the County or Division, in which the offence shall have been committed, to pay him such sum as to the Court shall seem reasonable, not exceeding the expenses, which it shall appear to the Court the said person was _bonâ fide_ put unto by reason of the said recognizance and subpœna, making a reasonable allowance, in case he shall appear to be in poor circumstances, for trouble and loss of time.” These Statutes apply only to cases of felony; on prosecutions therefore for misdemeanors, and in other cases not specially provided for by Act of Parliament, the Court is not authorized to order a compensation to witnesses for their attendance; (7 _T. R._ 377: see also _Burn’s Justice_, _tit. County Rate_). As these Acts, and the 45th _Geo._ 3. _c._ 92. which compels the attendance of witnesses in any part of the United Kingdoms, their expenses being first tendered, do not meet many possible and probable cases of extreme hardship, it is to be wished that some further enactments may be made on this subject: it has indeed been doubted whether the obligation on witnesses in criminal causes is as peremptory as we have stated, (1 _Chitty on Criminal Law_, p. 612), but the weight of authority appears to be on the other side. Mr. Serjeant _Hawkins_, 2 P. C. p. 620, observes that “to persons of opulence and public spirit this obligation cannot be either hard or injurious; but indigent witnesses grow weary of attendance, and frequently bore their own charges to their great hindrance and loss;” and Sir _Mathew Hale_ (2 P. C. 282) complains of the want of power in Judges to allow witnesses their charges, as a great defect in this part of judicial administration. Our present object is to show that whatever hardship may exist in this point in general, it presses with peculiar severity on medical practitioners,[231] to whom time is most valuable, and the nature of whose profession requires that they should be continually within reasonable distance of their ordinary place of residence; to them therefore the tender of mere traveling expenses becomes a very insufficient compensation: the same policy which exempts them from attendance on other public duties may suggest the propriety of allowing them some adequate indemnity when their assistance becomes indispensable, and this not only for their private and immediate advantage, but ultimately for the public benefit; for if properly remunerated for their attendance, practitioners of a superior class would not be unwilling to devote some portion of their time to the assistance of public justice; whereas under the existing system it is notorious, that all who can, will avoid the burthen; and the duty therefore devolves on those who are least competent to its execution: this evil is particularly apparent on Coroner’s Inquests, where the opinion of a shop-boy has often been allowed to determine a question _in limine_, which properly investigated, might have required the first science to obtain a satisfactory result.