th which high courts were connected, employed bailiffs,
who thus constituted, almost everywhere, _the lowest order of judges_.
From the courts of the nobility, the appellation passed to the royal
courts; from thence to the parliaments. In the greater bailiwicks of
cities of importance, Henry II. established a collegial constitution
under the name of _presidial courts_.... _The name of bailiff was
introduced into England with William I._ The counties were also called
_bailiwicks_, (_ballivae_,) while the subdivisions were called
_hundreds_; but, as the courts of the hundreds have long since ceased,
the English bailiffs are only a kind of subordinate officers of justice,
like the French _huissiers_. These correspond very nearly to the
officers called _constables_ in the United States. Every sheriff has
some of them under him, for whom he is answerable. In some cities the
highest municipal officer yet bears this name, as the high bailiff of
Westminster. In London, the Lord Mayor is at the same time bailiff,
(which title he bore before the present became usual,) _and administers,
in this quality, the criminal jurisdiction of the city, in the court of
old Bailey_, where there are, annually, eight sittings of the court, for
the city of London and the county of Middlesex. _Usually, the recorder
of London supplies his place as judge._ In some instances the term
_bailiff_, in England, is applied to the chief magistrates of towns, or
to the commanders of particular castles, as that of Dover. The term
_baillie_, in Scotland, is applied to a judicial police-officer, having
powers very similar to those of justices of peace in the United
States."--_Encyclopaedia Americana._]

[Footnote 93: Perhaps it may be said (and such, it has already been
seen, is the opinion of Coke and others) that the chapter of Magna
Carta, that "no _bailiff_ from henceforth shall put any man to his open
law, (put him on trial,) nor to an oath (that is, an oath of
self-exculpation) upon his (the bailiff's) own accusation or testimony,
without credible witnesses brought in to prove the charge," _is itself_
a "provision in regard to the king's justices sitting in criminal
trials," and therefore implies that _they are to sit_ in such trials.

But, although the word _bailiff_ includes all _judicial_, as well as
other, officers, and would therefore in this case apply to the king's
justices, if they were to sit in criminal trials; yet this particular
chapter of Ma