point any person to act as a constable in criminal cases as heretofore. 2 Rev. Code, c. 8. sect. 1. p. 4, 5.

The county courts, when they appoint constables, are to lay off their respective counties into districts, and assign one or more constables to each; who are to confine themselves, in the service of warrants and executions, to their own districts, and return all warrants to some place therein; under the penalty of five dollars for every offence, recoverable by motion, on ten days notice, against the constable, his securities, executors, &c. of each, before the court of the county wherein he was appointed. 2 Rev. Code, p. 124. sect. 2.

On the death, resignation, removal, or refusal to act, of any constable assigned to a district, any constable of the county may perform the duties of a constable in such district. Sess. Acts, 1808. c. 11. sect. 2. p. 20.

No sheriff, or deputy-sheriff, shall serve any warrant for debt, detinue, or trover, issued by a justice, and finally cognizable by one; but such warrant shall be directed to, and served by, some constable. (Sess. Acts, 1808. c. 11. sect. 1. p. 20.) In like manner, all executions, awarded by a justice for debt, detinue, or trover, shall be directed to sume constable. Sess. Acts, 1808, c. 11. sect. 3. p. 21.

Fees of Constables.

(See 2 Rev. Code, p. 5. sect. 2.)

For serving a warrant

For summoning a witness

For summoning a coroner's jury and witnesses

For putting in the stocks

For whipping a slave (to be paid by the owner)

For serving an attachment, returnable betore a justice
For summoning each garnishee, on an attachment

For selling property taken by execution or attachment, where
the amount does not exceed five dollars;

And where the amount exceeds five dollars, five per cent. on the balance;

And where the property is not sold, but the money paid to the constable, the same fecs as if sold.

For serving an attachment, returnable to a county court, against an absconding debtor

For serving a warrant of distress

For serving an attachment for rent

For every bond taken from the purchaser, on a sale of a distress for rent

For removing every person suspected of becoming chargeable to the county, to be paid by the overseers of the poor, for every mile

For carrying any person to jail, on a warrant from a justice,
for every mile
For taking a replevy bond, on levying a distress for rent, the
same fees as for taking forthcoming bonds, to be included
in such bonds. See i Rev. Code, c. 270.
p. 405.

10

Constables are allowed for arrests, in criminal cases, and summoning witnesses, the same fees as are allowed the sheriff in civil cases for the like services; and constables and guards, employed in conveying prisoners to the county jail, shall have the same allowances as are made to sheriffs and guards removing prisoners to the penitentiary; to be paid out of the public treasury. See 2 Rev. Code, p. 83, 84.

Fees of constables, due by persons residing out of their county or district, are to be collected by the sheriffs, as sheriffs' fees; but every constable may distrain for his fees in his own district. 2 Rev. Code, P. 6.

Every constable who shall demand and receive any fee, where, by law, he is not entitled, or more than the legal fees, shall forfeit to the party injured three dollars; and shall, moreover, pay double the sum improperly received; recoverable by motion, on ten days notice, in the court wherein he was appointed, against him and his securities, his or their executors, &c. 2 Rev. Code, p. 124. sect. 3.

Any process of attachment against absconding debtors, or against tenants for rent, may be executed and returned by constables, in the same manner as by sheriffs. 2 Rev. Code, p. 5. sect. 2.

Every constable levying an execution, must advertise the property, at some public place in the neighbourhood, at least ten days previous to the sale. 2 Rev. Code, p. 6. sect. 5.

Constables, and other officers, in returning executions by them levied or settled, and the monies thereon received, or any part thereof, are to make a statement, on the execution, of the amount, including their own fees and commissions. 2 Rev. Code, p. 16. sect. 2.

If any constable shall fail to return an execution on or before the return day (which shall in no case exceed sixty days from the date) any justice, on ten days notice, upon the motion of the party injured, may fine such constable not exceeding five per cent. a month, on the amount of the execution, counting from the return day. 2 Rev. Code, p. 116.

sect. 10.

Or, for failing to pay money received on an execution issued by a justice, upon the return thereof, the same remedy is given to the party injured, his executors, &c. against the constable and his securities, his or their executors, &c. as is provided in the case of sheriffs: and the court, in which the bond of the constable is recorded, may hear the motion, and render judgment. 2 Rev. Code, p. 116. sect. 13. which is an amendment of section 3. p. 5, 6.

If a constable can find no property whereon to levy an execution issued by a justice, he must make return thereof to the clerk's office; whereupon a ca. sa. may issue, as in other cases. See 2 Rev. Code, p. 116. sect. 8.

It is the duty of every constable to give information against, and prosecute every free negro or mulatto, who shall keep or carry fire arms or ammunition, contrary to law. 2 Rev. Code, c. 88. sect. 2. p. 108, 109.

Also, to apprehend and carry before a justice, slaves who are permitted to go at large and hire themselves out. 2 Rev. Code, c. 119. sect. 1. p. 147.

Constables are exempted from serving on grand juries. Rev. Code, p. 100. sect. 2.

Also, from the payment of county levies. 1 Rev. Code, p. 250.

sect. 2.

CONVICTS.

"FROM and after the first day of January, 1809, no captain or master of any vessel, or any other person, coming into this common. wealth, by land or by water, shall import or bring with him, any per. son who shall have been a felon convict, or under sentence of death, or any other legal disability incurred by a criminal prosecution, or who shall be delivered to him from any prison or place of confinement, out of the United States."

"Every captain or master of a vessel, or any other person, who shall presume to import or bring into this commonwealth, by land or by water, or shall sell, or offer for sale, any such person as above described, shall suffer three months imprisonment, without bail or mainprise, and forfeit and pay for every such person so brought and imported, or sold, or offered for sale, the penalty of fifty pounds current money of Virginia, one half to the commonwealth, and the other half to the person who shall give information thereof; which said penalty shall be recovered by action of debt or information, in any court of record, in which the defendant shall be ruled to give special bail." 1 Rev. Code, c. 35. p. 39.

CORONER.

CORONERS are ancient officers, by the common law, so called, because they deal principally with the pleas of the crown, and were of old times the principal conservators of the peace within their county. Haw. B. 2. c. 39. sect. 1.

Among the acts of parliament of England, which have been in. grafted into our Revised Code of 1792, so much of the statutes of 3 Edw. 1. c. 10. 14 Edw. 3. c. 8. 1 Hen. 8. c. 7. 4 Edw. 1. stat. 1. sect. 1. and 1 and 2 Ph. & Mar. c. 13. sect. 5. as were applicable to this country, have been adopted. See 1 Rev. Code, c. 81. p. 124. and Cay's Abridgm. tit. "CORONER." And for more concerning this office, and duty of coroners, see 2 Rev. Code, c. 17. sect. 1. p 16. Ibid. sect. 2. Ibid. c. 97. sect. 2, 4. p. 123. Ibid. p. 147. Sess. Acts of 1808, č. 23. p. 30, 31.

It is observed, upon the statute of 4 Edw. 1. commonly called the statute de officio coronatoris, that the same being wholly directory, and in affirmance of the common law, doth neither restrain the coroner from any branch of his power, nor excuse him from the execution of any part of his duty, not mentioned in it, which was incident to his office before. Haw. B. 2. c. 9. sect. 21.

I. His power and duty as a judicial officer. II. His power and duty in other matters. III. His fees. IV. Precedents.

I. HIS POWER AND DUTY AS A JUDICIAL OFFICER.

He ought to execute his office in person, for he is a judicial officer. Wood. Inst. B. 1. c. 7. sect. 3. p. 83.

By Holt, CJ, the coroner need not go, ex officio, to take the inquest, but ought to be sent for, and that when the body is fresh; and to bury the body before, or without sending for the coroner, is a misdemeanor. 1 Salk. 377.

The judicial office of a coroner being confined to the taking of inquisitions, on the death of persons who come to a violent or unnatural death, and that upon view of the body alone, it is a matter punishable by amercement to let a body lie till putrefaction, without giving him notice. Wood, B. 4. c. 1. p. 491. Summ. 170. 2 Hale 57.

If a prisoner in jail dies a natural death, yet regularly the jailor ought to send for the coroner to inquire, because it may be possibly presumed, that the prisoner died by the ill usage of the jailor. 2 Hale

57.

For if a prisoner, by the ill usage of the jailor, comes to an untimely death, it is murder in the jailor, and the law implies malice, in respect of the cruelty. And this is the cause (says lord Coke) that if any man dieth in prison, the coroner ought to sit upon his body, to the end it may be inquired of, whether he came to his death by the dures of the jailor, or otherwise: and this sitting of the coroner continueth to this day. 3 Inst. 52.

And this inquest upon prisoners ought to consist of a party jury, that is, six of the prisoners (if so many there be) and six who are not prisoners. Umfreville's Coron. 212.

A coroner may lawfully, within convenient time, as the space of fourteen days after the death, take up a dead body out of the grave in order to view it, not only for the taking of an inquest, where none hath been taken before; but also for taking of a good one, where an insufficient one hath been taken before. Haw. B. 2. c. 9. sect. 23.

So, he may dig up the body, if the first inquisition be quashed. (Stra. 533.) But not without leave of the court. (Ibid. 167.) And the justices will exercise their discretion, according to the length of time the body has laid, and the circumstances of the case. Salk. 377. Stra. 22.

If there is danger of infection from digging up the body, or if the body is drowned and cannot be found, or if it has lain so long before

the coroner is called in to take the inquest, that no assistance can be had from the view, he ought not to proceed. In such cases the inquiry may be by witnesses of the felony, by justices of the peace, justices of oyer and terminer, or in a court, by presentment of the grand jury. See Wood. Inst. 491. Haw. B. 2. c. 9. sect. 23. 2 Hale

59.

Where the body had been buried five years, and the skull was dug up, which the coroner assured the jury was the skull of the deceased, and the inquest was taken upon that, the court refused to file the inquisition. (Stra. 22.) So, where it had been buried seven months. 1 Salk. 377.

It is not necessary that the inquisition should be taken in the very same place where the body was viewed; for it hath been resolved, that an inquisition taken at D. on the view of a body lying dead at L. may be good. Haw. B. 2. c. 9. sect. 25.

A coroner hath no power, either by common law or statute, to inquire of any accessories after the fact, to a felony; but of accessories, before he hath such power. Ibid. sect. 26.

If the coroner omits to take an inquisition upon an untimely death, it may be done by justices, &c. but it must be done openly, and if it be done secretly, it may be quashed. 1 Burr. 17.

For mismanagement in the coroner, &c. the filing of the inquisition may be stopped, or the coroner may be ordered to attend, and amend his inquisition. Wood. Inst. 492.

If he hath been guilty of corruption or bribery, in taking the inquisition, a melius inquirendum may be awarded to special commissioners to take a new one, who shall proceed on the testimony of witnesses, not on view of the body. If the inquisition is good, he that is suspected to have committed the felony may be tried upon the inquisition, as well as upon an indictment. Wood, Inst. 492.

If the constables make not a return, or the jurors returned appear not, their defaults are to be returned to the coroner: and the constables or jurors in default shall be amerced by the court having cognizance of the proceedings. 2 Hale 59.

The jury appearing, is to be sworn and charged by the coroner to inquire, upon view of the body, how the party came by his death. 2 Hale 60.

The opinion formerly held, that a coroner's inquest was not tra-" versable, is now generally exploded. 1 Bac. Abr. Coron. D. 1 Burr.

19.

II. HIS POWER AND DUTY IN OTHER MATTERS.

The ministerial power of a coroner is exercised, when process is directed to him, by reason of a just exception to the sheriff of a county, or sergeant of a corporation, as if the sheriff be a party, &c. Wood, Inst. 83.

The coroner, in such cases, stands precisely in the situation of the sheriff or sergeant, as to his power and duty in executing the process, and liability for neglect., 1 Rev. Code, p. 126. sect. 21, 22.

He is also bound to be present, in the county court, to pronounce judgment of outlawry, after quinto exactus at the fifth court, if the defendant appears not. Wood, B. 4. c. l.