Magistrates and coroners. Report of a select committee of Her Majesty's Justices of the Peace for the County of Southampton, appointed at the midsummer quarter session, 1857, and a letter from the County coroners in reply.

Date:
1857
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Magistrates and coroners. Report of a select committee of Her Majesty's Justices of the Peace for the County of Southampton, appointed at the midsummer quarter session, 1857, and a letter from the County coroners in reply. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    be found culpable shall be committed to gaol, and such as be not culpable shall be attached until the coming of the Justices (that is, the Judges of Assize.) In like manner it is to be inquired of them that be drowned or suddenly dead, and, if they were not slain, then ought the Coroner to attach the finders and all others in com- pany.'’'’ ‘‘ This statute (continues the work) is merely directory, and in affirmance of the common law, and does not restrain the Coroner from any branch of his power, nor excuse him from the execution of any part of his duty, one branch of which is to inquire of the death of all persons who die in prison.'^ And, at the end of the same book, are a great variety of forms of inquisitions, or verdicts, adapted to almost every ima- ginable kind of criminal, accidental, and sudden death. Under these plain directions, which are still in full force, sanctioned by the practice of many centuries and the general approbation of the country, and not accord- ing to rules laid down by theraselves,^^ the Coroners still continue to exercise the functions of their office ; and in so doing they have no hesitation in claiming the support of those by whom they are elected and paid—• namely, the freeholders and ratepayers of the county. The Report then goes on, in direct opposition to the statute, to lay down a series of rules and regulations for the purpose of depriving the Coroners of the exercise of all judgment and discretion in the matter, and handing them over, in the first instance, to the police, who have orders to prevent all inquests which they may consider Unnecessary, and afterwards to the mercy of the Finance Committee. In citing the recent case of Regina v. Justices of Gloucestershirej the Report takes care to set out so much only as confirms the doctrine that the Justices in
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