Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 2.djvu/58

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. n. JULY is, MM.

If the learned Coroner's alternative con- tention be that there may exist jurisdiction, but that no one has placed sufficient prima facie evidence before him to invoke his aid ( ' Committee on Treasure-Trove,' Transac- tions of the South-Eastern Union of Scientific Societies, 1915, p. xxviii), and that he declines, in the special circumstances of this case, to put himself in motion, then the Coroner is exercising a discretion which, presumably, he is fully entitled to exercise, and one readers of ' N. & Q.' are probably not prepared to criticize.

J. PAUL DE CASTBO.

1 Essex Court, Temple.

It seems well worth while to put the interesting question of the rights and duties of a Coroner in regard to treasure-trove more fully before our readers, and that in the manner in which it was first raised in regard to this particular find of Elizabethan or Jacobean jewellery, &c.

The paragraphs immediately following are taken from p. 5 of Dr. Waldo's Annual Return for 1914, where he first opened it up ; and we also reproduce the three ap- pendixes to that Return (J, K, and L), in which he further elucidates it.

" I may at this point call the attention of your Corporation to a matter which concerns somewhat closely the duties of my Office. From the circumstances of the case it is at present impossible to lay before you the precise facts.

" The matter to which I allude is the alleged discovery of treasure-trove at some place within the City boundaries at a date that appears to have been within the last three or four years. The articles there found are deposited, so I learn, in the London Museum, Lancaster House, St. James's, S.W. They consist of a hoard of Elizabethan or Jacobean jewellery, rings, neck- laces, pendants, and the like, set with precious stones. So far as it can be gathered, the trove has been secured by the Treasury by a secret arrangement with a certain person or persons, and no reference has apparently been made to the Coroner of the district in which it was found, whether that district be in the City or elsewhere. According to ancient law and custom ' it is the duty of every person who finds any treasure or has knowledge that any treasure has been found, to make it known to the Coroner of the district.'* Further, in my opinion it is the bounden duty of the Coroner to call a jury and hold an inquest

" * See Treatise by Sir John Jervis on the Office and Duties of Coroners, 6th ed., p. 109 ; also Lord Halsbury's ' Laws of England,' vol. vii., ' Constitutional Law,' 1909, p. 213 ; Chitty's ' Prerogatives of the Crown and the Relative Duties and Rights of the Subject,' 1820, p. 153 ; the ' Encyclopaedia of the Laws of England,' vol. xiv., 2nd ed., 1909, p. 229."

upon the alleged treasure-trove. * In the particula r case of the trove recently placed in the London Museum, I have to report to your Corporation that presumably the treasure has been removed from the City by the Treasury without reference to my jurisdiction as His Majesty's Coroner for the City of London and your Officer. The very fact that I am unable to give more exact description of the alleged secret removal of treasure -trove in itself suggests a desire to avoid public inquisition. It seems fairly obvious that the interests of the public demand in such cases a judicial inquiry on oath to ascertain as far as may be the facts regarding the finding and other issues involved hi the unearthing of a quantity of valuable property. The motives of the Treasury hi securing objects of antiquarian and historical value are no doubt admirable. It remains for- your Corporation, however, to determine whether any action should be taken to defend the juris- diction of your Coroner's Court against what may possibly prove on further inquiry to have been an evasion of the law, and one that, in some cases,, might conceivably lead to grave abuses as regards hidden articles. The right of inquiry under such circumstances was originally assigned to the Coroner by Edward I. It was by him enacted in the year 1276 ' that a Coroner ought to inquire of treasure that is found, who were the finders, and, likewise, who is suspected of it.' This duty was reimposed hi Section 36 of The Coroner's Act of 1887, and is still in force. (See Appendices J, K, L.)

" I have thought it my duty to report this matter to the Corporation on what may possibly prove on further investigation to have constituted an illegal encroachment by the Treasury upon the jurisdiction of the Coroner. A formal inquiry from your Corporation might perhaps elicit from the Treasurv a precise statement as to the facts of the case. '

The following are the Appendices referred to:

APPENDIX J.

Treasure- trove is denned by Chitty, one of the- highest authorities on the subject, in his ' Pre- rogatives of the Crown, and the Relative Duties and Rights of the Subject,' 1820 (pp. 152 and 153) r as being " where any gold or silver hi coin, plate r or bullion is found concealed hi a house, or in the earth, or other private place, the owner thereof being unknown, in which case the treasure belongs to the King or his grantee, having the franchise of treasure-trove ; but if he that laid it be known, or afterwards discovered, the owner and not the King is entitled to it ; this prerogative right only applying in the absence of an owner to claim the property. If the owner, instead of hiding the-

" * See 4 Edw. I., Statute 2, translated from original hi Latin in ' Statutes of the Realm,' 1816,. vol. ii., pp. 62-64 ; Coroners Act, 1887, s. 36 ; Lord Halsbury s ' Laws of England,' vol. ix., ' Criminal Law and Procedure,' 1909, p. 521 ; Umfreville (Coroner for Middlesex), ' Lex Coronatoria,' 1761,. vols. i., xlii. and Ix. ; the writer's ' The Ancient Office of Coroner ' (hi which Bracton, Britton, Fleta and other ancient authorities are quoted),. Trans. Med. Leg. Soc., vol. viii., 1910, pp. 109-12,. and Coroners' Soc. Ann. Report, 1910-11, vol. iv.,. pp. 241-52."