On coroners / a paper by E. M. Harwood.

  • Harwood, E.B.
Date:
[1885]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On coroners / a paper by E. M. Harwood. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    In ancient times the Coroner presided, in conjunction with the sheriff, at the latter's Tourn, or Criminal Court; but the Coroner was always the judge, and pronounced the judgment of outlawry; and a certiorari to remove an inquiry, if directed to the sheriff alone, was not sufficient, as he was not the judge; but one directed to the Coroner, or jointly to the sheriff and the Coroner, was held good ; and by 3rd Edward I., cap. 10, sec. 43, it is enacted as follows : Lastly, it is our pleasure that our sheriffs and bailiffs be attendant upon our Coroners, and obedient to their orders and mandates. The Coroner has also occasionally to exercise a ministerial office, where the sherifi' is incapable of acting. Thus, where an exception is taken to the sheriff on the ground of partiality or interest, the Queen's ■writs are directed to the Coroners. This incident to the office points distinctly to their ancient character as ministerial officers of the Crown. By the Metropolitan Thoroughfares Act of 1839, 3rd and 4th Vic, cap. 87, Coroners are required to act if the sheriff be interested. Thus it appears that the powers and dignity of the Coroner were, in ancient times, very considerable ; but in process of time his jurisdiction was gradually subjected to greater limitation; and whether from this cause, or from the creation of justices of the peace, or from being chosen from a lower grade than that of a knight, which might have led him to screen his neighbours from justice, his operations became tardy and inac- curate, and he was led to neglect or overlook the more important of his duties, and to confine his inquisitions to a few great crimes which he could not avoid taking notice of. To supply this deficiency the sherifi was directed, upon the meeting of the judges in circuit, to summon a jury to procure information concerning crimes committed in his district. Hence the origin of the grand jury, by whose inquisition the judges were autljor- ised to proceed to try offenders. It is to be regretted that an office of so much responsibility, and in which the presiding officer is frequently placed in the situation of a judge in the most important cases of criminal enquiry, is often committed to hands very incompetent to the performance of its duties ; but the truth appears to be that the present reputation and dignity of the office are insufficient, and the payment is too small, to induce gentlemen of fortune or rank to solicit the appointment, and it is consequently too often left to be contested for by those to whom the inadequate fees are an object of attraction, or to pro- fessicnal men who have other sources of income, but whose industrious habits and legal or medical knowledge usually qualify them for the office in a more special manner. And here it may be appropriate to touch upon the vexed question as to whether the Coroner should be chosen from the legal or medical professions. The preponderance of opinion appears to be in favour of appointing a legal practitioner, for the very nature of his business enables him to conduct an enquiry with all due and proper regard to the rules of evidence and its admission or rejection, the mode of examining the witnesses, and of record- ing the evidence properly. The advantage of having a medical man as Coroner is that in some oases he can, from his technical knowledge, be better able to direct his jury in arriving at a conclusion as to the precise cause of death; but then a Solicitor-Coroner can always summon a medical