which reaſon leaſes, and other conveyances, for life, are uſually made to have and to hold for the term of one’s natural life[1]. But, even in the times of popery, the law of England took no cognizance of profeſſion in any foreign country, becauſe the fact could not be tried in our courts[2]; and therefore, ſince the reformation, the diſability is held to be aboliſhed[3].
This natural life being, as was before obſerved, the immediate donation of the great creator, cannot legally be diſpoſed of or deſtroyed by any individual, neither by the perſon himſelf nor by any other of his fellow creatures, merely upon their own authority. Yet nevertheleſs it may, by the divine permiſſion, be frequently forfeited for the breach of thoſe laws of ſociety, which are enforced by the ſanction of capital puniſhments; of the nature, reſtrictions, expedience, and legality of which, we may hereafter more conveniently enquire in the concluding book of theſe commentaries. At preſent, I ſhall only obſerve, that whenever the conſtitution of a ſtate veſts in any man, or body of men, a power of deſtroying at pleaſure, without the direction of laws, the lives or members of the ſubject, ſuch conſtitution is in the higheſt degree tyrannical: and that whenever any laws direct ſuch deſtruction for light and trivial cauſes, ſuch laws are likewiſe tyrannical, though in an inferior degree; becauſe here the ſubject is aware of the danger he is expoſed to, and may by prudent caution provide againſt it. The ſtatute law of England does therefore very ſeldom, and the common law does never, inflict any puniſhment extending to life or limb, unleſs upon the higheſt neceſſity: and the conſtitution is an utter ſtranger to any arbitrary power of killing or maiming the ſubject without the expreſs warrant of law. “Nullus liber homo, ſays the great charter[4], aliquo modo deſtruatur, niſi per legale judicium parium ſuorum aut per legem terrae.” Which words, “aliquo modo deſtruatur,” according to ſir Edward Coke[5], include a prohibition not only of killing, and maiming, but alſo of torturing (to which our laws are
