HABEAS. 



That every person committing treason 

 or felony shall, if he require it, the first 

 week of the next term, or the first day of 

 the sessions of oyer and terminer, be in- 

 dicted in that term or session, or else be 

 admitted to bail, unless the king's wit- 

 nesses cannot be produced at that time ; 

 and if acquitted, or if not indicted and 

 tried in the second term or session, he 

 shall be discharged from his imprison- 

 ment for such imputed offence ; but no 

 person, after the assize shall be open for 

 the county in which he is detained, shall 

 be removed by habeas corpus till after the 

 assizes are ended, but shall be left to the 

 justice of the judges of assize. That any 

 such prisoner may move for and obtain his 

 habeas corpus, as well out of the Chance- 

 ry or Exchequer, as out of the King's 

 Bench or Common Pleas ; and the Lord 

 Chancellor, or judges, denying the same 

 on sight of the warrant, or oath that the 

 same is refused, shall forfeit severally, to 

 the party grieved, the sum of five hun- 

 . dred pounds. That this writ of habeas 

 corpus shall run into the counties pala- 

 tine, cinque ports, and other privileged 

 places, and the islands of Jersey, Guern- 

 sey, &c. That no inhabitants of England 

 (except persons contracting, or convicts 

 praying to be transported, or having com- 

 mitted some capital offence in the place 

 to which they are sent) shall be sent pri- 

 soners to Scotland, Ireland, Jersey,Guern- 

 sey, or any places beyond the seas, with- 

 in or without the king's dominions, on 

 pain that the party committing, his advis- 

 ers, aiders, and assistants, shall forfeit to 

 the party grieved a sum not less than five 

 hundred pounds, to be recovered with 

 treble costs, shall be disabled to bear any 

 office of trust or profit, shall incur the 

 penalties of premunire, and shall be inca- 

 pable of the king's pardon. 



The writ of habeas corpus, being an 

 high prerogative writ, issues out of the 

 King's Bench or Common Pleas, not only 

 in term, but in vacation, by a fiat from the 

 chief justice, or any other judge ; and 

 runs into all parts of the king's domi- 

 nions. If it issues in vacation, it is usual- 

 ly returnable before the judge himself 

 who awarded it, and he proceeds by him- 

 self thereon, unless the term should in- 

 tervene, when it may be returned in 

 court. 



To obtain this writ, application must be 

 made to the court by motion, as in the 

 case of all other prerogative writs. This 

 writ may also be obtained, to remove 

 every unjust restraint on personal freedom 

 in private life, though imposed by an hus- 

 band, or a father ; but when women or 



VOL. VJt. 



infants are brought up by the habeas coiv 

 pus, the court will set them free from an 

 unmerited or unreasonable confinement, 

 and will leave them at liberty to choose 

 where they will go. 



The habeas corbus ad subjidendum is a 

 prerogative writ, and also, in regard to 

 the subject, is his writ of right, to which 

 he is entitled to ex debitojustid# t being in. 

 nature of writ of error to examine the le- 

 gality of the commitment, and command- 

 ing the day, the caption, and cause of de- 

 tention, to be returned. 



The habeas corpus ad faciendum et red' 

 piendum issues only in civil cases, and lies 

 where a person is sued, and in gaoj, in 

 some inferior jurisdiction, and is willing 

 to have the cause determined in some su- 

 perior court ; in this case the body is to 

 be removed by habeas corpus, but the pro- 

 ceedings must be removed by certiorari. 

 This writ suspends the power of the court 

 below ; so that if it proceeds after, tiie 

 proceedings are void, and deemed coram 

 nonjudice. The proceedings in the infe- 

 rior court are, in fact, at an end ; for the 

 person of the defendant being removed 

 to the superior court, they have lost their 

 jurisdiction over him, and all the proceed- 

 ings in the superior court are de novo, so 

 that bail de novo must be put in, in the 

 superior court. 



Habeas corpus ad respondendum, is where 

 a man hath a cause of action against one 

 who is confined by the process of some 

 inferior court ; in which case, this writ is 

 granted to remove the prisoner to answer 

 this new action in the court above, which 

 is often done, to remove a prisoner from 

 the prison of the Fleet into the King's 

 Bench, and vice versa. 



Habeas corpus ad deliberandum et red- 

 piendum, is a writ which lies to remove a 

 person to the proper place or county 

 where he committed some criminal of- 

 fence. 



Habeas corpus adsatisfadendum, lies af- 

 ter a judgment, when the party wishes to 

 bring up a prisoner to charge him in exe- 

 cution in the inferior court. 



Habeas corpus upon a cepi, lies where 

 the party is taken in execution in the 

 court below. 



Habeas corpus ad testi/icandum, lies to 

 remove a person in confinement, in or- 

 der to give his testimony in a cause de- 

 pending. 



These are all writs, in civil cases, to 

 bring the party into court for a special 

 purpose, and are mere ordinary processes; 

 but the grand writ, by which the liberty 

 of the subject is secured, is that of the 

 habeas corpus mentioned first, which is 



