committed; thus before a process can be issued out for inquiring after a
murderer, it must be apparent that a murder has been perpetrated, the
dead body must be exposed to a jury, and it must appear to them that he
died by violence. It is not sufficient that a man is lost, and that it
is probable that he is murdered, because no other reason of his absence
can be assigned; he must be found with the marks of force upon him, or
some circumstances that may make it credible, that he did not perish by
accident, or his own hand.

It is required, secondly, my lords, that he who apprehends any person as
guilty of the fact thus apparently committed, must suspect him to be the
criminal; for he is not to take an opportunity, afforded him by the
commission of an illegal act, to gratify any secret malice, or wanton
curiosity; or to drag to a solemn examination, those against whom he
cannot support an accusation.

And, my lords, that suspicion may not ravage the reputation of Britons
without control; that men may not give way to the mere suggestions of
malevolence, and load the characters of those with atrocious wickedness,
whom, perhaps, they have no real reason to believe more depraved than
the bulk of mankind, and whose failings may have been exaggerated in
their eyes by contrariety of opinion, or accidental competition, it is
required in the third place, my lords, that whoever apprehends or
molests another on suspicion of a crime, shall be able to give the
reasons of his suspicion, and to prove them by competent evidence.

These, my lords, are three essentials which the wisdom of our ancestors
has made indispensable previous to the arrest or imprisonment of the
meanest Briton; it must appear, that there is a crime committed, that
the person to be seized is suspected of having committed it, and that