Page:Letters of Junius, volume 2 (Woodfall, 1772).djvu/327

Rh to indictment. To enable the reader to judge for himself, I shall state, in due order, the several statutes relative to bail in criminal cases, or as much of them as may be material to the point in question, omitting superfluous words. If I misrepresent, or do not quote with fidelity, it will not be difficult to detect me.

The statute of Westminster the first, in 1275, sets forth, that "Forasmuch as sheriffs and others, who have taken and kept in prison persons detected of felony and incontinent, have let out by replevin such as were not replevisable, because they would gain of the one party, and grieve the other; and forasmuch as, before this time, it was not determined which persons were replevisable, and which not; it is provided, and by the King commanded, that such prisoners, &c. as be taken with the maner, &c. or for manifest offences, shall be in no wise replevisable by the common writ, nor without writ." Lord Coke,