King George."* If the accused desired he was tried by a petit jury consisting of from six to twelve persons, for the practice of the general court was followed by the lesser. In 1672 the sheriff of Henrico County was ordered to impanel six men to try a woman for stabbing to death her fellow servant; six men were summoned to try a traitor, and a cattle thief. In certain cases the old English custom of the appointment of a jury of matrons prevailed. Very early in the colony's life the jury consisted of ten and of fourteen men, notwithstanding the clause in the charter providing for a jury of twelve. But that there was an attempt at least to copy after English practice, may be inferred from the following enactment: "And the jurors to be kept from food and releise till they have agreed upon their verdict according to the custom practised in England." The county courts had great regard for their dignity, as has been shown where the court refused to sit with an unworthy member; and to prevent misconduct in a justice it was enacted "that whatsoever justice of the peace shall become soe notoriously scandalous upon court dayes at the court house, to be soe farre overtaken in drinke that by reason thereof he shalbe adjudged by the justices holding court to be incapable of that high office and place of trust, proper to inherett in a justice of the peace, shall for his first such offence be fined five hundred pounds of tobacco and cask and for his second such offence one thousand pounds of tobacco." If he was again guilty, a heavier fine was to be imposed and he should lose his position. One court passed a by-law that an attorney who interrupted another at the bar should be fined five shillings. At one session of this court the justices were in a quandary about the treatment of an old lawyer who had long practiced in the county, and who had been urged over the precipice of profanity by the sarcastic witticisms of a younger man. After considerable consultation they decided "that if Mister Holmes did not quit worrying Mister Jones and making him curse and swear so, he should be sent to jail." This court had some time before committed a man to the stocks for two hours and fined him twenty shillings "for damning the court and swearing four oaths in their presence."

Very petty cases were heard by one or by two justices, from whom appeal was to the county court, in which case the justices who had had original jurisdiction were not allowed to participate in the trial. In the absence of a coroner a justice could act in his stead.

The executive officer of the court was the sheriff, who was not so much

* Meade. Old Churches and Families of Virginia, i., pp. 230, 254, 365; Va. Hist. Reg.

iii, 77.

Va. Hist. Reg. iii., p. 17.

the representative of the Governor in the county court as he was the representative of the county to the Governor. He was appointed as follows: the justices nominated three persons, generally from their own body, one of whom was, as a rule, commissioned by the Governor, though the practice varied. The sheriff or his deputies had to serve writs, superintended elections of burgesses, collected public and county levies and sometimes parish tithes, impressed men for service on shipboard, sold estates of suicides at public outcry, made arrests, sometimes resorting to the old "hue and cry" in pursuit of runaway servants or slaves, collected fines, and carried the public levy to the capital. Sheriffs as well as other officers of the law adopted the practice of attending parish churches for the purpose of serving writs, warrants, etc. This was, no doubt, easy and agreeable for the sheriffs, but the worshiping delinquent could not have relished such an interruption to his devotions. Persons liable to such visitations neglected their church duties, so that a law had to be passed forbidding sheriffs to make arrests on Sundays or muster days. This law did not prohibit, however, the pursuit on Sunday of an escaped felon. By special warrant from the Governor, a councillor, or two justices, a sheriff could make arrests on shipboard. When peace was concluded between Queen Anne and the King of France, in 1713, Governor Spotswood ordered a proclamation to be" openly read and published at the principal Church of each parish immediately before divine service by the Sheriffs of the respective Countys, their officers, or substitutes on horseback." The sheriffs had also to see that copies of the special collect for the occasion should be distributed in time. The sheriffs or their deputies executed the orders of the courts, and in some cases they were sore let and hindered in running the race set before them. Peyton gives examples of writs returned with indorsements such as "Not executed by reason there is no road to the place where he lives;" "not executed by reason of excess of weather;"" by reason of an axe;" and "of a gun;""because the defendant's horse was faster than mine;' "because the defendant got into deep water-out of my reach."* Such were the duties and cares of the sheriff, who, in the exercise of his various functions, from executing an order of the Governor to ducking a witch, was but the old shire-reeve of England, with powers changed to suit a new order of things. The other officers of the county were the coroner, who was commissioned by the governor to view corpses, and, if necessary, to act as sheriff, and the constables, who were the assistants of the sheriffs in giving

* Peyton, Hist. of Augusta Co., p. 58.

For an account of the ducking of Grace Sherwood, the so-called Virginia witch, see MAGAZINE OF AMERICAN HISTORY, November, 1883 p. 425.

notice of court meetings and of levies, in looking after runaway slaves, in transferring paupers from parish to parish, and in pursuing criminals.

The county system of ante-revolutionary Virginia has been studied thus minutely in view of the fact that it served as a model for, if it did not directly influence, similar institutions in the South, South-west, and even in some States of the West.

In this system the dominant idea was gradation of power from the governor downward, not upward from the people. The necessary tendency to strong centralization was counteracted, however, by the individuality of officers, high and low. But the system offered many loop-holes for corruption, and possessed real evils. The justices, serving at the Governor's pleasure, might be wrongly influenced by him; the sheriff, his appointee, might use corrupt means to return, as elected to the Assembly, burgesses who could be used as tools by the Governor. Few, comparatively, were allowed, by reason of property qualification, to effectively raise their voice against corruption. In view of these chances it is somewhat remarkable to find how few instances of malfeasance in office are recorded. Many changes have been introduced in the county system since the Revolution; but, as long as Virginia remains a largely agricultural State, so long will her local political life be molded upon the plan which has prevailed for two centuries.

Edward Ingle

HISTORIC PORTRAITS

THE HUNTINGTON COLLECTION OF AMERICANA

(FIRST PAPER)

The munificent gift of Mr. William H. Huntington to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, of the varied and interesting portraits of Washington, Franklin, and Lafayette, which he has been many years in collecting from every available European source, is an event of more than ordinary interest

and importance, since it gives the American public the opportunity of participating in an instructive enjoyment hitherto confined to erudite scholars and collectors. Mr. Huntington has placed us all under obligations, and we congratulate the museum on so valuable an accession to its treasures. It is said to be worth $12,000, which seems a low estimate when we remember that every object in the collection, however insignificant, will become more and more rare and precious with each passing year.

The collection is divided into three distinct sections, the Washington, the Franklin, and the Lafayette, although apart from these are portraits of other worthies, Bréhan, Sister of the French minister, then residing in curious allegorical compositions,

[From the Cameo head painted in 1789 by Madame De New York City.]

a mass of antique prints, and some rare cipher letters of the revolutionary period. Only a portion of the collection is as yet on exhibition, owing to the crowded condition of the museum, but enough can be seen and studied to judge of its extent and merits, and to illustrate the extraordinary admiration of foreign artists for the celebrated trio. In France, particularly, Washington was exalted

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