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them for their use, when they come to their right mind ; and the king shall take nothing to his own use: and if the parties die in such estate, the residue shall be distributed for their souls by the advice of the ordinary, and of course (by the subsequent amendments of the law of administrations) shall now go to their executors or administrators.*

[305] On the first attack of lunacy, or other occasional insanity, while there may be hopes of a speedy restitution of reason, it is usual to confine the unhappy objects in private custody under the direction of their nearest friends and relations: and the legislature, to prevent all abuses incident to such private custody, hath thought proper to interpose it's authority by 914 Geo. III. c. 49.9 for regulating private mad-houses. But, when the disorder is grown permanent, and the circumstances of the party will bear such additional expence, it is proper to apply to the royal authority to warrant a lasting confinement.8

The method of proving a person non compos is very similar to that of proving him an idiot. The lord chancellor, to whom, by special authority from the king, the custody of idiots and lunatics is entrusted, upon petition or information, grants a commission in nature of the writ de idiota inquirendo, to inquire into the party's state of mind; and if he be found non compos, he usually commits the care of his person, with a suitable allowance for his maintenance, to some friend, who is then called his committee. However, to prevent sinister practices, the next heir is 2seldom 2 permitted to be this

s 3 P. Wms. 108.

9 Ninth edition adds, "(continued by 19 Geo. III. c. 15.)"

2 First edition reads "never."

*Cited, 10 R. I. 41; 2 Johns. Ch. 237; 4 Stewt. (N. J. Eq.) 204; 4 Dana, 344. All the cases agree that the stat. 17 Edw. II. c. 10, committing to the king the case of the persons and estates of idiots and lunatics, was not introductory of a new right, but only went to regulate a right pre-existing in the crown. (4 Coke, 126; Amb. 707; 2 Ves. Jr. 21, 25; Chancellor Kent, in Matter of Barker, 2 Johns. Ch. 232,

committee of the person; because it is his interest that the party should die. But, it hath been said, there lies not the same objection against his next of kin, provided he be not his heir; for it is his interest to preserve the lunatic's life, in order to increase the personal estate by savings, which he or his family may hereafter be entitled to enjoy. The heir is generally made the manager or committee of the estate, it being clearly his interest by good management to keep it in condition; accountable however to the court of chancery, and to the non compos himself, if he recovers; or otherwise, to his administrators.

In this care of idiots and lunatics the civil law agrees with ours; by assigning them tutors to protect their persons, and curators to manage their estates. But in another instance the Roman law goes much beyond the English. For, if a man [306] by notorious prodigality was in danger of wasting his estate, he was looked upon as non compos, and committed to the care of curators or tutors by the prætor." And by the laws of Solon such prodigals were branded with perpetual infamy." But with us, when a man on an inquest of idiocy hath been returned an unthrift and not an idiot,x no farther proceedings have been had. And the propriety of the practice itself seems to be very questionable. It was doubtless an excellent method of benefiting the individual, and of preserving estates in families; but it hardly seems calculated for the genius of a free nation, who claim and exercise the liberty of using their own property as they please. "Sic utere tuo, ut alienum non lædas," is the only restriction our laws have given with

t 2 P. Wms. 638.

u Solent prætores, si talem hominem invenerint, qui neque tempus neque finem expensarum habet, sed bona sua dilacerando et dissipando profundit, curatorem ei dare, exemplo furiosi: et tamdiu erunt ambo in curatione, quamdiu vel furiosus sanitatem, vel ille bonos mores, receperit. Ff. 27. 10. 1.

w Potter Antiqu. b. 1. c. 26.

x Bro. Abr. tit. Idiot. 4.

regard to œconomical prudence. And the frequent circulation and transfer of lands and other property, which cannot be effected without extravagance somewhere, are perhaps not a little conducive towards keeping our mixed constitution in it's due health and vigour.*

This may suffice for a short view of the king's ordinary revenue, or the proper patrimony of the crown; which was very large formerly, and capable of being increased to a inagnitude truly formidable: for there are very few estates in the kingdom, that have not, at some period or other since the Norman conquest, been vested in the hands of the king by forfeiture, escheat, or otherwise. But, fortunately for the liberty of the subject, this hereditary landed revenue, by a series of improvident management, is sunk almost to nothing; and the casual profits, arising from the other branches of the census regalis, are likewise almost all of them alienated from the crown. In order to supply the deficiencies of which, we are now obliged to have recourse to new methods of raising money, unknown to our early ancestors; which methods constitute the king's extraordinary revenue. For the public patrimony being got into the hands of private subjects, it is but [307] reasonable that private contributions should supply the public service. Which, though it may perhaps fall harder upon some individuals, whose ancestors have had no share in the general plunder, than upon others, yet, taking the nation throughout, it amounts to nearly the same; provided the gain by the extraordinary, should appear to be no greater, than the loss by the ordinary, revenue. And perhaps, if every gentleman in the kingdom was to be stripped of such of his lands, as were formerly the property of the crown; was to be again subject to the inconveniencies of purveyance and pre-emption, the oppression of forest laws, and the *Cited, 40 Ala. 400; 48 Ala. 222.

slavery of feodal tenures; and was to resign into the king's hands all his royal franchises of waifs, wrecks, estrays, treasure-trove, mines, deodands, forfeitures, and the like; he would find himself a greater loser, than by paying his quota to such taxes, as are necessary to the support of the government. The thing therefore to be wished and aimed at in a land of liberty is by no means the total abolition of taxes, which would draw after it very pernicious consequences, and the very supposition of which is the height of political absurdity. For as the true idea of government and magistracy will be found to consist in this, that some few men are deputed by many others to preside over public affairs, so that individuals may the better be enabled to attend their private concerns; it is necessary that those individuals should be bound to contribute a portion of their private gains, in order to support that government, and reward that magistracy, which protects them in the enjoyment of their respective properties. But the things to be aimed at are wisdom and moderation, not only in granting, but also in the method of raising, the necessary supplies; by contriving to do both in such a manner as may be most conducive to the national welfare, and at the same time most consistent with œconomy and the liberty of the subject; who, when properly taxed, contributes only, as was before observed, some part of his property, in order to enjoy the rest.

These extraordinary grants are usually called by the synonymous names of aids, subsidies, and supplies; and are granted, we have formerly seen, by the commons of Great [308] Britain in parliament assembled: who, when they have voted a supply to his majesty, and settled the quantum of that supply usually resolve themselves into what is called a committee of ways and means, to consider the ways and means of raising the y pag. 281.

pag. 169.

supply so voted. And in this committee every member (though it is looked upon as the peculiar province of the chancellor of the exchequer) may propose such scheme of taxation as he thinks will be least detrimental to the public. The resolutions of this committee (when approved by a vote of the house) are in general esteemed to be (as it were) final and conclusive. For, though the suppy cannot be actually raised upon the subject till directed by an act of the whole parliament, yet no monied man will scruple to advance to the government any quantity of ready cash, on the credit of a bare vote of the house of commons, though no law be yet passed to establish it.

The taxes, which are raised upon the subject, are either annual or perpetual. The usual annual taxes are those upon land and malt.

I. The land tax, in it's modern shape has superseded all the former methods of rating either property, or persons in respect of their property, whether by tenths or fifteenths, subsidies on land, hydages, scutages, or talliages; a short explication of which will however greatly assist us in understanding our antient laws and history.

Tenths, and fifteenths, were temporary aids issuing out of personal property, and granted to the king by parliament. They were formerly the real tenth or fifteenth part of all the moveables belonging to the subject; when such moveables, or personal estates, were a very different and a much less considerable thing than what they usually are at this day. Tenths are said to have been first granted under Henry the second, who took advantage of the fashionable zeal for croisades to introduce this new taxation, in order to defray the expence of a pious expedition to Palestine, which he really or seemingly had projected against Saladine emperor of the [309] Saracens : whence it was originally

a 2 Inst. 77. 4 Inst. 34.

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