COMMENTARIES ON THE LAWS OF ENGLAND BOOK THE SECOND. OF THE RIGHTS OF THINGS. [See notes 1, 2, pages 19, 23.] CHAPTER THE FIRST. OF PROPERTY, IN GENERAL. The former book of these commentaries having treated at large of the jura personarum, or such rights and duties as are annexed to the persons of men, the objects of our inquiry in this second book will be the jura rerum, or those rights which a man may acquire in and to such external things as are unconnected with his person. These are what the writers on natural law stile the rights of dominion, or property concerning the nature and original of which I shall first premise a few observations, before I proceed to distribute and consider it's several objects. [See note 3, page 24.] [2] There is nothing which so generally strikes the imagination, and engages the affections of mankind, as * right of property; or that sole and despotic dominion which one man claims and exercises over the ex |