Election Of Sheriffs.
The Times, 1824-06-24T00:00:00

This day being Mlidsummer-day, the Lard Mayor will hold a Common Hall in the Guildhall of London, for the election of Sheriffi for the year now next ensuing. Aldermen Brown and Key, it is understood, are willing to take upon themselves the office, and as it is indispensable that every Alderman shall have actuaUy served as Sheriff before he can take upon himself the higher officc of Lord Mayor, no opposition is *f course expected to be made te their election. It was the custom, time immemoTial, for cvery Lord Mlayor to drink to a certain number of wealthy citizens, annually at one of zr v l aS oroo- r:g ot i C-r .t n fv r tI,e office of Sheriff. ITe ceremony of drinking to themr his long since been discontinued, but the more imnportant'part of the custom stiU rem=ins, and every Lord Alayor has authority to nominate any number of fit persons, not exceeding nine, whose names are returned to the Court of Aldermen on or before the 14th of June in every year; and the persons thus nominated are eligible to be elected Sheri ff by the Livery in Common-Hall. If previously to being elected by the Livery they decline to serve the office, they may be excused upon paying into the Chamber of London 4001. and 20 marks as a fine; but should they choose to hazard the being elected by the Livery, they cannot after such election be exoonerated from serving but upon the payment of the increased fine of 6001. and 20 marks. Swearing off, as it is termed, on account of not possessing the re- qtusite pecuniary qualitication, w:hich has latterly been raised to i2e,000l., is seldom had recourse to ftom the discredit of the thing, nnd indeed there is also some trouble even in that, for the mere oath of the party is not suffictent to excuse him from the office. .s only twvo Sheriffs are required in each year, a nomination of an additi'onal nine persons besides those individluals who, as Alder- men, must necessrily serve the office, is obviously no other- wise requisite than as a source from which to fill the coffers of the city by she fines thus likely to accrue; and, accordingly, it has not unfrequently bemn the practice to drink, as it is still called, to indi- viduala,whose aversion to serving the office was notorious, and much invective has occasionally been directed against the city by the suffering parties for this species of legal extortion; but, notwith- standing, all tht occasional outcry against it, the custom has sel- dom been departed from. Wilkes and Sawbridge, it may be remcm- bered, botlh omitted it; butpoliticsintheirtime ran very high in the city, and it was thought more advisable, whenever the popular pary wanted a Sheritflwith their opinions, to start himn as a candidate for the office, atthe,Common Hall. Since the mavoralty of the latter, however the custom of drinking to persons for sheriff has' been inva-iably followed by every succeeding Lord Alayor, differing only in the number nominated. The present lord Mayor has it senes, followed the example of Wilkes and Sawbridge, and dec'lined mnking any nomination * but am there never was a period at which party politics v/ere at a lower ebb, it is but fair to infer that his Lordship's omission of making any return of names to the Couit of Aldermen has origiuated in a more praise-worthy motive-a feeling of the hardship and impro- priety of forcing -individuals to fine to avoid a troublesome and ex- pensive office, for which there is seldom any want of voluntary can- ditlate,desius of the honour and splendour ofthe situation; and however the city's cofrers may be affected, his Lordship vii fiZd issuseificistion fc indulging such a f'eeling at the present moment tn the list of perwon already in nomination for s'heriff, which is nontol be toheby vaynd sufficniseIntly lengthy to preclude any ap- prehension ofthwantofpersonatoser ELRCTION OF SHERIFFS.