CHAPTER XVII.

OF INJURIES PROCEEDING FROM, OR AFFECTING THE CROWN.

I PROCEED now to inquire into the mode of redressing those injuries to which the crown itself is a party. We will consider first, the manner of redressing those wrongs or injuries, which a subject may suffer from the crown, and then of redressing those which the crown may receive from a subject.

1. That the king can do no wrong, is a necessary and fundamental principle of the English constitution.

The distance between the sovereign and his subjects is such, that it rarely can happen that any personal injury can immediately and directly proceed from the prince to any private man: and, as it can so seldom happen, the law in decency supposes that it never will or can happen at all; because it feels itself incapable of furnishing any adequate remedy, without infringing the dignity and destroying the sovereignty of the royal person, by setting up some superior power with authority to call him to account. The inconveniency therefore of a mischief that is barely possible, is (as Mr. Locke has observed) well recompensed by the peace of the public and security of the government, in the person of the chief magistrate being set out of the reach of coercion. But injuries to

the rights of property can scarcely be committed, by the crown without the intervention of its officers; for whom the law in matters of right entertains no respect or delicacy, but furnishes various methods of detecting the errors or misconduct of those agents, by whom the king has been deceived, and induced to do a temporary injustice.

The common law methods of obtaining possession or restitution from the crown, of either real or personal property are, 1. By petition de droit, or petition of right, which is said to owe its original to king Edward the First. 2. By monstrans de droit, manifestation or plea of right both of which may be preferred or prosecuted either in the chancery or exchequer. But as the remedy by petition was extremely tedious and expensive, that by monstrans was much enlarged and rendered almost universal by several statutes, particularly 36 Edw. III. c. 13. and 2 & 3 Edw. VI. c. 8. which also allow inquisitions of office to be traversed or denied, wherever the right of a subject is concerned, except in a very few cases. These proceedings are had in the petty bag office in the court of chancery: and, if upon either of them the right be determined against the crown, the judgment is, quod manus domini regis amoveantur et possessio restituatur petenti, salvo jure domini regis; which last cause is always added to judgments against the king, to whom no laches is ever imputed, and whose right (till some late statutes) was never defeated by any limitation or length of

time. And by such judgment the crown is instantly out of possession; so that there needs not the indecent interposition of his own officers to transfer the seizin from the king to the party aggrieved.

II. The methods of redressing such injuries as the crown may receive from a subject, are,

1. By such usual common law actions, as are consistent with the royal prerogative and dignity. As therefore the king, by reason of legal ubiquity, cannot be disseized or dispossessed of any real property which is once vested in him, he can maintain no action which supposes a dispossession of the plaintiff; such as an assize or an ejectment: but he may bring a quare impedit, which always supposes the complainant to be seized or possessed of the advowson. It would be equally tedious and difficult, to run through every minute distinction that might be gleaned from our ancient books with regard to this matter; nor is it in any degree necessary, as much easier and more effectual remedies are usually obtained by such prerogative modes of process, as are peculiarly confined to the crown.

2. Such is that of inquisition or inquest of office: which is an inquiry made by the king's officer, his sheriff, coroner, or escheator, virtute officii, or by writ to them sent for that purpose, or by commissioners specially appointed, concerning any matter that entitles the king to the possession of lands or tenements, goods or chattels. This is done by a jury of no determinate number, being either twelve, or less, or more.

With regard to other matters, the inquests of office still remain in force, and are taken upon proper occasions: being extended not only to lands, but also to goods and chattels personal, as in the case of wreck, treasure-trove, and the like; and especially as to forfeitures for offences. For every jury which tries a man for treason or felony, every coroner's inquest that sits upon a felo de se, or one killed by chance-medley, is not only with regard to chattels, but also to real interests, in all respects an inquest of office: and if they find the treason or felony, or even the flight of the party accused, (though innocent) the king is thereupon, by virtue of this office found, entitled to have his forfeitures; and also, in the case of chance-medley, he or his grantees are entitled to such things by way of deodand, as have moved to the death of the party.

3. Where the crown hath unadvisedly granted any thing by letters patent, which ought not to be granted, or where the patentee hath done any act that amounts to a forfeiture of the grant, the remedy to repeal the patent is by writ of scire facias in chancery.

4. An information on behalf of the crown, filed in the exchequer by the king's attorney-general, is a method of suit for recovering money or other chattels, or for obtaining satisfaction in damages

for

any personal wrong committed in the lands or other possessions of the crown. The most usual informations are those of intrusion and debt: intrusion, for any trespass committed on the lands of

the crown, as by entering thereon without title, holding over after a lease is determined, taking the profits, cutting down timber, or the like; and debt, upon a contract for monies due to the king, or for any forfeiture due to the crown upon the breach of a penal statute. This is most commonly used to recover forfeitures occasioned by transgressing those laws, which are enacted for the establishment and support of the revenue: others, which regard mere matters of police and public convenience, being usually left to be enforced by the common informers, in the qui tam informations or actions, of which we have formerly spoken. But after the attorney-general has given information upon the breach of a penal law, no other information can be received.

5. A writ of quo warranto is in the nature of a writ of right for the king, against him who claims or usurps any office, franchise, or liberty, to inquire by what authority he supports his claim, in order to determine the right. It lies also in case of non-user or long neglect of a franchise, or mis-user or abuse of it; being a writ commanding the defendant to shew by what warrant he exercises such a franchise, having never had any grant of it, or having forfeited it by neglect or abuse.

The judgment of a writ on quo warranto (being in the nature of a writ of right) is final and conclusive even against the crown. Which, together with the length of its process, probably occasioned that disuse into which it is now fallen, and introduced a modern method of prosecution, by infor