The stamp duties.

Houses and windows.

Male servants.

Hackney coaches.

Offices and pensions.

The origin of the national debt.

Cromwell upon nearly the same model as has been ever since adopted. After the Restoration, a similar office was established by 12 Car. 2, c. 35 (i).

The stamp duties (k) are a tax imposed upon all parchment and paper whereon any legal proceedings or private instruments are written; and upon licenses for retailing wines and letting horses to hire (7), on cards and dice, and on newspapers, advertisements, and apprentice fees, if 50%. or upwards. The duty upon houses and windows is laid upon all houses (except cottages) by 7 Wm. 3, c. 18 (m), and a tax upon all windows exceeeing nine in one house, since extended to all windows exceeding six.

The duty upon male servants was imposed by 17 Geo. 3, c. 39, and 19 Geo. 3, c. 59, and is, with the two preceding duties, under the management of the commissioners of the land and window tax.

The revenue arising from the duty imposed on licenses to hackney coaches in London and the parts adjacent is governed by commissioners of its own (n)

The duty upon offices and pensions consists in an annual payment of 1s. in the pound imposed on all pensions payable by the crown, exceeding 100%. a-year, by 31 Geo. 2, c. 22, and which is under the direction of the commissioners of the land tax.

After the Revolution, when our connexions with Europe introduced a new system of foreign politics, and the expenses of the kingdom, by continental wars, increased to an unusual degree, it became the policy of the nation to borrow largely

(i) The act of 7 Wm. 4 and 1 Vict. c. 34, regulates the sending and receiving of letters and packets by the post, free from the duty of postage, by members of parliament, and certain officers therein mentioned, from class 1 to class 10. But see now the late act, 2 & 3 Vict. c. 52, for the further regulation of the duties on postage, until 5th October, 1840, and for authorising the establishment of a general and uniform postage, at a reduced rate, under the regulation of the commissioners of the treasury.

(k) By 5 Geo. 4, c. 41, certain duties on law proceedings in the courts in Great Britain and Ireland were repealed.

(1) By 6 & 7 Wm. 4, c. 45, the collection and management of the duties on horses let for hire, and on licenses relating thereto, were transferred from the commissioners of stamps and taxes to the commissioners of excise.

(m) The duties on dwelling-houses were repealed by 4 & 5 Wm. 4, c. 19.

(n) Now, by the commissioners of stamps; see 1 & 2 Wm. 4, c. 22. And see 1 & 2 Vict. c. 79, for the better regulation of hackney carriages, and of metropolitan stage carriages, and of waggons, carts, and drays, used in and near the metropolis, and of the drivers and attendants thereof.

for the current service of the state, and to lay no more taxes upon the subject than sufficed to pay the interest of the sums borrowed: by this means, converting the principal debt into a new species of property, transferrable from one man to another at any time and in any quantity. This laid the foundation of what is called the national debt, to pay the interest of which, with certain annuities, and the charges of management, the extraordinary revenues enumerated, are in the first place mortgaged and made perpetual by parliament. These several taxes formed originally separate funds or securities for the sums advanced on each tax. But they afterwards became blended together, the faith of parliament 'being added for the security of the whole. Now there are only three of such funds: the aggregate fund, the general fund, and the South sea fund, the last being the produce of the taxes raised to pay the interest of the sums advanced by that company. The surplusses of these funds, above the interest, and annuities charged thereon, are carried together, and charged with the payment to the crown of 900,000l. per annum for the support of the civil list. The The civil list. expenses defrayed by the civil list are the expenses of the royal household (o), the revenues allotted to the judges previous to 1758, salaries to officers of state, and the king's servants, the appointments of foreign ambassadors, the maintenance of the queen and royal family, the king's private expenses or privy purse, secret service money, pensions, and other bounties.

CHAPTER IX.

OF SUBORDINATE MAGISTRATES.

The magistrates and officers, who have a jurisdiction and of subordinate authority dispersedly throughout the kingdom, are, principally, magistrate. sheriffs, coroners, justices of the peace, constables, surveyors of highways, and overseers of the poor.

The sheriff is an officer of great antiquity, the name being The sheriff. compounded of two Saxon words, shire and reve, the reeve

(0) The civil list now forms no part of the sum raised for the queen's household; by 1 & 2 Wm. 4, c. 25, s. 3, 510,000l. per annum is to be paid out of the consolidated fund for that purpose.

bailiff or officer of the shire. He is called in Latin vice comes (a),
as being the deputy of the earl or comes, to whom the custody
of the shire was committed at the first division of this kingdom
into counties. But in process of time, the business of the
county devolving wholly on the sheriff, that officer, though
still called vice comes, became, as he now is, entirely inde-
pendent of the earl, the king, by his letters patent, committing
custodiam comitatus to the sheriff alone. Sheriffs were formerly
chosen by the inhabitants of the several counties; but now,
the judges, with the great officers and privy counsellors, meet
in the exchequer on the morrow of St. Martin, when the
judges propose three persons to be reported to the king, who
afterwards appoints one of them. In Westmoreland, the
sheriff is hereditary; and London has the inheritance of the
shrievalty of Middlesex vested in their body by charter.
Sheriffs are to continue in office one year, but no longer, and
no sheriff can be compelled to serve a second time within
three years. The power and duty of a sheriff are either as a
judge, as the keeper of the king's peace, as a ministerial officer
of the superior courts of justice, or as the king's bailiff.
his judicial capacity he is to hear and determine all causes of
40s. value and under in his county court, and he has also a
judicial power in some other civil cases: he is to decide the
elections of knights of the shire and of coroners and verderors,
to judge of the qualification of voters, and to return such
members as he shall determine to be duly elected.

In

As the keeper of the king's peace he is the first man in the county, and superior in rank to any nobleman during 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 peace. He may, and is bound ex officio, to pursue and take all traitors, murderers, felons and other misdoers, and commit them to gaol. He is also to defend his county against any of the king's enemies when they come into the land, and for which purpose, and for keeping the peace and pursuing felons, he may command the people of his county to attend him, which is called the posse comitatus, or power of the county, and this summons every person above

(a) That which we call comitatum, the Romans, more Latinely, called consulatum. Whom the Saxons afterwards called shireve, or earle, the Romans called consul. The sheriff was deputy of the consul, or earle, and therefore the Romans called him viceconsul, as we at this day call him vice-comes.—Co. Litt. 168 (a).

315.

fifteen, under the degree of a peer, is bound to attend. Yet Dalt. c. 95. he is forbidden to hold any pleas or to try any criminal offence. Lamb Eiren. Nor may he act as a justice of the peace during his office. M. C. c. 17. In his ministerial capacity the sheriff executes all process Ministerial issuing from the king's courts of justice. In civil causes he duties. serves the writ, arrests and takes bail, he summons and returns the jury, and sees to the execution of his judgment. In criminal matters he arrests and imprisons, returns the jury, has the custody of the delinquents, and executes the sentence of the court though it extend to death. As the king's bailiff he must Conservator of seize to the king's use all lands devolved to the crown by in his bailiwick. the king's rights attainder or escheat within his bailiwick or county, levy all fines and forfeitures, seize and keep all waifs, wrecks and Dalt. c. 9. estrays, and collect the king's rents if commanded by process

from the exchequer (b).

of the sheriff.

To execute these duties the sheriff has under him an under- Inferior officers sheriff, bailiffs and gaolers, who must neither buy, sell, nor farm their offices, on forfeiture of 500%.

Hen. 5, c. 4.

Dalt. c. 9.

Bailiffs.

The undersheriff performs the duties of the office, a few Under sheriff. excepted, when the personal presence of the sheriff is necessary; but no undersheriff may stay in office more than one year under a penalty of 2007. or practise as an attorney. Bailiffs or sheriffs officers are either bailiffs of hundreds, or special bailiffs. Bailiffs of hundreds are officers appointed over those districts by the sheriff to collect fines therein (c), to summon juries and to attend the judges and justices at the assizes and quarter sessions; special bailiffs are appointed by the sheriff to execute writs and process, and are bound in an obligation with sureties for the due execution of their office.

Gaolers are also the servants of the sheriff, who is responsible Gaolers. for their conduct. If they suffer any person committed to

(6) By 3 & 4 Wm. 4, c. 99, it is not now necessary for any sheriff in England or Wales to sue out a patent. The appointment of sheriff is notified in the London Gazette, and a warrant, signed by the clerk of the council, transmitted to the person nominated sheriff; a duplicate of such warrant being transmitted to and enrolled by the clerk of the peace of the county. The sheriff is to appoint an undersheriff in writing, and to transmit a duplicate of such appointment to the clerk of the peace, who is to file it. The sheriff and under-sheriff are to take the usual oath before the Barons of the Exchequer, or a justice of the peace for the county. The act provides for the more effectual return and recovery of fines, issues, forfeited recognizances, penalties, and deodands; but the sheriffs are not now chargeable with quit-rents, prefines, and post-fines, which are received by the Commissioners of Woods and Forests and the Receiver-General of Alienation Fines.

(c) See the last note.

Dalt. c. 18.
4 Rep. 34.
9 Edw. 2, st. 2.
2 Edw. 3, c. 4.
4 Edw. 3, c. 9.

5 Edw. 3, c. 4.

13 & 14 Car. 2, c. 21. s.7. Coroners.

2 Inst. 31.

Inst. 271.

4 Rep. 57.

F. N. B. 163. 2 Inst. 558.

164.

Judicial duties

of the coroner. Mim. c.1.8.3.

2 Inst. 175.

their custody 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. And to this end the sheriff must have lands sufficient within the county, to answer the king and his people.

The coroner is also a very ancient officer. He is called coroner, coronator, because he has to do with pleas of the crown. And in this light the chief justice of the king's bench is the principal coroner in the kingdom, and may act as such in any part of the realm. But there are also particular coroners for F. N. B. 163, every county. The coroner is chosen by all the freeholders in the county court, and holds his office for life, unless removed for extortion, neglect, or misbehaviour, or at his own desire for other causes (d). He ought to have an estate sufficient to answer any fines that may be set upon him for misbehaviour, and if he has not enough his fine may be levied on the county. The duties of the coroner are principally judicial. They are mostly ascertained by 4 Edw. 1, de officio coronatoris, and consist first in inquiry when any person is slain, or dies suddenly, or in prison concerning the manner of his death. And this must be super visum corporis; for if the body be not found the coroner cannot sit. He must also sit at the very place where the death happened, and his inquiry is made by a jury from the neighbouring towns over whom he is to preside (e). If any be found

4 Inst. 271.

(d) By the Municipal Corporations Act, 5 & 6 Wm. 4, c. 76, s. 62, coroners for boroughs in which separate courts of quarter sessions are holden are to be chosen by the councils of such boroughs; and by section 63, coroners so chosen are to make annual returns to the secretaries of state of the inquests holden by them during the year ending the 31st December immediately preceding.

(e) By 6 & 7 Wm. 4, c. 89, the coroner is empowered to summon the medical practitioner who attended the deceased in his last illness, if legally qualified; and if not so attended, to summon any legally qualified medical practitioner in actual practice, and to direct a post mortem examination. A majority of the jury may require the coroner to summon additional medical evidence if the first be not satisfactory; but no fee to medical witnesses is allowed if the examination of medical witnesses was instituted without an order from the coroner. A penalty of 51. may be imposed by two justices on any medical practitioner neglecting to attend when summoned.

By 6 & 7 Wm. 4 and 1 Vict. c. 68, so much of 6 & 7 Wm. 4, c. 89, as directed the coroner to make an order on the churchwardens and overseers of the parish for, and as authorized the payment out of the poor rates of fees to medical witnesses, was repealed, and it was enacted, that the coroner shall pay such fees, and be reimbursed the same, and all other legal payments; if coroner for a county, out of the county rates, and if for a borough, out of the borough funds, laying his account before the justices at the quarter sessions or town council.

By 6 & 7 Wm. 4, c. 86, s. 25, the coroner must inform the registrar of births and deaths, of the finding of the jury on every inquest, and the registrar must make the entry accordingly.