The English Law Courts. of witnesses before him, to administer oaths, and to impose a penalty of 40 shillings for non attendance. The inquest is conducted super visum corporis if it is necessary for the coroner and each of the jury to view the body of the deceased. It seems that the cor oner may exclude reporters from an inquest. The coroner may require any qualified medi cal practitioner to give evidence before him and make a post mortem examination. The fee for attendance at an inquest as a medical witness is one guinea; the fee for making a post mortem examination and attending to give evidence is two guineas. The coroner is bound to take down the depositions of every witness at the inquest in so far as it is material. After hearing the evidence the jury return their inquisition or verdict, which is signed by each of the jurors and the coro ner. If the jury find a verdict of murder against any one, it is the duty of the coroner to commit him or issue a warrant for his committal, and any application for bail must be made to the Queen's Bench Division. A coroner has now power to take bail for a person against whom the jury have returned a verdict of manslaughter. The salary of a coroner for the county was formerly fixed by agreement between himself and the justices of general or quarter sessions in the county for which he acted or, in the event of dispute, by reference to the Home Secretary. Under the Local Government Act, 1888, this power is
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transferred to the County Council. A cor oner convicted of extortion or willful neglect of his duty or misconduct in his office, or guilty of exercising corrupt influence over his jury or of official misbehavior or incompetent for his work, may be removed by the Lord Chancellor, and his jurisdiction is not altered by the Local Government Act, 1! LONDON COUNTY SESSIONS.
The Quarter Sessions for London are pre sided over by a paid chairman appointed by the Crown on the petition of the County Council. The office is at present held by Sir Peter Edlin, an able and faithful, if some what austere, judge. His salary is £1500 a year, and although the assessment appeals have been added to his jurisdiction, the County Council have most unwisely and un fairly taken advantage of a clause in the Local Government Act, 1888, limiting the salary of the chairman to the amount stated in the petition for his appointment, to avoid increasing it. The result has been a most unfortunate deadlock, so far as the assessment appeals were concerned. The criminal jurisdiction of the House of Lords on impeachments and in the trial of peers for treason and felony, a privilege which does not extend to cases of felony, has been referred to in a previous paper. Lex.
