124 
SHE 
nothing being wanting but Sheridan’s presence on the spot. 
On three successive evenings, Mr. Cocker, with whom the 
money had been deposited by his lordship, dined with 
Sheridan at a hotel in Albemarle-street, a chaise being on 
each, night waiting at the door to convey them down to 
Wootton Basset: on each night Sheridan, after his wine, 
postponed the journey to the next day, and on the fourth 
day, he altogether abandoned the project of purchasing a 
seat in Parliament, received the four thousand pounds, and 
applied them, as he was warranted to do by the permission 
of the donor, to his private uses. This did not save him 
, long from distress: his irregular habits, his pride not to re¬ 
duce his expenditure, involved him still further in embar¬ 
rassments, and drove him to many miserable tricks to relieve 
himself. The regent either disgusted with his faults or con¬ 
sidering that every thing had been done that honour could 
require towards a mere boon companion, withdrew from him 
his countenance ; his other great friends betrayed the same 
coldness, and at length, apparently deserted by all but Ro¬ 
gers, Moore and a few others, he fell sick and died on the 
7th of July, 1816. 
He was a charming companion, social not only in the 
common meaning of the word, but in the finer relations of 
life. And his irregularities may be considered rather as 
the result of bad habits and the evil society he had fallen 
into, than of any other cause. Gambling, drinking, run¬ 
ning into debt, were vices common enough among his thea¬ 
trical acquaintance, and not quite unknown among his gen¬ 
teel and noble friends. Could it be expected that the son of 
of the actor, not educated in solid knowledge, and confident 
in the resources of his genius, should grow a little giddy at 
his unparalleled elevation ? He is no example for imitation 
either as a parliamentarian, for he knew nothing; nor as a 
man, for he lived dishonourably; but he may be'pitied. He was 
worth all the fair-famed place-hunters that lived in his time 
under the shade of obscurity; and morality must rejoice in his 
existence were it only for his writing the School for 'Scandal. 
SHERIF, in Egypt, Ihe relations of Mahomet, the same 
tribe of persons called emir by the Turks. 
The word is Persian, and signifies great or noble; and 
these persons have the privilege of being exempt from ap¬ 
pearing before any judge but their own head ; and if any of 
the military orders are obliged to punish them for any mis¬ 
demeanor, they first take off their green turban, in respect 
to their character; and the same is done even when they are 
punished by their own magistrate. 
SHERIFABAD, a town of Ilindostan, province of Delhi. 
SHERIFF, s. [pcypejepepa, Saxon, from pcype, a 
shire, and peve, a steward. It is sometimes prdnounced 
shrieve, which some poets have injudiciously adopted. An 
officer to whom is intrusted in each county the execution of 
the laws. 
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 being afterwards unable, by 
reason of their high employments, and atlendance on the 
king’s person, to transact the business of the county, the 
labour was committed to the sheriff; who now performs all 
the king’s business in the county; and though he be still 
called viccs-comes, yet he is entirely independent of, and not 
subject to, the earl: the king, by his letters patent, commit* 
ting custodiam comitatus to the sheriff. 
Sheriffs were formerly chosen by the inhabitants of the 
several counties; in confirmation of which, it was ordained 
by 28 Edw. I. c. 8. that the people should have election of 
sheriffs in every shire, where the sheriffalty is not of inherit¬ 
ance; for anciently in some counties Ihe sheriffs were here¬ 
ditary, as judge Blackstone apprehends they were in Scot¬ 
land, 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. This election, says the 
same author, was, in all probability, not absolutely vested 
in the commons, but required the royal approbation. For 
SHE 
in the Gothic constitution, the judges of their county* 
courts (which office is executed by our sheriff) were elected 
by the people, but confirmed by the king ; and the form of 
their election was thus managed: the people, or incola ter- 
ritorii, chose twelve electors, and they nominated three per¬ 
sons, ex quid us rex unum confirmabat. But with us in 
England, these popular elections growing tumultuous, were 
put an end to by the statute 9 Edw. II. st. 2. which enact¬ 
ed, 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 baron, are to make 
this election ou 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. 
12 Edw. IV. c. I. 
And the custom now is, which has obtained since the 
time of Henry VI. 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 and 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-men¬ 
tioned; with this difference, that among the Goths the 
twelve nominees were first elected by the people themselves: 
which usage of our’s was probably founded upon some sta¬ 
tute, though not now to be found among our pointed laws. 
But notwithstanding an unanimous resolution of all the 
judges of England to this purpose, entered in the council- 
book of 3d March, 34 Hen. VI. and the statute 34 and 35 
Hen. VIII. cap. 26. sect. 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 eras lino animarum, to 
nominate the sheriffs; upon which the queen named them 
herself, without such previous assembly, appointing for the 
most part one of the two remaining in the last year’s list. 
And this case, so circumstanced, is the only authority in our 
books for making these extraordinary sheriffs. 
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 late Majesty George III., ini which, says 
Blackstone, few, if any, instances have occurred. 
By four several statutes it is enacted, that no one shall be 
sheriff, except he was sufficient land within the shire to 
answer the king and the people in any manner of complaint. 
9 Edw. II. st. 2. 4 Edw. III. c. 9. 5 Edw. III. c. 4. 13 
and 14 Car. II. c. 21. 
SHERIFF, Point, a cape in Columbia river, on the 
west coast of North America. Lat. 46. 5. N. long. 237. 
11. E. 
SHERIFFALTY, Sheriffdom, Sheriffship, or She¬ 
riffwick, s. The office or jurisdiction of a sheriff.—There 
was a resumption of patents of gaols, and reannexing to 
them sheriffwicks ; privileged officers being no less an in¬ 
terruption of justice than privileged places. Bacon .—Hold¬ 
ing by patent the inheritance of the sheriffdom. Selden. 
SirERIFFHALES, a parish of England, in Salop and 
Staffordshire; 2 miles north-by-east of Shiffnal. Popula¬ 
tion 809. 
SHERIFF HUTTON. See Hutton, Sheriff. 
SHEllIFF-MUIR, or Sheriff-Moor, a plain of Scot¬ 
land, near the Grampian mountains, in the county of Perth, 
where a battle was fought between the army of George I. 
and the rebels under the Earl of Marr. 
SHERING 
