Page:Letters of Junius, volume 2 (Woodfall, 1772).djvu/326

316 the law of bail, in charges of felony, has been exactly ascertained by acts of the legislature, it is at present of little consequence to inquire how it stood at common law before the statute of Westminster. And yet it is worth the reader's attention to observe, how nearly, in the ideas of our ancestors, the circumstance of being taken with the maner approached to the conviction of the felon. It "fixed the authoritative stamp of verisimilitude upon the accusation: and, by the common law, when a thief was taken with the maner, that is, with the things stolen upon him in manu, he might, so detected, flagrante delicto, be brought into court, arraigned, and tried, without indictment; as, by the Danish law, he might be taken and hanged on the spot, without accusation or trial." It will soon appear that our statute in law, in this behalf, though less summary in point of proceeding, is directed by the same spirit. In one instance, the very form is adhered to. In offences relating to the forest, if a man was taken with vert, or venison, it was declared to be equivalent