ting 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 confideration; so, in cafe he happens to be convicted, the law will recover them for the king. II. ANOTHER immediate consequence of attainder is the corruption of blood, both upwards and downwards; so that an attainted perfon can neither inherit lands or other hereditaments from his ancestors, nor retain those he is already in possession of, nor tranfmit 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 perfon attainted shall also obstruct all descents to his pofterity, 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 it's being unknown in those tenures which are indisputably Saxon, or gavelkind: wherein, though by treason, according to the antient 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 oppreffive mark of feodal tenure is now happily worn away in these kingdoms, it is to be hoped, that this corruption of blood, with all it's connected confequences, not only of 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 9 See Vol. II. pag. 251. high 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 treasons respecting the papal supremacy and counterfeiting the public coin, and in many of the new-made felonies, created since the reign of Henry the eighth by act of parliament, corruption 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.) after the death of the fons of the 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 forts of felony. Stat. 5 Eliz. c. I. • Stat. 5 Eliz. c. 11. 18 Eliz. c. 1. 8 & 9 W. III. c. 26. 15 & 16 Geo. II. c. 28, CHAPTER THE THIRTΙΕΤΗ. OF REVERSAL OF JUDGMENT. WE E are next to confider 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 reverfing the judgment, or else by reprieve or pardon. A JUDGMENT may be falsified, reversed, or voided, in the first place, without a writ of error, for matters foreign to or debors 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 cafes) 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 commiffion to proceed against the person condemned, it is void; and may be falfified by shewing the special matter, without writ of error. As, where a commission issues to A and B, and twelve others, or any two of them, of which A or B shall be one, to take and try indictments; and any of the other twelve proceed without the interpofition BOOK IV. sition or prefence 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 falfified upon bare inspection without the trouble of a writ of error*; it being a high mifdemesnor in the judges so proceeding, and little (if any thing) 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 confeffion, convicted and attainted of treason or felony previous to the fale or alienation; whereby such land becomes liable to forfeiture or escheat: now, upon any trial, the purchasor is at liberty, without bringing any writ of error, to falfify 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 confeffion or the outlawry of the vendor; though the vendor himself is concluded, and not fuffered now to deny the fact, which he has by confession or flight acknowleged. But if such attainder of the vendor was by verdict, on the oath of his peers, the alienee cannot be received to falfify 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 jurifdictions 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, omiffion, 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 officer of the court, or not duly defcribing where his county court was held; for laying an offence, committed in the time of • z Hawk. P. C. 459. b 3 Inft. 231. 1 Hal. P. C. 361. the the late king, to be done against the peace of the present; and for many other fimilar 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 mifdemesnors, are not to be allowed of course, but on sufficient probable cause shewn to the attorneygeneral; and then they are understood to be grantable of common right, and ex debito juftitiae. But writs of error to reverfe attainders in capital cases are only allowed ex gratia; and not without express warrant under the king's fign manual, or at least by the consent of the attorney-general. These therefore can rarely be brought by the party himself, especially where he is attainted for an offence against the state: but they may be brought by his heir, or executor, after his death, in more favourable times; which may be some consolation to his family. But the eafier, and more effectual way, is LASTLY, to reverse the attainder by act of parliament. This may be and hath been frequently done, upon motives of compaffion, or perhaps the zeal of the times, after a sudden revolution in the government, without examining too closely into the truth or validity of the errors affigned. And fometimes, though the crime be universally acknowleged and confessed, yet the merits of the criminal's family shall after his death obtain a restitution in blood, honours, and estate, or fome, or one of them, by act of parliament; which (fo far as it extends) has all the effect of reverfing the attainder, without casting any reflections upon the justice of the preceding sentence. THE effect of falfifying, or reverfing, an outlawry is that the party shall be in the same plight as if he had appeared upon the capias: and, if it be before plea pleaded, he shall be put to plead to the indictment; if after conviction, he shall receive the sentence of the law: for all the other proceedings, except only the process of outlawry for his non-appearance, remain good and VOL. IV. C 1 Vern. 170. 175. Aaa effectual |