mon gaol by law appointed for keeping the prisoners of the said Sheriff, for debt or on any civil process, immediately after the expiration of twenty-four hours from the time of arrest, if in custody only on mesne process; and immediately after the arrest of any prisoner in execution, unless discharged out of custody by due course of law; AND ALSO, if the said Bailiff shall make a true return and inventories of all goods and chattels seized in execution by him as Bailiff to the said Sheriff, and before removal thereof pay the rent in arrear not exceeding one year, pursuant to the statute in that case made and provided, and all taxes due in respect thereof, pursuant to the statute, and shall indemnify the said Sheriff on account of any mistake or default relating thereto; AND ALSO, if the said Bailiff shall pay to the said Sheriff, Under-sheriff, or deputies the consideration or purchase-money mentioned in every bill of sale or assignment, executed by the said Sheriff, Under-sheriff, or deputies at the request of the said Bailiff, notwithstanding the acknowledgment of the receipt thereof by the said Sheriff contained in any such bill of sale or assignment; AND ALSO, if the said Bailiff shall and will forthwith pay to the said Sheriff, Under-sheriff, or deputies, all monies received by the said Bailiff on any arrest or levy by him made, or with which he shall be entrusted for the said Sheriff, without deduction; AND ALSO, if the said Bailiff shall certify and return to the said Sheriff, Under-sheriff, or deputies, at the office of the said Sheriff, all unexecuted warrants of the said Sheriff, on or before the day of next; AND ALSO, if the said Bailiff shall in all things truly, lawfully, and honestly demean and behave himself as Bailiff aforesaid, and faithfully and diligently serve and attend the said Sheriff, his Under-sheriff, and their deputies, and in due and lawful manner all their and every of their lawful commands or directions, touching any manner of service, incident or belonging to the said office of Sheriff, shall and will execute and perform; AND ALSO, if any writ of attachment shall issue, or any rule or order of Court for such writ shall be made, or any verdict or judgment given against the said Sheriff or Undersheriff, or either of them, their or either of their executors or administrators, or against the Under-sheriff, in any case wherein the said Bailiff shall have made any arrest or levy in the name of or under the authority of the said Sheriff, the said Bailiff shall and will immediately pay or cause to be paid to the said Sheriff, or Under-sheriff, or deputies, or one of them, the debt, damages, costs, and charges, in every such case paid by them, or any of them, or for payment whereof the said Sheriff or Under-sheriff may be liable; AND ALSO, if the said Bailiff shall well and truly pay or cause to be paid to the said Sheriff, his Under-sheriff, or deputies, or one of them, the costs and charges of prosecuting or opposing any motion in or application to any Court touching or concerning any matter wherein the said Bailiff shall act or assume to act as Bailiff to the said Sheriff, and the costs and charges which the said Sheriff may be called upon to pay to any party or parties, person or persons, by reason of any such prosecution or opposition; AND ALSO, if any action or suit be commenced or prosecuted against the said Sheriff, his Under-sheriff, or deputies, or any of them, touching or concerning any matter wherein the said Bailiff shall act or assume to act as Bailiff to the said Sheriff, the said Bailiff shall well and truly pay to the said Sheriff, his Under-sheriff, or deputies, or one of them, all costs, charges, damages, and losses by them or any of them incurred, paid, or sustained, in or about the defence or in consequence of such action or suit; AND ALSO, if any action or suit be prosecuted at the instance of the said Sheriff, Under-sheriff, or deputies, Bailiff's oath. Before on any bail bond, or indemnity bond, or replevin bond, taken by the said Sheriff or given as his security, in any case wherein the said Bailiff shall have acted or assumed to act as such Bailiff, whether such action or suit be prosecuted at the request or with the consent of the said Bailiff and his sureties aforesaid, or not, the said Bailiff or his sureties, or one of them, shall well and truly pay the costs and charges thereof to the said Sheriff, his Under-sheriff, or deputies, and indemnify them respectively touching the same; AND ALSO, if the said Bailiff and his sureties, some or one of them, shall indemnify the said Sheriff and his Under-sheriff from all damages, loss, costs, and charges which they or either of them shall or may suffer, sustain, or be put unto, or be liable to suffer, sustain, or be put unto, for or by reason of the payment of any money by the said Sheriff, Under-sheriff, or deputies, to any person or persons, or by reason of any return to any writ or process made by the said Sheriff, Under-sheriff, or deputies, at the request of the said Bailiff; AND ALSO, if the said Bailiff and his said sureties, some or one of them, their or some one of their heirs, executors, or administrators, shall and will save harmless and indemnify the said Sheriff and Under-sheriff, their and each of their executors and administrators, from and against all actions, suits, fines and amerciaments, penalties, contempts, forfeitures, loss, costs, charges, damages, and expenses, which may be commenced, prosecuted, imposed, or set upon them, or either of them, or which they or any or either of them may suffer, pay, or be liable unto, for or by reason of any extortion or escape happening by the act or default of the said Bailiff, or for or by reason of the executing, not executing, returning, not returning, or mis-return of any writ, process, mandate, precept, or warrant, the not taking bail, taking insufficient bail, the not bringing into Court the body of any defendant, or any other cause whatsoever happening by or arising from the act or omission of the said Bailiff; then the above-written obligation shall be void, otherwise to be and remain in full force and virtue. Before he take upon him to impanel or return any inquest, jury or tales, or to intermeddle with the execution of process in any Court of Record under the penalty of 407. he must receive and take the following oath : Bailiff's Oath. I, A. B., shall not use or exercise the office of Bailiff corruptly during the time that I shall remain therein, neither shall or will accept, receive, or take by any color, means, or device whatsoever, or consent to the taking of any manner of fee or reward of any person or persons for the impanelling or returning of any inquest, jury, or tales, in any Court of Record for the Queen, or betwixt party and party, above two shillings, or the value thereof, or such fees as are allowed and appointed for the same by the laws and statutes of this realm, but will, according to my power, truly and indifferently with convenient speed, impanel all jurors and return all such writ or writs touching the same as shall appertain to be done by my duty or office during the time that I shall remain in the said office. So help me God. The recent statute does not apply to Bailiffs, only to Sheriffs whom taken. and Under-sheriffs, therefore the oath must be received and taken before the persons named in the statute of Elizabeth (p); that is to say, before the justices of assize, or one of them, of the same circuit wherein that county is whereof he shall be Bailiff; or before the custos rotulorum, or two justices of the peace, whereof one to be of the quorum, of the said county whereof he shall be Bailiff, or before the head officer of the place if it be a town corporate (q). riff distin We must now endeavour to lay down the nature of the office of The relation a Bailiff of this kind-the relation in which he stands to his prin- stands to the in which he cipal (the High Sheriff) and to the world at large--and the most Sheriff, &c. intelligible way of doing so, appears to be by placing him in juxta position with the Under-sheriff, whom we have already in general terms described. The Under-sheriff, as before observed, is the Bailiff and general servant of the High Sheriff for all purposes within the Under-shescope of the office; but as between a Bound-bailiff and the High guished. Sheriff there subsists no such general privity: his true character is this, he is appointed by the High Sheriff to act on each occasion of executing process wherein he is concerned, in other words, when a warrant is granted to him he becomes the special officer of the High Sheriff for that occasion, and for that occasion only; and upon this principle it is holden, that in order to affect the High Sheriff, to prove him a general bailiff and that he has given a bond as such is not sufficient (r), as it would be in the case of the Under-sheriff. affect the This distinction should not be overlooked, for in evidence it is Admissions highly important; for instance, the declarations of the Under- of, how they sheriff (s) are in general admissible to affect the High Sheriff, High Shebecause he is his general deputy; but the declarations of the riff. Bailiff, even although he has given a bond, are not so, until it be proved by the warrant or otherwise that he is the special agent of the High Sheriff, when such declarations are admissible to affect his principal (t). But as the evidence to connect the Under-sheriff and Bailiff with their principal (the High Sheriff) (p) 27 Eliz. c. 12, s. 2. As to oath of supremacy enjoined by the statute, see 31 Geo. 3, c. 32, s. 18; and ante, 21. (r) See Drake v. Sykes, 7 Term Rep. 113; Minshall v. Lloyd, 2 M. & W. 456; 3 Camp. 228; and cases infra. (s) Yabley v. Dohle, 1 Ld. Raym. 190; Kempland v. Macauley, Peake's Ca. 75; Sanderson v. Baker, 3 Wils. 309; 2 Stark. on Evid. 738. (t) Ibid. See also Druke v. Sykes, supra; Wilson v. Normun, 1 Esp. c. 154; M'Neil v. Perdard, ibid. 263; Lloyd v. Harris, Peake's Ca. 174, Special Bailiffs of will require much consideration hereafter, we proceed to examine the legal character of those who fall under the second division of our subject, namely, Special Bailiffs, premising only in addition, with regard to the Under-sheriff's admissions, that the doctrine above laid down has been much restricted by the case of Snowball v. Goodricke (u), where it was holden that admissions of the Under-sheriff are not evidence against the Sheriff, unless they accompany some official act or tend to charge himself. SPECIAL BAILIFFS. A Special Bailiff is one nominated by the plaintiff in the cause, or by his attorney, and appointed by the High Sheriff pro hác vice, and for whose acts, so long as the special agency continues, the plaintiff, and not the High Sheriff, is liable. Where there is an express appointment of a Special Bailiff no difficulty can well arise; but where such appointment is to be inferred from circumstances it is otherwise, and has been the cause of much argument in the different Courts. The result of the various authorities may fairly be stated to be this, that the appointing a Special Bailiff or the giving special directions to a Bound-bailiff, or any interference of the attorney with the execution of the process, discharges the High Sheriff from all liability so long as the agency of the Special Bailiff continues (v). And he was holden discharged by the plaintiff's appointing a Special Bailiff to manage the sale, although he returned that he had sold and that he had paid the sum illegally deducted for the auction, &c. (x). But, note, the mere expression of a wish by the attorney, that a particular officer may be employed to execute the writ, does not constitute the latter the plaintiff's agent (y). Whether what is said or written, or done, amounts to an appointment of a Special Bailiff, is a question of fact rather than of law (y). BAILIFFS OF LIBERTIES. Bailiffs of Liberties are those Bailiffs who are appointed by (u) 4 B. & Ad. 541. (v) Hamilton v. Dalziel, 2 W. Bl. Cr. 331; 8 D. & R. 48; Balson v. Meggat, 4 Dowl. 558; Ford v. Leche, 1 Nev. & P. 737. (x) 1 Ch. Rep. supra. (y) 1 Nev. & P. 737; and see 4 Dowl. 558. every lord within his liberty to execute process and do such offices therein as the Under-sheriff doth at large in the county (z). By the statute of the 5 Edw. 3, c. 4, "it is accorded and esta- Their sufblished, that no Sheriff, Under-escheator, Bailiff of Franchise, ficiency. Wapentake, Hundred, nor Tithing, shall from henceforth be, except he have lands sufficient in the same county whereof to answer to the king and his people, if any will complain." And if the lord of a liberty shall choose any man to be Bailiff of his liberty who hath not sufficient lands within the same county; then a writ shall be sent to the Sheriff (of the same county How rewherein such liberty is), commanding him to discharge or remove such Bailiff, and to choose another Bailiff in his place (a). And an alias pluries, and an attachment, lieth against the Sheriff if he shall not do according as he was commanded by such writ. The writ in the Register is in the following words : moved. "Rex Vic' salutem. Cum in Statuto apud Westm. nuper ædito con- Writ of tineatur, quod nullus sit Vicecomes vel ballivus libertatis, wapentachij, ballivo hundredi, nec trithingi, nisi habeat terras et tenementa sufficientia in amovendo. eodem comitatu unde nobis seu populo nostro in hac parte respondere possit si quis super eum conqueri voluerit; jam intelleximus quod tu W. qui terras seu tenementa in eodem comitatu non habet ballivum libertatis nostræ de B. fecisti, in nostri contemptum et populi nostri in hac parte damnum non modicum et gravamen et contrà formam statuti prædicti. Et ideo tibi præcipimus quod si ita sit; tunc ipsum W. a ballivâ prædictâ sine dilatione amoveri et alium loco suo competentem constiteri et ordinari facias juxta formam statuti prædicti." T. &c. (b). office. Before he take upon him to impanel or return any inquest, Oath of jury or tales, or to intermeddle with the execution of process in any Court of Record, under the penalty of 407., he must receive and take before the person or persons appointed by the statute By whom of Elizabeth (c) the oath therein prescribed. The oath has been administeralready set out at large under the division of Bound-bailiffs, to which we now beg leave to refer, and for other matters of and concerning the same, such as the administering of the same, and the like. ed, &c. (z) 27 Eliz. c. 12; Wood's Inst. 206; Norton v. Simmes, Hob. 13; Dr. & St. 234. See also Newland v. Cliffe, 3 B, & Ad. 630. (a) Fitz. 164; Registr. 178. (c) 27 Eliz. c. 12; see ante, p. 45, |