an accusation and prosecution for treason and other high crimes and misdemeanours. Any member of the Lower House of Parliament may impeach any one belonging either to that body or to the House of Lords. The method of proceeding is to exhibit articles on behalf of the Commons, by whom managers are appointed to make good their charge. These articles are carried to the Lords, by whom every person impeached by the Commons is always tried; and if they find him guilty, no pardon under the great seal can be pleaded to such an impeachment. (12th Will. III., cap. ii.)

IMPRESSION for the naval service, by the king's commission, has been a matter of much dispute, and submitted to with great reluctance; though Sir Michael Foster strenuously contends that the practice of impressing, and granting powers to the admiralty for that purpose, is of a very ancient date, and has been uniformly continued by a regular series of precedents to the present time, from which he concludes that it is part of the common law. The difficulty arises from the fact that no statute has expressly declared this power to be in the crown, though many of them very strongly imply it. But whatever may be said as to the legality of this method of manning the navy, there can be no doubt that it is a gross invasion of natural liberty; and hence it has in recent times been very generally reprobated, not only as forming a great anomaly in a free country, where natural rights are in all other cases respected, but likewise as contrary to sound policy, and at variance with the principles on which recruitment ought to be conducted, excepting in those cases of imperious necessity which imply the suspension of all ordinary rights and laws.

IMPRISONMENT; a mode in England and Scotland of enforcing payment of debt; or performance of a covenant after judgment; and of securing persons accused of crimes for trial and sentence. It forms also one of the ordinary criminal punishments. Its history in Scotland curiously illustrates the progress of civilization in that country. The earliest warrants of imprisonment in that country for payment of civil debts were granted by magistrates of burghs, and still exist under the name of acts of warding. At a later period letters of four forms were issued under the royal signet; and the debtor, whether recusant or poor, was denounced as a rebel, and incarcerated for non-payment. This cumbrous method was followed by letters of horning and caption. Various other simplifications were effected in the years 1503, 1606, and 1612; till, by the statute 1st and 2d Vict., c. 114, sec. 8, it was declared that letters of horning and caption may be continued only at the creditor's option and expense, and a more rational course was substituted; the court which pronounced the judgment being empowered to grant a short and simple warrant of imprisonment on a charge to fulfil it being disobeyed. Such warrants also now pass, after charges of payment, on protests of bills of exchange, and on recorded bonds and formal deeds, containing clauses of registration for execution. The effect of denouncing a debtor as a rebel on a charge of payment being disobeyed, is to enable the creditor to accumulate the original debt and all arrears of interest into one principal sum, on which interest thereafter runs. The letters of caption, and the short warrant recently introduced, contain authority to break open the doors of any place within which the debtor may be concealed.

In England, if a man is once imprisoned till he make the satisfaction awarded by a court of law, no other or new process can be sued out against his lands or goods, and he must remain in prison, if his creditor please, till he make the satisfaction required, or obtain his discharge as a bankrupt, or take the benefit of the Insolvent Debtors' Act. After liberation he cannot be re-incarcerated on the same warrant. But it is no objection to the attachment of a debtor's property in Scotland that he is in prison for the same debt, nor even that his effects have been poinded or attached before his imprisonment, provided they have not actually been sold. If the sale take place either before or after his imprisonment, without producing a sum sufficient to extinguish the debt, the imprisonment may be enforced or continued for the deficiency. A debtor in Scotland may even be liberated and re-incarcerated on the same warrant; but where this is done oppressively, the court will interfere, and require the creditor to justify his conduct by showing some intervening improvement in the circumstances of the debtor. Magistrates of prisons are bound to receive debtors with the necessary warrants, under pain of liability for the debt; and the imprisonment is required to be strict. On legal evidence of absolute necessity for the preservation of health, the necessary relaxation is allowed; but it must be withdrawn when the necessity ceases. If a debtor escape through negligence or connivance, or insufficiency of the prison, the magistrates are liable for the debt; but not if the escape were forcible and under night, or by an accident, provided the officials have done all in their power to prevent it, or to recover the person of the prisoner. An exception occurs in the case of a person imprisoned till he find security to appear in a subsequent suit; it being sufficient, though he temporarily escape, that he is timely produced when required in the suit.

A royal commission having been issued in the reign of William IV., on the subject of imprisonment for debt in Scotland, the statute 5th and 6th Will. IV., c. 70, was passed, declaring it unlawful to imprison for a civil debt which does not exceed L.8, 6s. 8d., exclusive of interest and expenses, unless the debt be due to the crown, or for poor rates, local taxation, or for alms. In England, by the 7th and 8th Vict., c. 96, § 58, imprisonment is unlawful for a judgment debt under L.20; and on mesne process it is no longer allowed except when the party is about to quit the country, and even then the discharge can be obtained on putting in bail. Under the new County Court Acts (9th and 10th Vict., c. 95, amended by the 13th and 14th Vict., c. 61) the county court judges have power to direct the imprisonment of a debtor for forty days in certain cases, and whatever may be the amount of the debt.

As to the imprisonment of offenders in order to trial for crimes, usually called apprehension, see ARREST. The course of proceeding before justices or magistrates is now regulated by the 11th and 12th Vict., c. 42. If no bail be allowed, the accused is committed to the common gaol or house of correction for safe custody until delivered by due course of law. By the recent statute 18th and 19th Vict., c. 126, with the consent of the accused, the charge may be summarily tried, instead of being sent to a jury at the sessions or assizes. The accused party must, in the first instance, be brought before the magistrate or justice for examination, and unless there appear reason for his immediate release, he is remanded to prison for further examination, and an inquiry into the evidence of his guilt is taken. If the evidence of guilt appear sufficient, the judge then grants a warrant of commitment. In small offences committed once or twice only, the trial before the judge proceeds immediately. In all other cases the injured parties and witnesses, in England, are bound over to prosecute at the sessions or assizes, while in Scotland the recognitions are reported to the Lord Advocate, who, by himself, or his deputies, directs how the cases shall be disposed of, either by abandonment of the charge or trial. If the offence is a bailable one, the party may be liberated on bail until the time of trial. The punishment of imprisonment is now limited so as not to exceed three or at the most four years, but frequently with the additional severity of hard labour, or solitary confinement, as directed by the 7th Will. IV., and 1st Vict., c. 90, § 5. Imprisonment is also sometimes inflicted in capital cases by way of commutation for death (11th Geo. IV., and 1st Will. IV., c. 39, § 7). Under the Scotch statute 1701, c. 5, the accused may take measures to have a day fixed, within sixty days, for his trial, and if the trial be not concluded within forty days afterwards, he is entitled to liberation. The day for trial before an inferior court must be within thirty days after the sixty. A party so liberated may be brought to trial in the superior court within an additional term of forty days; but unless the trial be concluded by that time, he is held for ever discharged from the criminal consequences of his offence.

This statute is regarded as the habeas corpus of Scotland. In England, if any one conceive himself to be illegally detained in prison, he is entitled, by 16th Car. I., c. 10, to demand a writ to bring his body before the Court of the Queen's Bench or Common Pleas, who shall decide in regard to the justice of his commitment. Blackstone remarks that, by 31st Car. II., c. 2, commonly called the habeas corpus act (amended and made more effectual by the 56th Geo. III., c. 100), the methods of obtaining this writ are so plainly pointed out, that so long as that statute remain unimpeached, no subject of England can be long detained in prison, except in those cases in which the law requires and justifies such detention.