ON THE LAWS OF ENGLAND. IN FOUR BOOKS. BY SIR WILLIAM BLACKSTONE, KNT. ONE OF THE JUSTICES OF HIS MAJESTY'S COURT OF COMMON PLEAS WITH NOTES SELECTED FROM THE EDITIONS OF ARCHBOLD, CHRISTIAN, COLERIDGE, CHITTY, STEWART, BARRON FIELD'S ANALYSIS, AND Additional Notes, and a Life of the Author, BY GEORGE SHARSWOOD, PROFESSOR OF THE INSTITUTES OF LAW IN THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. II.-BOOKS III. & IV. DR. EWALD FLUGEL LIBRARY OF PHILADELPHIA: 1866. 216698 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1859, by CHILDS & PETERSON, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. CONTENTS OF THE ANALYSIS OF BOOK III. PRIVATE WRONGS. For which the laws of England have provided redress, I. By the mere act of the parties....... II. By the mere operation of law. III. By both together, or suit in courts; wherein (1. Of courts; and therein of 1. Their nature and incidents......... 2. Their several distinctions; viz. 1. Of public or general jurisdiction; as, 1. The courts of common law and equity... 2. Ecclesiastical courts, 3. Courts military, 4. Courts maritime...... 2. Of private or special jurisdiction... 2 Of the cognizance of wrongs, in the courts 1. Ecclesiastical, 2 Military, IX. X. XI. ANALYSIS. BOOK III.-OF PRIVATE WRONGS. CHAPTER I. ................. 2 OF THE REDRESS OF PRIVATE WRONGS BY THE MERE ACT OF THE PARTIES.... Page 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... 5. Redress by the mere act of the parties is that which arises, I. From the sole act of the party injured. II. From the joint act of all the parties......... 6. Of the first sort are, I. Defence of one's self, or relations. II. Recaption of goods. III. Entry on lands and tenements. IV. Abatement of nuisances. V. Distress 2 3 3 3 ..22 to 25 OF COURTS IN GENERAL........ 1 Redress that is effected by the act both of law and of the parties is by suit or action in the courts of justice........ 2. Herein may be considered, I. The courts themselves. II. The cognizance of wrongs, or injuries, therein. And of courts, I. Their nature and incidents. II. Their several species. 8. A court is a place wherein justice is judicially administered, by officers delegated by the crown: being a court either of record, or not of record.......... 22 23 23-24 OF THE PUBLIC COURTS OF COMMON LAW AND EQUITY...... .30 to 60 1. Courts of justice, with regard to their several species, are, I. Of a public or general jurisdiction throughout the realm. II. Of a private or special jurisdiction... 2. Public courts of justice are, I. The courts of common law and equity. II. The ecclesiastical courts. III. The military courts. IV. The maritime courts.......... 30 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 Assize and Nisi Prius .32-60 CHAPTER V. OF COURTS ECCLESIASTICAL, MILITARY, AND MARITIME.. 62-68 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... 67 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.. 68 CHAPTER VI. Of Courts of a SPECIAL JURISDICTION...71 to 85 1. Courts of a special or private jurisdiction are, I. The forest courts; including the courts of attachments, regard, swein court of the Marshalsea and the Palace Court. V. The courts of the principality of Wales. VI. The court of the duchychamber 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........ Page 71-85 ........... ..... CHAPTER VII. OF THE COGNIZANCE OF PRIVATE WRONGS.... 85 to 114 1. All private wrongs or civil injuries are cognizable either in the courts ecclesiastical, military, maritime, or those of common law. 2. Injuries cognizable in the ecclesiastical courts are, I. Pecuniary. II. Matrimonial. III. Testamentary... 86 87-88 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. Nonrepair 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 ali mony .... ....88-92 ......92-95 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 pay.95-98 ment.. 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... 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 conformed to the civil law......... ............... Page 106-109 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, cognizable 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 CHAPTER VIII. OF WRONGS, AND THEIR REMEDIES, RESPECTING THE RIGHTS OF PERSONS.......... 115 to 143 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 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... 115 115 116 3. This is effected, I. By delivery of the thing detained to the rightful owner. II. Where that remedy is either impossible or inadequate, by giving the party injured a satisfaction in damages. 4. The instruments by which these remedies may be obtained are suits or actions; which are defined to be the legal demand of one's right: and these are, I. Personal. II. Real. III. Mixed...116-118 5. Injuries (whereof some are with, others without, force) are, I. Injuries to the rights of persons. II. Injuries to the rights of property. And the former are, I. Injuries to the absolute, II. Injuries to the relative, rights of persons.......118-119 6. The absolute rights of individuals are, I. Personal security. II. Personal liberty. III. Private property. (See Book I. Ch. I.) To which the injuries must be correspondent..... 119 7. Injuries to personal security are, I. Against a man's life. II. Against his limbs. III. Against his body. IV. Against his health. V. Against his reputation. The first must be referred to the next book........ .................. ..98-103 | 8. Injuries to the limbs and body are, I. Threats. II. Assault. III. Battery. IV. Wounding. V. Mayhem. Remedy: by action of trespass vi et armis, for damages..... 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. 11. Encroachments in coat-armour, &c. Remedy by suit to remove them. The proceedings are in a summary method......... 103-106 119 120 121 |