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Under no circumstances that I can imagine "would the Government be responsible.
19. Your Lordship feels uncertain how far it is necessary to retain the Shrievality as a separate Office, and whether it may not conduce to economy and to efficiency in executing the process of the Court, if the duties were transferred to the Sheriff Registrar and his Deputies, and the Sheriff's Officers brought directly under the control of the Registrar. To this point I have given some consideration, and I have arrived at the conclusion that a change in the direction indicated is both advisable and
20. necessary.
I am not prepared to recommend that the Registrar should also be Sheriff, because, as Mr. Snowden has pointed out to me, many of the duties of both officers, if not conflicting, are at present distinct; and it would require legislation to alter their present relative positions; but there can be no objection to one of the Deputy Registrars being Sheriff; and this course would be attended with some advantages. The Sheriff and all his officers would thus be brought directly under the control of the Registrar, and through him, of the Court. A separate Office within the Court precincts will be assigned to the Sheriff; and the Clerk of the Court, whom I have already referred to, would be...