justice; his widow was advised to petition for a grant of her husband's goods for her subsistence. The Lord Keeper furnished a humane friend, who took an interest in the matter, with instructions for the Petition, wherein his lordship advises that no argument should be made with a reflection on the proceedings of justice; but that the only arguments should be, that it was "but a small matter which was left, and that the widow's friends were very loyal." North concludes with saying, "What was done in this matter is not now material to be known." If, however, the result had been favorable, it is probable that he would have made it redound to his brother's glorification.

Of excessive Fines of Courts in the reign of Charles II., which were near akin to judicial escheats and forfeitures, examples have been given in treating of Sedition: other cases might be instanced in the punishment of the London and Nottingham rioters. By the Bill of Rights it is declared that "excessive fines ought not to be imposed." Sir J. Hawles writes that the Fines of Courts in the reigns of Charles II. and James II. materially contributed to the success of the Revolution.

This head may be concluded by noticing that within memory has been abolished the oppressive prerogative of deodands, and the forfeiture of goods and chattels in cases of homicide se defendendo, and by misadventure, and for the flight of acquitted felons, all of which were standing prodigies of criminal jurisprudence in the reign of Charles II. On the subject of flight, Sir Matthew Hale writes, in that reign, “It holds, indeed, that a fugam fecit presented before the Coroner is not traversable, quia auncient ley de Corone;" and, again, " On all hands it is agreed, that, if the Coroner, upon an Inquest, present one as guilty, and that he fled for it, but the party, when arraigned, is found not guilty, and also that he did not fly; yet that doth not avoid the first inquisition as to the flight, but the best shall be taken for the King."

(c) Miscellaneous Incidents of feudal tenures.

Some Incidents of feudal tenures may be noticed, not on account of much relevancy to the vigor of the Constitution, but as shewing the qualifications with which it is necessary to season Blackstone's remarks on the extirpation of all feudal appendages of tenure in the reign of Charles II. The retaliatory forfeiture for Mortmain was originally a punishment inflicted on a feudal tenant for giving land to a Monastery or other Corporation which yielded no wardship or other fruit of tenure, but held the land, as it were, in a dead hand (mortuâ manu). Several important relaxations of this severe law have been made in modern times, and licenses to alien in mortmain were placed, at the Revolution, on a more constitutional footing than they stood in the reign of Charles II. But the Law of Mortmain, in point of its feudal forfeiture, remains in unfavourable contrast with the modern law in pari materiâ of Charitable Uses, in which, by the simple avoidance of a conveyance, the law is maintained, not avenged.

The exemption of freehold and copyhold lands, upon feudal principles, from debts, subject to numerous distinctions, has been abolished within memory: whilst it continued, the public law of the country could not pretend to perfection: it was, in this respect, a law of Feudal Barons, enamoured of their domains, deaf to the voice of Justice.

II. Purveyance.

Of the Act of the Convention Parliament, which abolished Wardship and Purveyance, Mr Hallam sagaciously remarks, "This Act may be said to have wrought an important change in the spirit of our Constitution, by reducing what is emphatically called the prerogative of the Crown, and which, by its practical exhibition in these two vexatious exercises of power, Wardship and Purveyance, kept up in the minds of the people a more

distinct perception, as well as more awe, of the monarchy, than could be felt in later periods, when it has become, as it were, merged in the common course of law, and blended with the very complex mechanism of our institutions." This great innovation, however, in the case of Purveyance, in like manner as is above noticed with regard to Wardship, did not originate in the reign of Charles II.; and its confirmation in that reign was the result of present financial pressure rather than a foresight of political

consequences.

The Prerogatives of Purveyance and Pre-emption had been retrenched by a statute passed in the 16th year of Charles I.; they had been abolished by Barebones's Parliament. They were among the most odious of the ancient royal prerogatives; so much so, that after their excesses had been checked by forty-eight statutes, it was enacted "que le heignous nome de purveyar soit change en nome d'achateur." The benefit of the Statute of Charles, therefore, consists in not permitting the old law of the monarchy to revive, by the general supercession of the ordinances of the Commonwealth, so far as regarded the prerogatives of purveyance and pre-emption, which savoured of obsolete manners, were hateful to the nation, and could not have been restored in their integrity with safety to a newly re-established throne. And the advantages of the Act, even in this respect, were impaired by a statute passed shortly afterwards (13th Car. II. c. 8), entitled "An Act for providing necessary carriages for his Majesty in his royal progresses and removals." It recites that the Act abolishing Purveyance "may prove very prejudicial and inconvenient to the King's Majesty on his royal progresses upon his necessary occasions to several parts of this realm, in case any person or persons shall obstinately refuse voluntarily to provide sufficient carriages for royal service at ordinary and usual rates for such carriages as are paid by others of his subjects in such places." The enacting clauses of the Act extend to diet for his Majesty's servants, to horse-meat, to lodging and

stable-room, which are to be furnished, under penalties, according to rates to be settled by two Justices of the Peace1."

Burke has exhibited, in his speech on economical reform, how various offices connected with purveyance and the like prerogative exactions survived for several reigns the extinction of the prerogatives under which they were created, and were retained for the purposes of influence and corruption; and thus the abolition of Purveyance did not, in the reign of Charles II., or long afterwards, operate to the extinguishment of its evil consequences to the Constitution.

III. Statutory Penalties.

A considerable portion of property was wrung from the Subject in the reign of Charles II., by means of Statutory Penalties. The personal interest which our Sovereigns had, prior to the reign of George III., in all kinds of penalties was a formidable impediment to the repeal or modification of any statute whereby they were imposed; so that not only were penalties maintained which, in process of time, might appear unreasonable, but they had a conservative influence on enactments that, independently of the severity with which they were enforced, were politically inexpedient. The improvement in our laws had a formidable impediment in the purse of the King.

The penalties for Recusancy, and those imposed by the statutes against Nonconformists in the reign of Charles II. have been above noticed: it may be further observed that, in a debate

1 The abolition of the feudal tenures and of purveyance are bewailed by Fabian Phillipps, in tracts entitled Ligeantia lugens, and Tenenda non Tollenda, and On the antiquity, legality, reason, duty, and necessity of Purveyance and Preemption. See further concerning Purveyance, the Author's Fortescue, 135 n, and on Knight's Service, 169n, Guardianship in Chivalry, 163 n. See also Mr Bray's Account of the Office of Purveyor, Archæol. Ant. Soc. Vol. VIII.; for a lively description of the King's purveyor and of his functions, on "sallying forth from under a Gothic portcullis to purchase provision with power and prerogative instead of money, and to bring home the plunder of a hundred markets, and all that could be seized from a flying and hiding country," see Burke's Speech on Economical Reform.

on the Conventicle Act, Waller remarked, with reference to the clause, whereby, if one of a congregation was too poor to pay his fine, it should be made up by the rest," this Bill looks more like a levying of money than a punishment, one must pay because another is poor."

The punishment of Præmunire consisted of a total forfeiture of goods and chattels, and of imprisonment during the King's pleasure; it was applicable, in the reign of Charles II., to a great number of offences relative to correspondence with the See of Rome, and also to a refusal to take the oath of allegiance prescribed by a statute of James I., as many Quakers experienced. So concise, and at the same time comprehensive, and, to the public, so unintelligible a name as that of Præmunire, suggested the idea of imposing the punishment of Præmunire for offences which had no relevancy to the triple Crown of Rome. This device was practised three times in the reign of Charles II. (12 Car. II. c. 24, 13 Car. II. c. 1, 31 Car. II. c. 2); and the hint was not lost on succeeding reigns, but was resorted to even in that of George III.

Blackstone eulogizes the legislation of the reign of Charles II. on account of "wholesome laws for the benefit of Navigation and the improvement of foreign commerce." It may

be thought that most of these laws operated as an arbitrary infringement on liberty of property, from mistaken views of political economy, not without regard, often a paramount regard, to fiscal exactions. The great Navigation Act, borrowed from one of the like tenor passed during the Commonwealth, if it possessed any temporary expediency, has not been regarded by posterity as a permanently wholesome Act. Still more exceptionable was the entire prohibition of trade with France from 1678, till the end of the reign: nor will a recital contained in the Act passed for that purpose (29th and 30th Car. II. c. 1, s. 60) be assented to in the present day, that "it had been by long experience found that the importing of French wines, brandy,