privilege of printing, at his own press, or that of his grantees, all acts of parliament, proclamations, and orders of council. 2. As supreme head of the church, he hath a right to the publication of all liturgies and books of divine service. 3. He is also said to have a right, by purchase, to the copies of such law books, grammars, and other compositions, as were compiled or translated at the expence the crown. And upon these two last principles, combined, the exclusive right of printing the translation of the Bible is founded.

of

There still remains another species of prerogative property, founded upon a very different principle from any that have been mentioned before; the property of such animals feræ naturæ, as are known by the denomination of game, with the right of pursuing, taking, and destroying them: which is vested in the king alone, and from him derived to such of his subjects as have received the grants of a chase, a park, a free warren, or free fishery. And we find that the municipal laws of many nations have extended their protection to such particular animals as are usually the objects of pursuit; and have invested the prerogative of hunting and taking such animals in the sovereign of the state only, and such as he shall authorize. Many reasons have concurred for making these constitutions: as, 1. For the encouragement of agriculture and improvement of lands, by giving every man an exclusive dominion over his own soil. 2. For preservation of the several species of these animals which would soon be extirpated by

a general liberty. 3. For prevention of idleness and dissipation of husbandmen, artificers, and others of lower rank; which would be the unavoidable consequence of universal licence.

4. For prevention of popular insurrections and resistance to the government, by disarming the bulk of the people which last is a reason oftener meant thau avowed by the makers of forest or game laws.

the

The principal intention of granting to any one these franchises or liberties was in order to protect game, by giving the grantee a sole and exclusive power of killing it himself, provided he prevented other persons. And no man, but he who has a chase or free warren, by grant from the crown, or prescription which supposes one, can justify hunting or sporting upon another man's soil; nor indeed, in thorough strictness of common law, either hunting or sporting at all.

It is true, that, by the acquiescence of the crown, the frequent grants of free warren in ancient times, and the introduction of new penalties of late by certain statutes for preserving the game, this exclusive prerogative of the king is little known or considered; every man that is exempted from these modern penalties, looking upon himself as at liberty to do what he pleases with the game: whereas, the truth of the matter is, that the game laws do indeed qualify nobody, except in the instance of a game-keeper, to kill game: but only to save the trouble and formal process of an action by the person injured, who perhaps too might remit the offence, these statutes inflict additional penal

ties, to be recovered either in a regular or summary way, by any of the king's subjects, from certain persons of inferior rank who may be found offending in this particular. But it does not follow that persons, excused from these additional penalties, are therefore authorized to kill game. The circumstance of having L.100. per annum, and the rest, are not properly qualifications, but exemptions. And these persons, so exempted from the penalties of the game statutes, are not only liable to actions of trespass by the owners of the land; but also, if they kill game within the limits of any royal franchise, they are liable to the actions of such who may have the right of chase or free warren therein. And it must also be remembered, that such persons as may thus lawfully hunt, fish, or fowl, ratione privilegii, have (as has been said) only a qualified property in these animals: it not being absolute or permanent, but lasting only so long as the creatures remain within the limits of such respective franchise or liberty, and ceasing the instant they voluntarily pass out of it. It is held indeed, that if a man starts any game within his own grounds, and follows it into another's, and kills it there, the property remains in himself. And this is grounded on reason and natural justice: for the property consists in the possession; which possession commences by the finding it in his own liberty, and is continued by the immediate pursuit. And so, if a stranger starts game in one man's chase or free warren, and hunts it into another liberty, the property continues in the owner of the

chase or free warren: this property arising from privilege, and not being changed by the acts of a mere stranger. Or if a man starts game on another's private grounds, and kills it there, the property belongs to him in whose ground it was killed, because it was also started there; this property arising ratione soli. Whereas if, after being started there, it is killed in the ground of a third person, the property belongs not to the owner of the first ground, because the property is local; nor yet to the owner of the second, because it was not started in his soil; but it vests in the person who started and killed it, though guilty of a trespass against both the owners.

III. I proceed now to a third method, whereby a title to goods and chattels may be acquired and lost, viz. by forfeiture; as a punishment for some crime or misdemeanor in the party forfeiting, and as a compensation for the offence and injury committed against him to whom they are forfeited. Of forfeitures, considered as the means whereby real property might be lost and acquired, we treated in a former chapter. It remains, therefore, in this place only to mention by what means, or for what offences, goods and chattels become liable to forfeiture.

In the variety of penal laws with which the subject is at present encumbered, it were a tedious. and impracticable task to reckon up the various forfeitures, inflicted by special statutes, for particular crimes and misdemeanors: I shall therefore confine myself to those offences only, by which

all the goods and chattels of the offender are forfeited.

Goods and chattels, then, are totally forfeited by conviction of high treason or misprision of treason: of petit treason; of felony in general, and particularly of felo de se, and of manslaughter; nay even by conviction of excusable homicide; by outlawry for treason or felony; by conviction of petit larceny; by flight in treason or felony, even though the party be acquitted of the fact; by standing mute, when arraigned of felony; by drawing a weapon on a judge, or striking any one in the presence of the king's courts; by præmunire; by pretended prophecies, upon a second conviction; by owling; by the residing abroad of artificers: and by challenging to fight on account of money won at gaming.

And this forfeiture commences from the time of conviction, not the time of committing the fact, as in forfeitures of real property. Yet a fraudulent conveyance of them, to defeat the interest of the crown, is made void by statute 13 Eliz. c. 5.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

OF TITLE BY CUSTOM.

A FOURTH method of acquiring property in things personal, or chattels, is by custom: whereby a right vests in some particular persons, either by the local usage of some particular place, or by the