The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1836-04-29 00:00:00

emoluments of his Office. The #lnoluments, in fact, are received by
the under sheriff, who in most instances indemnifies the sheriff. The
security given to the sheriff by his officers is very considerable and
Very rigidly exacted ; but these reeurities are all given as indemnities
between the sheriff and theniselVes, and not between him and suitors.
Ent what ate the propositions of this bill ? To create a sheriff actu-
ally to receire all the emoluments of the office and incur no liabilities
whatever ; for the analogy of sheriff exists only between that office
and thepower it proposes to vest in the common Council, and not be-
tween that office and the sergeant at mace. The Town Council are to
receive the emoluments of the office,—the holder of that office is to
be their paid servant, and responsible to them, and them only, for his
acts; so that reason and justice alike demand that they and not a sa-
laried servant should be answerable for all its liabilities. These are
the the theoreticil faults of the bill—what will be its practical evils?
There is no public office that requires more vigilanee• and unwearied
assiduity in the performance of its duties than that of sergeant at
mace of this borough. The great trade of this port with America, ren-
ders it an easy outlet to all persons quitting the realm with intent to
defraud their creditors, and it is a notorious fact, that Sunday is the.
daysenerally taken advantage of to effect this escape. Is it to be
presumed that for a few hundreds a-year, theScrjeant at Mace will give
his time and trouble not six, but sel4ri days a-Week ? The great sti-
mulant for exertion, that which often induces officers to stretch their'
authority even to a point that renders them personally liable, is the
prospect of remuneration proportioned to the risk incurred ; and it is
this stimulant to their exertion which has frequently beOn the means
of saving to creditors immensesums of money. This powerful motive
of action is intended to be entirely destroyed; caution, not exertion,,
will be their great study ; every artifice will be used, every objection,
will be taken to delay the execution of the duties of their office, fear-
ful lest by any mischance they should incur a liability which will de-'
prive them at once of the entire remuneration for their yearly re-:
sources. Self-interest, the great lever in human action, will dictate
to them the policy of avoiding liabilities, the Compensation of which
is reaped not by themselves, but by their masters the Town Council.
Thus, therefore, will the suitor he baffled in all his attempts at obtain-
ing justice through the narrow policy of a body of men who are care-
less of the practical utility of a measure, providing it confers upon
them the gratification of change, and give some satisfaction to their
inordinate cravings for power. What are the duties to be performed
by the Serjeant at Mace, exclusive of the duties of Mace-bearer, Cryer
of the Court, and in the execution of warrants? Perhaps Councillor
Walmsley, (whose bantling we are informed this bill is) can inform
is, we being at a loss to define them. Doubtless there will be er any
candidates for a place with no work, and three or four hundred a-year
attached to it. We shall notice the most objectionable clauses relating
to the government and extension of the jurisdiction of the Court of
Request in our next.