Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (4th ed, 1770, vol IV).djvu/408

 396 PUBLIC BOOK IV.

CHAPTER THE THIRTY SECOND.

OF EXECUTION.

THERE now remains nothing to fpeak of, but execution; the completion of human punifhment. And this, in all caes, as well capital as otherwife, muft be performed by the legal officer, the fheriff or his deputy; whofe warrant for o doing was antiently by precept under the hand and feal of the judge, as it is ftill practied in the court of the lord high fteward, upon the execution of a peer a: though, in the court of the peers in parliament, it is done by writ from the king b. Afterwards it was eftablihed c, that, in cafe of life, the judge may command execution to be done without any writ. And now the ufage is, for the judge to fign the calendar, or lift of all the prifoners' names, with their feparate judgments in the margin, which is left with the meriff. As, for a capital felony, it is written oppofite to the prifoner's name, "let him be hanged by the neck;" formerly, in the days of Latin and abbreviation d, "u. per coll." for "upendatur per collum." And this is the only warrant that the heriff has, for fo material an ad as taking away the life of another e. It may certainly afford matter of fpeculation, that in civil caufes there mould be fuch a variety of writs of execution to recover a trifling debt, ifTued in the king's name, and under the feal of the court, without which the {{ls}he- 2 Hal. P. C. 409. b See appendix. §. 5. c Finch. L. 478. d Staundf. P. C. 182. e 5 Mod. 22.

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