common law and special commission, he is the first man in the county, and superior in rank to any nobleman therein during his office. He may apprehend and commit to prison all persons who break the peace, or attempt to break it, and may bind any one in a recognizance to keep the King's peace. He may, and is bound, ex officio, to pursue and take all traitors, murderers, felons, and other misdoers, and commit them to gaol for safe custody.

[blocks in formation]

He is also to defend his country against any of the King's enemies, when they come into the land; and for this purpose, as well as for keeping the peace and pursuing felons, he may command all the people of his county to attend him, which is called the posse comitatus, or power of the county; which summons every person above fifteen years old, and under the degree of a peer, is bound to attend, upon warning, under pain of fine and imprisonment.-In his ministerial capacity, the sheriff is bound to execute all process issuing from the King's courts of justice. In civil causes he is to arrest, to take bail, to summon and return the jury, and to see the judgment of the law carried into execution. In criminal matters, also, he arrests, imprisons, he summons the jury, has the custody of the delinquent, and executes the sentence. As the King's bailiff, it is his business to preserve the King's rights within his bailiwick, by seizing all lands devolved to the Crown by attainder or escheat; by levying all fines and forfeitures; by seizing and keeping all waifs, wrecks, estrays, and the like; and by collecting the King's rents within his county, when commanded by process from the Exchequer.

Under Sheriff]-The under sheriff is the sheriff's deputy, and usually performs all the duties of the office. He is appointed by the sheriff, by writing under his hand, within one month after the latter's appointment. The under sheriff must have an office, or a deputy residing, within a mile of the Inner Temple Hall, for the receipt of writs, &c. (e).

Sheriffs' Officers.]-Bailiffs or sheriffs' officers are either bailiffs of hundreds or special bailiffs. The former are officers appointed over their respective districts by the sheriffs, to collect fines therein, to

summon juries, to attend the judges and justices at the assizes and quarter sessions. The latter are generally mean persons employed by the sheriffs to make arrests and executions; and, being usually bound to the sheriff for the due execution of their office, are called bound bailiffs. The sheriff sometimes, on the application of the party, will make a special bailiff for a particular arrest (f).

Gaolers.]-Gaolers are officers under the sheriff, who is responsible for their conduct. Their business is to keep safely all such persons as are committed to them by lawful warrant; and if they suffer any such to escape, the sheriff must answer it to the King if it be a criminal matter, or in a civil case to the party injured.

Coroners.]-The coroner is an officer of the King that hath cognisance of some pleas of the Crown. He is to be elected in full county court by the freeholders, upon the King's writ de coronatore eligendo, and ought to have lands in fee in the county to answer all people. The number of coroners is not fixed; in some counties there are four, besides several special coroners in divers liberties and privileged places, as the coroner of the verge, &c. ; and by charter, several corporations have power to choose coroners for their precincts. By the 7 & 8 Vict. c. 92, coroners may be appointed for districts within counties; and by 5 & 6 Will. 4, c. 76, ss. 62, 64, the council of every borough having separate quarter sessions may appoint a coroner for the borough. The chief justice of the King's Bench is the sovereign coroner of the realm, and may view a body and record it wherever he is. The power of coroner is either judicial or ministerial. The judicial authority of

JUSTICES OF THE PEACE.

101

coroner, both general and special, is to inquire into the cause by which any person came to a violent death, to pronounce judgment upon outlawries in the county court, to take and enter appeals of murder, &c. He may also inquire of the escape of a murderer, of treasure-trove, and wreck; but of no felony, except of the death of a man, and upon view of the body. The ministerial power of the coroner is only as the sheriff's substitute, to execute such process as may be directed to him, upon a just exception made against the sheriff (g). The coroner is chosen for life, but may be discharged by the King's writ de coronatore exonerando, for a cause to be therein assigned, as that he is engaged in other business, is incapacitated by years or sickness, hath not a sufficient estate in the county, or lives in an inconvenient part of it. By 25 Geo. 2, c. 29, which points the mode in which his inquisition is to be taken, extortion, neglect, or misbehaviour, are also made causes of removal. By the 6 & 7 Vict. c. 83, coroners of counties may in cases of illness, &c., appoint, subject to Chancellor's approbation, a deputy.

[ocr errors]

Justices of the peace].-Justices of the peace are persons appointed by the King's commission to keep the peace of the county, city, or borough for which they are appointed. Most of them are made of the quorum from the words of the commission, quorum aliquem vestrum A. B. C. D. et unum esse volumus;" because some business of importance shall not be dispatched without them, or one of them. 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; for until this be

« PreviousContinue »