of kin, provided he be not his heir; for it is his interest to preserve the lunatic's life, in order to encrease the personal estate by savings, which he or his family may hereafter be entitled to enjoy. The heir is generally the manager or committee of the estate, it being clearly his interest by good management to keep it in condition: accountable however to the court of chancery, and to the non compos himself, if he recovers; or otherwise to his administrators.

This may suffice for a short view of the king's ordinary revenue, or the proper patrimony of the crown. The king's extraordinary revenue consists of aids, subsidies, and supplies; and are granted by the commons of Great Britain in parliament assembled, known under the denomination of taxes.

The taxes which are raised upon the subject are either annual or perpetual. The usual annual taxes are those upon land and malt. The perpetual taxes are,

I. The Customs; or the duties, toll, tribute, or tariff, payable upon merchandize exported and imported.

II. The Excise duty; which is an inland imposition, paid upon the consumption of a commodity. III. Duty on salt; 3s. 4d. per bushel.

IV. Post-office; or, duty for the carriage of letters.

V. Duty on stamps.

VI. Duty on houses and windows.

VII. Duty on male servants.

VIII. Licenses to hackney coaches, stages, an chairs.

IX. The ninth and last branch of the king's ex traordinary perpetual revenue is, the duty upon offices and pensions; consisting in an annual pay. ment of 1s. in the pound (over and above all othe duties) out of all salaries, fees, and perquisites of offices and pensions payable by the crown, exceeding the value of L.100. per annum.

As good subjects and Englishmen, to be loyal, yet free; obedient, and yet independent; and, above every thing, to hope that we may long, very long, continue to be governed by a sovereign, who shall manifest the highest veneration for the free constitution of Great Britain.

CHAPTER IX.

OF SUBORDINATE MAGISTRATES.

THE magistrates and officers whose rights and duties it will be proper in this chapter to consider, are such as are generally in use, and have a jurisdiction and authority dispersedly throughout the kingdom; these are principally sheriffs; coroners; justices of the peace; constables; surveyors of highways; and overseers of the poor.

I. The sheriff is an officer of very great antiquity in this kingdom, and performs all the king's business of 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 custodiam comitatus to the sheriff, and 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 election of sheriffs in every shire, where the shrievalty is not of inheritance. For anciently, in some counties, the sheriffs were hereditary; as I 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 shrievalty of Middlesex vested in their body by charter. But these popular elections growing tu multuous, 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. And the custom now is, that all the judges, together with the other great officers and privy counsellors, meet in the exchequer 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 the judges propose three persons, to he reported (if approved of) to the king, who afterwards appoint one of them to be sheriff.

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 ap

pointed durante bene placito, or during the king's pleasure; and so is the form of the royal writ. 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 forty shillings value and under, in his county court, of which more in its proper place; 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 verderors; to judge of the qualification of voters, and return such as he shall determine to be duly elected.

As the keeper 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 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 country 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 and this summons every person above fifteen years old, and under the degree of a peer, is bound to attend upon warning, under pain of fine and imprisonment.

In his ministerial capacity the sheriff is bound to execute all process 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 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.

execution.

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. He must seize to the king's use all lands devolved to the crown by attainder or escheat; 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; as under-sheriff,