VIII. An eighth branch of the king's ordinary revenue is uſually reckoned to conſiſt in the profits ariſing from his foreſts. Foreſts are waſte grounds belonging to the king, repleniſhed with all manner of beaſts of chaſe or venary; which are under the king's protection, for the ſake of his royal recreation and delight: and, to that end, and for preſervation of the king's game, there are particular laws, privileges, courts and officers belonging to the king's foreſts; all which will be, in their turns, explained in the ſubſequent books of theſe commentaries. What we are now to conſider are only the profits ariſing to the king from hence; which conſiſt principally in amercements or fines levied for offences againſt the foreſt-laws. But as few, if any, courts of this kind for levying amercements[1] have been held ſince 1632, 8 Car. I. and as, from the accounts given of the proceedings in that court by our hiſtories and law books[2], nobody would now wiſh to ſee them again revived, it is needleſs (at leaſt in this place) to purſue this enquiry any farther.
IX. The profits ariſing from the king's ordinary courts of juſtice make a ninth branch of his revenue. And theſe conſiſt not only in ſines impoſed upon offenders, forfeitures of recognizances, and amercements levied upon defaulters; but alſo in certain fees due to the crown in a variety of legal matters, as, for ſetting the great ſeal to charters, original writs, and other forenfic proceedings, and for permitting fines to be levied of lands in order to bar entails, or otherwiſe to inſure their title. As none of theſe can be done without the immediate intervention of the king, by himſelf or his officers, the law allows him certain perquiſites and profits, as a recompenſe for the trouble he undertakes for the public. Theſe, in proceſs of time, have been almoſt all granted out to private perſons, or elſe appropriated to certain particular uſes: ſo that, though our law-proceedings are ſtill
