Coroners still elected in the ancient form; office conferred for life, subject to removal; The right of the counties to elect their own coroners, confirmed by 3 Edw. I. c. 10, still survives; and when a vacancy occurs the sheriff is commanded by a writ of De coronatore eligendo to hold an election in full county court, in which every freeholder has a vote, the result of which proceeding confers the office for life, subject to removal for misconduct by the lord chancellor. But the coroner no longer holds pleas of the crown,1 and his ancient right to make inquisitions concerning wrecks, treasure-trove, and deodands has become obsolete. a coroner's He must now content himself with holding inquests in cases functions. of violent or sudden deaths, and in discharging the functions of the sheriff in the event of the disability of that officer. limited Decline of police system; liability of every man to serve as practically without An explanation has heretofore been made of the manner in the ancient which the high constables, originally chosen at the courts-leet of the hundred or franchise, came to be appointed by the justices at their quarter sessions, a practice afterwards extended to the petty constables as well. From the right of appointment naturally followed the right of dismissal, and in that way the quarter sessions finally acquired full control over the local constabulary, including even the control of the coroners themselves.2 Thus every man in the township became liable to serve his turn as constable without compensation, excepting certain lawful fees, and to discharge under the orders of the justices a variety of duties, common law and statutory, chief among which was that of arresting offenders. It is not strange, therefore, that two efforts made by statute in 1831 and 1842 to compel the discharge of such unattractive duties so completely failed to put life into the primitive and worn-out institution that it was found necessary to entirely supersede it by that of by the modern system of paid and trained policemen. The paid policenew system developed within the last sixty years has its origin in Sir Robert Peel's act of 1829, which brought into being the Metropolitan Police Force, which in 1830 superseded the 'Night Watchmen," and which now has under its control a district extending over a radius of fifteen miles from Charing Cross, exclusive of the ancient City of London, with a popula compensation; ancient system superseded men; Peel's act of 1829 creating Metropoli tan Police Force; 1 Vol. i. p. 319. 2 Ibid., pp. 192, 193. For the most complete history of the English constabulary, see Gneist, Self-Government, $$ 77-82. 8 F. W. Maitland, Justice and Police, Citizen Ser. pp. 103-107. 4 Hence a policeman is called a bobby and a peeler. supreme Secretary; creating London, county lary; for the tion of between six and seven millions, and embracing fourteen police courts. This force, organized on the military plan, which consisted in 1896 of more than 15,000 men, is under subject to the direct command of a commissioner and two assistant com- control of missioners, who hold office at the pleasure of the crown, sub- the Home ject to the supreme supervision and control of the Home Secretary.1 In 1839 an act was passed authorizing the City acts of 1839 of London to create a similar force, and in the same year the like force justices of quarter sessions were permitted to create a paid for City of county constabulary. The boroughs in the mean time had and paid acquired through the great scheme of municipal reform inau- constabugurated in 1835 the right to have a body of paid constables paid under the control of the town council. The failure, however, constables of many counties to adopt the permissive act of 1839 resulted towns; in such confusion that a new compulsory statute was passed act of 1856 requiring in 1856 forcing the new system upon them, — the first law for paid policeall England requiring that there should be paid policemen. England; Although the county force thus organized is subject to the general control of the Home Secretary, who asserts his author- control of ity through royal commissioners upon whose favorable report Secretary only can be obtained a treasury subvention, still the justices over the of quarter sessions are permitted to appoint and dismiss the force. chief constable with the permission of the Home Secretary, and in the same way to increase or diminish the number of constables to be employed, fixed by them in the first instance. In the City of London, as in the rest of the boroughs, the police City of is virtually under the control of the civic corporation.2 men for all Home county London police. sessions county Local Gov The justices in quarter sessions who were thus stripped of Quarter their supreme control over the county police force have also superseded been deprived of their right to regulate the administrative in part by affairs of their counties by the Local Government Act, 1888,3 councils; vesting such right in elective county councils. The system of ernment county government by quarter sessions, which was strictly non-representative, was carried on by justices of the peace appointed by the crown, generally from the landlord class, who 1 See the article on the subject in Whitaker's Almanack, 1897. 2 "Thus the police forces of England are (1) the metropolitan force, (2) county forces, (3) borough forces, (4) the city of London force. . . . In 1882 83, the numbers of the men in these Act, 1888; its enact ment; its great defect; met four times a year, not only to attend to the minor judicial work of the county, but also to perform all local legislative and administrative work, including the levying of the county tax, the management of roads and bridges, and the grant of liquor licenses. As all the greater towns within the counties had won through the Municipal Corporations Acts the right to regmotive for ulate their local affairs through representative municipal councils chosen by their own citizens, it was considered no more than just that those who dwelt outside of the towns should be endowed with the same privilege. In order to accomplish that end was enacted the Ritchie Act, 1888, which has given to the English counties elective councils organized on the same general plan as those of the municipalities.1 The first effort at local government reform thus made was, however, very incomplete, because the formation of subordinate district councils for subdivisions of the county contemplated by the act was never carried out. In order to complete the scheme by supplying that deficiency Mr. Fowler introduced his measure, which passed as the Local Government Act,2 1894, whose primary purpose was to transform the vestries into district councils, and thus to restore local autonomy under a purely democratic system, similar in many respects to the township its leading system of the United States. By that act "A parish council provisions; was, at the appointed day in the year 1894, called into existence in every parish situate in a rural sanitary district which had a population of three hundred or upwards at the census of 1891. Where the population amounts to one hundred but is less than three hundred, a parish council is to be established by means of an order of the county council, if the parish meeting so resolves; while in parishes where the population is less than one hundred, the county council may establish a parish council with the consent of the parish meeting. Parishes may also be grouped under a common parish council by an order of the county council, but not without the consent of each member of the group. Thus "the hierarchy of local authorities is thorities is complete by the creation of parish councils for rural parishes. complete;"... The system of Local Government which is established by Local ment Act, "the hierarchy of local au 4 1 Shaw, Municipal Government in Great Britain, p. 240. 2 56 & 57 Vict. c. 73. 8 Shaw, Municipal Government in Great Britain, pp. 254, 255, 257 The Local Govt. Act, 1894, Macmorran and Dill, Introd. p. xXXV. this Act is founded upon the principle of the direct popular representation of parishes. For this purpose an electorate is formed by taking the registers of parliamentary and of local government (county council) electors which relate to a parish so as to form a list of 'parochial electors,' and the right of a person to vote at an election under this Act, whether of parish or district councillors or guardians, will depend upon whether his name is or is not inserted upon the list of parochial electors for the parish or ward which forms or is included in the area for which the election is held. . . . For the purposes of enfranthis Act, a married woman who would be qualified to be an of married elector, but for the disability of coverture, will be entitled to women. have her name inserted on any local government register and to vote at the election of any of the authorities whose election is governed by this Act." 1 chisement mentary of ancient county shillings; While the ancient courts and magistrates of the county have Subdivision thus been forced to yield to new institutions, the county itself of counties for judicial as a local division for judicial and parliamentary purposes has and parlianot escaped the reorganization and dividing hand of modern purposes; innovation. Through a construction given to a statute of 1278, the contentious jurisdiction of the ancient county courts, jurisdiction which had long ago ceased to do much business, was confined to forty shillings, a limit that became narrower and narrower courts limited to as that sum sank in relative value.2 Thus this inadequate pro- forty vision for local justice in small matters lingered on until 1846,3 new system when a new system of county courts was provided by statute courts or whose jurisdiction, fixed first at £20, was soon raised to £50 ganized in ordinary actions for debt or damage, with the right to en- of 1846; force certain contracts even when as much as £500 is at stake. Under the simple procedure that prevails in these courts an their simple intelligent suitor can conduct his own cause, which is usually procedure; heard by a judge alone, who decides both law and fact. With his leave in any case, and without it in any claim that exceeds of county under act trial by jury; cal areas; of county lines, into 491 districts; which are circuits; up into divisions £5, a trial by a jury, to be composed of only five jurors, may be demanded. The connection between these statutory creations and the ancient county courts in which the freeholders, under the presidency of the sheriff, were the judges is, however, little more than in name. The new county courts differ from the old not only as to procedure and limit of jurisdiction, geographi- but also as to the geographical areas over which such jurisdiction extends. The ancient county court was a court for the whole county; the new is a court for an arbitrary subdivision all England of a county. By the original act all England, except the City divided, regardless of London, was subdivided regardless of county lines into 491 county court districts, which by orders in council have been somewhat increased. The districts are grouped in circuits, to each of which is usually assigned a single judge. Each district grouped in has generally but one place at which its court is held; and the rule is that any one may be sued in the court of that district county cut in which he dwells or carries on business.1 As heretofore explained, the counties have also been cut up into divisions for for electoral electoral purposes. The immemorial right of each county to purposes; have two parliamentary representatives has been forced to give "single-seat way to the new "single-seat system," under which the counties have been broken into divisions in proportion to their population, each division being entitled to return one member.2 Origin of The feeble tentative effort that has grown into the existing the system of national system of national education in England was made in the very education: year in which the reform bill of 1832 passed into law. Then it was that the state recognized for the first time its duty to aid at least in the work of instructing those by whom it was to be governed. The beginning consisted of an annual grant of grant first £20,000, made at the instance of the executive government applied through two for public education, which for six years was applied by the societies; treasury through two great religious societies, upon certain conditions, in aid of local efforts for the building of schoolhouses for the poor. In order to give harmonious direction to the work, by an order in council made in 1839 a special committee of that body was charged with its control, and a special staff of officers and inspectors engaged to aid in its execution. system." annual religious how Education De of privy council was con stituted; 1 For a good commentary on the act, see Maitland, Justice and Police, Citizen Ser. pp. 20–30. 2 See above, p. 548. |