officer, in each county in England, nominated by the king, invested with a judicial and ministerial power, and who takes place of every nobleman in the county during the time of his office.

The sheriff is an officer of very great antiquity in this kingdom, his name being derived from two Saxon words, signifying the reeve, bailiff, or officer of the shire. He is called in Latin vice-comes, as being the deputy of the earl or comes, to whom the custody of the shire is said to have been committed at the first division of this kingdom into counties. But the earls, in process of time, by reason of their high employments and attendance on the king's person, not being able to transact the business of the county, were delivered of that burden; reverting to themselves the honour, but the labour was laid on the sheriff. So that now the sheriff does all the king's business in the county; and though he be still called vice-comes, yet he is entirely independent of, and not subject to, the earl; the king, by his letters patent, committing custodiae comitatus to the sheriff, and to him alone.

Sheriffs were formerly chosen by the inhabitants of the several counties. In confirmation of which it was ordained, by statute 28 Edw. I. c. 8. that the people should have an election of sheriffs in every shire where the sheriffalty is not of inheritance. For anciently in some counties the sheriffs were hereditary; as we apprehend they were in Scotland till the statute 20 Geo. II. c. 43; and still continue in the county of Westmoreland to this day; the city of London having also the inheritance of the sheriffalty of Middlesex vested in their body by charter. The reason of these popular elections is assigned in the same statute, c. 13. "that the commons might choose such as would not be a burden to them." And herein appears plainly a strong trace of the democratical part of our constitution; in which form of government it is an indispensable requisite, that the people should choose their own magistrates. This election was in all probability not absolutely vested in the commons, but required the royal approbation. For in the Gothic constitution, the judges of their county courts (which office is executed by the sheriff) were elected by the people, but confirmed by the king; and the form of their election was thus managed; the people, or incolae territorii, chose twelve electors, and they nominated three persons, ex quibus rex unum confirmaret. But, with us in England, these popular elections, growing tumultuous, were put an end to by the statute 9 Edw. II. st. 2. which enacted, that the sheriffs should from thenceforth be assigned by the chancellor, treasurer, and the judges; as being persons in whom the same trust might with confidence be reposed. By statutes 14 Edw. III. c. 7. 23 Hen. VI. c. 8. and 21 Hen. VIII. c. 20. the chancellor, treasurer, president of the king's council, chief justices, and chief barons, are to make this election; and that on the morrow of All Souls, in the exchequer. And the king's letters patent, appointing the new sheriffs, used commonly to bear date the sixth day of November. The statute of Cambridge, 12 Ric. II. c. 2. ordains, that the chancellor, treasurer, keeper of the privy seal, steward of the king's house, the king's chamberlain, clerk of the rolls, the justices of the one bench and the other, barons of the exchequer, and all other that shall be called to ordain, name, or make justices of the peace, sheriffs, and other officers of the king, shall be sworn to act indifferently, and to name no man that sueth to be put in office, but such only as they shall judge to be the best and most sufficient. And the custom now is (and has been at least ever since the time of Fortescue, who was chief justice and chancellor to Henry the fifth), that all the judges, together with the other great officers, meet in the exchequer chamber on the morrow of All Souls yearly, (which day is now altered to the morrow of St Martin, by the last act for abbreviating Michaelmas term), and then there propose three persons to the king, who afterwards appoints one of them to be sheriff. This custom of the twelve judges proposing three persons seems borrowed from the Gothic constitution before mentioned: with this difference, that among the Goths the 12 nominors were first elected by the people themselves. And this usage of ours, at its first introduction, there is reason to believe, was founded upon some statute, though not now to be found among our printed laws; first, because it is materially different from the direction of all the statutes before-mentioned; which it is hard to conceive that the judges would have countenanced by their concurrence, or that Fortescue would have inferred in his book, unless by the authority of some statute; and also, because a statute is expressly referred to in the record, which Sir Edward Coke tells... Sheriff tells us he transferred from the council book of 3d March, 34 Hen. VI. and which is in substance as follows. The king had of his own authority appointed a man sheriff of Lincolnshire, which office he refused to take upon him; whereupon the opinions of the judges were taken, what should be done in this behalf. And the two chief justices, Sir John Fortescue and Sir John Priolet, delivered the unanimous opinion of them all; "that the king did an error when he made a person sheriff that was not chosen and presented to him according to the statute; that the person refusing was liable to no fine for disobedience, as if he had been one of the three persons chosen according to the tenor of the statute; that they would advise the king to have recourse to the three persons that were chosen according to the statute, or that some other thrifty man be invited to occupy the office for this year; and that, the next year, to eschew such inconveniences, the order of the statute in this behalf made be observed." But notwithstanding this unanimous resolution of all the judges of England, thus entered in the council-book, and the statute 34 and 35 Hen. VIII. c. 26. § 61. which expressly recognizes this to be the law of the land, some of our writers have affirmed, that the king, by his prerogative, may name whom he pleases to be sheriff, whether chosen by the judges or not. This is grounded on a very particular case in the fifth year of Queen Elizabeth, when, by reason of the plague, there was no Michaelmas term kept at Westminster; so that the judges could not meet there in crassino animarum to nominate the sheriffs: whereupon the queen named them herself, without such previous assembly, appointing for the most part one of two remaining in the last year's list. And this case, thus circumstanced, is the only authority in our books for the making these extraordinary sheriffs. It is true, the reporter adds, that it was held that the queen by her prerogative might make a sheriff without the election of the judges, non obstante aliquo statuto in contrarium; but the doctrine of non obstante, which sets the prerogative above the laws, was effectually demolished by the bill of rights at the revolution, and abdicated Westminster-hall when King James abdicated the kingdom. However, it must be acknowledged, that the practice of occasionally naming what are called pocket-sheriffs, by the sole authority of the crown, hath uniformly continued to the reign of his present majesty; in which, it is believed, few (if any) instances have occurred.

Sheriffs, by virtue of several old statutes, are to continue in their office no longer than one year; and yet it hath been said that a sheriff may be appointed durante bene placito, or during the king's pleasure; and so is the form of the royal writ. Therefore, till a new sheriff be named, his office cannot be determined, unless by his own death, or the demise of the king; in which last case it was usual for the successor to send a new writ to the old sheriff; but now, by statute 1 Anne st. 1. c. 8. all officers appointed by the preceding king may hold their offices for six months after the king's demise, unless sooner displaced by the successor. We may farther observe, that by statute 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.

We shall find it is of the utmost importance to have the sheriff appointed according to law, when we consider his power and duty. These 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 is to hear and determine all causes of 40 shillings value and under, in his county-court; and he has also a judicial power in divers other civil cases. He is likewise to decide the elections of knights of the shire, (subject to the control of the House of Commons), of coroners, and of vendors; to judge of the qualification of voters, and to return such as he shall determine to be duly elected.

As the keepers 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. 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 king's 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; which summons, every person above 15 years old, and under the degree of a peer, is bound to attend upon warning, under pain of fine and imprisonment. But though the sheriff is thus the principal conservator of the peace in his county, yet, by the express directions of the great charter, 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; for this would be equally insensible, he being in many respects the servant of the justices.

In his ministerial capacity, the sheriff is bound to execute all processes issuing from the king's courts of justice. In the commencement of civil causes, he is to serve the writ, to arrest, and to 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 into execution. In criminal matters, he also 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.

As the king's bailiff, it is his business to preserve the rights of the king 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 is divided into bailiwicks, as that of England into counties. He must seize to the king's use all lands devolved to the crown by attainer or elsecheat; must levy all fines and forfeitures; must seize and keep all waifs, wrecks, estrays, and the like, unless... they be granted to some subject; and must also collect the king's rents within his bailiwick, if commanded by process from the exchequer.

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 £50l.

The under-sheriff usually performs all the duties of the office; a very few only excepted, where the per- sonal presence of the high sheriff is necessary. But no under-sheriff shall abide in his office above one year; and if he does, by statute 23 Hen. VI. c. 8. he for- feits £20l., a very large penalty in those early days. And no under-sheriff or sheriff's officer shall practise as an at- torney during the time he continues in such office: for this would be a great inlet to partiality and opprobrium. But these salutary regulations are shamefully evaded, by practising in the names of other attorneys, and putting in sham deputies by way of nominal under-sheriffs: by reason of which, says Dalton, the under-sheriffs and ba- lliffs do grow so cunning in their several places, that they are able to deceive, and it may well be feared that ma- ny of them do deceive, both the king, the high sheriff, and the county.

in Scotland. See LAW, Part iii. sect. 3.