execute writs and processes in the several hundreds. But as they are generally plain men, and not thoroughly skilled in this latter part of their office, that of serving writs, and making arrests and executions, it is now usual to join special bailiffs with them. The sheriff being answerable for their misdemeanours, the bailiffs are usually bound in an obligation with sureties for the due execution of their office, and thence are called bound bailiffs, which has been corrupted to the more homely appellation of bumbailiffs.

Jailers are also the sheriff's servants, and he is responsible for their conduct. Their business is to keep all such persons in safety as are committed to them by lawful warrant; and if they suffer any such to escape, the sheriff shall answer to the king, if it be a criminal matter, or in a civil case, to the party injured. And to this end the sheriff must have lands sufficient within the county to answer to the king and his people. The abuses of jailers and sheriff's officers, towards the unfortunate persons in their custody, are well regulated and guarded against by various statutes. Jailers are not to suffer tippling or gaming, or the sale of any liquors in a prison under the penalty of £10.

JUSTICES OF THE PEACE.-The next species of subordinate magistrates, are justices of the peace, the principal of whom is the custos rotulorum, or keeper of the records of the county.

The king's majesty is by his office and dignity royal, the principal conservator of the peace within all his dominions, and may give authority to others to see the peace kept, and to punish such as break it: hence it is usually called the king's peace. The lord chancellor or keeper, the lord treasurer, the lord high steward of England, the lord mareschal, and lord high constable of England, (when any such officers are in being,) and all the justices of the king's bench, (by virtue of their offices,) and the master of the rolls, (by prescription,) are general conservators of the peace throughout the whole kingdom, and may commit all who break it, or bind them in recognizances to keep it; the other judges are only so in their own The coroner is also a conservator of the peace within his own county, as is also the sheriff, and both of them may take a recognizance. Constables, tithing-men, and the like, are also conservators of the peace within their own jurisdictions, and may apprehend all breakers of the peace, and commit them till they find sureties for their keeping it.

courts.

These justices are appointed by the king's special commission under the great seal, the form of which was settled by all the judges A. D. 1590. This appoints them all, jointly and severally, to keep the peace, and any two or more of them to inquire of and determine felonies and other misdemeanours; in which number some particular justices, or one of them, are directed to be always included, and no business to be done without their presence. 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, which done, he is at liberty to act.

It is now enacted that every justice, with some exceptions, shall have £100 per annum, clear of all deductions, and if he act without such qualification, he shall forfeit £100. And it is also provided, that no practising attorney, solicitor, or proctor, shall be capable of acting as a justice of the peace.

The office of these justices subsists only during the king's pleasure, and is determinable, 1. By the demise of the crown, that is, in six months after ; but if the same justice is put in commission by the successor, he is not obliged to sue out a new dedimus, or to swear again to his qualification; nor by reason of any new commission, to take the oaths more than once during the same reign. 2. By express writ under the great seal, discharging any particular person from being any longer a justice. 3. By superseding the commission by writ of supersedeas, which suspends the power of all the justices, but does not totally destroy it; in as much as it may be revived again by another writ, called a procedendo. 4. 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. 5. By accession to the office of sheriff or coroner.

The power, office, and duty of a justice of the peace depends on his commission, and on the several statutes which have created objects of his jurisdiction. His commission first empowers him singly to conserve the peace, and thereby gives him all the power of the ancient conservators at the common law, in suppressing riots and affrays, in taking securities for the peace, and in apprehending and committing felons and other inferior criminals. 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.

SURVEYORS OF HIGHWAYS.-Every parish is bound of common right to keep the high roads that go through it in good and sufficient repair, unless by reason of the tenure of lands, or otherwise, this care is consigned to some particular private person.

Their office and duty consists in putting in execution a variety of laws for the repairs of the public highways; that is, of ways leading from one town to another, all which are now reduced into one act, 13 Geo. III., which enacts, 1. That they may remove all annoyances in the highways, or give notice to the owner to remove them, who is liable to penalties for non-compliance. 2. They are to call together all the inhabitants and occupiers of lands, tenements, and hereditaments within the parish, six days in every year, to labour in fetching materials, or repairing the highways: all persons keeping draughts, (of three horses, &c.) or occupying lands,

being obliged to send a teem for every draught, and for every £50 a-year, which they keep or occupy; persons keeping less than a draught, or occupying less than £50 a-year, to contribute in a less proportion: and all other persons chargeable, between the ages of eighteen and sixty-five, to work or find a labourer, but they may compound with the surveyors, at certain easy rates established by the act. And every cartway leading to any market town, must be made twenty feet wide at the least, if the fences will permit, and may be increased by the authority of two justices, at the expense of the parish, to the breadth of thirty feet. 3. The surveyors may lay out their own money in purchasing materials for repairs, in erecting guide posts, and making drains, and shall be reimbursed by a rate, to be allowed at a special sessions. 4. In case the personal labour of the parish be not sufficient, the surveyors, with the consent of the quarter sessions, may levy a rate on the parish in aid of the personal duty, not exceeding in any one year, together with the other highway rates, the sum of 9d. in the pound; for the due application of which, they are accountable on oath. Turnpikes are now pretty generally introduced in aid of such rates, and the laws relating to them, depend principally on the particular powers granted in the several road acts, and upon some general provisions, which are extended to all turnpike roads in the kingdom by 13 Geo. III.

CORONERS.-Coroners were originally the principal conservators of the king's peace, and the name is derived from Corona, a crown, because by the common law they attended principally to the pleas of the crown. In virtue of his office, the lord chief justice of the king's bench is the chief coroner of England. Anciently the office of Coroner was held in such high estimation, that none under the degree of a knight could hold it. By the 14 Edward III., no coroner could be chosen unless he had in the same county sufficient land in fee to answer all manner of people.

The coroner is elected by the freeholders of the county in the county court, in pursuance of the king's writ issued from, and returnable to, the court of chancery. The demise of the king does not affect this officer; he still continues ad vitam aut culpam, without any new election. After his election and return, he is sworn by the sheriff to the due execution of his office.

When any person comes by a violent or unnatural death, or if there be suspicion of such, the township is to give notice to the coroner; and if this is neglected, and the body interred without due notification, or before the coroner's arrival, then the township is liable to be amerced. To bury any body which has met with a violent death before a coroner's inquest has sat upon it, is, according to chief justice Holt, indictable; and also if the township shall suffer the body to lie unburied till it putrifies, without sending notice to the coroner, it is liable to be amerced.

On receiving notice, the former issues a precept to the constables of the next four, five, or six townships, to return twelve good and lawful men to

appear before him at such a place, to make inquisition into the cause of death; and every one above the age of twelve years, is liable to serve on the jury, unless they have a reasonable excuse to the contrary. The jury when assembled are sworn, and charged by the coroner to inquire, on view of the body, how the party came by his death. If the body, either from carelessness or ignorance, should have been interred before his arrival, he must dig it up, because the body must be seen by himself and jury, and which may be done within fourteen days.

The jury being sworn, must hear evidence on oath, whether for defence or inculpation, whether the person was slain, either in any house, field, bed, tavern, or company, as also who were present; and if any one or more are found culpable, the coroner issues his writ committing the parties to jail, or into the custody of the sheriff. The coroner is also to inquire into the cause of death, when any one is found dead or drowned. Immediately after due inquisition by the coroner and his jury, the bodies whether they died a natural or a violent death, are to be buried.

By act of parliament, every coroner is obliged to certify all cases of murder to the assizes, and put the evidence into writing, and to bind over the witnesses to give evidence at the ensuing jail delivery, otherwise, on neglect, the coroner is liable to a fine at the discretion of the court. The coroner can inquire of accessories before the fact, but he is debarred from any inquiry after the fact; that belongs to the court.

It is the duty of the coroner to inquire into the death of every one who dies in prison, which shows the humanity and attention to justice of the laws of England, to act as a check on the brutality or inhumanity of jailers; for, if a prisoner comes to an untimely death through violence or unreasonable hardship of his keepers, it is counted murder in the jailer, and in consequence of the cruelty, the law implies malice. In the inquest held on prisoners dying under these circumstances, the jury is composed of six prisoners, (if there are as many in the jail at the time,) and six freehold ers of the parish in which the prison is situate.

If it is ascertained that a coroner has been corrupt in taking an inquest, the law determines that a melius inquirendum shall go to special commissioners, who shall proceed on testimony and not on view, to the entire exclusion of the coroner; who, in this particular case has nothing to do with the inquest; but where the inquest has been quashed for informality only, he takes a new inquest, as if none had been taken before.

The power and duties of the coroner seem to have been considerable, for it was his duty to inquire after treasure found, both the finders and the parties suspected, also after all who lived riotously, or that haunted taverns. Besides his judicial place, he had also a ministerial authority as a sheriff, that is, where there is a just exception taken at the sheriff, judicial process is awarded to the coroner, for the due execution of the king's writs,

and in some special cases, the king's original writ is immediately directed to him. It is his duty to be present in the county court, to pronounce judgment of outlawry upon the exigent after quinto exactus, at the fifth court, if the defendant does not appear.

Formerly he had a power in certain appeals, which are now disused, as of rape and maiming, and also in cases of abjuration for felony or other offences.

By the statute of 3 Henry VII., the coroner is entitled to a fee on every inquisition, on the view of a body slain, 13s. 4d. to be levied on the goods and chattels of the murderer, if he have any, and if not, his fee is taken from the amercement of the township which suffers the murderer to escape. By the 25 Geo. II., for every inquisition (not taken upon view of a body dying in jail,) he is entitled to 20s. and besides 9d. per mile for every mile he shall be compelled to travel from his usual place of abode, to be paid by order of the justices in sessions, out of the county rates, for which order no fee can be exacted.

But no coroner of the king's household, or of the verge of the king's palaces, nor any coroner of the admiralty, or of the county palatine of Durham, nor of the city of London; and borough of Southwark, nor any franchise belonging to the said city; nor of any city, town, or franchise, not contributing to the county rates, or within which such rates have not been usually assessed, shall be entitled to any benefit by this act; but they shall have such fees and salaries as they were allowed before this act, or shall be allowed by the persons by whom they have been appointed.

A coroner neglecting his duty, is liable to severe punishment. For concealing a felony, or showing partiality to criminals, he shall be imprisoned one year and fined at the king's pleasure, (3 Edward I.) If he is remiss, and neglect to make inquisition on view of the dead body, and to certify the same to the jail delivery, he shall forfeit to the king one hundred shillings. If any coroner, not appointed by an annual election or nomination, or whose office is not annexed to any other office, shall be convicted of extortion in taking more than his lawful fees, or of wilful neglect of his duty, or of any misdemeanor in his office; the court before whom he shall be convicted, may remove him from his office, and if he has been elected by the freeholders, the court shall issue a writ for removing him and electing another in his place. If he has been appointed by the lord of any liberty and franchise, or in any other manner than by the freeholders, the person entitled to the nomination shall, after notice, nominate another person in his place.

The coroner is a judicial officer, and must execute his office in person and not by deputy, and if he acts by deputy, he is liable to the penalties just mentioned.*

* Blackstone, Burn's Justice, Lyttleton's Hist. Henry II., Douglas' Peerage, Henry's Hist. of Great Britain.

D