1825.] 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
OxssErvarions on the OrFicr of SHERIFF, 
(By a County Magistrate.) 
(Continued from No. 410, p- 411.] 
i many counties, there are scarcely 
| any persons qualified to serve, the 
office ; and in the trading districts, this 
is more particularly the case. There it 
often happens that a monied man, who 
is but just qualified, gets put on the list 
of Sheriffs; when, perhaps, his only 
motive is anxiety to have his name 
known ; or, what as frequently occurs, 
a wealthy mercantile person is taken, 
no other being qualified, when he is, 
perhaps, barely so himself. Suppose a 
man of this description holding this 
situation, and a debtor being in con- 
finement for a very considerable sum,— 
is not his commercial character deeply 
implicated by his shrieval responsibility ? 
In a nation like ours, where commerce 
has been considered as every thing, the 
greatest evils may arise from the liabi- 
lity of a man’s credit being so brought 
in jeopardy; and any firm of which 
one of the partners is so bound for 
debts, owing possibly to that identical 
house, would, if to any considerable 
amouut, feel itself awkwardly situated. 
It may be urged, that the qualifica- 
tion is not money, but land, This, how- 
ever, does not invalidate what has 
been stated. It is well known that 
monied men, with few exceptions, are 
generally anxious to become land- 
owners, and thereby to rank among the 
older established gentlemen of the 
country ; and will often solicit the office 
of Sheriff as the first step towards 
such distinction—unless they take tlie 
more distinguished path through a rot- 
ten borough. 
How frequently does it happen, in an 
inland county more particularly, that 
the banker, &c. builds his public credit 
upon what he is known to possess as a 
landowner ! During the late depressed 
state of the country, the first inquiry, 
on placing money in a banker’s hands, 
was, what might be his landed estate ? 
How much disadvantage, therefore, may 
_acerue to any one connected with trade, 
whose lot it may be to serve the office 
of Sheriff ; and having in his custody 
persons for whose debts his property 
is made answerable to creditors not his 
own. 
That the Sheriffis bound to see that 
his Under-Sheriff and gaoler are coin- 
Montuty Mace. No. 411. 
On the Office of Sheriff: 
497 
petent to enter into good security with 
him, even to his total indemnification, 
and that he ought only to appoint to 
such offices persons who are so quali- 
fied, is an argument more specious than 
substantial; for it is a well-known fact, 
that every one takes his own attorney 
as his Under-Sheriff, whom, whether 
qualified or not, he would be unwil- 
ling to offend by a refusal of the situa- 
tion: and, as regards the gaoler, though 
in law his seryant, yet he is always 
appointed by others,—as the bench of 
magistrates, &c. to whom alone he looks 
in every matter connected with his 
situation. Should the High-Sheriff feel 
no confidence in him, it would be 
almost, if not quite, impossible to dis- 
place him from his office. In the first 
instance the difficuity is almost, and 
in the second, quite insurmountable. 
Friendship or policy* gives him the 
Under-Sheriff; necessity the gaoler. 
Moreover, it would be unavailing to 
dispute the inexpediency of allowing a 
stranger to take charge ofa gaol ; as 
any one acquainted with the nature of 
prisons must be well aware of the dan- 
ger of trusting their inmates to the 
charge of any one not thoroughly con- 
versant with their habits. There are, 
besides, many inconveniences and hard- 
ships attending the office of Sheriff, as 
relates to serving writs, &c., which fall 
upon it in an unjust and unequal 
measure; and, very often, it has duties 
to perform which are altogether incom- 
patible with itself. There is a great 
inconsistency in putting law-proceed- 
ings into the hands of a man to exe- 
cute; when, at the same time, had he 
been of the profession, which alone ~ 
could have miade Him master of the 
duties of his situation, he would have © 
been exempt from the office. | [Bar- 
risters, &c. not being liable.] So that’ 
he is compelled to execute by deputy ~ 
what he is at ofice compelled to! be 
responsible for, arid necessitated to be 
totally ignorant of. 
Not only is his property held respon- 
sible, but his person may, in many cases, 
be seized ; and himself held to bail. He 
is amenable to the higher courts for the 
legality 
“ For whatever he does through friend- 
ship or policy, there is surely no great hard- 
ship in his being responsible. The jeopardy 
of partners—of the creditors of a bariker— 
is not, howeyer, therefvre diminished.— 
Enir. 
35 
