SHERIFF, M Scotland, is a title given to three county officials, all appointed by the crown. The lord-lieutenant is "sheriff-principal," and as such, though he performs no duties, takes precedence in the county. The " sheriff-depute" discharged the duties of the office until recently, when the greater part of them devolved on the "sheriff-substi tute." In Scotland the office of sheriff is still that of a local judge, and not merely ministerial, as in England. The institution of the office is very ancient, and the juris diction, both civil and criminal, was, and still is, very extensive. By the statute 20 Geor,ge II. c. 43, the office was put on a better footing. The principal, or high sheriff, was debarred from performing any judicial duty, and it was enacted that none should be appointed to be a sheriff-depute hut an advocate of at least three years' standing. The sheriff-depute is disqualified from acting as advocate in any cause originating in his county, though in other respects lie is at full libertytto practice. He holds his office for life or good behavior. The same ,statute gave each sheriff-depute power to appoint a sheriff-substitute. The sheriff-substitute was at first appointed during the pleasure of the sheriff-depute, but he is now appointed by the crown, requires to be an advocate or solicitor of five years' standing, and holds office ad vitam, ant eulpant. Being hound to reside within his county or district, and prohibited from taking other employment, while the sheriff-depute usually attends the sittings of the court of session in Edinburgh, lie, in practice, exercises the original jurisdiction attaching to the office. The civil juris diction of-the sheriff extends to all personal actions on contract or obligations without limit, actions for rent, And other questions between landlord and tenant. lit questions affecting real or heritable property, his jurisdiction is unlimited in amount when tho object is to regulate possession; but when the validity of a title is in issue, he is limited to cases where the value is less than .C1000. and where the parties consent. In these cases there is an appeal from the decision of the sheriff-substitute to that of the sheriff depute. He has also a summaryjurisdiction in small-debt cases where the amount in question is not above S:.12; and these cases arc determined without written pleadings. The sheriff does not try civil causes with a jury. In criminal cases the sheriff has juris diction in all the minor offenses which do not infer death or banislunent, and power to award any punishment not exceeding two years' imprisonment. He has also jurisdic tion in cases of bankruptcy and insolvency to any amount. In small-debt actions, criminal and bankruptcy matters, there is no appeal from the sheriff-substitute to the sheriff-depute. The sheriff's jurisdiction excludes that of the justices of peace in riots, lie has charge also of taking the precognitions in criminal cases. He revises the lists of electors, and returns the writs for the election of members of parliament; and this last is almost the only duty which he performs in common with the English sheriff. Au
idea of the multifarious duties performed by the Scotch sheriff may he gathered from the statement that he exercises, within a comparatively small district, the functions which in England are exercised by the commissioners in bankruptcy, county-court judges, the stipendi•try magistrates, recorders, revising barristers, and coroners. The office of commissary (q.v.) has been amalgamated with that of sheriff. Recently, large additions have been made to the sheriff's jurisdiction, and other changes am in con templation.
The office of sheriff is one of the few which may be traced back to the Saxon times, and it appears originally to have been the same both in England and Scotland. TLe sheriff was (under the earl and nett to the bishop) the chief man of the shire, and seems to have possessed unlimited jurisdiction to keep the peace; to have presided in all the courts; to have punished all crimes, and have redressed all civil wrongs. This extensive 4urisdictiun, gradually acquired at the cost of lesser local courts, -has been gradually infringed upon, partly by the exercise of the royal prerogative, and partly by parlia ment. But in England it suffered more from the appointment to the office of men unfit to exercise judicial powers, and from the consequent usurpation of their functions by the supreme courts. The seine causes operated in Scotland, though to a less extent. In England, they resulted in the almost entire abolition of the judicial functions of dirt sheriff. In Scotland, they resulted in his being deprived of the more important parts of the criminal jurisdiction, particularly of the power to punish by death; and in his civil jurisdiction being limited mainly to questions affecting movables. In both countries, the office was usually hereditary, which tended to a separation of the duties of the office into the honorary and the laborious—the former being performed by the principal sheriff, and the latter by the deputy. In Scotland, this separation was completed by the act of George II., which entirely separated the offices, by the transference of the power of appointing the depute from the principal sheriff to the crown. In England, this complete separation has never become necessary, from the fact of the sheriff's power having been much more crippled than in Scotland. Indeed, in England, so purely honorary and ministerial has the office become, that it has been held by a ft-male, cud in Westmoreland, the office was hereditary down to 1849. The duty of enforcing the orders of the supreme courts, which now in England are a principal part of the duties of the sheriff, appears to have been engrafted on the office—probably on the theory that these orders were those of the king himself. In Scotland, the sheriff has never been called on to enforce any writs except these.actually and not merely in name proceeding at the instance of the crown.