Chapter V: Section 5: “No person shall be appointed a coroner unless he be a

practising barrister of not less than five years’ standing, or a solicitor of not less than five years’ standing, or a registered medical practitioner who is also a barrister or a graduate in law of a University in the United Kingdom, provided that no member of the authority making the appointment, or any person who has been a member of such authority within a period of twelve months immediately before the making of the appointment, shall be eligible for appointment as a coroner by such authority.”

On the whole, there is little to criticise or attack in the qualifications set out, though it might not be too much to demand eight or ten years’ professional standing in the case of a solicitor, instead of five. Indeed, it seems scarcely equitable to place a solicitor on the same basis as a barrister or an especially highly qualified medical practitioner, unless such solicitor has taken a University degree, or has had to pass examinations of a more academic character than those which obtain at present.