ARRESTMENT, in Scottish Law, denotes that process by which a creditor detains the goods or effects of his debtor in the hands of third parties till the debt due to him shall be paid. It is divided into two kinds,—1st, Arrestment in security, used when proceedings are commencing, or in other circumstances where a claim may become, but is not yet enforceable; and 2d, Arrestment in execution, following on the decree of a court, or on a registered document under a clause or statutory power of registration, according to the custom of Scotland. By the process of arrestment, the property covered by it is merely retained in its place—to realize it for the satisfaction of the creditor's claim a farther proceeding called Forthcoming is necessary. By old practice, alimentary funds, or those necessary for subsistence, were not liable to arrestment. By a statute of 1837, the wages of labourers and manufacturers, so far as necessary to their subsistence, are declared not to be arrestable. The question of necessity for subsistence is decided according to the discretion of the judge resorted to. This restriction was enacted on account of serious doubts whether this remedy, unknown in other parts of the empire, did not tend to foster a system of credit among the working classes, which put them at the mercy of petty dealers, and disturbed the business of their employers, in whose hands their wages were arrested. It is still a question much debated, whether the remedy—limited though it be by the act of 1837, and by an act of 1845, abolishing arrestments of wages in dependence in small-debt actions—is not liable to abuse. (J. H. N.)