WARRANT OF APPREHENSION is an authority given by a justice of the peace to apprehend a person who is charged with a misdemeanor, felony, or treason. It is in the form of a command in her majesty's name, issued by the justice to a constable, and to all other peace-officers of the county, reciting that an offense has been committed, and that oath has been made as to the offender, and the constable to bring the offender before him (the justice), or some other of her majesty's justices, to answer the said charge, and be dealt with according to law. The warrant must be signed and sealed by the justice. It may be issued and executed ou a Sunday as well as any other day. In Scotland, the sheriff or justice of the peace who issues a warrant to arrest does not seal the document. In both countries the warrant must name the individual arrested. In England, the party must either be taken or seized, or hands must be laid ou him, accompanied with the words, " I arrest you." If the party arrested demand to see the warrant, the constable, if a known officer, is not in strictness bound to show it to him; but if the officer is not a known officer, and not acting within his precinct, then he must show the warrant. It is enough for the constable to say simply that he arrests in the queen's name. If the party to be arrested be in a house, and the doors be fastened, the constable may, after first demanding admittance, and being refused, break open the doors. If, however, the house be a stranger's house, the constable who
breaks open the door is not justified in doing so unless the accused be actually within. A general warrant, i.e., a warrant to apprehend all persons suspected, without naming or particularly describing any individual, is illegal and void for uncertainty, for mere vague suspicion is not enough to deprive any man of his liberty. A practicd had obtained in the secretary of state's office ever since the restoration, grounded on some clauses in the acts for regulating the press, of issuing general warrants to take up (without naming any person in particular) the authors, printers, or publishers of such obscene or seditious libels as were particularly specified in the warrant. When these acts expired in 1694, the same practice was inadvertently continued in every reign, except th'e last four years of queen Anne, till the question was raised and decided as to the validity of such warrants, and they were declared by the court of queen's bench illegal. 'hie house of commons in 1766 also passed a resolution making the issuing of general warrants illegal.