mean perſons employed by the ſheriffs on account only of their adroitneſs and dexterity in hunting and ſeiſing their prey. The ſheriff being anſwerable for the miſdemeſnors of theſe bailiffs, they are therefore uſually bound in a bond for the due execution of their office, and thence are called bound-bailiffs; which the common people have corrupted into a much more homely appellation.
Gaolers are alſo the ſervants of the ſheriff, and he muſt be reſponſible for their conduct. Their buſineſs is to keep ſafely all ſuch perſons as are committed to them by lawful warrant: and, if they ſuffer any ſuch to eſcape, the ſheriff ſhall anſwer it to the king, if it be a criminal matter; or, in a civil caſe, to the party injured[1]. And to this end the ſheriff muſt[2] have lands ſufficient within the county to anſwer the king and his people. The abuſes of gaolers and ſheriff's officers toward the unfortunate perſons in their cuſtody are well reſtrained and guarded againſt by ſtatute 32 Geo. II. c. 28.
The vaſt expenſe, which cuſtom had introduced in ſerving the office of high-ſheriff, was grown ſuch a burthen to the ſubject, that it was enacted, by ſtatute 13 & 14 Car. II. c. 21. that no ſheriff ſhould keep any table at the aſſiſes, except for his own family, or give any preſents to the judges or their ſervants, or have more than forty men in livery; yet, for the ſake of ſafety and decency, he may not have leſs than twenty men in England and twelve in Wales; upon forfeiture, in any of theſe caſes, of 200𝑙.
II. The coroner's is alſo a very antient office at the common law. He is called coroner, coronator, becauſe he hath principally to do with pleas of the crown, or ſuch wherein the king is more immediately concerned[3]. And in this light the lord chief juſtice
