in geography, originally signified the territory of a count or earl, but now it is used in the same sense with shire; the one word coming from the French, the other from the Saxon.—In this view, a county is a circuit or portion of the realm; into fifty-two of which, the whole land, England and Wales, is divided for its better government and the more easy administration of justice.

For the execution of the laws in the several counties, excepting Cumberland, Westmoreland, and Durham, every Michaelmas term officers are appointed, under the denomination of sheriffs. Other officers of the several counties are, a lord lieutenant, who has the command of the militia of the county; custodes rotulorum, justices of peace, bailiffs, high-constable, and coroner.

Of the fifty-two counties, there are three of special note, which are therefore termed counties palatine, as Lancaster, Chester, and Durham. See PALATINE.

COUNTRY-Corporate, is a title given to several cities, or ancient boroughs, on which our monarchs have thought fit to bestow extraordinary privileges; annexing to them a particular territory, land, or jurisdiction; and making them counties of themselves, to be governed by their own sheriffs and magistrates.

COUNTRY-Court, in English law, a court incident to the jurisdiction of the sheriff. It is not a court of record, but may hold pleas of debt or damages under the value of 40s. Over some of which causes these inferior courts have, by the express words of the statute of Gloucester, a jurisdiction totally exclusive of the king's superior courts. For in order to be entitled to sue an action of trespass for goods before the king's justiciaries, the plaintiff is directed to make affidavit that the cause of action does really and bona fide amount to 40s., which affidavit is now unaccountably dispensed with, except in the court of exchequer. The statute also 43 Eliz. c. 6, which gives the judges in many personal actions, where the jury affirms less damages than 40s., a power to certify the same and abridge the plaintiff of his full costs, was also meant to prevent vexation by litigious plaintiffs; who, for purposes of mere opprobrium, might be inclined to institute such suits in the superior courts for injuries of a trifling value. The county-court may also hold plea of many real actions, and of all personal actions to any amount, by virtue of a special writ called justifices; which is a writ empowering the sheriff for the sake of dilpatch to do the same justice in his county-court, as might otherwise be had at Westminster. The freeholders of the county are the real judges in this court, and the sheriff is the ministerial officer. The great conflux of freeholders, which are supposed always to attend at the county-court (which Spelman calls forum plebeiae justitiae et theatrum comitivae potestatis), is the reason why all acts of parliament at the end of every session were wont to be there published by the sheriff; why all outlawries of absconding offenders are there proclaimed; and why all popular elections which the freeholders are to make, as formerly of sheriffs and conservators of the peace, and still of coroners, verderors, and knights of the shire, must ever be made in pleno comitatu, or in full county-court. By the statute 2 Edw. VI. c. 25, no county-court shall be adjourned longer than for one month, consisting of 28 days. And this was also the ancient usage, as appears from the laws of king Edward the elder: prepositus (that is, the sheriff) ad quartam circiter septimanam frequentem populi concionem celebrato; cuique jus dicto; litigique singulas dirimito. In those times the county-court was a court of great dignity and splendour, the bishop and the ealdorman (or earl), with the principal men of the shire, sitting therein to administer justice both in lay and ecclesiastical causes. But its dignity was much impaired, when the bishop was prohibited, and the earl neglected to attend it. And, in modern times, as proceedings are removable from hence into the king's superior courts, by writ of pone or recordare, in the same manner as from hundred-courts and courts-baron; and as the same writ of false judgment may be had, in nature of a writ of error, this has occasioned the same disuse of bringing actions therein.