row, and was consonant neither to reason nor humanity. The statute of Westminster, the first, enacts, that if a man, a dog, or a cat escape alive the vessel shall not be judged a wreck. These animals, as in Bracton, are only put for examples; for it is now held that not only if any live thing escape, but if proof can be made of the property of any of the goods or lading which come to shore, they shall not be forfeited as wreck. The statute further ordains that the sheriff of the county shall be bound to keep the goods a year and a day, that if any man can prove a property in them, either in his own right or by right of representation, they shall be restored to him without delay; but if no such property be proved within that time, they then shall be the king's. If the goods are of a perishable nature, the sheriff may sell them, and the money shall be liable in their stead. This revenue of wrecks is frequently granted out to lords of manors as a royal franchise; and if any one be thus entitled to wrecks in his own land, and the king's goods are wrecked thereon, the king may claim them any time, even after the year and day.

Jetsam, Flotsam, Ligan, Salvage.

It is to be observed, that in order to constitute a legal wreck the goods must come to land. If they continue at sea, the law distinguishes them by the barbarous and uncouth appellations of jetsam, flotsam and ligan. Jetsam is where goods are cast into the sea, and there sink and remain under water; flotsam is where they continue swimming on the surface of the waves; ligan is where they are sunk in the sea, but tied to a cork or buoy in order to be found again. These are also the king's, if no owner appears to claim them; but if any owner appears he is entitled to recover the possession. For, even if they be cast overboard without any mark or buoy, in order to lighten the ship, the owner is not by this act of necessity construed to have renounced his property; much less can things ligan be supposed to be abandoned, since the owner has done all in his power to assert and retain his property. These three are therefore accounted so far a distinct thing from the former, that by the king's grant to a man of wrecks, things jetsam, flotsam, and ligan will not pass.

By the statute 27 Edw. III., c. 13, if any ship be lost on the shore, and the goods come to land (which cannot, says the statute, be called wreck), they shell be presently delivered to the merchants, paying only a reasonable reward to those that saved and preserved them, which is entitled salvage. And by the common law, if any persons (other than the sheriff) take any goods so cast on shore, which are not legal wreck, the owners might have a commission to inquire and find them out, and compel them to make restitution.

Treasure Trove.

To the same original (the king's prerogative of coinage) may in part be referred the revenue of treasure trove (derived from the French word trover, to find, which is where any money or coin gold, silver, plate, or bullion is found hidden in the earth, or other private place, the owner thereof being unknown; in which case the treasure belongs to the king; but if he that hid it be known, or afterwards found out, the owner, and not the king, is entitled to it. Also if it be found in the sea, or upon the earth, it doth not belong to the king, but the finder, if no owner appears. So that it seems it is the hiding, and not the abandoning of it, that gives the king a property.

Waifs.

Waifs, bona waviata, are goods stolen, and waived or thrown away by the thief in his flight, for fear of being apprehended. These are given to the king by the law, as a punishment upon the owner for not himself pursuing the felon and taking away his goods from him. And therefore if the party robbed do his diligence immediately to follow and apprehend the thief (which is called making fresh suit), or do convict him afterwards, or procure evidence to convict him, he shall have his goods again. Waived goods do also not belong to the king till seized by somebody for his use; for if the party robbed can seize them first, though at the distance of twenty years, the king shall never have them. If the goods are hid by the thief, or left anywhere by him, so that he had them not about him when he fled, and therefore did not throw them away in his flight; these also are not bona waviata, but the owner may have them again when he pleases. The goods of a foreign merchant, though stolen and thrown away in flight, shall never be waifs; the reason whereof may be, not only for the encouragement of trade, but also because there is no wilful default in the foreign merchant's not pursuing the thief, he being generally a stranger to our laws, our usages, and our language.

Estrays.

Estrays are such valuable animals as are found wandering in any manor or lordship, and no man knoweth the owner of them; in which case the law gives them to the king, as the general owner and lord paramount of the soil, in recompense for the damage which they may have done therein; and they now most commonly belong to the lord of the manor by special grant from the crown. But, in order to vest an absolute property in the king, or his grantees, they must be proclaimed in the church and two market towns next adjoining to the place where they are found; and then, if no man claims them, after proclamation and a year and a day passed, they belong to the king or his substitute without redemption; even

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OF THE KING'S REVENUE.

though the owner were a minor, or under any other legal incapacity. The king or lord has no property till the year and day passed; for if a lord keepeth an estray three-quarters of a year, and within the year it strayeth again, and another lord getteth it, the first lord cannot take it again. Any beasts may be estrays, that are by nature tame or reclaimable, and in which there is a valuable property, as sheep, oxen, swine, and horses, which we in general call cattle, for animals upon which the law sets no value, as a dog or cat, and animals ferae naturae, as a bear or wolf, cannot be considered as estrays. So swans may be estrays; but not any other fowl; whence they are said to be royal fowls. The reason of which distinction seems to be, that cattle and swans being of a reclaimable nature, the owner's property in them is not lost merely by their temporary escape, and they also, from their intrinsic value, are a sufficient pledge for the expense of the lord of the franchise in keeping them the year and day. For he that takes an estray is bound, so long as he keeps it, to find it in provisions and preserve it from damage; and may not use it by way of labour, but is liable to an action for so doing. Yet he may milk a cow, or the like; for that tends to the preservation, and is for the benefit, of the animal.

Escheats.

Another branch of the king's ordinary revenue arises from escheats of land, which happen upon the defect of heirs to succeed to the inheritance, whereupon they in general revert to and vest in the king, who is esteemed in the eye of the law the original proprietor of all the lands in the kingdom.

Custody of Idiots.

I proceed therefore to the eighteenth and last branch of the king's ordinary revenue; which consists in the custody of idiots, from whence we shall be naturally led to consider also the custody of lunatics.

An idiot, or natural fool, is one that hath had no understanding from his nativity; and therefore is by law presumed never likely to attain any. For which reason the custody of him and of his lands was formerly vested in the lord of the fee (and therefore still, by special custom, in some manors the lord shall have the ordering of idiot and lunatic copyholders); but by reason of the manifold abuses of this power by subjects, it was at last provided by common consent that it should be given to the king, as the general conservator of his people; in order to prevent the idiot from wasting his estate, and reducing himself and his heirs to poverty and distress. This fiscal prerogative of the king is declared in parliament by statute 17 Edw. II., c. 9, which directs (in affirmance of the common law) that the king shall have ward of the lands of natural fools, taking the profits without waste or destruction, and shall find

them necessaries; and after the death of such idiots he shall render the estate to the heirs; in order to prevent such idiots from alienating their lands, and their heirs from being disinherited.

By the old common law there is a writ de idiota inquirendo, to inquire whether a man be an idiot or not; which must be tried by a jury of twelve men.

A man is not an idiot if he hath any glimmering of reason, so that he can tell his parents, his age or the like common matters. But a man who is born deaf, dumb, and blind is looked upon by the law as in the same state with an idiot: he being supposed incapable of any understanding, as wanting all those senses which furnish the human mind with ideas.

A lunatic or non compos mentis, is one who hath had understanding, but by disease, grief, or other accident, hath lost the use of his reason. A lunatic is indeed properly one that hath lucid intervals; sometimes enjoying his senses, and sometimes not, and that frequently depending upon the change of the moon. But under the general name of non compos mentis (which Sir Edward Coke says is the most legal name) are comprised not only lunatics, but persons under frenzies; or who lose their intellects by disease; those that grow deaf, dumb, and blind, not being born so; or such, in short, as are judged by the court of chancery incapable of conducting their own affairs. To these also, as well as idiots, the king is guardian, but to a very different purpose. For the law always imagines that these accidental misfortunes may be removed; and therefore only constitutes the crown a trustee for the unfortunate persons to protect their property, and to account to them for all profits received, if they recover, or, after their decease, to their representatives. And therefore it is declared by the statute 17 Edw. II., c. 10, that the king shall provide for the custody and sustentation of lunatice, and preserve their lands and the profits of them to their use, when they come to their right mind; and the king shall take nothing to his own use; and, if the parties die in such estate, the residue shall be distributed for their souls by the advice of the ordinary and of course (by the subsequent amendments of the law of administration) shall now go to their executors or administrators.

The method of proving a person non compos is very similar to that of proving him an idiot. The lord chancellor, to whom, by special authority from the king, the custody of idiots and lunatics is entrusted, upon petition or information, grants a commission in nature of the writ de idiota inquirendo, to inquire into the party's state of mind; and if he be found non compos, he usually commits the care of his person, with a suitable allowance for his maintenance, to some friend, who is then called his committee. However, to prevent sinister practices, the next heir is seldom permitted to be

this committee of the person; because it is his interest that the party should die. But, it hath been said, there lies not the same objection against his next of kin, provided he be not his heir; for it is his interest to preserve the lunatic's life, in order to increase the personal estate by savings, which he or his family may hereafter be entitled to enjoy. The heir is generally made the manager or committee of the estate, it being clearly his interest by good management to keep it in condition; accountable, however, to the court of chancery, and to the non compos himself, if he recovers, or otherwise to his administrators.

Chapter IX.

OF SUBORDINATE MAGISTRATES.

338-366.

This chapter treats of the rights and duties of principal subordinate magistrates-such as sheriffs, coroners, justices of the peace, constables, surveyors of highways, and overseers of the poor.

The enquiry is made into their antiquity and original, the manner of their appointment and removal, and their rights and duties. The Sheriff.

I. The sheriff is an officer of very great antiquity in this kingdom, his name being derived from two Saxon words, the reeve bailiff, or officer of the shire. He is called in Latin vicecomes, as being the deputy of the earl or comes; to whom the custody of the shire is said to have been committed at the first division of this kingdom into counties. But the earls in process of time, by reason of their high employments and attendance on the king's person, not being able to transact the business of the county, were delivered of that burden; reserving to themselves the honor, but the labour was laid on the sheriff. So that now the sheriff does all the king's business in the county; and though he be still called vice-comes yet he is entirely independent of, and not subject to, the earl; the king by his letters patent committing custodiam comitatus to the sheriff and him alone.

Power and Duty.

The sheriff's power and duty are either as a judge, as the keeper of the king's peace, as a ministerial officer of the superior courts of justice, or as the king's bailiff.

In his judicial capacity he is to hear and determine all causes of forty shillings value and under, in his county court, of which more in its proper place; and he has also a judicial power in divers other civil causes. He is likewise to decide the elections of knights of the shire (subject to the control of the house of commons), of coroners, and of verderers; to judge of the qualifications of voters, and to return such as he shall determine to be duly elected.