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APPENDI X.

N°I. Proceedings on a Writ of RIGHT Patent.

Page i

§ 1. Writ of RIGHT patent in the COURT BARON. ibid.
2. Writ of TOLT, to remove it into the COUNTRY
COURT.

§3. Writ of PONE, to remove it into the Court of
COMMON PLEAS.

§ 4. Writ of RIGHT, quia Dominus remifit Curiam.
$5. The Record, with award of Battel.

§ 6. Trial by the Grand Affife.

N° II. Proceedings on an Action of Trespass in EJECT-
MENT, by Original in the King's Bench.

ibid.

ii

üi

iv

vi

ཡ:ལྦ དེ ⪜

ix

1. The Original Writ.

ibid.

2. Copy of the Declaration against the cafual Ejector;
who gives Notice thereupon to the Tenant in

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N° III. Proceedings on an action of DEBT, in the Court

of Common Pleas; removed into the King's
Bench by Writ of ERROR.

xvi

§1. Original.

ibid.

§ 2. Process.

ibid.

§3. Bill of Middlesex, and Latitat thereupon, in the

Court of King's Bench.

xxii

xxiv

4. Writ of Quo minus in the Exchequer.

5. Special Bail; on the Arreft of the Defendant,
pursuant to the Teftatum Capias, in page xiv. ibid.

§6. The Record, as removed by Writ of ERROR.
§ 7. Procefs of Execution.

xxvi

xxxiii

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OF THE REDRESS OF PRIVATE WRONGS BY THE MERE ACT OF THE PARTIES.

A

T the opening of these commentaries municipal law was in general defined to be, "a rule of "civil conduct, prescribed by the supreme power

с

"in a ftate, commanding what is right, and "prohibiting what is wrong." From hence therefore it followed, that the primary objects of the law are the establishment of rights, and the prohibition of wrongs. And this occafioned the diftribution of thefe collections into two general heads; under the former of which we have already confidered the rights that were defined and established, and under the latter are now to confider the wrongs that are for. bidden and redreffed, by the laws of England.

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In the profecution of the first of thefe enquiries, we distinguished rights into two forts: first, such as concern or are annexed to the perfons of men, and are then called jura perfonarum, or the rights of perfons; which, together with the means of acquiring and lofing them, composed the first book of thefe commentaries: and, fecondly, fuch as a man may acquire over external objects, or things unconnected with his perfon, which are called jura rerum, or the rights of things; and thefe, with the means of transferring them from man to man, were the fubject of the second book. I am now therefore to proceed to the confideration of wrongs; which for the most part convey to us an idea merely negative, as being nothing else but a privation of right. For which reafon it was neceflary, that, before we entered at all into the difcuffion of wrongs, we fhould entertain a clear and diftinct notion of rights the contemplation of what is jus being neceffarily prior to what may be termed injuria, and the definition of fas precedent to that of nefas.

WRONGS are divisible into two forts or fpecies; private aurangs, and public wrongs. The former are an infringement. or privation of the private or civil rights belonging to individuals, confidered as individuals; and are thereupon frequently termed civil injuries: the latter are a breach and violation of public rights and duties, which affect the whole community, confidered as a community; and are diftinguished by the harfher appellation of crimes and mifdemefnors. To investigate the firft of thefe fpecies of wrongs, with their legal remedies, will be our employment in the present book; and the other fpecies will be referved till the next or concluding volume.

THE more effectually to accomplish the redrefs of private injuries, courts of juftice are inftituted in every civilized fociety, in order to protect the weak from the infults of the ftronger, by expounding and enforcing thofe laws, by which rights are defined, and wrongs prohibited. This remedy is therefore principally to be fought by application to these

courts

courts of justice; that is, by civil fuit or action. For which reafon our chief employment in this volume will be to confider the redrefs of private wrongs, by fuit or action in courts. But as there are certain injuries of fuch a nature, that fome of them furnish and others require a more speedy remedy, than can be had in the ordinary forms of justice, there is allowed in thofe cafes an extrajudicial or eccentrical kind of remedy; of which I fhall first of all treat, before I confider the several remedies by fuit: and, to that end, shall distribute the redrefs of private wrongs into three feveral fpecies; first, that which is obtained by the mere act of the parties themselves; fecondly, that which is effected by the mere act and operation of law; and, thirdly, that which arises from fuit or action in courts, which confifts in a conjunction of the other two, the act of the parties co-operating with the act of law.

AND, firft, of that redrefs of private injuries, which is obtained by the mere act of the parties. This is of two sorts ; first, that which arifes from the act of the injured party only; änd, secondly, that which arises from the joint act of all the parties together: both which I fhall confider in their order:

Of the first fort, or that which arifes from the sole act of the injured party, is,

1. THE defence of one's felf, or the mutual and reciprocal defence of fuch as ftand in the relations of husband and wife, parent and child, mafter and fervant. In these cafes, if the party himself, or any of thefe his relations, be forcibly attacked in his perfon or property, it is lawful for him to repel force by force(1); and the breach of the peace, which happens, is chargeable upon him only who began the affray". For

d 2 Roll. Abr. 546. 1 Hawk. P. C. 131.

(1) It is faid, that the defence of his fervant is not a fufficient juftification in an action brought against the mafter, for he may maintain an action for the lofs of the fervice of his fervant. Salk. 407

B ¿

the

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