less used, and offenders less punished than they ought to be, by reason whereof the people feared less to offend;" and the first attempt to reform these various abuses was by contracting the power of replevying felons.
For above two centuries following, it does not appear that any alteration was made in the law of bail, except that being taken with vert or venison was declared to be equivalent to indictment. The legislature adhered firmly to the spirit of the statute of Westminster. The statute of the 27th of Edward the first directs the justices of assize to inquire and punish officers bailing such as were not bailable. As for the judges of the superior courts, it is probable, that in those days they thought themselves bound by the obvious intent and meaning of the legislature. They considered not so much to what particular persons the prohibition was addressed, as what the thing was which the legislature meant to prohibit; well knowing that in law, quando aliquid prohibetur, prohibetur et omne per quod devenitur ad illud. "When anything is forbidden, all the means by which the same thing may be compassed or done are equally forbidden."
