_Mayors and Sheriffs_ (Vol. viii., p. 126.).--In answer to a SUBSCRIBER,
there can be little or no doubt, I consider, but that the mayor of a town
or borough is the principal and most important officer, and ought to have
precedence of a sheriff of a town or borough. By stat. 5 & 6 Wm. IV. cap.
76. sec. 57., it is enacted, "That the mayor for the time being of every
borough shall, during the time of his mayoralty, have precedence in all
places within the borough." As sheriffs of towns, and counties of towns, do
not derive their appointments from the Crown, but from the councils of
their respective towns, &c. (see sec. 61. of the {606} above Act), I do not
imagine that they can legally claim precedence of mayors, on the alleged
ground of any "representation of Majesty," in the face of the particular
enactment above quoted; which, indeed, seems to me to give to the mayor
within his own borough precedence of a high sheriff of a county, if present
on any public occasion. I am not aware that the sheriff of borough, as
such, can "_claim_ to have a grant of arms, if he has not any previous;"
although I have no doubt he may readily obtain one, upon payment of the
usual fees.