be a taking from the possession, ac- | intent, the taker would commit a tual or implied, of the owner; hence larceny, because then it was perif a man should find goods, and ap-sonal property. In some states, there propriate them to his own use, he is are statutory provisions to punish the not a thief on this account. 3d. felonious taking of emblements or There must be a taking against the fruits of plants, while the same are will of the owner, and this may be in hanging by the roots, and there the some case, where he appears to felony is complete, although the consent; for example, if a man sus- thing stolen, is not at common law, pects another of an intent to steal strictly personal property. Larceny his property, and in order to try him, is divided in some states, into grand leaves it in his way, which he takes, and petit larceny; this depends upon he is guilty of larceny. The taking the value of the property stolen. must be in the county where the Vide 1 Hawk, 141 to 250, ch. 19; criminal is to be tried. 9 C. & P. 4 Bl. Com. 229 to 250; Com. Dig. 29; S. C. 38 E. C. L. R. 23; Ry. Justices, O 4, 5, 6, 7, 8; 2 East's P. & Mod. 349. But when the taking C. 524 to 791; Burn's Justice, Larhas been in the country or state, and ceny; Williams's Justice, Felony; 3 the thief is caught with the stolen Chitty's Cr. Law, 917 to 992; and property in another county than that articles Carrying Away; Invito where the theft was committed, he Domino; Robbery; Taking. may be tried in the county where arrested with the goods, as by construction of law, there is a fresh taking in every county in which the thief carries the stolen property. 4th. There must be an actual carrying away, but the slightest removal, if the goods are completely in the power of the thief, is sufficient. To snatch a diamond from a lady's ear, which is instantly dropped among the curls of her hair, is a sufficient asportation or carrying away. 5th. The property taken must be personal property; a man cannot commit larceny of real estate, or of what is so considered in law. A familiar example will illustrate this; an apple while hanging on the tree where it grew, is real estate, having never been separated from the freehold; it is not larceny, therefore, at common law, to pluck an apple from the tree, and appropriate it to one's own use, but a mere trespass; if that same apple, however, had been separated from the tree by the owner or otherwise, even by accident, as if shaken by the wind, and while lying on the ground it should be taken with a felonious

LASCIVIOUS CARRIAGE, in Connecticut, is an offence, ill defined, created by statute, which enacts that every person who shall be guilty of lascivious carriage and behaviour, and shall be thereof duly convicted, shall be punished by fine not exceeding ten dollars, or by imprisonment in a common gaol, not exceeding two months, or by fine and imprisonment or both, at the discretion of the court. This law was passed at a very early period. Though indefinite in its terms, it has received a construction so limiting it, that it may be said to punish those wanton acts between persons of different sexes, who are not married to each other, that flow from the exercise of lustful passions, and which are not otherwise punished as crimes against chastity and public decency. 2 Swift's Dig. 343; 2 Swift's Syst. 331. Lascivious carriage may consist not only in mutual acts of wanton and indecent familiarity between persons of different sexes, but in wanton and indecent actions against the will, and without the consent of one of them, as if a man should forcibly attempt to pull up

epistles and bulls of the holy see. All which lay in the same confusion and disorder as the Roman civil law, till about the year 1151, when one Gratian, an Italian monk, animated by the discovery of Justinian's Pandects, reduced the ecclesiastical constitutions also into some method, in three books, which he entitled Concordia disordantium canonum, but which are generally known by the name of Decretum Gratiani. These reached as low as the time of Pope Alexander III. The subsequent papal decrees to the pontificate of Gregory, IX., were published in much the same method, under the auspices of that pope, about the year 1230, in five books, entitled Decretalia Gregorii noni. A sixth book was added by Boniface VIII., about the year 1298, which is called Sextus decretalium. The Clementine constitutions or decrees of Clement V., were in like manner authenticated in 1317, by his successor, John XXII., who also published twenty constitutions of his own, called the Extravagantes Joannis, all which in some manner answer to the novels of the civil law. To these have since been added some decrees of the later popes, in five books, called Extravagantes communes. And all these together, Gratian's Decrees, Gregory's Decretals, the Sixth Decretals, the Clemantine Constitutions, and the Extravagants of John and his successors, form the Corpus juris canonici, or body of the Roman canon law. 1 Bl. Com. 82; Encyclopédie, Droit Canonique, Droit Public Ecclesiastique; Dict. de Jurispr. Droit Canonique; Ersk. Pr. L. Scotl. B. 1, t. 1, s. 10. See in general, Ayl. Par. Jur. Can. Ang.; Shelf. on M. & D. 19; Preface to Burn's Eccl. Law, by Thyrwhitt, 22; Hale's Hist. C. L. 26-29; Bell's case of a Putative Marriage, 203; Dict. du Droit Can-1, 2; Ersk. Pr. L. Scot. B. 1, t. 1, onique; Stair's Inst. b. 1, t. 1, 7. 2*

LAW, CIVIL. The term civil law is generally applied by way of eminence to the civil or municipal law of the Roman empire as comprised in the Institutes, the Code, and the Digest of the Emperor Justinian, and the novel constitutions of himself and some of his successors. Ersk. Pr. L. Scotl. B. 1, t. 1, s. 9; 5 L. R. 491. The Institutes contain the elements or first principles of the Roman law, in four books. The Digests or Pandects are in fifty books, and contain the opinions and writings of eminent lawyers digested in a systematical method, whose works comprised more than two thousand volumes. The new code, or collection of imperial constitutions, in twelve books; which was a substitute of the code of Theodosius. The novels or new constitutions, posterior in time to the other books, and amounting to a supplement to the code, containing new decrees of successive emperors as new questions happened to arise. These form the body of the Roman law, or corpus juris civilis, as published about the time of Justinian. Although successful in the west, these laws were not, even in the life-time of the emperor universally received; and after the Lombard invasion they became so totally neglected, that both the Code and Pandects were lost till the twelfth century, A. D. 1130; when it is said the Pandects were accidentally recovered at Amelphi, and the Code at Ravenna. But, as if fortune would make an atonement for her former severity, they have since been the study of the wisest men, and revered, as law, by the politest nations.

By the term civil law is also understood the particular law of each people, opposed to natural law, or the law of nations, which are com mon to all. Just. Inst. 1. 1, t. 1, §

s. 4. In this sense it is used by Judge Swift. See below.

Civil law is also sometimes under- | oral, or communicated from former stood as that which has emanated ages to the present solely by word from the secular power opposed to the ecclesiastical or military.

Sometimes by the term civil law is meant those laws which relate to civil matters only; and in this sense it is opposed to criminal law, or to those laws which concern criminal matters. Vide Civil.

Judge Swift, in his System of the Laws of Connecticut, prefers the term civil law, to that of municipal law. He considers the term municipal to be too limited in its signification. He defines civil law to be a rule of human action, adopted by mankind in a state of society, or prescribed by the supreme power of the government, requiring a course of conduct not repugnant to morality or religion, productive of the greatest political happiness, and prohibiting actions contrary thereto, and which is enforced by the sanctions of pains and penalties. 1 Sw. Syst. 37. See Ayl. Pand. B. 1, t. 2, p. 6.

of mouth, but that the evidence of our common law is contained in our books of Reports, and depends on the general practice and judicial adjudications of our courts. The common law is derived from two sources, the common law of England, and the practice and decision of our own courts. In some states the English common law has been adopted by statute. There is no general rule to ascertain what part of the English common law is valid and binding. To run the line of distinction, is a subject of embarrassment to courts, and the want of it a great perplexity to the student. Kirb. Rep. Pref. It may however be observed generally, that it is binding where it has not been superceded by the constitutions of the United States, or of the several states, or by their legislative enactments, or varied by custom, and where it is founded in reason and consonant to the genius and manners See in general as to civil law, of the people. The phrase "comCooper's Justinian; the Pandects; mon law " occurs in the seventh ar1 Bl. Com. 80, 81; Encyclopédie, ticle of the amendments of the conart, Droit Civil, Droit Romain; Do- stitution of the United States. "In mat, Les Loix Civiles; Ferriere's suits at common law, where the value Dict.; Brown's Civ. Law; Halifax's in controversy shall not exceed Analys. Civ. Law; Wood's Civ. twenty dollars," says that article, Law; Ayliffe's Pandects; Heinec."the right of trial by jury shall be Elem. Jur.; Erskine's Institutes; preserved." The "common law" Pothier; Eunomus, Dial. 1; Corpus here mentioned is the common law of Juris Civilis; Taylor's Elem. Civ. England, and not of any particular Law. state. 1 Gallis. 20; 1 Bald. 558; LAW, COMMON. The com- 3 Wheat. 223; 3 Pet. R. 446; 1 mon law is that which derives its Bald. R. 554. The term is used in force and authority from the univer- contradistinction to equity, admiralty sal consent and immemorial practice and maritime law. 3 Pet. 446; 1 of the people. It has never received Bald. 554. The common law of the sanction of the legislature, by England is not in all respects to be any express act, which is the crite- taken as that of the United States, or rion by which it is distinguished from of the several states; its general the statute law. It has never been principles are adopted only so far as reduced to writing; by this expres- they are applicable to our situation. sion, however, it is not meant that 2 Pet. 144; 8 Pet. 659; 9 Cranch, all those laws are at present merely | 333; 9 S. & R. 330; 1 Blackf. 66,