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6 was of course made to the appellant; and hence it is, that goods omitted in an appeal, are regarded as forfeited to the • King.

But the ftatute of 21 Hen. VIII. cap. xi. introduced a < new law, for the reftitution of ftolen goods,-ordaining, "That if any perfon do rob or take away the goods of any " of the King's fubjects within the realm, and be indicted, "and found guilty by the evidence of the party fo robbed, • or owner of the goods, or by the evidence of any other "by their procurement, then the party robbed fhall be re"ftored to his money, or goods, and the Juftices before "whom the felon is found guilty, fhall have power to award "writs of reftitution, in like manner as though the felon was "attainted at the fuit of the party in an appeal."

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For before this ftatute there was no reftitution upon an indictment, but only upon an appeal.

Reftitution by courfe of law, is either by taking the goods ftolen, or by action. As to retaking them; if fteals the goods of B and B takes his goods again, with ⚫ intent to favour the thief, this is punishable by fine and im' prisonment; but if he takes them without fuch intent, the taking is juftifiable.

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The party robbed may alfo proceed by action, for the recovery of his money or goods, if he hath profecuted the law against the offender. For example, if A steals the goods of B, viz. 50l. in money, and is convicted, and hath his clergy upon the profecution of B; and B afterwards. brings a trover and converfion for this 50l. and, upon not guilty pleaded, the special matter is found, reftitution will be adjudged to the Plaintiff, who hath already done his duty in profecuting the law against the robber, fo that the commonwealth can receive no injury; but it hath been • held, that if a man feloniously fteals goods, and before profecution by indictment, the party robbed brings an action of trover, it will not lie; for, by fuch a practice, felonies might be compounded. HALE'S Hift. of the Pleas of the Crown, p. 546.'

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Tit. iii. fect. 2. And, therefore, he is not fubject to the law, who kills a robber, or an affaffin, if there was no other way of avoiding the danger threatened.

It is now provided,' fays Mr. Harris, by 24 Hen. VIII. chap. x. "that if any perfon is indicted, or appealed for the "death of any evil difpofed perfons attempting to murder,

rob, or break manfion-houses, the perfon fo indicted or

"appealed, and by verdict fo found, fhall not forfeit any "lands or goods, but shall be thereof acquitted, in like man? 66 ner as if he had been acquitted of the death of the said evil"difpofed perfons".

But this ftatute extends not to indemnify the killing a ⚫ felon, when the felony is not accompanied with force; for it speaks of robbery; therefore the killing a man who only attempts to pick a pocket, is not within the act; becaufe, there can, in such a case, be no neceffity to kill. HALE'S Hift. of the Pleas of the Crown, vol. I. p. 488.

Tit. iv. fect. 1. It is alfo manifeft, that an injury may be committed by writing a defamatory libel, poem, or history, Sc.

The NOTE here.

A libel, according to the definitions given of it in the • Law of England, is a malicious defamation, expreffed ei<ther in words or writing, or by figns, pictures, &c. tend

ing either to blacken the memory of one who is dead, or the • reputation of one who is living. 5 Co. rep. de Libellis famofis, p. 125.

In England the punishment may be by fine, pillory, or whipping, when the offender is proceeded against by indictment, or information; but in a civil action, the punish•ment founds only in cofts and damages. But as to mere ⚫ words of defamation, they are at common law not action⚫able, except when they have been of real damage and inju· ry to the perfon fpoken againft; for mere contumely is of but little confideration; and the ecclefiaftical courts may be • prohibited, by the temporal courts, from proceeding in a caufe of defamation, when the fuit is not wholly of a fpiritual nature: as for calling a man a heretic, schismatic, adulterer, fornicator, &c. 4 Co. rep. p. 20. PALMER V. < THORPE.'

Tit. v. fect. 3. The master of a ship, tavern, or inn, is liable to be fued for a quafi-male feazance, on account of every damage, or theft, done or committed in any of thefe places, by himself or his fervants, &c.

NOTE.

By the law of England an inn-keeper fhall be charged, if there is any default in him or his fervants, in keeping the goods of a gueft; for an innholder is bound by law, to ⚫ keep them fafe; and it is no excufe to fay, that he delivered the guest the key of the chamber-door, and that the guest left it open. And altho' the guest does not deliver his goods to the innholder to keep, yet, if they are ftolen, even by perfons unknown, the innholder is chargeable; for, in this REVIEW, July 1756. • cafe

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• cafe, either the innholder, or his fervants, are in fault for ⚫ their neglect. 8 Rep. 32. Calye's cafe.'

Tit. vi. fect. 21. All actions are for the fingle, double, triple, or quadruple value of the thing in litigation; for no action extends farther.

Here the NOTE is.

• On fome actions, nothing more is given by the law of England, than the bare damages fuftained; as in actions of trespass ;-but double and triple damages are given in many • cafes; and even tenfold damages are recoverable against a juror who receives a bribe for bringing a verdict. 38 Edw. III. cap. xii. CowEL, h. l.'

Here we may end our Review of Mr. Harris's Tranflation and Notes upon the Inftitutions of Juftinian; a work peculiarly adapted for the improvement of the young Student in Law, for whofe fervice it seems principally to have been intended; but worthy alfo the perufal of every Gentleman, who would form a juft notion of the civil policy of the Romans, and obtain, at the fame time, a comparative view of

our own.

A Vindication of Natural Society: or, a View of the Miferies and Evils arifing to Mankind from every Species of Artificial Society. In a Letter to Lord *****. By a late Noble Writer. 8vo. Is. 6d. Cooper.

HE pamphlet intitled as above, and containing one hundred and fix pages, is introduced by this Adver

THE

tisement.

• The following Letter appears to have been writen about the year 1748, and the perfon to whom it is addreffed, need not be pointed out. As it is probable the noble Writer • had no defign that it should ever appear in public, this will • account for his having kept no copy of it, and confequently for its not appearing among the reft of his works. By * what means it came into the hands of the editor, is not at all material to the public, any further than as fuch an ac⚫ count might tend to authenticate the genuineness of it; and for this it was thought it might fafely rely on its own inter⚫nal evidence.'

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The Author's apparent defign is to excite, in his readers, an abhorrence of all kinds of civil government and politic

inflitutions.

inftitutions. He maintains, in a very animated and declamatory manner, that civil affociations among mankind, are formed and entered into merely to effect the mutual deftruction of each other; that men naturally hate one another, for belonging to separate societies; that every where the politician is a character odious and deteftable; that all governments must frequently infringe the rules of juftice, to fupport themselves; that they are a violation upon nature; and that even when best administered, they must have recourfe to fanguinary meafures; that governments, or artificial focieties, reduce men into three claffes, the poor, the powerful, and the rich; that by them the poor are enflaved, infulted, and oppressed; the powerful tormented with internal anguifh, through never cea→ fing avarice, ambition, fear, and jealoufy; and the rich rendered miferable through a weak valetudinary ftate of body, and through pains and diseases too feverely felt, tho' brought upon them by luxurious pleasures fcarcely felt at all. These are the general observations, difpofed in different parts of the Letter, and expatiated upon with much feeming fincerity and warmth. But the topics which principally employ the pretended zeal and ardour of this Writer, and which glow and dazzle through moft of his pages, are; 1ft. The flaughter and deftruction inflicted upon mankind by war; 2dly, the oppreffive nature of government, whether Defpotic, Ariftocratical, Democratical, or mixed; and, 3dly, the chicanery and delay of Law. War is defcribed, not as the accidental, but as the neceffary confequence of embracing civil life. And tho' the Letter-Writer, in his retirement, seems to have had no other hiftorical book in his poffeffion, except Juftin, yet he makes shift to run over the warlike atchievements of mankind from the days of Sefoftris, King of Egypt, in a continued detail, down to the times inclufive of the Goths and Vandals. He marks the extent of the carnage, and calculates the numbers of the flain. This takes up about twenty pages. By his computaion the total of thofe murdered in the field, within the period he confines himself to, amounts to forty millions. The total therefore of thofe killed in battle, from the beginning of the world to the time in which he wrote, viz. about the year 1748, he fuppofes may modeftly be put at a thousand times as much, that is, at forty thousand millions, and, to this, adding the havock, calamity, and deftruction attending war, to wit, famine, disease, peftilence, and maffacres in cold blood, he thinks he may fairly double the last total, and place to the account of civil policy, the flaughter and extirpation of eighty thousand millions. And

as the number of men exifting at a time upon the earth never exceeds five hundred millions, the political flaughter of mankind muft, he obferves, even upon this fcanty calculation, equal, at least, a hundred and fixty times the number of fouls this day on the globe. In declaiming against the feveral forms of government, he employs forty pages. These afford us much more entertainment than the former, because they are not only lively, but inftructive. The feverity and rigour of Defpotifm, the inflexible artifice of Ariftocratical oppreffion, the confufion, giddinefs, and madness of Democracy, and the flaws of mixed Monarchy, particularly of our own, are ftrongly and fenfibly expofed; and we meet with fome particulars concerning Denmark, Poland, Venice, Athens, Sparta, and Rome, that are interefting, curious, and well adapted to the fubject. The invective against Law, abounds alfo in juft. fatire, and is the more acceptable, becaufe, in many refpects, it strikes entirely home at abufes or defaults of that kind among ourselves. This is comprifed in about eleven pages. If we except what he advances upon the firft of these three topics, his premiffes are generally true; but the confequence he draws from them, obvioufly falfe: fo that were this Writer in earnest, in reafoning as he does, he could contribute but very little to the fpread of error; fo confpicuous would his defect of judgment be, amidst all his knowlege and vivacity.

But this Writer is really guiltlefs of the abfurd attempt of inspiring into the breafts of men an aversion to society, and a deteftation of government. All we can think he aims at, is, to to make his readers imagine, that a late noble Writer is the author of this piece; and that the late noble Writer was as wild, extravagant, and whimsical in his politics, as in his religious meditations; or, at leaft, that his manner of reasoning on religious fubjects, would, when applied to any other subject, particularly to politics, appear plainly to be vain, unfatisfactory, and ridiculous. We commend, and highly approve of, every generous effort in favour of Truth; and had this gentleman, instead of pretending himself to be a certain deceafed Lord, whofe manner, in fome degree, he has affumed, and for whom he would pafs, by an appeal to what he calls the internal evidence of the Letter itself, been fo candid as to own, that he only wrote in the manner of the late Noble Writer, there had remained nothing more for us to do, than to have informed the public, of the nature of the performance; and to have applauded the Writer for his good intentions.

But,

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