admiralty attachment

It is a mistake, to consider the use of this process in the admiralty as borrowed from, or in imitation of, the foreign attachment under the custom of London. Its origin is to be found in the remotest history, as well of the civil as the common law... In the simplicity of the remote ages of the civil law, the plaintiff himself arrested the defendant, and brought him before the Pretor. But as the sanctuary of his own habitation was not to be violated, if he came not abroad, a summons was attached to his door-posts citing him to appear and answer. Hence our monition viis et modis.