Page:Man Who Laughs (Estes and Lauriat 1869) v2.djvu/100



NEXPLAINED arrest, which would greatly astonish an Englishman nowadays, was then a very common proceeding of the police. Recourse was had to it, notwithstanding the Habeas Corpus Act, up to George II.'s time, especially in such delicate cases as were provided for by lettres de cachet in France; and one of the accusations against which Walpole had to defend himself was that he had caused, or allowed, Neuhoff to be arrested in that manner. The accusation was probably without foundation, for Neuhoff, King of Corsica, was put in prison by his creditors.

These silent seizures of the parson, very usual with the Holy Væhme in Germany, were countenanced by German custom, which regulates one half of the old English laws, and recommended in certain cases by Norman custom, which rules the other half. Justinian's chief of the palace police was called "Silentiarius Imperialis." The English magistrates who practised the seizures in question relied upon numerous Norman texts: "Canes latrant, sergentes silent," and "Sergenter agere, id est tacere." They quoted Landulphus Sagax, paragraph 16: "Facit Imperator silentium." They quoted the charter of King Philip in 1307: "Multos tenebimus bastonerios qui, obmutescentes, sergentare valeant." They quoted the statutes of Henry I. of England, cap. 53: "Surge signo jussus. Taciturnior