privilege. Custom-house officers may enter our houses when they please;
we are commanded to permit their entry. Their menial servants may enter,
may break locks, bars, and everything in their way; and whether they
break through malice or revenge, no man, no court can inquire. Bare
suspicion without oath is sufficient. This wanton exercise of this power
is not a chimerical suggestion of a heated brain. I will mention some
facts. Mr. Pew had one of these writs, and when Mr. Ware succeeded him,
he endorsed this writ over to Mr. Ware; so that these writs are
negotiable from one officer to another; and so your honors have no
opportunity of judging the persons to whom this vast power is delegated.
Another instance is this: Mr. Justice Walley had called this same Mr.
Ware before him, by a constable, to answer for a breach of the
Sabbath-day acts, or that of profane swearing. As soon as he had
finished, Mr. Ware asked him if he had done. He replied, "Yes." "Well
then," said Mr. Ware, "I will show you a little of my power. I command
you to permit me to search your house for uncustomed goods"; and went on
to search the house from the garret to the cellar; and then served the
constable in the same manner! But to show another absurdity in this
writ: if it should be established, I insist upon it every person, by the
14th Charles Second, has this power as well as the custom-house
officers. The words are: "it shall be lawful for any person or persons
authorized," etc. What a scene does this open! Every man prompted by
revenge, ill-humor, or wantonness to inspect the inside of his
neighbor's house, may get a writ of assistance. Others will ask it from
self-defence; one arbitrary exertion will provoke another, until society
be involved in tumult and in blood: