not its feodal quality intercept such descent, and give it by way of escheat to the lord. These forfeitures for felony do also arise only upon attainder; and therefore a felo de se forfeits no land of inheritance or freehold, for he never is attainted as a felon. They likewise relate back to the time of the offence committed, as well as forfeitures for treason; so as to avoid all intermediate charges and conveyances. This may be hard upon such as have unwarily engaged with the offender: but the cruelty and reproach must lie on the part, not of the law, but of the criminal; who has thus knowingly and dishonestly involved others in his own calamities. These are all the forfeitures of real estates, created by the common law, as consequential upon attainders by judgment of death or outlawry. 1 here omit the particular forfeitures created by the statutes of præmunire and others: because I look upon them rather as a part of the judgment and penalty, inflicted by the respective statutes, than as consequences of such judgment; as in treason and felony they are. But I shall just mention, as a part of the forfeiture of real estates, the forfeiture of the profits of lands during life: which extends to two other instances, besides those already spoken of; misprision of treason,1 and striking in Westminster-hall, or drawing a weapon upon a judge there sitting in the king's courts of justice." The forfeiture of goods and chattels accrues in every one of the higher kinds of offence: in high treason or misprision thereof, petit treason, felonies of all sorts whether clergyable or not, self-murder or felony de se, petit larciny, standing mute, and the above-mentioned offences of striking, &c. in Westminster-hall. For flight also, on an accusation of treason, felony, or even petit larciny, whether the party be found guilty or acquitted, if the jury find the flight, the party shall forfeit his goods and chattels : for the very flight is an offence, carrying with it a strong presumption of guilt, and is at least an endeavour to elude and stifle the course of justice prescribed by the law. But the jury very seldom find the flight: forfeiture being looked upon, since the vast increase of personal property of late years, as too large a penalty for an P 3 Inst. 55. q Ibid. 218. r3 Inst. 14]. s Staundf. P. C. 183. b. offence, to which a man is prompted by the natural love of liberty. There is a remarkable difference or two between the forfeiture of lands and of goods and chattels. 1. Lands are forfeited upon attainder, and not before: goods and chattels are forfeited by conviction. Because in many of the cases where goods are forfeited, there never is any attainder; which happens only where judgment of death or outlawry is given therefore in those cases the forfeiture must be upon conviction, or not at all; and, beiug necessarily upon conviction in those, it is so ordered in all other cases, for the law loves uniformity. 2. In outlawries for treason or felony, lands are forfeited only by the judgment: but the goods and chattels are forfeited by a man's being first put in the exigent, without staying till he is quinto exactus, or finally outlawed; for the secreting himself so long from justice, is construed a flight in law. 3. The forfeiture of lands has relation to the time of the fact committed, so as to avoid all subsequent sales and incumbrances: but the forfeiture of goods and chattels has no relation backwards; so that those only which a man has at the time of conviction shall be forfeited. Therefore a traitor or felon may bona fide sell any of his chattels, real or personal, for the sustenance of himself and family between the fact and conviction: " for personal property is of so fluctuating a nature, that it passes through many hands in a short time; and no buyer could be safe, if he were liable to return the goods which he had fairly bought, provided any of the prior vendors had committed a treason or felony. Yet if they be collusively and not bona fide parted with merely to defraud the crown, the law (and particularly the statute 13 Eliz. c. 5.) will reach them; for they are all the while truly and substantially the goods of the offender: and as he, if acquitted, might recover them himself, as not parted with for a good consideration; so, in case he happens to be convicted, the law will recover them for the king. II. Another immediate consequence of attainder is the corruption of the blood upwards and downwards; so that an attainted person can neither inherit lands or other hereditaments from his ancestors, nor retain those he is already Hawk. P. C. 454. 3 Inst. 232. in possession of, nor transmit them by descent to any heir; but the same shall escheat to the lord of the fee, subject to the king's superior right of forfeiture: and the person attainted shall also obstruct all descents to his posterity, wherever they are obliged to derive a title through him to a remoter ancestor." This is one of those notions which our laws have adopted from the feodal constitutions, at the time of the Norman conquest; as appears from its being unknown in those tenures which are indisputably Saxon, or gavelkind; wherein, though by treason, according to the ancient Saxon laws, the land is forfeited to the king, yet no corruption of blood, no impediment of descents, ensues; and, on judgment of mere felony, no escheat accrues to the lord. And therefore, as every other oppressive mark of feodal tenure is now happily worn away in these kingdoms, it is to be hoped, that this corruption of blood, with all its connected consequences, not only of the present escheat, but of future incapacities of inheritance even to the twentieth generation, may in process of time be abolished by act of parliament: as it stands upon a very different footing from the forfeiture of lands for high treason, affecting the king's person or government. And indeed the legislature has, from time to time, appeared very inclinable to give way to so equitable a provision; by enacting, that, in certain treasons respecting the papal supremacy and the public coin, and in many of the new-made felonies, created since the reign of Henry the eighth by act of parliament, cor ruption of blood shall be saved. But as in some of the acts for creating felonies (and those not of the most atrocious kind) this saving was neglected, or forgotten, to be made, it seems to be highly reasonable and expedient to antiquate the whole of this doctrine by one undistinguishing law: especially as by the afore-mentioned statute of 7 Ann. c. 21. (the operation of which is postponed by statute 17 Geo. II. c. 39.) (37) after the death of the sons of the w. See Vol. II. pag 238. 18 Eliz. c. 1. 8 & 9 W. III. c. 26. 15 & 16 Geo. II. c. 28. (37) These acts are repealed; see ante p. 384. n. 36. late pretender, no attainder for treason will extend to the disinheriting any heir, nor the prejudice of any person, other than the offender himself; which virtually abolishes all corruption of blood for treason, though (unless the legislature should interpose) it will still continue for many sorts of felony. CHAP. XXX. OF REVERSAL OF JUDGMENT. We are next to consider how judgments, with their several connected consequences, of attainder, forfeiture, and corruption of blood, may be set aside. There are two ways of doing this; either by falsifying or reversing the judg· ment, or else by reprieve or pardon. A judgment may be falsified, reversed, or avoided, in the first place, without a writ of error, for matters foreign to or dehors the record, that is, not apparent upon the face of it; so that they cannot be assigned for error in the superior court, which can only judge from what appears in the record itself: and therefore, if the whole record be not certified, or not truly certified, by the inferior court, the party injured thereby, in both civil and criminal cases, may allege a diminution of the record, and cause it to be rectified. Thus, if any judgment whatever be given by persons, who had no good commission to proceed against the person condemned, it is void; and may be falsified by shewing the special matter without writ of error. As, where a commission issues to A and B, and twelve others, or any of them, of which A or B shall be one, to take and try indictments; and any of the other twelve proceed without the interposition or presence of either A or B: in this case all proceedings, trials, convictions, and judgments are void for want of a proper authority in the commissioners, and may be falsified upon bare inspection without the trouble of a writ of error; it being a high misdemesnor in the judges so proceeding, and little, if any thing, a a 2 Hawk. P. C. 459. short of murder in them all, in case the person so attainted be executed and suffer death. So likewise if a man purchases land of another; and afterwards the vendor is, either by outlawry or his own confession, convicted and attainted of treason or felony previous to the sale or alienation; whereby such land becomes liable to forfeiture or escheat : now, upon any trial, the purchaser is at liberty, without bringing any writ of error, to falsify not only the time of the felony or treason supposed, but the very point of the felony or treason itself; and is not concluded by the confession or the outlawry of the vendor; though the vendor himself is concluded, and not suffered now to deny the fact, which he has by confession or flight acknowledged. But if such attainder of the vendor was by verdict, on the oath of his peers, the alienee cannot be received to falsify or contradict the fact of the crime committed; though he is at liberty to prove a mistake in time, or that the offence was committed after the alienation, and not before.b Secondly, a judgment may be reversed, by writ of error: which lies from all inferior criminal jurisdictions to the court of king's bench, and from the king's bench to the house of peers; and may be brought for notorious mistakes in the judgment or other parts of the record: as where a man is found guilty of perjury and receives the judgment of felony, or for other less palpable errors; such as any irregularity, omission, or want of form in the process of outlawry, or proclamations; the want of a proper addition to the defendant's name, according to the statute of additions; for not properly naming the sheriff or other of ficer of the court, or not duly describing where his county court was held; for laying an offence, committed in the time of the late king, to be done against the peace of the present: and for many other similar causes, which, though allowed out of tenderness to life and liberty, are not much to the credit or advancement of the national justice. These writs of error, to reverse judgments in case of misdemesnors, are not to be allowed of course, but on sufficient probable cause shewn to the attorney-general; and then they are understood to be grantable of common right, and ex debito justitia. But writs of error to reverse attainders in capital cases are only allowed ex gratia; and not with h3 Inst. 231. VOL. IV.-PART II. 1 Hal. P. C. 361. |