nty councils by the Local
Government Act 1888, the first to be mentioned, following the order in
the act itself, is that of the appointment of county coroners. The
duties of a coroner are limited to the holding of inquiries into cases
of death from causes suspected to be other than natural, and to a few
miscellaneous duties of comparatively rare occurrence, such as the
holding of inquiries relating to treasure trove, and acting instead of
the sheriff on inquiries under the Lands Clauses Act, &c., when that
officer is interested and thereby disabled from holding such
inquiries. (For the history of the office of coroner, which is a very
ancient one, see that title.) The county council may appoint any fit
person, not being a county alderman or county councillor, to fill the
office, and in the case of a county divided into coroners' districts,
may assign him a district. It has been decided, however, that the
power hereby conferred does not extend to the appointment of a coroner
for a liberty or other franchise who would not under the old law have
been appointed by the freeholders. It may be mentioned that though a
coroner may have a district assigned to him, he is nevertheless a
coroner for the entire county throughout which he has jurisdiction.

Main roads.

It was provided by the Highway Act 1878 that every road which was
disturnpiked after the 31st of December 1870 should be deemed to be a
main road, the expenses of the repair and maintenance of which were to
be contributed as to one-half thereof by the justices in quarter
sessions, then the county authority. By another section of the same
act it was provided that where any highway in a county was a medium of
communication between great towns, or a thoroughfare to a railway
station, or otherwise such that it ought to be declared a main road,
the county authority might declare it to be a main road, and thereupon
one-half the expense of its maintenance would fall upon the county at
large. Once a road became a main road it could only cease to be such
by order of the Local Government Board. As already stated, the powers
of the quarter sessions under the act of 1878 were transferred to the
county council under the Local Government Act of 1888, and that body
alone has now power to declare a road to be a main road. But the act
of 1888 made some important changes in the law relating to the
maintenance o