WARRANT, a pracipe, under hand and seal, to some officer, to bring any of fender before the person granting it ; and warrants of commitment are issued, by the Privy Council, a secretary of state, or justice of peace, &c. where there has been a private information, or a witness has deposed against an offender. Any one under the degree of nobility may be arrested for a misdemeanor, or any thing . done against the peace of the kingdom, by warrant from a justice of the peace ; though if the person be a peer of the realm, he must be apprehended for a breach of the peace by warrant out of the King's Bench.
A general warrant to apprehend all persons suspected, without naming or particularly describing any person in special, is illegal and void for its uncer tainty : for it is the duty of the magis trate, and ought not to be left to the offi cer, to judge of the ground of the suspi cion. Also a warrant to apprehend all persons guilty of such a crime is no legal warrant ; for the point upon which its authority rests, is a fact to be decided on a subsequent trial ; namely, whether the person apprehended thereupon be guilty or not guilty. A warrant may be lawful ly granted by any justice, for treason, fe lony, prnmunire, or any offence against the peace ; and it seems clear, that where a statute gives-any one justice a jurisdic tion over any offence, or a power to re quire any person to do a certain or dained by such statute, it impliedly gives a power to every such justice to make out a warrant to bring before him any one accused of such offence, or compel led to do any thing ordained by such sta.
tote ; for it cannot but be intended, that a statute which gives a person jurisdic tion over an offence, means also to give him the power incident to all courts, of compelling the party to come before him. But in cases where the King is not a party, or where no corporal punish. ment is appointed, as incases for servants' wages, and the like, it seems that a sum mons is the more proper process ; and for default of appearance, the justice may proceed ; and so indeed it is often direct. ed by special statutes. A warrant from any one of the justices of the Court of King's Bench extends over all the king dom, and is tested or dated England; a warrant of a justice of peace in one county must be backed, that is, signed by a justice of another county, before it can be executed there : and a warrant for apprehending an English or a Scotch of fender may be indorsed in the opposite kingdom, and the offender carried back to that part of the united kingdom in which the offence was committed. This is also now extended to Ireland, upon a proper certificate of an indictment or in formation filed in either country.