finder; and ſo continued under the imperial law. But, in ſettling the modern conſtitutions of moſt of the governments in Europe, it was thought proper (to prevent that ſtrife and contention, which the mere title of occupancy is apt to create and continue, and to provide for the ſupport of public authority in a manner the leaſt burthenſome to individuals) that theſe rights ſhould be annexed to the ſupreme power by the poſitive laws of the ſtate. And ſo it came to paſs that, as Bracton expreſſes it[1], haec, quae nullius in bonis ſunt, et olim fuerunt inventoris de jure naturali, jam efficiuntur principis de jure gentium.
XVI. The next branch of the king's ordinary revenue conſiſts in forfeitures of lands and goods for offences; bona confiſcata, as they are called by the civilians, becauſe they belonged to the fiſcus or imperial treaſury; or, as our lawyers term them, forisfacta, that is, ſuch whereof the property is gone away and departed from the owner. The true reaſon and only ſubſtantial ground of any forfeiture for crimes conſiſt in this; that all property is derived from ſociety, being one of thoſe civil rights which are conferred upon individuals, in exchange for that degree of natural freedom, which every man muſt ſacrifice when he enters into ſocial communities. If therefore a member of any national community violates the fundamental contract of his aſſociation, by tranſgreſſing the municipal law, he forfeits his right to ſuch privileges as he claims by that contract; and the ſtate may very juſtly reſume that portion of property, or any part of it, which the laws have before aſſigned him. Hence, in every offence of an atrocious kind, the laws of England have exacted a total confiſcation of the moveables or perſonal eſtate; and in many caſes a perpetual, in others only a temporary, loſs of the offender's immoveables or landed property; and have veſted them both in the king, who is the perſon ſuppoſed to be offended, being the one viſible magiſtrate in whom the majeſty of the public reſides. The particulars of theſe forfeitures will be more properly recited when we treat of crimes and miſdemeſnors. I therefore only mention them
- ↑ l. 1. c. 12.
