necessary for the good order of the kingdom) is entirely lost among the people.

The process of attachment, for these and the like contempts, must necessarily be as ancient as the laws themselves; for laws, without a competent authority to secure their administration from disobedience and contempt, would be vain and nugatory.

If the contempt be committed in the face of the court, the offender may be instantly apprehended and imprisoned, at the discretion of the judges, without any farther proof or examination. But in matters that arise at a distance, and of which the court cannot have so perfect a knowledge, unless by the confession of the party or the testimony of others, if the judges upon affidavit see sufficient ground to suspect that a contempt has been committed, they either make a rule on the suspected party to shew cause why an attachment should not issue against him; or, in very flagrant instances of contempt, the attachment issues in the first instance; as it also does if no sufficient cause be shewn to discharge, and thereupon the court confirms and makes absolute, the original rule. This process of attachment is merely intended to bring the party into court: and, when there, he must either stand committed, or put in bail, in order to answer upon oath to such interrogatories as shall be administered to him, for the better information of the court with respect to the circumstances of the contempt. If the party can clear himself upon

oath, he is discharged; but, if perjured, may be prosecuted for the perjury. If he confesses the contempt, the court will proceed to correct him by fine or imprisonment, or both, and sometimes by a corporal or infamous punishment.

CHAPTER XXI.

OF ARRESTS.

We are now to consider the regular and ordinary method of proceeding in the courts of criminal jurisdiction; which may be distributed under twelve general heads, following each other in a progressive order: viz. 1. Arrest; 2. Commitment, and bail; 3. Prosecution; 4. Process; 5. Arraignment, and its incidents; 6. Plea, and issue; 7. Trial, and conviction; 8. Clergy; 9. Judgment, and its consequences; 10. Reversal of judgment; 11. Reprieve, or pardon; 12. Execution.

First then, of an arrest: which is the apprehending or restraining of one's person, in order to be forthcoming to answer an alleged or suspected crime. To this arrest all persons whatsoever are, without distinction, equally liable in all criminal cases: but no man is to be arrested, unless charged with such a crime, as will at least justify holding him to bail, when taken. And, in general, an arrest may be made four ways: 1. By warrant: 2. By an officer without warrant: 3. By a

private person also without warrant: 4. By a hue and cry.

1. A warrant may be granted in extraordinary cases by the privy council, or secretaries of state; but ordinarily by justices of the peace. This they may do in any cases where they have a jurisdiction over the offence; in order to compel the person accused to appear before them. A justice of peace hath power to issue a warrant to apprehend a person accused of felony, though not yet indicted; and also a person suspected of felony, though the original suspicion be not in himself, but in the party that prays his warrant; because he is a competent judge of the probability offered to him of such suspicion. But in both cases it is fitting to examine upon oath the party requiring a warrant. This warrant ought to be under the hand and seal of the justice, should set forth the time and place of making, and the cause for which it is made, and should be directed to the constable, or other peaceofficer, (or, it may be to any private person by name) requiring him to bring the party either generally before any justice of the peace for the county, or only before the justice who granted it; the warrant in the latter case being called a special warrant. A general warrant to apprehend all persons suspected, without naming or particularly describing any person in special, is illegal and void for its uncertainty. It is therefore in fact no warrant at all: for it will not justify the officer who acts under it; whereas a warrant, properly penned, (even though the magistrate who issues it should

exceed his jurisdiction) will, by statute 24 Geo. II. c. 44. at all events indemnify the officer, who executes the same ministerially. And, when a warrant is received by the officer, he is bound to execute it, so far as the jurisdiction of the magistrate and himself extends. A warrant from the chief, or other, justice of the court of king's bench, extends all over the kingdom: and is teste'd, or dated, England; not Oxfordshire, Berks, or other particular county. But the warrant of a justice of the peace in one county, as Yorkshire, must be backed, that is, signed by a justice of the peace in another, as Middlesex, before it can be executed there.

2. Arrests by officers, without warrant, may be executed-1. By a justice of the peace; who may himself apprehend, or cause to be apprehended, by word only, any person committing a felony or breach of the peace in his presence. 2. The sheriff, and 3. The coroner, may apprehend any felon within the county without warrant. 4. The constable may, without warrant, arrest any one for a breach of the peace, committed in his view, and carry him before a justice of the peace. And, in case of felony actually committed, or a dangerous wounding whereby felony is like to ensue, he may upon probable suspicion arrest the felon; and for that purpose is authorized (as upon a justice's warrant) to break open doors, and even to kill the felon if he cannot otherwise be taken; and, if he or his assistants be killed in attempting such arrest, it is murder in all concerned. 5. Watchmen may virtute officii arrest all offenders, and particularly

night-walkers, and commit them to custody till the morning.

3. Any private person that is present when any felony is committed, is bound by the law to arrest the felon; on pain of fine and imprisonment, if he escapes through the negligence of the standers-by. And they may justify breaking open doors upon following such felon : and if they kill him, provided he cannot be otherwise taken, it is justifiable; though if they are killed in endeavouring to make such arrests, it is murder. Upon probable suspicion also a private person may arrest the felon, or other person so suspected. But he cannot justify breaking open doors to do it; and if either party kill the other in the attempt, it is manslaughter, and no more.

4. There is yet another species of arrest, wherein both officers and private men are concerned, and that is upon a hue and cry raised upon a felony committed. A hue (from huer, to shout) and cry, hutesium et clamor, is the old common-law process of pursuing, with horn and with voice, all felons, and such as have dangerously wounded another. The principal statute directs, that every county shall be so well kept, that immediately upon robberies and felonies committed, fresh suit shall be made from town to town, and from county to county; and that hue and cry shall be raised upon the felons, and they that keep the town shall follow with hue and cry, with all the town and the towns near; and so hue and cry shall be made from town to town, until they be taken and delivered to the