where

executed.

until it shall be executed; and such warrant may be Sect. 10. executed by apprehending the offender at any place How and within the county, riding, division, liberty, city, warrant borough, or place within which the justice or jus- may be tices issuing the same shall have jurisdiction, or in case of fresh pursuit at any place in the next adjoining county or place, and within seven miles of the border of such first-mentioned county, riding, division, liberty, city, borough, or place without having such warrant backed as hereinafter mentioned; and in all cases where such warrant shall be directed to all constables or other peace officers within the county or other district within which the justice or justices issuing the same shall have jurisdiction, it shall be lawful for any constable, headborough, tithingman, borsholder, or other peace officer for any parish, township, hamlet, or place within such county or district to execute the said warrant within any parish, township, hamlet, or place situate within the jurisdiction for which such justice or justices shall have acted when he or they granted such warrant, in like manner as if such warrant were directed specially to such constable by name, and notwithstanding the place in which such warrant shall be executed shall not be within the parish, township, hamlet, or place for which he shall be such constable, headborough, tithingman, borsholder, or other peace officer: Provided always, that no No objection objection shall be taken or allowed to any such alleged warrant for any defect therein in substance or in form, &c. form, or for any variance between it and the evidence adduced on the part of the prosecution before the justice or justices who shall take the examinations of the witnesses in that behalf, as hereinafter men

allowed for

defect in

Sect. 10. tioned; but if any such variance shall appear to such justice or justices to be such that the party charged has been thereby deceived or misled, it shall be lawful for such justice or justices, at the request of the party so charged, to adjourn the hearing of the case to some future day, and in the meantime to remand the party so charged, or to admit him to bail, in manner hereafter mentioned.

Execution

The warrant must be under the hand and seal of the justice issuing it, and it may be directed to any constable or "other person by name; and in this respect no change has been made in the law. If the person to whom it is addressed be not a constable or peace officer, he is not compellable to execute the warrant, and of course is not punishable if he refuses to execute it. 2 Hawk. c. 13, s. 27. But if it be directed to the constable or other peace officer, the constable or officer is bound to execute it, and may do so at any place of warrant. within the jurisdiction of the justices granting the warrant; or if the offender cannot be found therein, the warrant may be backed by a justice having jurisdiction in the place where the offender is supposed to be, and then executed (see s. 11). Usually the warrant is directed to the constable without naming him, and to all other constables and peace officers within the county or other jurisdiction of the justices issuing it, and any one of such persons may execute it in the same manner as if it were addressed by name to all or to each of them.

The warrant remains in force until it is executed; and when executed the constable cannot discharge himself of the offender otherwise than by taking him before a magistrate. 2 Hawk. c. 13, s. 7. In case of fresh pursuit, that is, in case of the escape of the offender out of custody into the next adjoining county or place, and within seven miles of the border of the county, &c., within which the justices issuing the warrant have jurisdiction, the warrant may be executed without being backed as in ordinary cases, but if the offender be beyond seven miles from the border, he cannot be apprehended until the warrant is backed in the ordinary manner. This provision is of great practical advantage in securing the more speedy apprehension of criminals.

The distance of seven miles of the border of the county referred to in this section will be measured not by the nearest practicable road, but by a straight line from point to point on

Sect. 10.

the horizontal plain, 66 as the crow flies." Lake v. Butler, 24 Note to L. J. R. (N.S.) Q. B. 273; 19 J. P. 692; Stokes v. Grissell, 23 L. J. R. (N.S.) C. P. 141; 18 J. P. 378; Reg. v. Saffron Walden, 9 Q. B. 76; 15 L. J. R. (N.s.) M. C. 115; 10 J. P. 499; Duignan v. Walker, 5 Jur. (N.S.) 976.

The 29 Car. 2. c. 7, s. 6, enacts" that no person upon the Arrest on Lord's day shall serve or execute any writ, process, warrant, Sunday. order, judgment, or decree, (except in cases of treason, felony, or breach of the peace,) but that the serving of any such writ, process, warrant, order, judgment, or decree, shall be void to all intents snd purposes whatsoever."-This statute authorizes the arrest on a Sunday of all persons who have been guilty of indictable offences; therefore a person guilty of an indictable offence may be apprehended on a Sunday, whether such offence involve an actual or only a constructive breach of the peace. Rawlins v. Ellis, 16 L. J. (N.S.) Exch. 5; 16 M. & W. 172.

warrant.

With regard to an arrest without a warrant.-It has been Arrest held that a constable is not justified in arresting without war- without rant, a person who is charged by another with having committed a felony unless the charge be reasonable. If he arrest upon an unreasonable charge he is answerable for the injury in an action at the suit of the person so arrested. Hogg v. Ward, 22 J. P. 626. So a magistrate has no authority to arrest a person guilty on his own view of a misdemeanor, where there is no breach of the peace, and where it is not necessary to arrest the offender to prevent a renewal of the act. King v. Poe, 30 J. P. 678. Further on this point see note, ante, p. 334.

The proviso to this section is the same as the proviso at the end of section 9.

as to the

warrants.

11. If the person against whom any such warrant Regulations shall be issued as aforesaid shall not be found within backing of the jurisdiction of the justice or justices by whom the same shall be issued, or if he shall escape, go into, reside, or be or be supposed or suspected to be,

in

any place in England or Wales out of the jurisdiction of the justice issuing such warrant, it shall and may be lawful for any justice of the peace for the county or place into which such person shall so escape or go, or in which he shall reside or be, or be supposed or suspected to be, upon proof alone

'Sect. 11. being made on oath of the handwriting of the justices issuing such warrant, to make an indorsement (K.) on such warrant, signed with his name, authorizing the execution of such warrant within the jurisdiction of the justice making such indorsement, and which indorsement shall be sufficient authority to the person bringing such warrant, and to all other persons to whom the same was originally directed, and also to all constables and other peace officers of the county or place where such warrant shall be so indorsed, to execute the same in such other county or place, and to carry the person against whom such warrant shall have issued, when apprehended, before the justice or justices of the peace who first issued the said warrant, or before some other justice or justices of the peace in and for the same county, riding, division, city, liberty, borough, or place, or before some justice or justices of the county, riding, division, liberty, city, borough, or place where the offence in the said warrant mentioned appears therein to have been committed: Provided always, that if the prosecutor, or any of the witnesses upon the part of the prosecution, shall then be in the county or place where such person shall have been so apprehended, the constable or other person or persons who shall have so apprehended such person may, if so directed by the justice backing such warrant, take and convey him before the justice who shall have so backed the said warrant, or before some other justice or justices of the same county or place; and the said justice or justices may thereupon take the examinations of such prosecutor or witnesses, and proceed in every respect in manner hereinafter directed with respect to persons charged before a justice or justices

Proviso.

of the peace with an offence alleged to have been Sect. 11. committed in another county or place than that in

which such persons have been apprehended.

England.

This section relates exclusively to the backing of warrants Backing to be executed in some county in England to which the warrants in offender may have fled, or in which he may be. The form of indorsement in backing a warrant is usually printed on the back of the warrant, and the magistrate backing it has only to fill in the name of the constable and the name of the county or other jurisdiction, and to sign it. After being backed, not only the constable who brings the warrant, and all constables and other peace officers of the county where it is issued, but also all constables and other peace officers of the county where it is backed, may execute it. If, after being backed, the offender be not found within the jurisdiction, the constable may go to any other county or jurisdiction in which he may be supposed to be, and get it backed by a justice of that county, &c., and then execute it, and so on in any county, &c., in England, until the offender is taken. Or if the offender have gone back to the original county, &c., it may be there executed notwithstanding its having been backed in other counties.

Supposing the offender to have been apprehended, the constable will take him before a justice of the county in which the offence was committed, there to be dealt with, unless the justice backing the warrant by a special indorsement shall have directed otherwise, in which case the offender must be taken before a justice of the county, &c., in which the warrant was backed. Unless, however, there are any witnesses within the jurisdiction of the justices backing the warrant, it is not usual to have such special indorsement; the fact that there are any such witnesses should therefore be communicated to the justice when the warrant is backed, in order that he may exercise his discretion in the matter.

If the backing be specially indorsed, the offender, if apprehended within the jurisdiction of a justice making the indorsement, must be taken before that justice or some other justice of the county, &c., who will then proceed in the manner directed by section 22, post.

offenders

By 6 & 7 Vict. c. 34, s. 1, if any person be charged with Apprehenhaving committed against the laws of any part of Her sion of Majesty's dominions, not being part of the United Kingdom in colonies of Great Britain and Ireland, any felony (16 & 17 Vict. c. 118), escaping and against whom a warrant shall have been issued for such into offence, by any person having lawful authority to issue the England.