law or the acts of the parties. 1. By the death of defendant, provided administration upon the estate be granted within a year after the death, or applied for within a year and granted afterwards. In such case the officer is bound to deliver the property on demand to the executor or administrator, on being paid his fees for attaching and keeping the goods, (c. 90, 105, 106); and if the property have been sold, he must pay the proceeds, § 107, et seq.

It is also dissolved by final judgment for the defendant, and this final judgment is that which is rendered in the original action, whether on appeal or otherwise, and not such as may be rendered upon a writ of error or review, (c. 90, § 26, 27); also by a neglect to enter an appeal at the proper time, (c. 81, § 37); and it cannot be revived by the subsequent entry of such appeal, though allowed by the Court. Ib. and c. 82, § 24. An attachment is not dissolved by carrying any case to the Supreme Court on a bill of exceptions, c. 82, § 18. This provision was doubtless inserted in the Revised Statutes from abundant caution. The provision that an attachment is not dissolved until final judgment for defendant, is sufficiently broad to cover the case. Attachments are also dissolved by making certain amendments, such as inserting new causes of action, enlarging the ad damnum, &c., which will be considered in the Chapter on Amendments. Also, by an assignment under the insolvent law. Stat. 1838, c. 163,

§ 5.

2. By the acts of the parties. When live animals, or perishable property are attached, it has been seen, that they shall be appraised at the request of either party, and they may be delivered to the defendant, on his giving bond to pay the appraised value, c. 90, § 62. So of goods belonging to two or more persons: they

may be delivered to one of the part owners not a defendant, on his giving bond, § 73. In these cases, the bond, or money deposited with the officer in lieu of a bond, becomes a substitute for the property attached, to the extent of its appraised value; and though the officer may attach up to the appraised value afterwards, yet the property is released from attachment. In all cases whatever, an attachment may be dissolved by the defendant's giving bond within fourteen days after the writ is returnable, if the Court shall sit so long, and if not, on or before the last day of the term. Stat. 1838, c. 163, § 20, and 1844, c. 178, § 12. An attachment continues for thirty days after judgment, (in Nantucket, sixty,) and if the property be not seized within that time on the execution, or some proceedings had, the attachment is dissolved, (c. 90, § 24); and in case judgment is entered in vacation, in actions continued nisi, thirty days from the time of the entry of such judgment, c. 81, § 58. Where there has been a seizure of real or personal estate on execution, and the service cannot be completed, because of a prior attachment, the estate remains bound by such seizure until the estate is set off or sold on the prior attachment, or it is dissolved, and thirty days after, c. 97, §33-35. An attachment of property in the hands of a trustee is also dissolved by neglect to make a demand on him within thirty days, provided there be a new attachment or the property be demanded by the defendant, but not otherwise, c. 109, § 43 – 45.

When new parties are summoned in, in an action pending in Court, property may be attached, as it might have been in the original process, c. 100, § 2. The validity of an attachment, either of real or personal property, may be contested by any person who

has made a subsequent attachment, or who claims any title or interest in the property by purchase or mortgage, or in any other manner, c. 90, § 83. The mode of procedure in such case is particularly pointed out in the following sections, and they may be briefly stated to be, that the person, who intends to contest the first attachment, shall file a petition, setting forth the facts upon which he prays for the dissolution of the first attachment, and the grounds of his own claim, which statement must be sworn to; and upon being admitted to defend, he gives a satisfactory bond to pay such damages and costs as shall be awarded. The case is then tried by the jury, and the attachment is dissolved in whole or in part, according to the verdict. Both the original plaintiff and defendant may be examined as witnesses. The attaching creditor is prohibited from objecting to the plaintiff's recovery, the statute of limitations, the usury laws, the statute of frauds, “or any other like defence."

Where an officer returned that he had attached one hundred and seventy-five yards of cloth, he was not permitted afterwards to show that but thirty-nine yards were in fact attached. Haynes v. Small, 22 Maine, 14.

CHAPTER X.

ARREST.

THE power of arresting a person for a debt, or other cause of action, before any proof whatever is made of the justice of such claim, is one of the most remarkable anomalies in the laws of our Republic. The right of personal security is regarded as amongst the most sacred of rights, and the slightest violence offered to the person of an individual, is generally sufficient to awaken the indignation of the whole community. And yet every lawyer, and indeed every man, who can insert a declaration in a blank writ, has power to issue a process to commit any person to the common jail. It is not surprising that such a system should have attracted the notice of foreigners, nor that they should have expressed their deep surprise that it should be tolerated amongst us. It is most creditable to the members of the legal profession, that it has been very seldom abused; and it is still more creditable to the law makers of Massachusetts, that this transcendent right has been so far restrained, that it cannot now be abused with impunity. If there be any one observation in this treatise, to which I should beg leave to call the special attention of the younger members of the profession who read it, it would be to this: "Think twice, before you cause a man's body to be arrested once. Never do it to gratify the vengeful feeling of a client. An arrest is a sort of personal indignity, especially if made by a rough, unfeeling officer, and will not be likely to conduce towards an amicable ar

rangement of any matters in controversy. It was a somewhat coarse but a very sensible remark of a late eminent Judge, 'that there was as much spirit in a barrel of molasses as in a barrel of vinegar' The lawyer, who causes an unnecessary arrest to be made, is morally guilty of an assault and battery and false imprisonment." On the subject of arrest, I beg leave to refer the reader to De Tocqueville on Democracy in America.

There is a large class of persons exempted from arrest, and this exemption may be personal or temporary. Ambassadors and other public ministers are privileged from arrest, as are also their domestic servants, whether native or foreign. But consuls are not thus privileged. 1 Tidd, 191. Members of Congress and of the Legislature are also privileged from arrest eundo, morando et redeundo. Const. c. 1, § 10. Also, parties, attorneys, and other officers; jurors and witnesses have the same privilege. And this protection extends to all the tribunals that are recognized and allowed by law for the settlement of disputes and controversies. But this privilege of parties and witnesses, &c., amounts to nothing in practice, and is worth nothing to the persons arrested. It is merely personal and temporarya mere question whether they shall be arrested and give bail at one place or another. When attorneys are arrested during their attendance upon Court, they may consult the English authorities as to their means of redress. During a practice of twenty years, I have not known an instance in which the case has happened, though they seem to have been very frequent in England.

As to the parties, witnesses and other persons connected with a cause, (and bail are amongst the persons