658 
If some such plan be not adopted, the 
subject. will remain in agitation, the 
public mind be kept in suspense, and 
our intercourse with foreign ports liable 
to interruption, according to the opinion 
most prevalent, either from motives of 
selfishness, obstinacy, or private inte- 
rests: but the publication of the opinion 
of the committee I propose, would ob- 
viate all this, and set the question at 
rest. A. RoBERTSON, M.D. 
——=— 
Oxsenvations onthe Orrice of Suenirr, 
(By a County Magistrate.) 
[Concluded from No. 411, p-499.} 
a ts duty of returning Members to 
Parliament is justly enough in the 
Sheriff’s province; yet the responsibility 
falls very heavily upon him—such as 
issuing writs, taking polls, &c.' It is 
very proper that he should give his 
time and attention to the public; and I 
am not, aware that it could go through 
more. impartial hands: though abler 
might. certainly be found: for, in the 
firstinstance, the Sheriff must set out 
with knowing nothing af what. regards 
the legality of his proceedings. The 
biisiness must go through the hands of 
deputies, who are acquainted with the 
proper forms, but who are always more 
or less interested. To these the Sheriff 
is obliged to give up all the active part ; 
reserying to himself only the responsi- 
bility. A being exempt from 
serving the office, have but little feeling 
for those who have no such exemption; 
and, generally, care little into what dif- 
ficultiesthe Sheriff may fall, except as far 
as they may be concerned in extricating 
him. The Houses of Parliament seem 
to havé' gone hand in hand with them 
in this matter; and no one can read 
over the penalties attached to undue 
returns, of .members, without greatly 
admiring the care they have taken in 
securing their own rights, by throwing 
all. responsibility upon the returning 
officer. They have secured themselves 
against the Sheriff, but have entirely 
omitted’ protecting him against the 
- frauds to which he is liable: and it is a 
well-known fact, that scarcely a general 
election takes place, for which he is not 
brought in a considerable debtor, for 
expenses he was not aware of. 
Parliament is fully justified in watch- 
ing over the freedom of election, and 
its own privileges; yet, nevertheless, 
hardships not of his own seeking, im- 
posed upon an individual, require some 
On the Office of Sherif: 
consideration; and punishments ought 
to fall where blame is due, and not upon 
inevitable inexperience. The laws, as 
they stand at present, on this head, are 
mostly imperative, or leave no remedy 
but such as is worse than the disease, 
Sheriffs are chosen by the King, and are 
his. officers; and yet, so much has the 
lapse of time altered the original and 
legal intention, that they are now more 
servants of the public, and attendants 
upon the Judges in their circuit, than 
persons holding a place of profit and 
honour, ‘amenable to none but their 
sovereign.* Lightly esteemed, and little 
thought of, their authority and func- 
tions are put into other hands; and 
nothing remains of what their situation 
formerly was, but the expense, and 
liability to actions for maladministra- 
tion. 
A Sheriff is, moreover, chosen from 
among a particular class of the com- 
munity —the country gentlemen. These 
are not nunierous, taking one county 
with another; especially when excluding 
those who are exempt from’ serving. 
They are, I grant, all land-owners ; but 
yet, the landed property through the 
ingdom belongs in a very small pro- 
portion to those who are known by that 
appellation, and are liable to serve the 
office of Sheriff. It is an office charged 
solely upon the landed interest ; but 
perhaps in the most unequal and partial 
manner possible, It is a fine which the 
land-owner of a particular class suffers 
upon coming to his fortune—not in lieu 
of, but in addition to, what is suffered 
by those of higher or lower situations, 
Why, in justice, are many professions 
exempted? Why, if one particular 
land-owner is required to give his time 
to the office, should not all who are 
equally able? Why a partial selection 
of those upon whom this office has 
been 
* Where our worthy magistrate got his 
notions of the English constitution, and his 
distinctions between being amenable to the 
sovereign and amenable to the public—and 
of public functionaries, of any description, 
responsible to the King alone—we know 
not. Certainly not from the study of those 
Saxon institutions in which the office of 
Sheriff originated, We can assure him, that 
if he will explore the antiquities of the office, 
he will arrive at a, very different notion of 
it from that which he now entertains—a 
much more exalted one; and will look for . 
the diminution of its dignity and importance 
in a very different direction from that to 
whieh he now ascribes it. —Epir. 
ee a ee eee 
