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CHAPTER III.
LEX, REX, FEX.
Unexplained arrest, which would greatly astonish an Englishman nowadays,
was then a very usual 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 captures of the person, very usual with the Holy Væhme in
Germany, were admitted by German custom, which rules 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
captures in question relied upon numerous Norman texts:--Canes latrant,
sergentes silent. Sergenter agere, id est tacere. They quoted
Lundulphus 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 esto. Hoc est esse
in captione regis. They took advantage especially of the following
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