John Burnett COMMENTARIES ON THE LAWS OF ENGLAND: IN FOUR BOOKS; WITH AN ANALYSIS OF THE WORK. BY SIR WILLIAM BLACKSTONE, KNT. ONE OF THE JUSTICES OF THE COURT OF COMMON PLEAS. IN TWO VOLUMES, FROM THE EIGHTEENTH LONDON EDITION. WITH A LIFE OF THE AUTHOR, AND NOTES. BY CHRISTIAN, CHITTY, LEE, HOVENDEN, AND RYLAND: AND ALSO REFERENCES TO AMERICAN CASES, BY A MEMBER OF THE NEW-YORK BAR. VOL. II.-BOOK III. & IV. A D NEW YORK: W. E. DEAN, PRINTER & PUBLISHER, 2 ANN-STREET. COLLINS, KEESE & CO., 254 PEARL STREET. 1840. Entered according to the Act of Congress in the year 1832, by WILLIAM E. DEAN, In the Clerk's Office of the Southern District of New-York. STEREOTYPED BY SMITH & WRIGHT, 216 Wm. St. N. Y. ANALYSIS. BOOK III-OF PRIVATE WRONGS. CHAPTER I. OF THE REDRESS OF PRIVATE WRONGS, Page 2 BY THE MERE ACT OF THE PARTIES 2 to 16 1. Wrongs are the privation of right; and are, I. Private. II. Public 2. Private wrongs, or civil injuries, are an infringement, or privation, of the civil rights of individuals, considered as individuals 3. The redress of civil injuries is one principal object of the laws of England 4. This redress is effected, I. By the mere act of the parties. II. By the mere operation of law. III. By both together, or suit in courts par 5. Redress by the mere act of the 2 3 3 6. Of the first sort are, I. Defence of 15, 16 3 3. The general and public courts of common law and equity are, I. The court of piepoudre. II. The court-baron. III. The hundred court. IV. The county court. V. The court of Common Pleas. VI. The court of King's Bench. VII. The court of Exchequer. VIII. The court of Chancery. (Which two last are courts of equity as well as law). IX. The courts of Exchequer-Chamber. X. The house of Peers. To which may be added, as auxiliaries, XI. The courts of Assise and Nisi Prius 30 30 30 32-60 CHAPTER II. CHAPTER V. 18 to 21 OF REDRESS BY THE MERE OPERATION sion CHAPTER III. 1. Ecclesiastical courts, (which were separated from the temporal by William the Conqueror), or courts Christian, are, I. The court of the Archdeacon. II. The court of the Bishop's Consistory. III. The court of Arches. IV. The court of Peculiars. V. The Prerogative court. VI. The court of Delegates. VII. The court of Review 62-68 2. The only permanent military court is that of chivalry; the courts martial annually established by act of Parliament, being only temporary 22 to 25 3. Maritime courts are, I. The court of Admiralty and Vice-Admiralty. II. The court of Delegates. III. The lords of the Privy Council, and others authorized by the king's commission, for appeals in prize-causes OF COURTS IN GENERAL 18-21 Page cluding the courts of attachments, regard, sweinmote, and justice-seat. II. The court of Commissioners of Sewers. III. The court of policies of assurance. IV. The court of the Marshalsea and the Palace Court. V. The courts of the principality of Wales. VI. The court of the duchy. chamber of Lancaster. VII. The courts of the counties palatine, and other royal franchises. VIII. The stannary courts. IX. The courts of London, and other corporations :-to which may be referred the courts of requests, or courts of conscience; and the modern regulations of certain courts baron and county courts. X. The courts of the two Universities 71-85 CHAPTER VII. II. 2. Injuries cognizable in the ecclesiastical courts are, I. Pecuniary. Matrimonial. III. Testamentary 3. Pecuniary injuries, here cognizable, are, I. Subtraction of tithes. For which the remedy is by suit to compel their payment, or an equivalent; and also their double value. II. Non-payment of ecclesiastical dues. Remedy by suit for payment. III. Spoliation. Remedy by suit for restitution. IV. Dilapidations. Remedy: By suit for damages. V. Non-repair of the church, &c.; and non-payment of church-rates. Remedy: by suit to compel them 4. Matrimonial injuries are, I. Jactitation of marriage. Remedy: by suit for perpetual silence. II. Subtraction of conjugal rights. Remedy: by suit for restitution. III. Inability for the marriage state. Remedy: by suit for divorce. IV. Refusal of decent maintenance to the wife. Remedy: by suit for alimony 5. Testamentary injuries are, I. Disputing the validity of wills. Remedy: by suit to establish them. II. Obstructing of administrations. Remedy by suit for the granting_them. III. Subtraction of legacies. Remedy: by suit for the payment 6. The course of proceedings herein is much conformed to the civil and canon law but their only compulsive process is that of excommunication; which is enforced by the temporal writ of significavit or de excommunicato capiendo 7. Civil injuries, cognizable in the court military, or court of chivalry, are, I. Injuries in point of honour. Remedy: by suit for honourable amends. II. Encroachments in coat-armour, &c. 86 87-8 88-92 92-95 95-98 98-103 8. Civil injuries cognizable in the courts maritime, are injuries, in their nature of common law cognizance, but arising wholly upon the sea, and not within the precincts of any county. The proceedings are herein also much 106-109 conformed to the civil law 9. All other injuries are cognizable only in the courts of common law of which in the remainder of this book 109-114 10. Two of them are, however, commissible by these, and other, inferior courts; viz. I. Refusal, or neglect, of justice. Remedies: by writ of procedendo, or mandamus. II. Encroachment of jurisdiction. Remedy: by writ of prohibition 109-114 1. In treating of the cognizance of injuries by the courts of common law, may be considered, I. The injuries themselves, and their respective remedies. II. The pursuits of those remedies in the several courts 2. Injuries between subject and subject, cognizable by the courts of common law, are in general remedied by putting the party injured into possession of that right whereof he is unjustly deprived 115 115 3. This is effected, L By delivery of 6. The absolute rights of individuals 8. Injuries to the limbs and body are, I. 119 119 120 |