Among the more singular secret societies which mankind have formed, was one in Otaheite and the neighbouring islands for the destruction of their own species, called Areoy, Arehoe, or Earowie.
Whether Mendana, Quiros, and the earlier navigators of the South Pacific Ocean, discovered this society, does not appear: it was, at any rate, reserved for those of later date to unfold its principles and peculiarities, though its constitution is still enveloped in mystery, the members having been bound to the strictest secrecy.
The society of Arreoy consisted of hundreds or perhaps thousands of both sexes, who engaged to destroy their own offspring at the moment of birth. It was chiefly composed of persons distinguished by valour and merit, and hence one or more individuals of each family of the chiefs were of the number. All the men professed themselves warriors, and were in general stout and well made; the greatest trust and confidence were reposed in them; and it rather appears that the women consisted of the higher ranks only. There were different gradations in this community, which were recognised by the mode of tattooing: the more profusely the men were tattooed, the higher was their rank in society; the first were called Areoy, the second tattooed, 2. Areoybyby; 3. Areoybybyby; 4. Harreden; 5. Estce olo; 6.7. Po; and youths training up were designed Mo; but the meaning of these names is not explained. By the fundamental laws of the society, the offending must be destroyed, yet it is not known with certainty by whom, nor in what particular manner; the murder was always perpetrated in a cruelly by strangulation; all the attendants were excluded; for it is said, were they to witness it they would be adjudged guilty of participation, and put to death. Sometimes the mother animated by natural affection, tried to preserve her infant, and resisted the persuasions of her husband and his brother Arreoy, who wished to consign it to destruction. But in general the enormity of the crime did not appal the females, though they are ascribed as affectionate and tender. We find a dancing girl pregnant by an Arreoy expressing herself thus to the English navigators: "Perhaps the ARRREST (from the French arrêter, arrêter, to stop or stay), is the restraint of a man's person, for the purpose of compelling him to be obedient to the law, and is defined to be the execution of the command of some court of record or officer of justice.
Arrests are either in civil or in criminal cases.
I. As to an arrest in civil cases. The arrest must be by virtue of a precept or order out of some court, and must be effected by corporal seizing or touching the defendant's body, or as directed by the writ, capias et attachment, take and catch hold of. And if the defendant make his escape, it is a rescus or rescue, and attachment may be had against him, and the bailiff may then justify the breaking open of the house in which he is, to carry him away.
Arrests on mesne process, before judgment obtained, are, since the 1st and 2nd Vict., c. 110, no longer allowable, except under special circumstances and under the authority of a judge's order. Such order may be obtained on an affidavit to the satisfaction of the judge that the defendant is about to leave the country.
A judgment creditor may arrest his debtor under a writ of capias ad satisfaciendum, but since the 7th and 8th Vict., c. 96, the debt must exceed L20, exclusive of costs; and if the debtor does not make satisfaction he must remain in custody, until discharged under the acts for the relief of insolvent debtors.
The following persons are privileged from arrest: 1st, Peers of the realm; members of parliament, not only when the house is sitting, but for such a period before the first meeting and after the dissolution of a parliament as may enable them conveniently to come from and return to any part of the kingdom, and also for 40 days after every prorogation, and 40 days before the next appointed meeting; 2d, Peeresses by birth; peers of Scotland; peeresses by marriage; Irish peers; members of convocation actually attending thereon (8th Henry VI., c. 1); 3d, Bishops; ambassadors, or the domestic servant of an ambassador, really and bona fide acting in that capacity (7th Anne, c. 12); the Queen's servants, marshal, &c. 4th, Attorneys, witnesses subpenaed, suitors, and all other persons, while necessarily attending the courts of justice, or going to or from the same (condo, morando, et rediendo). 5th, Clergymen, performing divine service, and not merely staying in the church with a fraudulent design (50th Edward III., c. 5, and 1st Richard II., c. 16, as amended by 9th Geo. IV., c. 31).
The arrest of any privileged person is irregular ab initio, and the party may be discharged on motion. The only exception is as to indictable crimes, such as "treason, felony, and breach or surety of the peace."
There are now no longer any places where persons are privileged from arrest, such as the Mint, Savoy, Whitefriars, &c., on the ground of their being ancient palaces. See statutes 8th and 9th Will. III., c. 27, § 15; 9th Geo. I., c. 28, § 1; 11th Geo. I., c. 22; as amended by 1st Geo. IV., c. 116.
Except in cases of treason, felony, or breach of the peace, an arrest cannot be made on a Sunday, and if made it is void (29th Car. II., c. 7); but it may be made in the night as well as in the day.
II. As to an arrest in criminal cases. All persons whatsoever are, without distinction, equally liable to this arrest, and any man may arrest without warrant or precept, and outer doors may be broken open for that purpose.
The arrest may be made, 1st, by warrant; 2d, by an officer without warrant; 3d, by a private person without warrant; or, 4th, by a hue and cry.
1. Warrants are ordinarily granted by justices of the peace on information or complaint in writing and upon oath, and they must be indorsed when it is intended they should be executed in another county (see 11th and 12th Vict., c. 42). They are also granted in cases of treason or other offence affecting the government by the privy council, or one of the secretaries of state, and also by the chief or other justice of the court of Queen's bench in cases of felony, misdemeanor, or indictment found, or criminal information granted in that court.
2. The officers who may arrest without warrant are—justices of the peace, for felony or breach of the peace committed in their presence; the sheriff and the coroner in their county for felony; constables for treason, felony, or breach of the peace committed in their view,—and within the metropolitan police district they have even larger powers; and watchmen from sunset to sunrise.
3. A private person is bound to arrest for a felony committed in his presence, under penalty of fine and imprisonment.
4. The arrest by hue and cry is where officers and private persons are concerned in pursuing felons, and such as have dangerously wounded another.
The remedy for a wrongful arrest is by an action for false imprisonment.
In Scotland the law of arrest in criminal procedure has a general constitutional analogy with that of England, though the practice differs with the varying character of the judicatories. Colloquially the word arrest is used in compulsory procedure for the recovery of debt; but the technical term applicable in that department is Caption, and the law on the subject is generically different from that of England. There never was a practice in Scottish law corresponding with the English arrest in mesne process; but by old custom a warrant for caption could be obtained where a creditor made oath that he had reason to believe his debtor meditated flight from the country, and the writ so issued is called a warrant against a person in meditatione fugae. Imprisonment of old followed on ecclesiastical cursing, and by fiction of law in later times it was not the creditor's remedy, but the punishment of a refractory person denounced rebel for disobedience to the injunctions of the law requiring fulfilment of his obligation. The system was reformed and stripped of its cumbrous fictions by an act of the year 1837. Although the proceedings against the person could only follow on completed process, yet, by a peculiarity of the Scottish law, documents executed with certain formalities, and by special statute bills and promissory-notes, can be registered in the records of a court for execution against the person as if they were judgments of the court. In 1835 imprisonment for debts not exceeding a hundred pounds Scots or L8, 6s. 8d. was abolished.
Arrrest of Judgment is the assigning just reason why judgment should not pass, notwithstanding verdict given, either in civil or in criminal cases, and from intrinsic causes arising on the face of the record.
Under the New Common Law Procedure Act, 15th and ARRIEN (Αρριανός), a distinguished Greek historian and philosopher, who lived in the time of the Emperors Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius. He was a native of Nicomedia, born about the end of the first century of our era, and was one of the most distinguished disciples of the famous Epictetus. In A.D. 124, he lived at Athens, where he made the acquaintance of the Emperor Hadrian, who was so much struck with his practical wisdom as to raise him to several high offices; and under Antoninus he obtained even the consulship. The only other event of his life of which we know anything is, that he was appointed governor of Cappadocia. Arrian himself proudly disdains giving us any information of himself; and his life, written by Dion Cassius, is lost.
History and philosophy are greatly indebted to Arrian; for, being a disciple of Epictetus, who himself did not write any work, Arrian determined to be to him what Xenophon had been to Socrates, and published his philosophical lectures in eight books, of which only the first half is extant; but the portion which has come down to us gives us a most exalted view of the ethical philosophy of Epictetus and the Stoics generally. The work bears the title Διαρκεία Επικτητική, and is contained in Schweighauser's Philosophia Epiteticæ Monumenta, vol. iii. A second work, by which Arrian testified his attachment to his great master, bears the title Ἐγκυκλοπαιδεία Ἐπικτητική, a short manual of moral philosophy, compiled from the lectures of Epictetus, which for many centuries was regarded both by Pagans and Christians as the best book on the subject. It has been published in a great many editions: the best is in the collection of Schweighauser, mentioned above.
Among Arrian's own original works, the first and foremost is his account of the expedition of Alexander the Great in seven books. It contains the best and most authentic account of that conqueror's career, being based upon the lost works of Aristobulus and Ptolemy, the son of Lagus, both of whom accompanied the king during the expedition. The best editions of this work are those by J. Gronovius, Lugd. Bat. 1704, fol.; Schmieder, Lipsiae, 1798, 8vo; and Krüger, Berlin, 1839 and 1848, 2 vols. 8vo. Connected with this is a treatise on India, in the Ionic dialect, which he wrote separately, in order not to be obliged to interrupt the history of Alexander. Besides these works, we have by him a work on the chase, a peripus of the Black Sea, and a manual of tactics; but many other works, which are ascribed to him by the ancients, have not come down to us: certain descriptions of the coasts of the Sea of Azov and the Red Sea, which are ascribed to him, are probably the productions of a later period.
Arrian's style is simple, lucid, and manly; and his imitation of Xenophon is visible, not only in his style and diction, but even in the subjects on which he wrote. His language, though pure Attic, presents some peculiarities which are not found in the works of his great model.