Page:Prerogatives of the Crown.djvu/235

Ch. XI. Sec. I.] Eecenue, — Forfeitures. 2S^ weave with those regulations such as manifestly tend to con- - firm the bonds of society, however unhappy and lamentable the effect may be on the criminal's posterity. Nor is any thing a punishment which does not affect a right strictly so called {a). However, life and liberty are the gifts of nature, and should^ never be taken away because of the parent's offence; nor should a subject be made incapable of employments without- some crime committed by himself. Such severities are unwise, as well as unequitable. A difference, therefore, must be ob- served between the natural rights and common liberties which are annexed to the person of every subject, and the peculiar distinctions of society, such as riches and honours. These last are merely contingent, and, if hoped for in the course of suc- cession, depend on the conduct of those ancestors from whom we would derive them. And it is not to be said, men are punish-- ed when those contingent advantages, which themselves neither acquired nor merited, having, by reason of the " civil qualifi- cation of their blood," (as a great lawyer of our own has ex- pressed it,) been brought into view by the desert of one ances- tor, are intercepted by the crimes of another. There is a very important distinction between the preroga- tive right to forfeitures and the right of the Crown, as lord of the fee by escheat, which will be more particularly mentioned in the next section. The law of forfeiture was the doctrine of the old Saxon law {h and formed a part of the antient Scan- dinavian constitution {c as a punishment for the offence, and does not at all relate to the feudal system, nor is the conse- quence of any seigniory or lordship paramount [d). But, be- ing a prerogative vested in the Crown, was neither superseded nor diminished by the introduction of the Norman tenures, a fruit and consequence of which escheats must undoubtedly be («) " Every thing," says Puffendorf, world without the expectation of a pa- " which causes a sorrow or loss, is not trimony } How many who lose all they properly punishment. It is a misfor- haveby war, fire, or shipwreck? L. VIII, tune to be reduced to poverty by a c. 3. 6. 30. crime, which caused the magistrate to {b) L.L. Alfred 4. L. L. Canute, c. 54. seta large fine upon the father of a (c) Stiernh. de jure Goth. 1. 2. c. 6. family j but not a punishment. How &nd 1. 3. c. 3. many are there who come into the (rf) 2 lust. 64. Salk. 85. reckoned.