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principle as the last; viz. the property which the master has by his contract acquired in the labour of the fervant. In this cafe, befides the remedy of an action of battery or imprisonment, which the fervant himself as an individual may have against the aggreffor, the mafter alfo, as a recompenfe for bis immediate lofs, may maintain an action of trefpafs vi et armis; in which he muft allege and prove the fpecial damage he has fuftained by the beating of his fervant, per quod fervi tium amifit; and then the jury will make him a proportion able pecuniary fatisfaction. A fimilar practice to which, we find alfo to have obtained among the Athenians; where maf ters were entitled to an action against fuch as beat or ill treated their fervants (13).

21 9 Rep. 113. 10 Rep. 310.

Pott. Antiqu. b. 1. c. 26.

WE

(13) It appears to be a remarkable omission in the law of England, which with fuch fcrupulous folicitude guards the rights of in dividuals, and fecures the morals and good order of the commanity, that it fhould have afforded fo little protection to female chaf tity. It is true that it has defended it by the punithment of death from force and violence, but has left it expofed to perhaps greater danger from the artifices and folicitations of feduction. In no cafe whatever, unless the has had a promife of marriage, can a woman herself obtain any reparation for the injury the has fuftained from the feducer of her virtue. And even where her weakness and cre dulity have been impofed upon by the mott folemn promifes of: marriage, unless they have been overheard or made in writing, the cannot recover any compenfation, being incapable of giving evidence in her own caufe. Nor can a parent maintain any action in the temporal courts against the perfon who has done this wrong to his family, and to his honour and happinefs, but by ftating and proving, that from the confequences of the feduction his daughter is lefs able to affift him as a fervait, or that the fe ducer in the purfuit of his daughter was a trefpaffer upon his pre. miles. Hence no action can be maintained for the feduction of a daughter, which is not attended with a lofs of fervice or an injury to property. Therefore, in that action for feduction which is in most general afe, viz. a per quod fervitium amifit, the father

BOOK III. WE may obferve that in these relative injuries, notice is only taken of the wrong done to the fuperior of the parties

must prove that his daughter, when feduced, actually affifted in fome degree, however inconfiderable, in the housewifery of his family; and that she has been rendered lefs ferviceable to him by her pregnancy and I should think the action would be fuftained upon the evidence of a confumption or any real diforder, contracted by the daughter, in confequence of her feduction, or of her shame and forrow for the violation of her honour. It is immaterial what is the age of the daughter, but it is neceffary that at the time of the feduction the should be living in, or be confidered part of, her father's family. 4 Burr. 1878. 3 Wilf. 18. And Mr. J. Wilson, in a cafe upon the northern circuit, was of opinion, that a young woman who was upon a viût at a relation's house, and was there feduced, might be confidered, in fupport of this action, as in the fervice of her father, or as part of his family. In this action, as the daughter does not neceffarily receive any part of the damages recovered, fhe is a competent witnefs, and is generally produced to prove the circumftances of the feduction. But in fuch cafes, as in actions for adultery, the damages are estimated from the rank and fituation of the parent, or from the degree of affliction which, under all the circumftances, he may be fuppofed to fuffer. It should feem -that this action may be brought by a grandfather, brother, uncle, aunt, or any relation under the protection of whom, in loco parentis, a woman refides; especially if the cafe be fuch that the can bring no action herself: but the courts would not permit a person to be punished twice by exemplary damages for the fame injury. 2 T. R. 4.

Another action for feduction is a common action for trespass, which may be brought when the feducer illegally entered the father's houfe; in which action the debauching his daughter may be stated and proved as an aggravation of the trespass. 2 T. R. 1787.

In this action the feduction may be proved, though it may not have been followed by the confequences of pregnancy or the lofs of fervice. But thefe are the only actions which have been extended by the modern ingenuity of the courts, to enable an unhappy parent to recover a recompense under certain circumftances, for the injury he has fuftained by the feduction of his daughter.

related

related by the breach and diffolution of either the relation itself, or at least the advantages accruing therefrom; while the lofs of the inferior by fuch injuries is totally unregarded. One reafon for which may be this: that the inferior hath no kind of property in the company, care, or affiftance of the superior, as the fuperior is held to have in those of the inferior; and therefore the inferior can fuffer no lofs or injury. The wife cannot recover damages for beating her husband, for fhe hath no separate interest in any thing during her coverture. The child hath no property in his father or guardian; as they have in him, for the fake of giving him education and nurture. Yet the wife or the child, if the husband or parent be slain, have a peculiar fpecies of criminal profecution allowed them, in the nature of a civil satisfaction; which is called an appeal, and which will be confidered in the next book. And fo the fervant, whose mafter is difabled, does not thereby lofe his maintenance or wages. He had no property in his master; and, if he receives his part of the ftipulated contract, he fuffers no injury, and is therefore entitled to no action, for any battery or imprisonment which fuch mafter may happen to endure.

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CHAPTER THE NINTH.

OF INJURIES TO PERSONAL PROPERTY.

N the preceding chapter we confidered the wrongs or injuries that affected the rights of perfons, either confidered as individuals, or as related to each other; and are at present to enter upon the difcuffion of such injuries as affect the rights of property, together with the remedies which the law has given to repair or redrefs them.

a

AND here again we must follow our former divifion of property into personal and real : perfonal, which confifts in goods, money, and all other moveable chattels, and things thereunto incident; a property, which may attend a man's perfon wherever he goes, and from thence receives it's denomination and real property, which confifts of fuch things as are permanent, fixed, and immoveable; as lands, tenements, and hereditaments of all kinds, which are not annexed to the perfon, nor can be moved from the place in which they fubfift.

a See book II. ch. 2.

FIRST then we are to confider the injuries that may be offered to the rights of perfonal property; and, of these, first the rights of personal property in poffeffion, and then those that are in action only.

I. THE rights of perfonal property in poffeffion are liable to two fpecies of injuries: the amotion or deprivation of that poffeffion; and the abuse or damage of the chattels, while the poffeffion continues in the legal owner. The former, or deprivation of poffeffion, is also divifible into two branches; the unjust and unlawful taking them away; and the unjust detaining them, though the original taking might be lawful.

1. AND first of an unlawful taking. The right of property in all external things being folely acquired by occupancy, as has been formerly stated, and preferved and tranfferred by grants, deeds, and wills, which are a continuation of that occupancy; it follows as a necessary consequence, that when I once have gained a rightful poffeffion of any goods or chattels, either by a just occupancy or by a legal transfer, whoever either by fraud or force difpoffeffes me of them is guilty of a tranfgreffion against the law of society, which is a kind of fecondary law of nature. For there must be an end of all focial commerce between man and man, unless private poffeffions be fecured from unjuft invafions: and, if an acquifition of goods by either force or fraud were allowed to be a fufficient title, all property would foon be confined to the most strong, or the most cunning; and the weak and fimpleminded part of mankind (which is by far the most numerous divifion) could never be fecure of their poffeffions.

THE Wrongful taking of goods being thus most clearly an injury, the next confideration is, what remedy the law of England has given for it. And this is, in the first place, the reftitution of the goods themselves fo wrongfully taken, with damages for the lofs fuftained by fuch unjust invafion; which [146]

b Book II. ch. 25.

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