When a _hue-and-cry_ is raised, every person, by command of the Constable, must pursue the felon, on pain of fine and imprisonment. In this pursuit also, Constables may search suspected houses if the doors be open: _but unless the felon is actually in the house_, it will not be justifiable to use force; nor even then, except where admittance has been demanded and refused. A Constable, even without any warrant, may break open a door for the purpose of apprehending a felon; but to justify this measure, he must not only shew that the felon was in the house, but also that access was denied after giving notice that he was a Constable, and demanding admittance in that capacity.[109] In the execution of the warrant of a Magistrate, the Officer is certainly authorized to break open the doors of the felon, or of the house of any person where he is concealed.--The first is lawful under all circumstances; but forcibly entering the house of a stranger may be considered as a trespass, if the felon should not be there.[110] [Footnote 109: Hale.] [Footnote 110: Hale.] Such are the powers with which Constables are invested,--and which are, in many instances, enforced by penalties; that public justice may not be defeated.[111] [Footnote 111: It may not be improper in this place to hint, that there is a deficiency in the present state of the Law, which calls aloud for a remedy. None can be arrested on a Sunday, but for felony or breach of the peace (except in certain cases, where their guilt has been previously decided on, as in _Escape_, &c.) By this means Lottery-Vagrants, Gamblers, Sharpers, and Swindlers, bid defiance to the Civil Power on that day; while a person guilty of pushing or striking another in an accidental squabble, may be arrested and confined.] In addition to this, the wisdom of the Legislature, as an encouragement to officers and others to do their duty in apprehending and prosecuting offenders, has granted rewards in certain cases; _Namely_, 4 Will. & Mary, 1. For apprehending, and prosecuting £. c. 8; and 6 to conviction, every robber, on the Geo. I. c. 23. highway, including the streets of the Metropolis, and all other towns, a reward of 40_l._ besides the _horse_, _furniture_, _arms_, and _money_, of the said robber, if not stolen property: to be paid to the person apprehending, or if killed in the endeavour, to his Executors. 40 And the Stat. 8 Geo. II. c. 16. superadds 10_l._ to be paid by the Hundred indemnified by such taking.