diſcharge, or on any other fair account, ſeals a bond or a deed, this is not by dureſs of impriſonment, and he is not at liberty to avoid it[1]. To make impriſonment lawful, it muſt either be by proceſs from the courts of judicature, or by warrant from ſome legal officer having authority to commit to priſon; which warrant muſt be in writing, under the hand and ſeal of the magiſtrate, and expreſs the cauſes of the commitment, in order to be examined into (if neceſſary) upon a habeas corpus. If there be no cauſe expreſſed, the goaler is not bound to detain the priſoner[2]. For the law judges in this reſpect, ſaith ſir Edward Coke, like Feſtus the Roman governor; that it is unreaſonable to ſend a priſoner, and not to ſignify withal the crimes alleged againſt him.
A natural and regular conſequence of this perſonal liberty, is, that every Engliſhman may claim a right to abide in his own country ſo long as he pleaſes; and not to be driven from it unleſs by the ſentence of the law. The king indeed, by his royal prerogative, may iſſue out his writ ne exeat regnum, and prohibit any of his ſubjects from going into foreign parts without licence[3]. This may be neceſſary for the public ſervice, and ſafeguard of the commonwealth. But no power on earth, except the authority of parliament, can ſend any ſubject: of England out of the land againſt his will; no not even a criminal. For exile, or tranſportation, is a puniſhment unknown to the common law; and, wherever it is now inflicted, it is either by the choice of the criminal himſelf, to eſcape a capital puniſhment, or elſe by the expreſs direction of ſome modern act of parliament. To this purpoſe the great charter[4] declares, that no freeman ſhall be baniſhed, unleſs by the judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land. And by the habeas corpus act, 31 Car. II. c. 2. (that ſecond magna carta, and ſtable bulwark of our liberties) it is enacted, that no ſubject of this realm, who is an inhabitant of England, Wales, or Berwick, ſhall be ſent priſoner into Scotland, Ireland, Jerſey, Guernſey, or places beyond the ſeas; (where
