No. III. An obligation, or bond, with condition for the payment of money No. IV. A fine of lands sur cognizance de droit, come ceo, &c. COMMENTARIES ON THE LAWS OF ENGLAND: IN FOUR BOOKS; WITH AN ANALYSIS OF THE WORK. BY SIR WILLIAM BLACKSTONE, KNT., ONZ OF THE JUSTICES OF THE COURT OF COMMON PLEAS. 1 COMMENTARIES ON THE LAWS OF ENGLAND. BOOK THE SECOND. OF THE RIGHTS OF THINGS. CHAPTER I. OF PROPERTY IN GENERAL. at of the rights THE former book of these Commentaries having treated 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 style 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 its several objects. to property in general. nature There is nothing which so generally strikes the imagination,[ 2 ] and engages the affections of mankind, as the right of proper- Thd origin of ty; or that sole and despotic dominion which one man claims such rights. and exercises over the external things of the world, in total exclusion of the right of any other individual in the universe; and yet there are very few that will give themselves the trouble to consider the original and foundation of this right. Pleased as we are with the possession, we seem afraid to look back to the means by which it was acquired, as if fearful of some defect in our title; or, at best, we rest satisfied with the decision of the laws in our favor, without examining the reason or authority upon which those laws have been built. We think it enough that our title is derived by the grant of the former proprietor, by descent from our ancestors, or by the last will and testament of the dying owner; not caring to reflect that (accurately and strictly speaking) there is no foundation in nature or in natural law why a set of words upon parchment should convey the VOL. II.-A 1 |