offence in quite ſo atrocious a light, but merely as a heinous miſdemeſnor[1].
An infant in ventre ſa mere, or in the mother’s womb, is ſuppoſed in law to be born for many purpoſes. It is capable of having a legacy, or a ſurrender of a copyhold eſtate made to it. It may have a guardian aſſigned to it[2]; and it is enabled to have an eſtate limited to it’s uſe, and to take afterwards by ſuch limitation, as if it were then actually born[3]. And in this point the civil law agrees with ours[4].
2. A man’s limbs (by which for the preſent we only underſtand thoſe members which may be uſeful to him in fight, and the loſs of which only amounts to mayhem by the common law) are alſo the gift of the wiſe creator; to enable man to protect himſelf from external injuries in a ſtate of nature. To theſe therefore he has a natural inherent right; and they cannot be wantonly deſtroyed or diſabled without a manifeſt breach of civil liberty.
Both the life and limbs of a man are of ſuch high value, in the eſtimation of the law of England, that it pardons even homicide if committed ſe defendendo, or in order to preſerve them. For whatever is done by a man, to ſave either life or member, is looked upon as done upon the higheſt neceſſity and compulſion. Therefore if a man through fear of death or mayhem is prevailed upon to execute a deed, or do any other legal aft; theſe, though accompanied with all other the requiſite ſolemnities, may be afterwards avoided, if forced upon him by a well-grounded apprehenſion of loſing his life, or even his limbs, in caſe of his noncompliance[5]. And the ſame is alſo a ſufficient excuſe for the commiſſion of many miſdemeſnors, as will appear in the fourth book.
