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make any bloodshed expiable, if not acceptable, under the golden colour of recompenfe made to the king, to the lord of the party flain, and to the friends of the party, for the lofs of a subject, a tenant, and a friend; according to the custom of their forefathers, as defcribed by Tacitus, recipitque fatisfactionem univerfa do

mus.

Their Laws, in this refpect, underwent many changes, too tedious to recite.

In former days, Murder fignified only the private killing of a man, as appears by the Laws of Hen. I. And it was not Murder, fome fay, except the party flain was an Englishman and no foreigner, though by the Statute 14 Edw. III. chap. 4. the killing of any Englishman, or foreigner, living under the king's protection, through, malice prepenfe, and whether committed openly or fecretly, is Murder: And without doubt the makers of the Statute of 23 Hen. VIII. which excludes all wilful Murder from the benefit of Clergy, intended

tended to include open as well as private Homicide within the word Murder.

SECT. V.

Reflections on the Judgment in cafe of Murder.

N cafe of Murder, indeed, it is both just

IN

and reasonable to doom the criminal to death; because, by his crime, he has put it out of his power to make any kind of compensation to the party flain.

The bare execution of the criminal, however, does not fufficiently fatisfy the claims of juftice: Juftice requires not only that punishment be inflicted on the offender, but that all poffible reparation be made to the furviving friends and relations, who are injured by the death of the party flain.

. This therefore is one of thofe crimes in which forfeiture is juftifiable. It may, and

Bb

and does often happen, that a helpless family derived its whole fupport from the party flain; and it is reasonable, where the Murderer is a man of property, that they should be intitled to recompenfe out of it.

.

In the most rude times, the injury done to the friends and relations of the party flain, has always been confidered in the punishment of the offender. Bromley, in his argument of Pledall's cafe, to fhew what effect the confideration of blood and kindred had in our Law, affirms, that when, in an appeal of Murder, the appellant was found guilty, the old custom was, that all the blood of the party murdered, used to draw the Murderer by a long rope to his execution ; which ufage he fuppofes to be founded on the affection which they were all presumed to bear towards the party flain.

But our Law regards Murder as a crime committed to the prejudice of the State, and takes no notice of the intereft of the friends and relations of the party flain, as

will

will appear from the confideration of the

next head.

SECT. VL

Of Forfeiture in case of Murder.

W

ITH refpect to Forfeiture in cafe of Murder, it is in that, and in all capital felonies, as in High Treafon. Lands and tenements are forfeited upon attainder, and goods and chattels upon conviction with this difference, that in felony, entailed lands are forfeited only during the life of te nant in tail; and that in felony the wife is dowable, which in High and Petit Treafon fhe is not,

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SECT. VII.

Reflections on Forfeiture in cafe of Murder.

WE

E find that the Law refpecting Forfeiture, pays no regard whatever to the friends and relations of the party flain, though perhaps they may be beggared by his death.

Our Law, in this, as in many other cafes, has ftarted from one extreme to the other. In the rude times of ignorance, as has been fhewn, the recompense to the kindred of the party flain, was the fole confideration; their notions of policy were not fufficiently enlarged to comprehend the injury done to the State.

In our times the ideas of public interest are fo refined, that by making provisions folely for the benefit of the State, we are guilty of injuftice to injured individuals.

Reafon

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