so appointed shall thereupon, and upon taking the accustomed oath of office, exercise all the authorities usually enjoyed by such officers (y). But the oath of office here mentioned is not required from the sheriffs of London or Middlesex (≈).

[Sheriffs, by virtue of several old statutes, are to continue in their office no longer than one year (a); and yet it hath been said (b) that a sheriff may be made durante bene placito, or during the king's pleasure; and so is the form of the appointment (c). Therefore, till a new sheriff be named his office cannot be determined, unless by his own death. or the demise of the crown; in which last case it was usual for the successor to send a new writ to the old sheriff (d); but now, as before remarked (e), all officers appointed by the preceding sovereign may hold their offices for six months after his demise, unless sooner displaced by the successor. We may further observe, that by 1 Ric. II. 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;] if there be other sufficient person within the county (f). The discharge of the office is however in general compulsory upon the party chosen, and if he refuses to serve, having no legal exemption, he is liable to indictment or information (g). But certain descriptions of persons, such as militia officers, practising barristers, attornies, and prisoners for debt, are not liable to serve;

(y) 3 & 4 Will. 4, c. 99, s. 6. See 5 & 6 Will. 4, c. 28, as to the declaration under 9 Geo. 4, c. 17, in the case of sheriffs of counties corporate. (z) Sect. 6.

(a) By 3 & 4 Will. 4, c. 99, s. 7, he shall, on expiration of his office, deliver to his successor a correct list of all prisoners in his custody, and of all unexecuted process.

(b) 4 Rep. 32 b.

(c) Dalt. Of Sheriffs, 8.

(d) Dalt. Of Sheriffs, 7.
(e) Vide sup. p. 629.

(f) Until a different regulation was made by 8 Eliz. c. 16, in a great many instances two counties had one and the same sheriff. This is still the case in the counties of Cambridge and Huntingdon. (Christian's Blackstone, vol. i. p. 342.)

(g) 9 Rep. 46; Harrison v. Evans, 2 Burn, E. L. 185; R. v. Woodrow, 2 T. R. 731.

nor are persons under disability by judgment of law, (as in the case of outlawry,) to be appointed (h.

Also by 13 & 14 Car. II. c. 21 (i), no person shall be assigned for sheriff unless he have sufficient lands within the same to answer the king and his people: and this is the only qualification required for the office. That it was the intention however of our ancestors that the lands of a sheriff should be considerable, appears from their having this provision so frequently repeated (j), and that at the same time when they obtained a confirmation of Magna Charta and their most valuable liberties. As the sheriff, both in criminal and civil cases, may have the custody of men of the greatest property in the country, his own estate ought certainly to be large, that he may be above all temptation to permit them to escape, or to join them in their flight. In antient times, accordingly, this office was frequently executed by the nobility and persons of the highest rank in the kingdom; though it is now committed, in general, to commoners (k).

The powers and duties of the sheriff are various. [They 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.

In his judicial capacity he] has to hold a county court within his county (1) for the election of knights and coroners of the shire (m), the proclamation of outlawries and the like. To him also, by 3 & 4 Will. IV. c. 42, may be

(h) Chitty's Blackstone, vol. i. p. 339, n. (2).

(i) Made perpetual by 1 Jac. 2, c. 17.

(j) See 9 Edw. 2, st. 2; 2 Edw. 3, c. 4; 4 Edw. 3, c. 9; 5 Edw. 3, c. 4. (k) Christian's Blackstone, vol. i. p. 346, (n.) cites Spelm. Gloss. Vicecom. It is added, that bishops were not unfrequently sheriffs.

(1) In the sheriff's county court,

pleas of personal actions to the amount of forty shillings and under were formerly brought; and in these cases (the freeholders being the judges) the sheriff's duty was to preside. This court must not be confounded with the district county court held under 9 & 10 Vict. c. 95; as to which vide post, bk. v. c. IV. ; et Index, tit. County Courts.

(m) Vide sup. p. 376; post, p. 641.

directed writs for the trial of issues out of the superior courts in cases where the debt or demand does not exceed 201. (n).

[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 (0). 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 for safe custody. He is also to defend his county 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 (p); and this summons every person above fifteen years old, and under the degree of a peer, is bound to attend upon warning (q), under pain of fine and imprisonment (r).]

[In his ministerial capacity,] the sheriff is charged, in the case of parliamentary elections, with duties to which sufficient reference has been made in a former place (s). [He is also bound to execute all process issuing from the superior courts of justice ;] and, in this respect, he is considered as an officer of these courts. In civil causes, sup

posing the case to be such that a capias ad respondendum is allowed to issue to prevent the absconding of the defendant (a subject we shall have occasion to speak of hereafter (t) ), [he is to arrest and take bail: when the cause comes to trial, he must summon and return the jury: when it is determined, he must see the judgment of the court carried

(n) The sheriff has also a judicial power in the assessment of damages under writs of inquiry, on interlocutory judgments; as to which vide post, bk. v. c. IV.

(0) 1 Roll. Rep. 237.

(p) Dalt. c. 95.

(q) Lamb. Eiren. 315.
(r) St. 2 Hen. 5, c. 8.
(s) Vide sup. pp. 376, 384.
(t) Vide post, bk. v. c. x.

[into execution (u):] and in all these matters he is liable, like other ministerial officers, to an action for the negligent or improper discharge of his duty, at the suit of the party grieved (x). [In criminal matters also, he arrests and imprisons; he returns the jury; he has the custody of the delinquent; and he executes the sentence of the court, though it extend to death itself.]

Owing to the nature of the duties last referred to [the sheriff, though,] as we have seen [the principal conservator of the peace, in his county, yet, by the express directions of the Great Charter (y), he, together with the constable, coroner, and certain other officers of the king, are forbidden to hold any pleas of the crown, or, in other words, to try any criminal offence. For it would be highly unbecoming, that the executioners of justice should be also the judges; should impose, as well as levy, fines and amercements; should one day condemn a man to death, and personally execute him the next. Neither may he act as an ordinary justice of the peace during the time of his office (z); for this would be equally inconsistent, he being in many respects the servant of the justices.]

It is also to be observed, that though the sheriff's authority extends in general over the whole of his county, yet there exist many liberties throughout the kingdom exempt from his jurisdiction; being districts in regard to which grants have been antiently made by the crown to individuals, conferring on them or their bailiffs the exclusive privilege (or franchise) of executing legal process therein (a). When

(u) As to fees and poundage payable to the sheriff on the execution of civil process, see 49 Geo. 3, c. 46, s. 5; 29 Eliz. c. 4; 7 Will. 4 & 1 Vict. c. 55; 5 & 6 Vict. c. 98, s. 31; Davis v. Griffiths, 4 Mee. & W. 377; Maybery v. Mansfield, 16 L.J. (Q.B.) 102; Wrightup v. Greenacre, ib. 246; Pilkington v. Cooke, 16 Mee. & W. 615; Burton v. Lawrence, 1 L. M. & P. 668.

(r) See Barrack v. Newton, 1 Ad. & El. N. S. 525; Foster v. Cookson, ibid. 419; Squire v. Huetson, ibid. 308; Silk v. Humphery, 4 Ad. & El. 959; Gordon v. Laurie, 16 L. J. (Q. B.) 98. See also 5 & 6 Vict. c. 98, s. 31.

(y) Cap. 17.

(z) Stat. 1 Mar. st. 2, c. 8.

(a) 2 Bl. Com. 37. See 5 Geo. 2, c. 27, s. 3.

it becomes necessary to execute a writ within such a liberty, the course is to direct it to the sheriff as in ordinary cases; but as to the execution of it, that belongs by law to the bailiff of the liberty,-unless the writ be framed with a clause of non omittas, (as it is called,) specially authorizing the sheriff to enter. But as such clause is now usually, and in the more ordinary writs invariably, inserted, the practical importance of these exemptions from the general jurisdiction of the sheriff is proportionably reduced (b).

[As the king's bailiff, it is the sheriff's business to preserve the rights of the crown, within his bailiwick, for so his county is frequently called in the writs; a word introduced by the princes of the Norman line, in imitation of the French, whose territory was divided into bailiwicks, as that of England into counties (c). He must seize to the sovereign's use all lands devolved to the crown, by attainder or escheat (d); must levy all fines and forfeitures (e); and must seize and keep all waifs, wrecks, estrays (f), and the like, unless they be granted to some subject (g).

To execute these various offices, the sheriff has under him many inferior officers; an under-sheriff, bailiffs and gaolers; who must neither buy, sell nor farm their offices, on forfeiture of 500l. (h)].

By 3 & 4 Will. IV. c. 99, it is provided, that every sheriff shall, within one calendar month next after the notification of his appointment in the Gazette, by writing

(f) As to waifs, wrecks and estrays, vide sup. p. 546.

(g) Dalt. c. 9. See 3 & 4 Will. 4, c. 99, as to the regulations for auditing the sheriff's accounts, &c. The sheriff was formerly also charged with the duty of collecting the king's rents within the bailiwick, but is relieved from it by the statute just mentioned (sect. 12).

(h) Stat. 3 Geo. 1, c. 15.