"
Introd. to Gilbert's Hist. Com. Pleas, p. 2, note.
"The sheriff was usually not appointed by the lord, but elected
by the freeholders of the district." Political Dictionary, word
Sheriff.
"Among the most remarkable of the Saxon laws we may reckon
* * the election of their magistrates by the people, originally even
that of their kings, till dear-bought experience evinced the
convenience and necessity of establishing an hereditary
succession to the crown. But that (the election) of all
subordinate magistrates, their military officers or heretochs,
their sheriffs, their conservators of the peace, their coroners,
their portreeves, (since changed into mayors and bailiffs,) and
even their tithing-men and borsholders at the last, continued,
some, till the Norman conquest, others for two centuries after,
and some remain to this day." 4 Blackstone, 418.
"The election of sheriffs was left to the people, according to
ancient usage." St. West. 1, c. 27. Crabbe's History of
English Law, 181.
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