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London, over twenty-one hamlets. As in Great Britain legal singularities
engraft one upon another the office of the master gunner of England was
derived from the Tower of London. Other legal customs seem still more
whimsical. Thus, the English Court of Admiralty consults and applies the
laws of Rhodes and of Oleron, a French island which was once English.
The sheriff of a county was a person of high consideration. He was
always an esquire, and sometimes a knight. He was called spectabilis
in the old deeds, "a man to be looked at"--kind of intermediate title
between illustris and clarissimus; less than the first, more than
the second. Long ago the sheriffs of the counties were chosen by the
people; but Edward II., and after him Henry VI., having claimed their
nomination for the crown, the office of sheriff became a royal
emanation.
They all received their commissions from majesty, except the sheriff of
Westmoreland, whose office was hereditary, and the sheriffs of London
and Middlesex, who were elected by the livery in the common hall.
Sheriffs of Wales and Chester possessed certain fiscal prerogatives.
These appointments are all still in existence in England, but, subjected
little by little to the friction of manners and ideas, they have lost
their old aspects. It was the duty of the sheriff of the county to
escort and protect the judges on circuit. As we have two arms, he had
two officers; his right arm the under-sheriff, his left arm the justice
of the quorum. The justice of the quorum, assisted by the bailiff of the
hundred, termed the wapentake, apprehended, examined, and, under the
responsibility of the sheriff, imprisoned, for trial by the judges of
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