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a very large penalty in those early days. But by the Estreats Act, 1716, s. 8, if the sheriff died, the undersheriff continued in his office until a new high sheriff was appointed; and this provision is substantially repeated in the Sheriff's Act, 1887 (s. 25).

[Bailiffs or sheriffs' officers (e) are either bailiffs of hundreds or bound bailiffs, which latter are sometimes called special bailiffs. Bailiffs of hundreds are appointed over those respective districts, by the sheriffs, to collect fines therein and to summon juries; to attend the judges and justices at the assizes and quarter sessions; and to execute writs and processes in the several hundreds (f). But, as these are generally plain men, and not much inclined to this latter part of their office, that of serving writs, making arrests, and levying executions, it is now usual to join other bailiffs with them; who are generally mean persons, employed by the sheriffs on account only of their adroitness and dexterity in hunting and seizing their prey. The sheriff being civilly responsible for the official misdemeanours of these bailiffs (9), they are therefore annually bound to him in an obligation with sureties for the due execution of their office; and thence are called bound bailiffs, which the common people have corrupted into a much more homely appellation.] It is to be observed, however, that besides these officers the sheriffs may appoint, on the application of any party to a civil suit, persons named by such party, for the purpose of executing

(e) Besides the sheriff's' bailiffs, there are also bailiffs of liberties (vide sup. p. 601); bailiffs of county courts (as to whom, see the County Courts Act, 1888, ss. 33-37, replacing the County Courts Acts, 1846, ss. 31-34; 1849, s. 10; 1850, s. 4; 1856, ss. 14, 16, 55, 60, 83, 84; and 1867, ss. 21, 22, 30); and bailiff's of inferior courts generally (as to

whom, see the Inferior Courts Act, 1844; Braham v. Watkins (1846), 16 M. & W. 77; Tarrant v. Baker (1853), 14 C. B. 199).

(ƒ) As to bailiffs' fees, see Walbank v. Quarterman (1846), 3 C. B. 94.

(g) Drake v. Sikes (1797), 7 T. R. 113; Barsham v. Bullock (1839), 10 A. & E. 23.

any particular process therein; and persons so appointed are properly called special bailiffs. Whenever a party thus chooses his own officers, he is held to discharge the sheriff from all responsibility for what is done by them in the execution of the process (h).

[II. The Coroner.-The office of coroner is also a very antient one at the common law (1), though not indeed of equal antiquity with that of the sheriff; for the general institution of coroners appears to have been no earlier than, and due to, an ordinance of 1194, although there are traces at a more remote time of an office of keeping the pleas of the crown (k). The holder of this office. was called coroner (coronator), because he was formerly charged with keeping (custodire) the pleas of the Crown, or such wherein the king was more immediately concerned (1); and in this light, the lord chief justice of the King's Bench was the principal coroner of the kingdom, and might, if he pleased, exercise the jurisdiction of a coroner in any part of the realm (m). But there were also particular coroners for every county in England,-usually four, but sometimes six, and sometimes a smaller number (n).

The coroner used to be chosen by the freeholders at a county court held by the sheriff for the purpose; and by the writ de coronatore eligendo (0), it was expressly commanded the sheriff, quod talem eligi faciat, qui melius et sciat, et velit, et possit, officio illi intendere.] This mode of election was continued by the Coroners Act, 1887, s. 11, but by the Local Government Act, 1888, s. 5, the writ

(h) Ford v. Leche (1837), 6 A. & E. 699; Balson v. Meggat (1836), 4 Dowl. 557; Alderson v. Davenport (1844), 13 M. & W. 42; Botten v. Tomlinson (1847), 16 L. J., C. P. 138.

(i) See Jervis, Office and Duties of Coroners; Com. Dig. Officer,

G.; Gross, Introduction to Select
Coroners' Rolls (Selden Society).
(k) Pollock and Maitland, Hist.
of Engl. Law, vol. i, p. 534.

(/) 2 Inst. 31; 4 Inst. 271.
(m) 4 Rep. 57.

(n) F. N. B. 163.

(0) F. N. B. ubi sup. ; County Coroners Act, 1860, s. 9.

de coronatore eligendo is now to be directed to the county council, and the county council are made the electors.

[In order to secure that the persons to be elected coroners should be of suitable estate, it was enacted by the Statute of Westminster the First (p), that none but lawful and discreet knights should be chosen as coroners (q) ; but it was subsequently thought sufficient (r), if a man had lands enough to be made a knight, that is, lands to the amount of 201. per annum, a qualification very inadequate, in modern times, to the object. And accordingly, at one period it was made matter of complaint that the office of coroner was no longer undertaken by gentlemen of property; and that though formerly no coroners would condescend to be paid for serving their country, they now only desired to be chosen for the sake of the perquisites.] In our own times, however, the coroners have been in general persons of unquestionable respectability, and their position in life such as to cast no discredit on their employment. But by the Coroners Act, 1887, s. 12, it is still required, that every coroner for a county shall have land in fee sufficient in the county to answer to all manner of people (s).

By the Coroners Act, 1844 (t), coroners might be appointed for districts within counties, instead of for the county at large; and by that Act, as well as by the County Coroners Act, 1860, provisions were made as to the manner of their election (u). By the later statute, all former provisions for the remuneration of county coroners

(p) 3 Edw. 1 (1275), c. 10. (g) 2 Inst. 32.

(r) F. N. B. 163; Com. Dig. Officer, G. 4.

(8) Cf. 14 Edw. 3. (1340), st. 1,

c. 8.

(t) This Act repealed 58 Geo. 3 (1818), c. 95; R. v. Lechmere (1851), 16 Q. B. 284.

(u) R. v. Diplock (1869), L. R. 4 Q. B. 549. As to the coroners for the counties of Durham and Chester, see Coroners Act, 1887, s. 38; as to coroners for the county of Lancaster, see Coroners Act, 1887, s. 39; and as to the coroners for the county of York, see Yorkshire Coroners Act, 1897.

by fees, mileage, and allowances were repealed, and in lieu thereof they were to be paid by salary (v) ; and if any coroner refused or neglected to hold an inquest, it was made lawful for the attorney-general to apply to the King's Bench Division for a rule calling on him to show cause why such inquest should not be held (x), which provision is continued by the Coroners Act, 1887, s. 6. With respect to the election of coroners, however, it is to be observed, that the Crown, as regards the coroner of the household, and certain lords of franchises, as regards franchise-coroners, may appoint coroners for the household and for their respective liberties or franchises, by their own mere grant, and without election (y); and by the Municipal Corporations Act, 1882 (s. 171), re-enacting a like provision contained in the Municipal Corporations Act, 1835, the council of every borough having a separate court of quarter sessions was enabled to appoint a fit person to be coroner for the borough.

[Coroners are chosen for life; but they may be removed from their offices, and a coroner is ipso facto removed on being made sheriff, the one office being deemed incompatible with the other. He may also be removed by the 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, or lives in an inconvenient part of, the county (z).] The matter has also been dealt with by statute; for by the Coroners Act, 1887, s. 8 (1), the lord chancellor may remove any coroner for inability or for misbehaviour. And by s. 8 (2) if a coroner is adjudged guilty of extortion or corruption, of wilful neglect of

() County Coroners Act, 1860, ss. 3, 4; Ex parte Driffield (1871), L. R. 7 Q. B. 207.

(x) County Coroners Act, 1860, s. 5.

(y) Ibid. s. 9; Coroners Act, 1887, ss. 29-32.

(z) F. N. B. 163, 164; Ex parte Parnell (1820), 1 Jac. & Walk. 451.

duty, or of misbehaviour in the discharge of his duty, the Court convicting him may remove him from his office, and a new coroner is in such case to be duly appointed in his place. But nothing in the Act is to prejudice the jurisdiction of the lord chancellor or the High Court as to the removal of, or otherwise in relation to, a coroner (a).

An Act of 1843 (c. 83), after a preamble to the effect that at the time of that Act passing, the coroners of boroughs and liberties were empowered by law to appoint deputies to act in their stead in certain cases, but that the coroners of counties were not, provided that it should be lawful for every coroner of a county, city, riding, liberty, or division, by writing under his hand and seal, to appoint from time to time a proper person, to be approved by the lord chancellor, to act for him as his deputy in the holding of inquests, or during his illness or absence from any lawful or reasonable cause (b). By the Coroners Act, 1887, s. 13, every county coroner is enabled, subject to the approval of the lord chancellor, to appoint such a deputy (c); and by the Coroners Act, 1892, every coroner, whether for a county or a borough, is both enabled and required to appoint a deputy, such deputy being some one approved by the chairman or mayor, as the case may be, of the council.

[The office of a coroner is in part judicial and in part ministerial, but principally judicial; and his office, as ascertained by the 4 Edward I., De officio coronatoris (1276), consisted, principally, in inquiring, when any person was slain, or died suddenly, or in prison, concerning the manner of his death.] When such a death happened, it was the duty of the township to give notice of it to the coroner (d). The coroner thereupon issued a

(a) Coroners Act, 1887, s. 35.
(b) R. v. Perkin (1845), 7 Q. B.

165.

(c) Ex parte Deputy Coroner for Middlesex (1861), 6 H. & N. 501. (d) R. v. Justices of Kent (1809), 11 East, 229.

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