LETTERS OF

HORNING  , a term in Scots law . Originally in Scotland imprisonment for debt was enforceable only in certain cases, but a custom gradually grew up of taking the debtor's oath to pay . If the debtor broke his oath, he became liable to the discipline of the Church . The civil power, further, stepped in to aid the ecclesiastical, and denounced him as a rebel, imprisoning his person and confiscating his goods . The method declaring a person a rebel was by giving three blasts on a horn and publicly proclaiming the fact; hence the expression, "put to the horn." The subsequent process, the warrant directing a messenger-at-arms to charge the debtor to pay or perform in terms of the letters, was called " letters of horning." This system of execution, was simplified by an act of 1837 (Personal Diligence Act), and execution is now usually by diligence (see EXECUTION) .